Capital of Nasty Electronic Magazine Volume II, Issue 36, Year AD MCMXCVII Monday, September 15th, 1997 ISSN 1482-0471 ------------------------------------------- "The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love; hungry to be wanted, to be loved." Mother Teresa of Calcutta August 27, 1910 - September 5, 1997 ------------------------------------------- "Let's not talk about death. I'm going to Rochester in the morning." ------------------------------------------- 1. Editorial 2. Almost barred on Barf 3. CoN Eireann 4. Privacy on the Internet 5. Diana ------------------------------------------- This week's Golden Testicle Web Award goes to Ian Brady's Homepage http://www.worldy.com/~brady ------------------------------------------- 1. Editorial CoN, according to Slather 1-5,33 Welcome to yet another issue of Capital of Nasty. Changing the zine to a bi-weekly format has allowed us to keep up with the pace of what life has been throwing our way. In the mean time CoN has been reviewed by another e-zine, called e-Slather. They really liked our Golden Testicles, however they also said a lot of stuff that made no sense, unless you like rap music. In any case their bottom line was "thumbs up!" If you want to check it out, you can read the review at http://members.tripod.com/~hardpack/e-capnasty.html ------------------------------------------- And what is your problem today? This e-mail arrived shortly after issue II.35 of CoN was sent out: Date sent: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 06:34:49 PDT To: con@capnasty.org From: Bronwyn Mitchell Subject: you pervert and what do you think I am a man I'm a woman and I think your a pervert lendro. your exreader bronzzy Can someone take a wild guess to what this person is referring? Our readership is invited to comment. ------------------------------------------- Macintosh from hell Date sent: Sun, 31 Aug 97 22:13:25 -0700 To: CoN Editorial From: Robin Miller Subject: My oh my! Hi. Thanx for the mention but you made a horrendous glaring error! You said: Mac users shouldn't snear at Win users: where do you think your Windows interface came from? WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!! Mac pioneered the 'windows' interface (otherwise known as the graphical and/or WYSIWYG interface) for personal computers in 1984. Windows (and X windows too, incidentally) was a rip off of that innovation, allowing DOS (or Linux) users to approximate the The answer to the rhetorical question demostrates that you are unsure about the true origins of the GUI. The development at Apple were the pioneers of stealing the GUI. Apple discovered the GUI when Steve Jobs and company were present for a demostration in 1979 of a machine developed in 1973 by Xerox PARC called the Alto. simplicity and ease of use that the Mac was famous for. Apple even took Microsoft to court in the early 90's for copying its "look and feel", a case that was ended in an out of court settlement. The out of court settlement was over the trash can. The look and feel case was eventually defeated in the Supreme Court. By the time Windows was developed, there were a number of platforms boasting GUIs, including the Amiga, Atari ST, and the Commodore 64 (GEOS). From the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds: Windows may at first have been a joke compared to the Mac. But Gates is persistent. Slowly it got better - and the guys at Apple got worried. As each new feature appeared on the Windows gui, the more they thought Microsoft was copying the features on the Mac. So finally they sued Microsoft, accusing them in a long legal battle of stealing the look and feel of Apple's gui. John Sculley The look and feel which is how it looks, the experience of using it was not patentable but it was copyrightable but there was no precedent law. This was going to be a precedent setting case. Bill Gates But it was a period of five years where, Microsoft er, our whole strategy would have been ruined because Windows was very important to us. Larry Tesler They weren't going to change anything and ehm they were going to get us to cave in or take us all the way to the Supreme Court on this thing. Bill Gates We assumed that the lawyers, the judges would all come to the right conclusion which eventually they did. John Sculley And Apple lost. But in that period of about six years that this case was going on it may have lulled us into a bit of complacency thinking that we were going to be insulated, you know, from the Windows attack. And Windows still just don't beat the original. Read above, re: Xerox. Also, all computers are not prone to breaking down, at least not to the same extent. Windows 95 is a notoriously unstable and unwieldy system, not to mention a disk space/RAM guzzler. Using Apple's new system, Mac OS8, my laptop has been running, with frequent use, for almost a week without a reboot. It's a very stable system. We can make my Windows '95 machine run for a week without any problems. Does that make it as good as your Laptop? =) Don't get us wrong, we are not dissing Macintosh. We did use them, and we find ourselves more at ease with the problems of Windows =) Maybe you should post a correction in your next mag... :o) Great magazine, though. Thanks ;-) ------------------------------------------- To SPAM or not to SPAM And just for everyone's amusement, if you receive spam, you better be nice or else. Sanford Wallace, according to the Project McLuhan On The 'Net, posted this message in which he openly states his fight against anti-spam groups. For those that don't know him, Mr. Wallace is one of the biggest and nastiest spammers in the world. Warning: reading this message might cause high blood pressure. Date sent: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 14:29:21 -0700 To: you@yourplace.com From: donot@noreply.com Subject: One Giant Step For Web Marketers **** TIRED OF NET USERS ANNOYING YOU WITH ABUSIVE E-MAIL?