A lot has changed since angry consumers sought revenge on mass marketers by taping postage-paid return envelopes to bricks and putting them in mailboxes. A new generation uses online mobs to launch swarm-style attacks aimed at shutting down Web sites or at disrupting business in ways that an individual never could. Sites such as whocalled.us collect data about certain marketers to warn other consumers.

Ever received such a call? We have. Its a mere annoyance. And their repeated calling makes for problems for many hence the tactics above. But that is not all –

Michael Silveira decided to strike back. The 22-year-old laboratory technician, who doesn’t own a car, says he was getting unsolicited sales pitches as often as twice a day on his cellphone.

So last week, Mr. Silveira began calling back an auto-warranty company that has become the focus of an Internet crusade. He left it voice-mail messages that contained nothing but a recording of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Using phone numbers for Auto One Warranty Specialists Inc. that users posted to a Web site called Reddit.com, Mr. Silveira joined dozens of activists who have peppered the warranty company with messages including elevator music, threats and offers of rude services.

“I thought, if you get a bunch of people together, you could blow up their voice-mail boxes,” says Mr. Silveira.

The recipient of their efforts is David Tabb, the 42-year-old president of Auto One, an Irvine, Calif., warranty company with 60 employees. He says Reddit users overloaded his phone lines with computerized calls, changed voice-mail greetings on his company’s system, and even threatened arson. People have been conspicuously honking outside his home, he says. To cope, he redirected some of the numbers that activists had been calling.

Now being obscene or making threats is a tad over the top. At least in our view. So don’t do it. You could land in hot water legally. And don’t assume you can’t be tracked down if you do. With the assistance of the phone company(s) it is highly likely you will be if it is accompanied by a criminal investigation.

But that is not the whole story of course. As it is right now, 1st Amendment stands tall in saying you can’t stop them from calling. But there is a far cry from that standard. If I am walking down the street and and some guy is on a soapbox bellowing out some missive I can politely ignore him and keep walking. Neither party was harmed in the fact that I chose to ignore him. The speaker still retained his right to bellow his missive.

However the phone is not a manifestation of the fellow in the soapbox. By design phones are not multithreaded like the environment of the fellow on the soapbox. They only allow a single conversation at a time. By rote they block all other callers. When a robocall comes through I am effectively blocked from receiving the conversations I wish to hear. It would be equivalent to, once having reached within 50′ of the fellow on the soapbox, required to stop and listen for 1 minute. No one would stand for that actually or legally. So why do we persist in this fiction via the phone?

So a little bit of advise for those who want to swarm the robocallers –

• No obscene comments or threats. The idea of the music was a nice touch. Might I suggest the winning tune toward the end of the movie Mars Attacks?
• Make sure evey phone you have is on the federal do not call list. If your state has a registry also add your phone numbers there too.
• Look at your phone bill and make sure the number is listed there. Keep a copy. Its evidence they called you. If you end up in court it will be requested anyhow so be prepared.
• Assess whether it is worth your time. Acquiring personal satisfaction can be a time consuming business.

Welcome to the world of the Wild West of Telephony.

Linky.

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York
scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that
followed, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 200 feet, and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: ‘ California
archaeologists, finding traces of 200 year old copper wire,
have concluded that their ancestors already had an
advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years
earlier than the New Yorkers.’

One week later, The Des Moines Register, a local newspaper
in Iowa , reported the following: “After digging as deep as 300 [?] feet in his flower garden in Storm Lake, Iowa, Jack Kooker, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Jack has, therefore, concluded that 300 years ago, Iowa had already gone wireless.”

Who said Iowan’s were hicks?

I ask a more fundamental question — Prove the Iowan wrong.

Well it is if you start reading some forums and web sites. Some are saying that VoIP traffic will be affected. Generally false. Others are saying that the efficiency of the internet will drop as a consequence. False. First the announcement off the Torrent website for the new UDP based client –

New alpha! The main change is that uTP (UDP torrenting) is added and enabled by default. It also has real-time transfer rate control and latency minimization.
This build will probably download slower than 1.8.1, particularly if the entire swarm is 1.8.1.

