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CHAOS MANOR MAIL

A SELECTION

MAIL 83 January 10 - 16, 2000

 

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I try to answer mail, but mostly I can't get to all of it. I read it all, although not always the instant it comes in. I do have books to write too...  I am reminded of H. P. Lovecraft who slowly starved to death while answering fan mail. 

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If you want to PAY FOR THIS there are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY THANKS to all of you who sent money.  Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic) mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
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Monday January 10, 2000

Column day.

 

 

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Tuesday, January 11, 2000

I'll try to catch up.

Hi... I'm a dumpster-diving, SF Fanatic,self employed (salvageing), bum. I was wondering if it would be at all possible to talk you out of all the hardware you review and dump. I UNDERSTAND YOUR FIRST RESPONSE IS NO, AND WHO IS THIS STUPID IDIOT. But from my point of view, it can't hurt to try.

I am trying to support myself thru computer equipment salvage (dumpster-diving), and having read your collumn since the old Atari 400, 800, XL/XE days, I've noticed that you used to have to return the stuff, but since Byte went digital (probably earlier), you've mentioned "throwing stuff in the trash". Anyway... when you wrote about getting rid of a Creative 5x DVD and getting a Hitachi DVD-Ram, implying the 5x went to the trash, it occured to me that if I could talk you into this, I could update my salvage system in a reasonable way. If you are willing, I could use all the memory, cpu's, dvd-related, and hd's you could send me. Basically, ANYTHING you connect to a MoBo.. Motherboards don't interest me unless they're dual cpu BX chipsets.

I was going to explain myself and my salutation some more, but I've already taken enough of your very valuable time. Please, think it over.

(Name Deleted by JEP)

It probably comes as no surprise that I get this offer a lot. My problem isn't finding a place to put stuff no longer needed, it's sorting it out and getting it boxed to be taken away. There are plenty of churches, high schools, and civic organizations interested in the Chaos Manor overflow, assuming that Alex or Eric or one of the other associates doesn't want it for some project. I am blessed with a plethora of equpment, enough that it gets in the way, but I have a strong disinclination to waste anything. My wife says that's not a virtue: by trying to salvage instead of ruthlessly throwing things into the trash, I clutter up my life so I can't find anything. She's right, as usual. I suspect it would be better for everyone including me if I DID just dumpster stuff. 

And some stuff does just go in the trash. Who needs 8 mb SIMMs? I found a box of those the other day...


Dear Jerry,

I met with the same frustrations and ensuing anger you experienced with NoteTab DL. I was ready to take a heavy hanner to my nice new Viewsonic 19" (bought on the recommendation of a user/reviewer whose opinion I respect). I, too, had become entangled by the huckster hosted by the NoteTab site. For some reason, after going in circles with the huckster, I returned to NoteTab's beta site, http://www.notetab.com/beta.htm , and tried again. I found I could go directly down to the download option, without being sidetracked by the huckster. No real harm done. All the huckster got was my EMail address - all the rest was spoof. You might try it again, and bypass go to go directly to the DL area.

Regards,

JHR --

[J.H. Ricketson in San Pablo] culam@neteze.com

I had forgotten that NoteTab was the place where I like to went nuts over trying to pay. I have had a nice letter from the program's author about my problem, who assures me it isn't present in the current version. Alas, I HAVE the current version. Perhaps it's an interaction with Windows 2000 Pro. In any event, while I find NoteTab superior to Notepad for most purposes, it sure got lost trying to find that one file.

 


On...

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/NEW_ORDER.HTM 

...the link labelled...

An observation on what this place is <http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail20.html>

...gives a 404. Similar links on...

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/maildex2.htm

...for...

MAIL 20 <http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail20.html> - December 14 - December 20, 1998

...are also hosed.

I think the correct link for the Talin comments is:

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives/archivesmail/mail20.html#OSS

...cheers...KCL... ============================= Keith C. Langill, Principal Engineer Stellcom, an Employee-Owned Company 10525 Vista Sorrento Parkway, Ste 100 San Diego,CA 92121 Direct: (858) 812-3217 Fax: (858) 657-0773 klangill@stellcom.com www.stellcom.com

I reorganized and put a LOT of mail and View into the archives sub-directory. FrontPage fixed most of the links, but maildex and viewdex are generated by Mr. Rice as a voluntary activity helping me out, and they didn't get updated all the way yet. Thanks. It will be fixed over time.

 

More tomorrow

 

 

 

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Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Plumbers. Plasterers. Bills. Administrative crap. Apologies, but man it's busy here!

 

 

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Thursday, January 13, 2000

Plasterers, and Roberta has to get an airplane to go to a funeral.  I will try to catch up.

Dear Jerry,

As a longtime fan, both of your novels and your computer expertise, I must say that I was highly disappointed and even angered by your latest novel with Larry Niven, the Dragons of Heorot. I was impressed by the size and anticipated reading the third in a series I found highly entertaining until I say the price: $13.98 at Borders!!! The Legacy of Heorot was "only" $7.00, which is pricey for a paperback anyway, but nearly 14 dollars?! To add insult to injury, the publisher used the old junior high school trick of increasing the margins and the line spacing to make the book look bigger in the hopes that we wouldn't notice (you know, make a 3 page report look like a 5 page report.......?). Not likely. The text density is a joke compared to "Legacy", and there is only about 80 or so more pages.

There is no reason for this other than profiteering on the part of the publisher, and I must suppose, both you and Niven. I am sorry to say that I will not be buying this book. I will wait for the public library to get it, and I will advise my friends to do likewise. I can't wait to see if there is a backlash on the newsgroups.

Please pass this on to Mr. Niven and your publisher.

Sincerely disappointed,

Lawrence B. Hurd, Ph.D.