**** Let's face it. It's not a crime to advertise through e-mail, but there are plenty of people out there who want to prevent YOU from making a legitimate income from the Internet. Now you no longer have to take spam retaliation lying down. LastStraw v1.1 is scheduled for release Monday, September 15! This amazing new application makes it possible to thwart vengeful users who respond to your marketing message with spam, or even if they just reply rudely. LastStraw searches e-mail for words/phrases that you designate worthy of reprisal. Then, LastStraw fires out it's own depth charge. You can drown them in spam, or reply with text of your choosing. After all, turnabout is fair play. Best Regards, Sanford Wallace info@savetrees.com http://www.savetrees.com Stamford says: "If you burn down our house, we will build a new castle...then buy our OWN box of matches." ------------------------------------------- 2. Almost barred on Barf While pursuing one of the final credits for my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at a well known Toronto University, I happened to enter a class dealing with the politics of art, held at one of the most prominant art galleries in Ontario. As a term project, debates were assigned. Since my last name is what it is, I was given last pick. Fortunately or so I thought, I was assigned a rather interesting subject--that of Jubal Brown, the "barfing art critic."1 In attempt to do reasearch for the debate, I endeavoured to see one of the paintings Jubal saw as being so banal that it became part one of his primary colours triology. As you may know, Jubal Brown has been banned from this gallery. After purchasing my admissions ticket, I innocently asked for directions to this specific painting. The gallery attendant was unaware of the painting to which I was refering. In order to clarify, I nonchallantly said, "Oh, you know, the one Jubal Brown heaved on." Immediately the attendant was on the phone to her supervisor, asking where was the location of the painting. The attendant then blurted, "Do you know him!?" "No, why?" I replied bewilderedly. She then opened a drawer behind the counter and pulled out a poster of the artist. The caption contained a remark stating that neither he nor his cohorts were to be let into the gallery, and if they attempted to purchase tickets they were to be barred. So thats how I almost got barred on barf. Anon. A Statement about Modern Art. Ontario College of Art student Jubal Brown told the Associated Press in November that it was he who vomited publicly on two masterpieces this year and that he plans a third episode. At the Art Gallery of Ontario in May, he regurgitated red food coloring on a Raoul Dufy work, and at New York City's Museum of Modern Art on November 2, he threw up in blue on a Piet Modrian painting. His third work will be in yellow. His goal, he said, is "to liberate individuals and living creatures from [art's] banal, oppressive representation." ------------------------------------------- 3. CoN Eireann: Computers make you brain dead by Colin Barrett During three weeks in July, I had the fortune of visiting family in Ireland (most of whom I've never seen in life). I stayed with my uncle who, while he's one of the nicest men you could ever meet, he is rather stubborn in his ways and opinions. He lives in a neighbourhood in Dublin called Kilbarrack. A tour pamphlet published by the DART, the city's urban railway, refers to Kilbarrack as an interesting place with many colourful characters like the ones in the movie The Commitments which, by the way, was filmed down the street from my uncle's residence. Colourful characters indeed. One afternoon, my uncle, a neighbour of his, Dolores, and myself are enjoying some tea and good discussion about the weather. My uncle mentions he received a postcard from another neighbour spending her vacation in Mallorca. I add that I still have to send my friends postcards. I also say that I am very poor at writing letters. "I'm awful too," my uncle adds, "but Dolores is incredible for writing a letter." "I write from time to time." I argue, "But most of my friends do not appreciate a letter from me as I usually use a computer to help organise my tho..." "They make you brain dead," my uncle interrupts. "How do computers make you brain dead?" I ask. After posing that question, I feel as if I opened myself to an easy attack. They may mention spell checkers, grammar checkers, and electronic organisers. "Well you know those things that scan the products at the supermarket?" Dolores explains. "They add all the prices, and figure out discounts and taxes and everything, and the girls don't have to do one thing." I look confused. I wasn't expecting this, but nonetheless, I try to show a bit of interest. "Look, if you go into a shop where they are using calculators," my uncle adds in a very stern voice, "people in that shop won't be able to add in their heads... like says that's 2 n' 6, 10 pounds, and so on. Whereas in a shop where they don't use calculators, people will be able to add much quicker." "That's because people tend abuse calculators," I reply. "It's not abuse. They shouldn't be using them." "Well, I don't agree with someone is pulling out a calculator to add five and five. People who use them for such simple arithmetic are abusing them." "They're not. They shouldn't have them." It's time to bring this conversation back home, I think. "What do calculators and checkout counters have to do with making me brain dead when I write letters?" "What letters?" Dolores queries. My uncle is now the one with the confused look. "That's how this whole conversation started--with me mentioning that I use my computer to write letters." They both forgot in a span of three minutes. ------------------------------------------- 4. Privacy on the Internet by Leandro+ The constant arrival of junk via e-mail through my office account is annoying, and although it bothers me, the only reason I put up with it is because my other accounts were spam-free. Or so I thought. After I registered the domain name CAPNASTY.ORG with Internic, my account in Finland, which is set as my e-mail address in their database, started to receive the first signs of spam. I'm not accusing Internic of giving my address to some spam list, however I do find it a little strange that suddenly my mailboxes (electronic and non) are filled with junk. Microsoft keeps on sending me invitations to participate to their seminars, IBM would like to know all about me, my company, my employees and my need for various Intranet solutions. Not only all of these have my name on it, but the words "President" or "CEO" are right after. My office e-mail account, and now my account in Finland, receive spam of all sorts. I don't want to receive this stuff, I don't want companies to know about me, I don't want to find my mailboxes full of garbage. