or - Where is the line between the letter and the intent of the law?

PhilC over at SEO Forum threw a mini tantrum over at Web Pro World about getting so many “spam” emails from them and iEntry (WPW’s parent).. The thread, as many things over there do, got heated, closed, and then moved from public view.. But, out of curiosity I got invovled because several months ago I had added all iEntery addresses to my spam filter because I got tired of trying to stop the “Sponsor Updates”..

Within an hour of unblocking iEntry I got my first sponsor update.. It was probably just good luck on my part.. This led to a discussion at WPW with Mike about how they manage their mailing lists.. Apparently WPW is following the letter of the law when it comes to being removed from their mailing list.. You get removed one sponsor at a time.. Not from the whole list.. Does this make sense??

Here is the reasoning.. They seperate each advertiser into a seperate list (presumably) and as you “opt out” you are opted out for that sponsor only.. But all the others are still fair game since you didn’t opt out of that “other” sponsor.. All the rest are fair game and you keep right on getting email advertising long after you thought you had left the program.. Sucks doesn’t it??

So how did you get on this list to begin with?? I don’t recall ever seeing any mention of agreeing to be on their list when signing up for the forum.. You know why?? It’s not there.. It’s hidden.. The last pararaph of the confirmation email says “oh by the way - we are going to spam the crap out of you”.. No really, it does.. I don’t know about you, but I don’t read the signup emails when I sign up for a forum.. Like 99% of the world, I look for that link and click so I can join the forum and start posting.. Guess what, the team at iEntry knows this and takes advantage of you by doing it this way..

There are other ways to get on the list as well.. Sign up over at jayde.com to get a link and you are on the list.. It doesn’t say so when you sign up, but it is in the very small TOS.. Hidden well away so that you don’t opt out to begin with or not sign up at all..

So how do you get off?? Apparently there are 2 unsubscribe links in each email.. The first link opts out of that advertiser only, not the entire iEntry spam program.. But there is a second unsubscribe link further down the page that gets you out of the whole thing.. Again, placed where it is intentionally to decieve people into thinking that iEntry is doing a great job of managing their list, not playing fast and loose with the code of ethics most of us would like to observe when it comes to spam.. When you want off a list you hit unsubscribe.. You don’t hit every one on the page, and you most likely don’t read the small print, you click the first unsubscribe you come to.. Too bad it doesn’t do much good..

Is what ieNtry is doing Spam?? Legally, probably not.. But in my mind it is an incredibly deceitful way of doing things for that allmighty ad dollar.. I would have expected better from the team over there seeing how they are positioned in the industry.. Apparently I was mistaken, they appear to be just another batch of mercenary spammers with a jones for your email address and the money that brings them..

~Fey

ZDNet has a short article about Tim Berners-Lee’s talk about a semantic web wiki.. As a proponent of collaboration and artificial intelligence Tim’s stance on the subject is obvious.. A semantic web would allow search engines ingeneral, and artificial intelligence greater ability to deliver relevant content to the user..

And in an ideal world, I would agree..

But the folks over at Google actually get this one right.. Peter Novig (Director of search) says users tend to be incompetent.. A semantic web requires that web developers, bloggers, CEOs, etc., ‘get it’.. It requires that they include URI and RDF (Resource Description Framework) tags along with their normal XHTML and HTML markup.. And most people can’t even get basic HTML right, so how can we expect them to provide reliable RDF and URI data??

The people that will get it right, and get it right quickly will be the v1agra pushers, the heavy spammers, and of course the MFA (made for adsense) sites.. But this puts us right back where we are now with a broken search system that has little to do with what people are actually looking for and everything to do with web developers cashing in on the easy money to be made by being a whore for Google.. Not that that is a bad thing..

How do you make semantic web search viable?? Not with artificial intelligence.. At least not any time soon.. Armies of web browsers looking at site after site and determining which are eligible for inclusion in the index?? Maybe a better solution.. But there are a lot of sites out there and not enough people to search them.. I don’t really see a semantic web, LSI (latent semantic indexing), as anything that will be of any great use for quite some time.. It will simply put even more power in the hands of those willing to study and game the system at the expense of those that simply want to publish good information but lack the technical skills to compete..

~Fey

The great guys at O’Reilly have applied for a trademark for the term Web 2.0.. And they’ve already started sending out cease and desist letters to people using the term..

Tim claims to have invented the term in an article with MediaLive International.. While this may be the case, I find it interesting on several levels..

1st. Since when does taking a common word (web) and slapping a standard software naming convention on it (2.0.1.a) make the term unique enough to claim a trademark??

2nd. Didn’t Tim make his money by building on the work of others to begin with?? Didn’t his entire publishing empire find it’s birth in providing manuls of other people’s work?? I wonder how many of those people saw donations from O’Reilly..

3rd. It’s simply bad form.. Here is a ‘hero’ of open source doing exactly the opposite in the name of profit..

I suppose it wouldn’t bother quite as much if he was actually holding the trademark.. But he isn’t.. He is simply holding an application for a trademark.. Welcome to the Darkside Tim, you’ll find the caviar and cigars over there on the ivory tables..

Fey ~

I just finished reading The Art of Intrusion by everyone’s favorite hacker, Kevin Mitnick.. The book focuses mainly on ways people try to gain access to networks, buildings, and information in general.. And it does a pretty good job of telling the stories of the people involved..

If you are looking for a guide to hacking, or hoping to gain tips for your own efforts, don’t bother.. Much of the detail is intentionally left out in an effort to not encourage script kiddies to do something stupid that will set them up for a visit to a correctional facility.. But as a light read, and maybe even a primer for non technical people about the types of issues they could and will face, it shines an important light on just how unsecure so many places really are.. Story after story is told about the most basic security functions being ignored, improperly executed, or simply not being used at all..

We all have those stories, I have one local ISP here that is notorious for giving out login information if you know a name and email address.. TAoI goes into several different methods of gaining information of all sorts.. And Kevin does a good job of telling the stories in a way that makes them interesting without overloading them with technical jargon that will turn off non-technical people..

Would I recommend this book to a network security guy?? Not really, it’s filed with a lot of, I can’t believe they did that moments.. But for a casual read, or as a way to convince the ‘boss’ that he may want to take a closer look at security, it goes along way toward showing just how easy it is to gain access to just about anywhere..

Fey -

A new windows exploit has been discovered in the wild and the good folks over at Security Focus have a decent amount of information about it. In a nut shell this new exploit takes advantage of the WMF format (Windows Media File) to run malicious code on your computer with the intent to drop spyware or worse on your computer. Simply viewing the file is enough to trigger the exploit.

At this point Microsoft has released a security advisory about the issue, but at this point does not have a solution or patch for the problem. There is a temporary fix for the problem listed at Microsoft.

You need to unregister the affected files. Here are the steps taken from the microsoft website.

To un-register Shimgvw.dll, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type “regsvr32 -u %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll” (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.

2. A dialog box appears to confirm that the un-registration process has succeeded. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Impact of Workaround: The Windows Picture and Fax Viewer will no longer be started when users click on a link to an image type that is associated with the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.

To undo this change, re-register Shimgvw.dll by following the above steps. Replace the text in Step 1 with “regsvr32 %windir%\system32\shimgvw.dll” (without the quotation marks).

Fey

Update: Microsoft has finally released a patch for this vulnerability.. If you have automatic updates turned on (you really should) then you are probably already patched.. If not, head over to the knowledge base and get the update and install it manually..

Fey