 Univ. Conn. Health Ctr. Dept. Pharmacology Farmington CT lhurd@neuron.uchc.edu 

Dear Dr. Hurd 

Given the contents of your letter I presume first names are not appropriate. Surely a man of your education understands that no author with the possible exception of Stephen King has any control whatever over production and pricing? It is explicitly in the contracts that these are publisher prerogatives. 

In any event, reading Niven and Pournelle is a privilege, not a right, and we will henceforth instruct every bookseller in the nation not to sell you anything we wrote, and no magazine that has a story by us. You certainly would not want to read anything by moneygrubbing profiteers of no discernible character, which your letter clearly indicates you believe us to be.

Hoping you are the same,

Jerry E. Pournelle, Ph.D., FRAS, FAAS, KLJ

Gee, thanks. I really "appreciate" your sarcasm regarding a legitimate complaint. Who said anything about rights vs. privilege? I certainly didn't demand that you write these novels faster for my pleasure or that you supply the book for free, did I? I simply think that doubling the price of a paperback for no apparent increase in content is plain wrong. Show me another regular paperback of 580 some odd pages for *$14.00* and I will still call it a ripoff. I will certainly write to your publisher with my concerns since you claim to have absolutely no say in anything except about who booksellers sell books to. (you can save yourself the effort on my behalf). I just thought you would like to know that your publisher (and apparently not you) is screwing your fans. I hope at least, that they doubled your royalty too......

Thanks for your concern and quick response.

Lawrence B. Hurd, Ph.D.

 Univ. Conn. Health Ctr. Dept. Pharmacology Farmington CT lhurd@neuron.uchc.edu 

 

Had you written to inform rather than accuse I would have a different response. I still see no reason why you want to correspond with a moneygrubbing profiteer. (Incidentally, I can't tell from your letter if you know that I don't really have the power to issue instructions to booksellers, and that the line was intended as humor. So just to be certain I will tell you: it was a joke, Doc. I can't really tell booksellers not to sell to you. One never knows.)

A legitimate complaint about pricing needs to be sent to the publisher. What you sent was an accusation. In case you have forgotten, I quote: "There is no reason for this other than profiteering on the part of the publisher, and I must suppose, both you and Niven." Given that, what was I to suppose? Incidentally, my "claim" as you put it is a simple statement: authors have no control over pricing and marketing in most book contracts. Why you choose to put it the way you do, and thus imply that I may be making it up, is itself another instance of why I see no real reason to have long correspondence.

Good day.

While we are on this: publishers are in trouble. Of 250 distributors in 1990 fewer than a dozen remain. The chains have aggressive discount negotiations. Shipping costs are rising. All books are actually placed for sale on consignment, so the publisher has no way to know how many of those he has shipped are actually sold, and how many might suddenly come back to him in a huge lump along with a big bill. It is a desperate business just now. 

I say all this without real understanding of the business. Few authors have any real knowledge of the book business, which is difficult, operates on low profit margins, and is not much amenable to the downsize and over work people model of the modern corporation; but bean counters buy publishing outfits and try to make bigger profits. Historically the book publishing business has operated on about 4% return on investment, which means most people in it are in it for love of books as much as to make money. The editor in chief of a major publishing house doesn't make all that much money. Neither does the publisher. It's a tough business. TOR Books which published Legacy and Beowulf's Children is run by some very decent people. It may be their offshore owners made them raise prices too high, and it may be that the new price is realistic. I do not know. As I have said, authors have no control over pricing and packaging.

 

 


http://www.1394ta.org/

>From what I understood: Apple had charged early adopters $10k, initially. People like Sony paid this fee.

Back in early 1999, Apple had initially desired to charge $1 port. This was changed due to an uproar.

A patent pool was formed with all the 1394 partners (except Intel), and the charge was reduced to $0.25 per system for all the patents. http://www.1394ta.org/Press/1999.11.15.htm

Lets change the question: How much does Intel get for each USB port

Thank you for the information, but I don't know the answer. I do know that IBM tried royalty routes for Microchannel (which had some advantages over the old PC Bus) and the result was a dismal failure. At least until very recently Apple has ALWAYS gone for profit over market share, but whether this is another instance I don't know. I do know there are alternatives like "Super" USB, and that bookkeeping and keeping track of royalties can be as expensive as the royalties themselves, particularly after the 'per processor' discounts have been ruled out. As to what Intel gets from MSI or iWill for USB ports, I don't know. I presume someone here will tell me soon enough. Thanks.


Jerry,

Regarding spamming. What I have always wondered is who actually reads or responds to the stupid messages that come in with Titles such as 'Make money fast' or 'You've got to see this!' or with From: addresses such as 'asdjklh@null.com' or 'abc123@maillist.com'.

Somebody must be reading, responding, and sending these jerks money, or they wouldn't keep doing it, would they? Furthermore, the scammers (oops, Freudian slip, I meant 'spammers') change their From: address and Title to defeat anti-spam software. Do these lower forms of life think that defeating anti-spam software and getting their unwanted message in front of someone who has taken steps to keep it off their system will cause them to send money? People get dumber every day, I guess.

Tracy tracy@nemontel.net

Frankly, the only things I think of just now involve hiring the Unabomber as an assistant, but that may be due the stress of having a house full of plumbers and plasterers. Thank God we found a roll of old wallpaper to match some they destroyed (they weren't supposed to destroy that but to work carefully and preserve it. Yeah. Sure). Spammers steal hundreds of thousands of person-hours; if all they did was make restitution they would get life imprisonment. 

I used to think it didn't matter much, but my Outlook Rules got bollixed and I found I was missing some mail. So I went to the "residual" folder to see, and found buried in thousands of Spam items a number of important messages I hadn't seen. I have changed the rules and I won't miss that particular kind of message again, but I can't say that will be true for all. I HATE this: my inbox is jammed with insults to the intelligence, offers that NO sane person would ever take up. One wants to send to these people a note saying for God's sake would YOU bite on something this stupid? But actually one wants to have one's publisher send the chaps whose job it is to encourage authors with big advances to finish their books. 