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to give the impression that I am another Unabomber that wants to break all links with society, and live in my little hut up in the mountains. It's just that I wish I had a choice to who I am giving my personal information. The Internet and the technology behind it are great, but unfortunately the moment the net reached a level of popularity, and people saw the potential of a growing market, it suddenly became a place where people try to sell you stuff and make money. Spam, cookies from which they learn more about you and know what advertising banners to place in front of you and so on, requests of personl info just to see a webpage. What can be done about it? Don't use your real e-mail address - there are many places on the internet (http://www.netaddress.com for example) which provide you with an e-mail account free of charge. Create an account here, and when writing on Usenet, or you find yourself obbliged to give your e-mail address to someone, give them that one. Think of it as your disposable address: once it's soiled, throw it out. Friends can still reach you at your original address, spam and companies cannot. Your e-mail is like your address and phone number. You have to be careful to who give it to. Stop Spam from filling up your mailbox. Believe it or not, there are ways to stop 90% of spam from arriving into your mailbox. Here at Scriba Org, our Administrator Gard, has taken several steps in preventing garbage to ever enter our mailboxes. According to Scriba Org system log, the following messages were rejected: May 1997 : 0 June : 758 July : 6102 August : 1148 Sep 1-7 : 114 How does this system work? First of all the mailserver checks the name of the sender of the incoming e-mail. As you may have noticed in much of the spam that you receive, it usually arrives from a bogus user (ex. 81254@13498.com.) By doing a DNS lookup of the name, the server is able to determine if the site exist or not. If the domain name does not resolve (it does not exist), the mail is refused. Of course there are domains that have been specifically created for the whole purpose of sending spam. These domains are banned, and if the name matches any of those in the ban list, again, the mail is refused. Lately spammers however have been using names of other domains that unfortunately resolve, in an attempt to by-pass filters, which, as Gard has stated "defintely isn't legal". However, from personal experience this system works, and it works well, since not one of our Capnasty Org addresses has ever received a single piece of spam. Further info can be obtained at the following URL: http://www.scriba.org/virtual When surfing the Internet, Cookies collect information about who you are. If you do a search with the Find command on your computer, you'll find a directory where all the Cookies are stored. Take a look and you'll see who's been lurking over your shoulders. Cookies allow companies to invade your privacy and access your phone number, credit card number, address, and other sensitive personal information and preferences. The next time you enter that website, they will know that you've been there before, what you've been looking at and perhaps what advertising to throw at you. To have Internet Explorer warn you before it accepts a Cookie, click on Options, select Advanced and turn the option on. This way you can refuse incoming Cookies, although some pages might not allow you to continue. If you really need to view a page, go to http://www.luckman.com and get a free "anonymous cookie" which disables cookies and allows complete privacy. The moment the Internet became popular to the masses, it ceased from being a computer network and it became another place for marketers to shove advertising and gain information about us. There is no such thing as the word "Private" on the Internet. Even your e- mails, have you been wondering who else is reading them? ------------------------------------------- 5. Diana by The alarmingly uneventful Adventures of Rik No doubt you have heard the news that princess Diana is dead. This is a tragedy and I would mourn were it not for the fact that every TV and radio station has been constantly ramming it down our throats for the past 8 days. The radio stations are only just getting back to playing proper music after days of panpipe drivel. If I hear one more pan pipe song on the radio I will rip out my jugular with a pair of chopsticks! This was not limited to one station. Every bloody radio station has played nothing but that shat for days! Moving onto the TV stations for example: they showed a documentry on Diana's life. I thought that was quite nice, a televisual tribute to her. Then was the news were they had a programme involving some other royals and people talking about her, okay fair enough. Then was the news going over exactly the same things as half an hour ago. Then they repeated the documentary/tribute just in case you missed it earlier. Then the news again. Then the people talking about her repeated in case you missed that the first time. Then another discussion thing. This went on all day! The same things over and over again! Don't get me wrong its not that I'm glad shes dead or that I'm having a go at her. I'm having a go at the TV and Radio people. They just cant stop going on about it. We know she's dead and everyone will miss her so why cant they grasp this fact instead of always telling us as if we didn`t know and continue with normal programming instead of constantly showing documentaries and interviews with someone that met her once or someone who owned a shop that she went in once years ago. Send your comments to: Rik Rich.h@btinternet.com (A computer game called Paparazi was created shortly after Diana's death. To read more about it, you can go to this site: http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/0,3,1107,00.html -Ed) ------------------------------------------- Who would win this fight? A Rottwieler, or a Rottwieler's weight in Chihuahuas? Now keep in mind that the Rottwieler is covered in steak sauce... please send in your vote.