This whole thing has been a boil for about 2 years now between Torrent users and network ISP’s in their use of network capacity. We have had FCC endorsed round tables on the situation. Its finally come to head with Bell Canada impacting P2P traffic altogether. The result is that the Torrent developers have built a UDP based client to get around it. What the ISP’s don’t understand is that they are on the short end of the stick here from a technology perspective. The developers have the upper hand in any tech war. Example? Well how would ISP handle a Torrent client that did the following –

• Stored the existing client protocols table.
• Randomly remapped that table for its own purposes.
• Started a faux spread spectrum-like bounce across the breadth of the protocols table between the seeders and the receivers
• Upon competition restores the saved protocols table back to the system

Its not fool proof. But it is sufficiently involved that it fiscally escalates the costs on the ISP’s side that they just cry uncle. It is not a road we as a global society should go down. Its like restricting free speech.

The other trend I am seeing is the lack of understanding by many in the press on this issue. As a data transmission layer, UDP is MORE efficient than TCP. UDP institutes a full data stream with no framing checks. It just streams till EOF. But there is no checking for data integrity of the file. TCP on the other hand checks blocks of packets for receipt till the whole file sent. In some cases it adds up to 20% overhead to the transmission. So if you were doing a torrent you would WANT them using UDP.

The other falsehood is that VoIP traffic would be impacted. Hate to say it, probably not true. Two protocols dominate the VoIP world — SIP and SSCP. Well SIP uses TCP for build up and tear down of the connection and either TCP or UDP for the transport. The split being about 50/50. If its a problem, providers can switch to a pure TCP transport. SSCP uses TCP for build up and tear down of the connection and only UDP for the transport. But SSCP is generally associated with Cisco CallManager installs. So most of the UDP traffic is intrabuilding, like in call centers. The outbound traffic being wrapped in TCP or TCP-VPNd traffic, building to building.

The solution? How about some profit? The P2P client providers should cooperate with the ISP’s and provide a means to a) strip the traffic easily and b) forward store the traffic on end nodes like Akamai. The ISP’s cooperate by providing a premium data channel that P2P traffic can ride on. The users pay for the privilege. Profits are split by all concerned.

I prefer this solution over data caps.

Linky.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a piece over at ComputerWorld. His shot? That in 2009 there will be more Linux based computers deployed than a Windows based device. Personally I won’t take bets, but best guess is it would be a 50/50 shot of it happening. –

Of course, while most of the vendors would like to give their customers Windows, they can’t. Windows is no more capable than booting fast than John McCain is of winning the Olympic gold in the 100-meter dash. That’s where Linux comes in.

You see you can boot Linux up in a hurry if you do it from the hardware and thanks to a company called deviceVM and its fast-booting Linux, SplashTop. PC OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo, are all including SplashTop on their lines.

That’s his take. Well I have another one. I have been noting that ‘thin is in’ on device sizes and have a couple of posts discussing it. My contention is one wants compute on the go which is why the NetTops have been wildly successful this year. So my observation is go the other direction, literally.

If you the consumer is going to tote around the NetTop, all 2lbs of it. Why not use THAT as the comm device. It already fits the bill as your compute device on the go, into and out of the cloud as you please. So if the device had bluetooth enabled to interface with a bluetooth earpiece and SplashTop could support a always on VoIP connection in a low wattage standby mode. Combine that with 3G or Wimax for the data transport. Then you have essentially arrived at the combined portable system I have alluded to. All this with some near term technologies. No leap of faith on some future development; just need to add a little always on VoIP to the NetTop.

I don’t know if it will happen, but as far as I am concerned the hardware for the Apple Dynabook concept is here.

We know how the specialty retailer CircuitCity is closing 150 stores. Bankrupty avoidance. But you ever wondered why? –

Box #3 -
Upon opening the box, he saw a blue SATA cable with an extra little dongle that Western Digital likes to put on their cables - he thought that it was a completely different type of cable… he hands me the cable and says, “sorry sir, your box was missing this cable, you should be all set now.”

I exploded. “THIS IS THE SAME F$$^@&^N’ CABLE! Why don’t you show me where THIS cable connects to the drive?!?!” He actually started to reexamine the drive, blue cable in hand… I shouted “look at the other damn drive!!! Look at that - it’s got a damn PCB!!! And look - SATA connectors!!! Whodathunkit?!?!”