Half a dozen spammers lying about with broken bones might be a great message for the others. Perhaps we could get some urban rumors going about mad internet users who found spammers and decapitated them? If they believed that might happen to them...

Dear Jerry,

Remember the guys touting the "JTSR Restaurants" stock?

I don't know if you heard this story from back in October. These spammers who "pump and dumped" penny stocks via massive, persistent spam attacks, with the web page www.stockinvestor.com, were found shot to death.

One had been shot five times in the head.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/28/businessmen.killed.02.ap/index.html

I suspect the killing was due their having swindled the wrong person via these stock schemes, rather than the spamming.

-- Mike Van Pelt mvp@netcom.com

Now that's a story that ought to be sent to every Spammer...

Dear Jerry,

FWIW, Anchordesk has a few tips for handling spam. I searched for "spam" and found a series of articles and spam filters. For example, FlameThrower is an Outlook add-in that's supposed to be highly customizable.

Hope this helps.

Steve Erbach

I will look. Report when I know more. Thanks

Hi Jerry.

Just a quick note regarding your spam worries.

Follow these links for information regarding a Usenet Death Penalty (UDP) called against @Home Network. This was due to non-action on their part in dealing with spam from their userbase.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/12/1426231&;mode=thread  http://www.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=571636137 

And this one for @Home's response (quite a quick one at that too).

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/01/13/1121209.shtml 

And finally a link to the FAQ for UDP's (what I had to read to find out what it was all about).

http://www.stopspam.org/usenet/faqs/udp.html 

Many thank for your years of entertainment and information ? keep up the good work.

Regards

Hamish

Hamish Thompson Network Support Analyst AUCKLAND REGIONAL COUNCIL Phone: +64(9)3662000 extn8520 Mobile: +64(21)426474 Fax: +64(9)3662155 email: hthompson@arc.govt.nz  Web: www.arc.govt.nz 

Well, I will keep looking into things I can do. It didn't seem such a problem until I realized I was missing important messages.

Dr. Pournelle:

Re: spammers

To quote Mr. Heinlein: "Shooting him is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about."

There's the story that a study was made where some scientists gave spammers large doses of Viagra. The only result was that the spammers grew taller and complained of stiffness.

Mark Thompson

Indeed. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Friday, January 14, 2000

Dr. Hurd is unhappy because his book cost so much. 

I'm not sure, but based on the price, I suspect that the edition he bought was a trade paperback, like your recent release of _Lucifer's_Hammer_ (on which, BTW, congrats). Trade paper editions are always pricier than rack (mass- market) paperback editions; they're printed for people who like to _keep_ their books, and sometimes as a replacement for hardcovers on books which a publisher doesn't think will sell profitably in cloth.

I wasn't quite as happy with the paper on LH as I normally am, but it was _still_ nicer than the pulp paper that's usually used in rack books, and therefore, of course, it lasts longer.

I suppose he could have waited for the mass-market release, whaddya think?

Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth jra@baylink.com Ashworth &; Associates An Interdiscplinary Consultancy in Advanced Technology +1 727 804 5015 http://baylink.pitas.com

In fact, I don't know at all. I have not seen the edition in question. Usually I get 24 copies of the paperback when it comes out, but those are usually sent to our agents who send out some to overseas publishers (the original publisher will be glad to market the book to overseas publishers, but they usually want half for doing so; that's a 50% agency fee, and while not unreasonable for a new writer who has no agent to deal with overseas rights, it's high: most agents for marketing overseas charge 20 to 25%). The author copies are also sent to movie people. The Heorot series is has been optioned by United Artists, so that wouldn't happen in this case. But in any event I have not seen the edition that so upsets him. I'll have to have a look next time I walk the dog down to the district.

Dear Jerry,

My apologies if I seemed impolite, but I was completely stunned by the doubling in price, and became increasingly angry as I wrote. The bookseller remark didn't assuage that. Again, my abject apologies. I (wrongly) assumed that the authors received royalties based on the price of the book. My mistake. I also assumed (always a bad idea) that you and Mr. Niven, given your well deserved and worldwide popularity, might have had more than a little influence over the publisher, but I was clearly wrong in those assumptions. Obviously, neither you or Mr. Niven even knew about this, so the point was moot.

As a highly underpaid postdoc (redundant, I know, but you probably haven't been a postdoc in a while), for whom even the average $7.00 is pretty damn steep, such price gouging on the part of the publisher is simply scandalous. I am sorry you two had to be the first guinea pigs for the pricing schemes of the publisher. I will certainly complain to them for all the good it will likely do.

Again, many apologies. I hope that this will be a failed experiment on the part of the publisher, and that your next book will be more reasonably priced for the market.

I won't bother you anymore with matters that are out of your control or influence. Thank you for your time and input.

Sincerely,

Larry Hurd

I never was a postdoc and in fact that position did not exist when I left graduate school, or I don't think it did; I recall being surprised when I first heard it sometime in the 70's. In any event I was already in aerospace engineering when I got my doctorate (in fact the Boeing Company helped pay the expenses for getting it) so I never went that route. My first academic position was as a department head brought in from outside to build a department.

To make certain the record is straight, authors do get paid as a percentage of the cover price, which makes this one of the few inflation-proof rackets there is (as opposed to academia). But we have no control over pricing and marketing. The marketplace sees to that. I have not seen the edition in question but I doubt you have a mass market paperback. This is the first I knew of a paperback edition of any kind. I will go to my local bookstore and see if I can buy one.

