Why are spam filters so brain dead? How hard can it be for the big ISPs to just trash spam that’s in Cyrillic or various Asian scripts? Why can’t I just say: “if it’s not in Latin script, delete it”. Honestly, something so simple and it’s not done. Oh. Sure, I can “make a script” but why should I have to for something so obviously logical? Ugh.
This is truly an amazing talk. It explains logically why we see so much crap and why Sturgeon’s Law seems to be the only one we experience day to day. Shirky’s always good for one of those “Duh” forehead slaps. This is another case in point. In terms of spam, and I believe this for all of computing, we need to move the costs closer to the creator. Thus, if you create an email message you should pay to email it. If you produce anything on the internet you should pay to publish it. If sites, like YouTube, wish to subsidize publishing, great, but if not, bear the brunt of the cost if you so believe in your message.Of course, this requires a massive change in mindset which I don’t see happening anytime soon.
I’m getting more than a bit annoyed that some of my favourite things keep getting “improved”. Sometimes it’s a mild change, like using HFCS instead of sugar in a soft drink. Other times, it’s more insidious. Yesterday I bought a bag of Goodies. For those unfamiliar with this candy, here’s a picture and a link. That was one of my favourite candies, until yesterday. Now it’s “goodier”, according to the bag. It’s not. It no longer has the nice, hard outer candy coating and the licorice inside is grainy, as if Hershey embedded small granules of sugar into the licorice. It’s ruined for me. I can’t eat it. Not altogether a bad thing as I can go without the calories, but why change something that’s been essentially the same for decades? I foolishly thought that when Coca Cola fooled around with the formula for Coke and suffered the consequences of customer rage that every single manufacturer would never play around with successful formulas. Change the packaging but leave the contents alone. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Argh.
If you’re reading this the world didn’t end and the Hadron Collider experiment succeeded. Did it find the “God Particle”? That’s the new question, but those wondering when the End of the World will be will have to look elsewhere.
A few folks who know me well asked why I’ve not posted anything in a while. It’s not for lack of interesting topics but more due to work, kitchen renos, the start of summer, etc. And as summer starts up I’m hoping to get out on the links but the weather, work, and the kitchen have conspired against any such plans. Bit of a bummer, but what can one do. And with so many distractions I’ve needed other distractions to make the lack of a kitchen less onerous, and so I’ve turned to music. Music, I always say, is infinitely listenable. You can listen to the same song over and over again and not be bored. You can listen to something you’ve not heard in years and it not only brightens your day but also brings back memories. Sure, sometimes the memories are bittersweet, or younger days when life was simpler, but even those reminisces are worth it. I have few regrets, so even a not so happy memory can still brighten my day since where I am today is a good place and to get here required me to pass through all the trials and tribulations that were my