Head down, he finally gave in, gave me the third and final box, and I was on my way. My 1TB drive only cost me $150… and about 4 hours of my life, about 30 minutes of which consisted of shouting, my heart hammering in rage.

No, I’m not going to be wandering back any time soon.

Folks that is only a third of the post. The whole thing is here. But this is what you get when management follows a ‘formula’ to the least common denominator. Essentially failure. What is instructive about the missive above is that the FireDog dude is supposed to know his stuff and he can’t even see that there is a cable header mismatch with the drive? Wouldn’t let him near my computers with a 10′ pole!

Entertaining? Yes. But it is par for the course for what goes as ’superior executive management’ in the executive suites. This kind of setup starts at the top folks not from HR or schools or other. Sigh….

Yes Dear Reader the tax man comes early this year. But then I am not saying it is the Gubmint Revenur that’s taxing you. Its Verizon. They are preparing to apply anywhere from a subpenny to multipenny fee on the third party text messaging that you receive. –

In a move that sets a new and potentially major precedent in the text messaging services market, content and messaging companies are going to have to cough up some dough if they want to deliver their goodies to Verizon Wireless customers.

The nation’s No. 2 carrier has informed partners that it will add a 3-cent fee for every MT (mobile terminated) message processed on its network beginning Nov. 1. MT messages typically include text alerts, interactive voting notifications and SMS search responses.

Verizon hasn’t the guts to come up with the fee themselves to their userbase. So they are going to ‘tax’ the content provider who will then pass on the fee to you, on Verizon ‘One Bill’. But who is fooling who here? The texting consumer still ends up paying. Verizon just wants the cover to say is not them charging the customer when it is.

Look if SMS volume is going up and that requires infrastructure upgrades == $$, then so be it. The customer should pay that and they will. But why not be honest about it? A well placed case and proper background as to the need will usually win over customers so long as it is a appropriate win for both ends of the transaction. But these kind of corporate games are what get Americans mad.

This seemed appropriate. –

[Update] More on the Verizon Tax here. Apparently the text providers did not get any advanced warning either!

Linky.

I have been saying for quite some time that pulp media and online media are in a tetonic battle. The legacy pulp publishers in a battle for survival. The online media not quite fully formed yet so unable to take over the general reporting functions the legacy firms used to do. Right now things are in a stalemate with legacy in a slow bleed. We need a trigger.

Well folks that catalyst may have arrived. Not from any major business or technical changes but from poor performance from the reporting staff and a general feeling from the populace that they have had enough. –

CEDARBURG, Wisc. — Hundreds of angry people in this small town outside Milwaukee taunted reporters and TV crews traveling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting “Be fair!” and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly.

On the first leg of the “McCain Street USA” tour — which will take the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to small towns across the heartland — the 30 or so reporters and crew were walking back to their buses to join the McCain motorcade when hundreds of townspeople started yelling.

“Stop lying! You are all liars! Tell the truth!” one woman yelled from the front of the pack.

The crowd was not menacing or threatening, but was clearly angry.

“You’re telling lies! Stop the lies!” one man yelled. Asked why the crowd was so angry, Linda J. Green of Mequon, Wisc., said: “I’m thinking the press is very biased.”

This is small town America that in my over 50 years on this planet has not challenged the intellectuals. The cause, the excoriation of Palin leading up to the Republican convention. But this could very well be the trigger event that accelerates the pulp collapse. Americans have identified a common enemy. Its not the Republicans or the Democrats but the Press.

So how does it play out? The assumption here is that Middle America stays angry at the Press. The subscription rates fall off accelerates. [datapoint: US mag has rumored to have lost 10k subscriptions over a hatchet cover of Palin in 2 days.] By 2Q09 a major metro paper goes belly up. The cat now out of the bag, lenders look at debt service of the other metros. Possibly 2 other papers have margin calls with possibly 1 other paper failing or closed voluntarily. From there on out its a mad dash by advertisers to manage placement in other venues. A death spiral ensues that by 2011-12 there is no national metro dailly remaining.

Sounds very drastic. But consider there is only one carriage maker left in the US, Fisher, and its just a Logo.

Full screen because I want you to get the flavor of it.