AND NOW TO CLEAR UP THE MYSTERY

Dear Dr Pournelle,

I don't know if your attention has been drawn to this, but your correspondent who is upset about the pricing of "Dragons of Heorot" appears to be under the impression that it is the *third* in the series, when, as I'm sure you will recall, it is in fact the UK title of "Beowulf's Children". I checked Amazon.com, and there is a recent US printing of the novel under the "Beowulf's Children" title. I presume, therefore, that Dr Hurd saw an imported copy of the UK edition, which might help to explain the price (though I must admit, I'm a bit mystified as to why they would import it when there is a current US edition. There are then extra costs involved, and I imagine the bookseller can charge what they like to cover them). Perhaps a little fact-checking on his part might have helped avoid some embarrassment....

Regards,

Justin Moss

Bristol, England

 

At last! I finally got round to setting up a website. It's at http://www.moss53.freeserve.co.uk and contains SF reviews, info on some of my other projects, and some links.

I should have known from the title, of course, but it explains why I have yet to see a copy of that book. It's the BRITISH "quality paperback" or "trade paper" edition; he saw it displayed for sale because he's in Canada. In the US that must pretty well be special ordered although a few specialty stores will get them in and put them on display. Of course, of course.

Thank you.

 

 

 


Linked right off the AT&;T site, you can buy a Novatel Minstrel Merlin PCMCIA modem for $279 from these folks:

http://www.wireless-data.com/products_att.html 

Now, if only there are Linux drivers for this . . .

Roland Dobbins <rdobbins@dsw.net> 

Thanks. I am posting this so I won't forget it. The Novatel Minstrel is a wireless modem that will connect with a Palm V. I'll have to look into what else it can be used for and with. There will be a lot more on this another time.

The URL your other correspondent gave points to a front door page; the actual card he was writing about is here:

http://www.wireless-data.com/cgi-bin/webcart.cgi?

DISPAGE=4&;ATT=&;WAN=NO&;ACCOUNT=NO&;CONFIG=gwd

&;RET=10&;LOGIC=0&;START=31

&;DOSEARCH=YES&;FIRST_TIME=No&;

TYPE=Any&;CARRIER=Any&;BRAND=Any

&;GPS=&;OCATS=&;FOUND=64&;TOPPAGE=&;CODE=131

Is that ugly enough for you? $279 without a carrier subsidy is really an _exceptional_ price for that card; I like CDPD a _lot_ -- it's the only true-IP wireless service I'm aware of. If you _like_ being shoehorned into the services offered by a carrier, this may not matter to you, otherwise CDPD is currently the way to go... although I understand someone is sinking a _silly_ amount of money into Ricochet to roll it out nationwide.

http://www.ricochet.net 

It's pretty neat, too.

Cheers,<br> -- jra<br> <a h

Thanks. I broke your monster URL into chunks lest it break my site...


Jerry,

I suggest that you test the ground of your AC power. Radio Shack has a nifty little tester that shows problems by using 3 LCD lights. That little pop you heard could have been static, too.

Brent

No, the sound was from the speakers. No question about that. Not the speaker in the case, but external speakers from the sound card. I suspect Mr. Addicott has figured it out.

 

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

In regard to the unexplained problems you had with your system not coming up.

I don't know if this was the cause of your trouble, but I had the same symptoms, and the problem turned out to be with the way I plugged power connection to the floppy drive (offset by one pin). I was in a hurry, and my eyes are not what they once were.

I realize that there's now no way to know if this was the case with your system. But it may be of value in the future, as it is easily and quickly checked.

Claud Addicott

You know, that occurred to me last night after all my crazy adventures. That's the only power plug that it's possible to misalign, and it is possible that I managed it twice. The light is not all that good, and the time it did work I used a trouble lamp to be sure I was getting that in the right place.  I wonder indeed if that wasn't it.

I will try to repeat the experiment shortly. "I do all these silly things so you won't have to..."

From: Thomas Crook [tjcrook@email.com

Subject: Floppy Power Connectors 

Jerry, Thanks to you for sharing your experiences and especially to Claud Addicott for pointing out the faulty design of floppy power connectors. I had exactly the same thing happen a couple of weeks ago. I had to move some peripherals around after replacing a dead hard drive. When I powered up the system nothing happened. I isolated the problem to the floppy drive by methodically unplugging all the power connectors. I finally got everything working after blindly unplugging and plugging in the floppy power a few times--clearly a poor design, especially as floppy drives are small and their rear-mounted connectors can be hard to see when mounted in full-size drive bays. Little factoids like this would be nice to put in a rule-chaining expert system tied to a web interface. You would enter the symptom, "machine does not power up," and receive a list of possible causes/solutions including: "Check floppy power connecter--it may be misaligned." Have you or your readers heard if such a web page exists? It wouldn't be hard to program. Cheers


Dr Pournelle,

The article that the link led to listed P.K. Dick as the author of "Blade Runner" and "Total Recall."

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the movie "Blade Runner" based on a Harlan Ellison novel entitled "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep?" I'm not sure who wrote "Total Recall," but I don't think that was P.K. Dick either.

Jim Snover

You are corrected. Phillip K. Dick wrote both of those. Harlan has written a fair number of short works, but those are not among them. You have the proper source but not author of Blade Runner. The source story of "Total Recall" was "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" although I think that was itself an elaboration of a story called "We Can Build You."

 

 

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Saturday, January 15, 2000

I have a simple filter that catches at least eighty percent of the spam I receive. It goes something like this (in English; I don't know how it would code in Outlook, and given how I feel about that product, I never will):

If the To: header of any incoming message does not contain my valid e-mail address, treat the message as spam.

I have a few filters above that to process things like messages from mailing lists that don't have my valid address in the To: header, but which I specifically choose to allow on my system.

How you handle messages caught by a spam filter is up to you. I don't recommend sending them straight to the trash, because you might miss a message that you really want to see. Some send them to a separate "possible spam" folder that they check every so often. I found that a bit awkward for me, but you might like it. What I do is have Eudora Pro (e-mail software for grownups) label these messages with a "SPAM?" label and mark them read, scan the To: and Subject: fields for anything that might be legit, and trash the rest.

You don't need third-party software, just a properly constructed set of filters. Having an ISP that takes an active interest in spam filtering also helps. If I want to, I can send a copy of a spam message to a special address at my ISP, where it will be added to a filter list at his end. Paul thinks he's trapping the great majority of spam messages before they can get to us.

Maybe it *is* time you dumped Dirtlink ...

-- Fred Grosby fredg@his.com 

 http://www.canwine.com/fandl/fred.html  

If you are grouchy, irritable, or just plain mean, there will be a $10 charge for putting up with you.

Several points here. First, I already filter out of the INCOMING box all mail addressed properly to me, mail from specific mail groups and to specified mail lists, and in general all the mail that I am sure I want to see. That does leave most spam behind in the INBOX. Alas, it leaves in there mail from friends who use mailing lists and send to me but my name isn't in the header. It leaves most press releases in there. Now sometimes it is very difficult to tell the difference between a press release and spam, as PR people want to send me the breathless news that their third vice president got a bonus for cleaning the company toilet at a charity picnic, but I do have to at least look as some of the press release activity. The problem is that all that is buried among offers to have a merchant account, the hottest web site on earth, ways to tell my boss to drop dead and go into business for myself, messages assuring me that this isn't spam and I will never hear from this company again if I don't take them up on the offer NOW (rather spoiled by having 30 copies of this message sent), offers to sell me toner for my laser printers, the hottest web site in the solar system -- well, you get the idea.

I am not a violent man, and while I suppose working on nuclear war plans and aviation close support tactics qualifies as a violent profession I haven't done that for decades: but I admit to fantasies about nailing spammers to walls by driving spikes through non-vital portions of their anatomy and setting fire to their building. A clean head shot is far too good for the person who sends, under 26 different names, the same advertisement for the hottest web site in the galaxy, and the lamebrain who falls for the "get rich by direct mail" spam and tries to get rich by daily sending me the message that hooked him. Or her. Or it. But those thoughts pass, leaving me to wonder if there isn't some practical thing to do about it.

Earthlink used to have the address spam at earthlink.net where you could forward spam, but lately they all mail to that has been returned. I recently found that abuse at earthlink.net is an active box, and gets me an automatic reply when I forward spam to it, but whether they DO anything about it I don't know. AOL sends me nastygrams if I forward much of their spam to abuse@aol.com and many places don't seem to have any such place. And I don't have time to do all this especially if there is never any feedback or any sign of success.

I do know that Blankenhorn is right: anyone joining the Direct Mail Association now ought to suffer dire economic consequences. It is clear that trolling for customers on the internet is ruining things for all of us. Not to mention that someone with a more violent temper than mine may get terminal cancer and decide to go out in a blaze of glory.

Dr. Pournelle:

I don't know if this would be more (or less) work, and I doubt it will be useable by everyone who emails you, but if you posted a "Subject word of the day" or the week, and a rule to ignore any mail without it, or at least to send non-conforming email through the rest of your filters, you may be able to reduce SPAM quantity.

My $.02

Gavin Downie

I actually do something of the sort in that I have filters to catch code words from subscribers, close friends, people involved in specific projects, etc. Outlook is very good at organizing rules. But I also get press releases I have to have... Thanks.

I use Eudora Pro and a bunch of rules to move the obvious stuff directly to Trash. I also ship anything that doesn't contain my name in a header to a Spam folder. I then manually filter the Spam folder to Trash based on header contents, creating new rules whenever I see a pattern emerging. I very rarely end up looking at the contents of true spam. I get between 50 and 200 messages a day, which--I suppose--is not as much as you get, but the spam is not much of a hassle for me. It's definitely easier than sorting the snail mail.

--- Harry Erwin, PhD, <mailto:herwin@gmu.edu >, <http://mason.gmu.edu/~herwin   >, Senior SW Analyst and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, George Mason University.

That's about what I do, and my problem is when the spam overwhelms the press releases, mailing list mail, and other stuff so that things I ought to see get lost for weeks. That happened recently. I ended up with 15 new rules which helps, but of course it means that the residual in INBOX has even less paydirt in it. Thanks. It sounds like you have the job I wouldn't mind retiring to if I ever had time. For a whle Dick Feynman was trying to get me to do a seminar on Technology and Civilization at Cal Tech. Never quite worked out. Maybe will some day yet. I confess I rather liked the professor business the 4 years I did it, but I can't say the pay was very good...

From: Steve Setzer <setzer@backfence.net> Re: Firewire

Firewire (aka IEEE 1394, aka Sony i.Link) solves a different set of problems than 100 Base T. While I suppose one could network computers over Firewire, Apple positions it as a replacement for external SCSI, and also for hooking up consumer electronics like DV camcorders.

It's best thought of as a high-speed analog to USB. USB currently runs at 12 Mbps, and will supposedly go to 200 next year. Compatibility with current USB will be an issue. Firewire currently runs at 400 Mbps, and chipsets for 800 Mbps are shipping (at least in sample volumes), with 1600 Mbps on the drawing board. 800 and 400 devices can exist on the same chain, although I suspect the 800s will see performance problems in such a mixed chain. Like USB, it's a plug-and-play serial bus with a small cable, low power requirements, etc. On a Mac, at least, you can hot-plug and unplug Firewire devices (I wouldn't do it during a disk write...). Firewire supports 63 devices at up to 14 feet of cable.

Firewire is designed most especially for digital video (DV). Thus, it can send DV data from a camera to a Firewire hard disk without running it past the CPU bus. The spec has provision for isochronous or asynchronous operation (USB lacks isochrony).