This is a sign in a Subway sandwich shop in Idaho. How they enforce i don’t know but personally I like it. If somebody can’t live without the phone in their ear for just a couple of minutes so as not to hold up the line then they deserve to be kicked to the rear. I run across this in WalMart the most. Some woman fumbling for her checkbook, a pen, and she all chrunched over yapping on the phone not thinking one wit about what she is attempting to do. All the while the lines keep piling up.

There is not much in this world that is so damn important that you have to be on the phone 24×7. Observe, Engage, Execute. Then please get the hell out of the way.

HT: Consumerist.

Mr. Byfield posted an article over at Datamation here. I must respectfully disagree with his analysis. Here’s why –

Look, even free costs money. Ask any father that has had a 4yo daughter bring home a stray cat. The fact is over the life of a product the support costs are the big dollar number not the buy. Having worked in the Enterprise Space I can tell you after getting your list down to potential candidates the next item on the check list is exit strategy! Not knowing how you will get out at the end its attendant costs can cost you many fold the entry price of the product. Ask anybody who used MS’s Enterprise Commerce Server, which is no longer available.

The allure of FOSS is not that you don’t spend any money on entry. Smart enterprises will get a support contract if they can for things like Red Hat, Sun Office, etc. Having that support pays dividends in saving in-house labor on searching for a solution. It helps mitigate the life cycle costs of the product. The real allure of FOSS is a reduction in lock in. Consider a product like Tivoli over say Nagios. Tivoli is an excellent product. But they have a game they play. The tool is broken up into salable components. It always seems that next component is in that next bundle. They don’t sell it ala carte. The database is proprietary, and transition costs to another product expensive. Nagios on the other hand is a use what you need philosophy. But your team will burn hours getting up to speed on Nagios. With Tivoli management can just write a check and have it deployed.

With the myth of ‘free’ dispensed with, still why use SaaS like services. Well in a nutshell ROI. The last company I worked for always had a quandary as to providing the necessary tools to everyone vs the attendant costs and support for those tools. The classic example is MS Project. In a perfect world everybody would get a copy. But why? In a large company less than 15% of the seats really need it. Not only that but tools like Project scream to be a shared platform choice. Project gains leverage when the project plan can be interactively edited by all concerned. Given those two factors using such a tool as a SaaS makes sense. You pay for the proper concurrent usage, share it online and when you are thru with it you discontinue use and the expense. The savings can be dramatic.

Finally there is the matter of ’scale’. Desktop applications are very different animals than something like Google or Twitter. You could not imagine something like Google as a desktop metaphor, the Google ToolBar notwithstanding. SaaS today has glommed onto tools like spreadsheets and Writers as it is a common metaphor with a large user base. But Saas will evolve and that evolution will look less and less like the desktop and more and more like Twitter, FaceBook and other interactive mediums. It is the only way one can scale and disperse the usage of such applications.

I might agree that for an Office Suite an Open Office on every desktop might make sense. But again, Open Office has the very nice trick of being a shareable tool. So why not load it on a in-house server and concentrate the admin costs to a single back end system. But the road is clear, having pushed applications out of the data center so people could get work done, we are now swinging back to the data center to help mitigate support costs. For common tools on every desktop leave them on virtual servers in-house. Those tools that are specialized, used infrequently and need to be shared. Rent, don’t buy.

In a very comprehensive article Extra, extra, read all about it - or, sadly, not @ Comment, John Ibbitson covers the woes of the current pulp media –

That’s about to change. Across the United States, newspaper revenues are declining, along with circulation. As the American economy totters on the edge of recession, those declines are becoming precipitous and more pronounced than elsewhere. The Newspaper Association of America reports that classified newspaper advertising shrank by 16.5 per cent in 2007.

Circulation declines are also accelerating: Nationwide, newspaper circulation as of March 31 was down 3.6 per cent from the same time the year before; the year before that, it was down only 2.1 per cent. The Standard & Poor’s Publishing & Printing Index is declining at three times the rate of decline of the S&P 1500.

The Sunday edition of The New York Times is arguably the best newspaper in the world. Its circulation has declined almost 10 per cent in the past year alone, although part of the reason was management’s decision to cut back on discounted papers.

We have covered that before of course no new news there. But what will survive/replace the pulp media?

Small town Editions

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