About a year ago, Apple, Compaq, Sony, and a couple of other vendors entered into a patent-sharing agreement. Apple owns the lion's share of the patents. If I recall correctly, the per-port license cost is about $1. When you're talking about $300 cameras and $900 computers, that really doesn't seem outrageous to me.

Firewire may or may not take off on the Windows desktop outside of Sony and Compaq. However, I can just about guarantee that it will take off in the consumer space---in fact, it's already doing just that. Apple, Sony, and Compaq all ship many desktop and laptop models with Firewire built in. If they are the only computer vendors with Firewire, then they will steal a ton of sales from Dell et al as camcorder owners move to DV and want to edit their home movies.

Steve Setzer

Thanks.


  Howard Fast certainly used to be a commie. Fast also quit the party when the evil of Stalinism finally became clear to him. And frankly, he always struck me as smart, an astonishingly good story-teller, and a bunch more fair-minded than someone that would use his past to smear red paint all over "The Crossing." If a little economic determinism made it's way into one bit of dialog, that's a flaw. It hardly negates that fact that the work as a whole is pure gold compared to most of the pap on the tube. Many other incidents depicted in "The Crossing" highlight the idealism and courage of Washington and those loyal to him. Even the scene MRC objects to shows Washington in a very favorable light, as a man willing to listen to criticism, even possibly ill- founded criticism, and repent of his own bad temper. If we trash "The Crossing" because of this one bit of political inconservativeness we're tossing a lot of baby out with a cup of bathwater. 

-- Michael A. Juergens, mikejuer@netnitco.net on 01/15/2000 at 9:47:48 PM

Oh, I agree entirely.  And said so to the Townhall people. That was a very silly editorial. I don't know young Bozell. I knew his father slightly, but that was many many years ago.

 

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Sunday, january 16, 2000

Subj: Media Research Center "affiliation" with Town Hall and Heritage Foundation

 From: monty@sprintmail.com  

With all due respect, Dr. Pournelle, I do not think it is appropriate to tar the Heritage Foundation or Town Hall with whatever brush it might be appropriate to apply to the Media Research Center.

The only connection I could see was that MRC is a "townhall.com member organization".

And all that seems to mean is that MRC and TownHall link to each other.

I agree with your analysis of the Global Warming situation -- to wit: that it is appropriate, not to PANIC!!!, but to spend non-trivial sums of public money to try to figure out (a) how the climate system really works, and (b) what to do about it.

And I further agree, that when a conservative organization like MRC behaves fuggheadedly, it is inappropriate for the rest of us to follow, just for fellowship's sake.

But as far as the Heritage Foundation's subscribing to the MRC Global Warming position, I invite your attention to the latest Heritage Backgrounder in their "Environment Issues" library. The position of the author of that Backgrounder seems pretty close to your own. And that author is a Heritage Foundation research assistant.

Actually I am glad to hear that. I knew Ed Fuelner when he was at DOD in the Nixon era, and he has always been a good man; and I have always had a fair amount of respect for Heritage, but I have to say I have paid little attention to them since Reagan left office. My great interest in national politics was the Seventy Years War and now that that is over, it's up to younger people to save the world. I have got increasingly less enthusiastic about politics as the Republicans seem determined to revert to being The Stupid Party, while the Democrats want to rule so badly they will ruin the nation if they aren't allowed to. As to the Reform Party, jokes are always interesting. In a word, I have pretty well got out of the political business; it's up to younger people to save the world. I think I already said that.

So consider my remarks as directed to Bozell and his MRC, which can do good work, but seems determined to be sloppy about doing it. I suppose you could say I have been a bit sloppy in this instance as well. Thank you for calling my attention to it.

Subj: Conservative Primer on the Web from Texas 

From: monty@sprintmail.com  

When asked what "conservative" means, I have generally pointed to Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind.

This has been less than entirely satisfactory in some cases, since TCM is not available on the Web.

Today, though, I discovered A Conservative Primer by Robert C. Koons, Senior Fellow, Texas Public Policy Foundation and Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, on the Web.

I have not yet compared it line-by-line to Kirk's explication, but on first reading it looks pretty good.

P.S. I discovered it via a link from www.townhall.com . Perhaps they have redeeming social value after all? P-)

Subj: EMail procedures -- embedded links

 From: monty@sprintmail.com

I sent you previous EMail in HTML form with embedded links.

The targets of those links were not the same as the labels of the links, and the targets got dropped from the messages as posted.

Looks like your correspondents should refrain from using such embedded links. As will I, henceforth.

Here are the links I tried to send you:

Heritage Foundation Backgrounder on Environmental Issues/Global Warming:

http://www.heritage.org/library/backgrounder/bg1322.html 

Conservative Primer from Texas on the Web: http://www.tppf.org/conserv.html 

Please accept my apologies for the wasted motion!

 

Well, Russell Kirk was kind enough to be the godfather of my number two son Francis Russell, and was a mentor in my undergraduate days and a friend and colleague for the rest of his life. A remarkable man, who had the damndest collection of ghost stories I ever head, most of them first person. I never quite knew what to make of that. I always believed Russell even when he told nearly unbelievable stories. None of which detracts from the logic and soundness of his views. One can do no better than turn to Kirk. I don't know Koons.

I agree Townhall has its uses and I was unduly irritated by Bozell's wham against THE CROSSING for one line. I still am. The Crossing was wonderful.

 

Subject: You were too light on Brent Baker - The Crossing

I suspect the successful use of artillery in close support would attract you to the crossing the Delaware story (and the consequences of a lack of artillery to the Fort Mercer? story).

 

Certainly the need to revisit history does not imply the need to revise history but some views do need changing.  I find the snide comments pretty senseless when Brent Baker writes:

"Bottom line: Hired Hessian soldiers were no different in what they were fighting for than George Washington and the Continental Army’s soldiers. But that spin is no surprise when you learn that the screenplay was written by a communist. Really. A man who regularly wrote for the Daily Worker and once penned a book titled, Being Red. ...[large omission]...That’s right, a rag-tag army fighting for freedom from onerous British taxation is really seeking "profit" on par with those hired to travel the world to fight wars."

I wonder why I feel compelled to footnote so much in commenting on the web, but I guess it helps keep the discussion on a different (perhaps higher?) plane.

 

From: http://www.netaxs.com/~gothic/Hessian.html

 

1.0 Were the Hessians Mercenaries?

By the most technical and liberal usage of the term, yes. But the term is misleading and inaccurate.

One must understand that the Hessian soldier received no extra pay for his duty, and stood loyal to the German state of his origin. While some could be enticed to disarm, none could be enticed to fight for the Rebel side. And one of the defining terms of a mercenary is that he will fight for anyone, for pay.

In a year, a Hessian soldier could at most earn a grand total of 3 pounds, 10 pence. Hardly the rate of a mercenary.

Perhaps James F. Dunnigan (author of 'Dirty Little Secrets' and 'How To Make War') defines it best. He considers Hessians to be term unto themselves and not mercenaries in the classic sense. If one looks at the situation the Hessian were in and calls them mercenaries, one may become very uncomfortable with the number of soldiers today who could be called mercenaries. Paid allies may be the most accurate term.

(cf James F. Dunnigan 'Dirty Little Secrets - Military information you're not supposed to know' pp. 267-268)

The book Being Red was an interesting apologia but hardly an enticement to do likewise. I wonder what the Media Research Center would say about the San Patricios of our war with Mexico?

 

Clark E. Myers
e-mail at:
ClarkEMyers@msn.com
I
wouldn't Spam filter you!

 Thanks. And I agree on Being Red. It certainly doesn't invite people to do likewise. Fast has always been an excellent writer, and good story teller. Given that one of the best story tellers I know is a liar and without principles, the ability to tell stories doesn't always imply much about one's personal life. On the other hand, the liar I mentioned writes about honor and integrity in a very convincing manner. Odd. And no, I don't care to say who I mean or even what genre.

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

Since I agree with your views of THE CROSSING, I will not add to that part of the discussion. Suffice it to say I have little use for dunderheads, whether they be from the far right or left.

As many know, the so-called "Hessians" were actually from many parts of Germany. When I was stationed in Ansbach, Bayern (Bavaria) from '95 to '98, the local historians were quite proud of telling the US troops that there was a regiment from Ansbach and that many of them stayed in the US after the Revolution.

Also, I noticed that there were lots and lots of Heinleins in town, far more than in any other part of Germany that I visited. Does any one know of Robert Heinlein's ancestry? I am merely curious, but have never discovered an answer.

My best as always,

Frank Luxem FrankLuxem@worldnet.att.net

PS: You may also know that Ansbach figured in the Thirty Years War; it was a Protestant bastion in an otherwise generally Catholic Bavaria. All in all a pleasant town, and a good place to be stationed.

You know, Robert once told me something of how his ancestors got to the US, and I must confess I have forgotten. It wasn't an important point in the conversation. To confuse matters worse, I know that I know at least one major author who did tell me that his first American ancestor was a Hessian captured at Trenton and who remained after the war, and I can't recall who it was. It could even have been Heinlein. Ah well.

 

 

 

 


Jerry,

The BXA finally got it (nearly) right on encryption restrictions ( http://www.bxa.doc.gov/Encryption/pdfs/Crypto.pdf ). Under pressure from Congress and the courts, this agency recognized that the Internet has changed the rules. The unpleasant reality now is that strict enforcement of strong encryption software export controls is both an unattainable (and unenforceable) dream and worse, a hindrance to commerce. It's nice when a federal agency comes to its senses.

Noncommercial Open Source encryption software now needs only to be made available to the BXA prior to posting on the Net. Publicly available (downloadable) commercial software is likewise no longer subject to prior review. This means that American shops no longer need to go through the subterfuge of outsourcing security software development offshore. It also means that Linux can now ship with built-in encryption capabilities, and this gives it an important advantage over commercial OSes where it is an extra-cost option.

Most any competent programmer can, from scratch, whip up a fairly secure encryption utility, using "one-time pad", Blowfish, or some other well-know recipe. Any number of programmers have done just that. Just as the government found it politically inexpedient to prosecute Phil Zimmerman for distributing PGP, so is it just as impractical to regulate just about any other encryption software. Might as well try to restrict knowledge of the law of gravity because people might be tempted to drop rocks on each other from high windows and highway overpasses.

What is disturbing are the reports that the FBI and Justice Department opposed relaxing the restrictions on encryption. This calls into question the technical competence of our federal cops. Even if the bad guys have encryption, this still doesn't mean that they know how to use it correctly to conceal vital information from investigators. Proper management of an encryption system is a pain in the butt. Cipher keys have to be changed often. Plaintext files have to be thoroughly deleted (and can usually be recovered by micro-magnetic analysis of drive platter surfaces even after multiple erasure and overwrite). In short, good old-fashioned police work can catch even terrorists or crooks armed with encryption.

---

The DoJ vs. Microsoft lawsuit has accomplished its purpose. It put MS on its best behavior for a couple of years, and this has allowed Linux to get a foothold in the market and Apple to recover. Now it's up to market forces. The best of all scenarios for the competition would be for the appeals process to drag on for years more, and if that occurs, the final outcome would likely be irrelevant to everyone.

---

As an aside, my e-mail address 'thegrendel' has nothing to do with "Heriot". It was a childhood nickname, dating back almost 40 years (rhymes with my given name). In any case, the original Grendel got some very bad press (see John Gardner's book, "Grendel").

Mendel Cooper thegrendel@theriver.com 

Thank you. Good points on Microsoft, and on encryption. I recall Gardner's book. But Grendel had this nasty habit of carrying off men from Heorot and eating them... His mother wasn't nice, either. Poor fellow.


Jerry,

This is not the first time I write to you. This is, however, the first time since I just found Byte on the web a few weeks ago, after being a loyal reader of the print version of the magazine for several years. I am happy to have found Byte and your columns again.

I'm writing because I have some comments on your column about Microsoft published in intellectualcapital in November, and which I just read.

I am sure you get a lot of email on the issue, and you probably don't want to know anything else about it. So, I'll try to be brief and I hope my comments are useful to you in some way.

1. You say there is no evidence Microsoft actually harmed consumers. Let's leave the evidence aside. I propose you this: take a good book on OS design (my favorite is Silvershatz's "Operating Systems Principles"). There, you will find that there are two ideas that have been thoroughly researched and partially solved since the 60s: stability and multitasking.

I think that Microsoft has no excuse for offering an OS with decent multitasking until Windows95, when the issue was solved with Unix in the 60s, if not before. There is simply no excuse. I think Microsoft has been very, very slowly building a decent OS with ideas that have existed for decades. They have been able to do so because they have no real competition.

I think Microsoft has no excuse for not making W95 and W98 more stable. No OS is free from crashes and problems. W95 is a joke in that respect, however.

I think that, in those two ways, MS has harmed consumers. Consumers have harmed themselves too, for not dumping MS and choosing something else. For many years, however, there was no real alternative.

2. You say that MS should be free to include whatever they want with their OS. The problem is that an OS is a perfectly defined entity, in the technical aspects if not the legal ones (I refer you again to Silvershatz). An OS does not include a calculator, or a notepad, just as it does not include a web browser. It might include system calls to help implement web browsers, but not the browser itself.

MS has done us all a favor in including a calculator and a notepad with Windows. They are not part of the OS. Their inclusion puts out of the market any company whose business was calculators or notepads for Windows. The same happens with browsers.

One irrefutable fact is that Windows runs in many computers. Many people don't have a true choice as to what OS to run. If MS includes IE with Windows, then they are putting other browser manufacturers out of the market. The technical merits of IE don't change the fact that MS is taking advantage of their position in the OS market to win the browser market.

So I say no, MS should not be free to include any software they want with Windows. They can't do so when doing so risks putting another company out of business.

(By the way, the minimalist approach to OSes is essential for their efficiency and stability. One thing that MS includes with Windows is a GUI. The fact that this GUI is so closely tied to the kernel of the OS is, to a large extent, the cause of the system's lack of stability.)

3. I agree with you that, in many cases, the competition has not been up to the task of actually competing. Many of the competitors were technically better than MS, but none has been able to challenge Gates on the business side of the thing. This makes me sad, because being an Electronics engineer, I hate seeing technically good ideas fail because of business, marketing, or financial decisions.

4. I don't have any solutions and I don't have any suggestions on how to best deal with MS. I hate the idea of seeing the US government intervene in a dynamic and competitive industry. But I see all around me Windows machines that crash, that offer no security, that are not reliable. I see the ads in the magazines, where everybody sells computers with Windows, MS Office, and IE included. I get frustrated reading books and papers on other technically superior products that ultimately fail. I know a lot of people who are not computer literate, but who need to use a computer, and who suffer a lot because of Windows crashing, losing files, needing a reinstall, needing for ever more memory, CPU, HD.

The whole thing just frustrates me a little. I see that I haven't exactly been brief as I promised at the beginning. I'm sorry; I just hope I didn't bore you.

-- Miguel Bazdresch

I recall that for years people tried to get UNIX running on PC's. When they did, consumers stayed away in droves.

For good or ill, Microsoft went into the PC business with the notion of turning it into a consumer business, and their customers never heard of  Silvershatz's "Operating Systems Principles" and would run screaming from the sight of it. 

You are telling me that if Ford puts a clock in my truck and includes a radio they ought to be sued for putting clock and radio aftermarket people out of business? Come now, you don't believe that yourself.

In a Technocracy things would be different. But I am not sure I wish to live in one.

 

MS has done us all a favor in including a calculator and a notepad with Windows. They are not part of the OS. Their inclusion puts out of the market any company whose business was calculators or notepads for Windows. The same happens with browsers.

The above was in the mail section taking your view of MS to task. I have to agree with you. The above is clearly wrong. I remember that when Netscape sued over the browser issue many of us could not understand why it was not thrown out. Shorty after starting the suit, they claimed record quarter earnings. How can you be hurt if you have just had record earnings ? All things being equal, UNIX (as a competing OS) is not for the desktop and the average computer consumer. I am very computer literate and UNIX has a steep learning curve. All of its various lookalikes are in the same category. BEOS might become a competitor but I doubt it. It is an amazing OS but seems to have little support and as of now it looks as though windows programs will not run on it. Anyway I ramble on too long. Thanks

J Shepard

Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com

Precisely...


Jerry,

I have loved your column and your approach to computer hard/software ever since I first picked up a "Byte" years ago; hey, I love your fiction too!!! <very jealous of Roberta and her computers...>

Not sure what happened with you and NoteTab Pro but... NTP is a great program and I **think** something is awry with its setup on your system, rather than NTP being a crummy program or having crummy programming.

Anyway I paid this evening via the website and a credit card.

Glad to have found you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Patricia Osborne  mailto:pako@mindless.com Saint Louis MO 63110-1095 USA

Thanks for the kind words. It may be that NoteTab doesn't like Windows 2000, or I may have a bad copy. I'll have to look into it. Thanks.

 

 

 

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