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Dear Stan,
I just read your commentary in the May 5, 2003 edition of eWEEK. Its not obvious to me whether you were kidding or not, so Im a little perturbed by your statement regarding spammers: “Should we care about defending the rights of unpopular minorities (spammers)?” Excuse me, but isnt being a member of a minority group something that one cannot do something about? Such as the color of ones skin or their ethnicity? Please explain how being a spammer makes one a member of a minority group? Please also explain how these peoples rights need to be protected any more than other people who dont send millions of pieces of unsolicited email?
When I was a child, my friends and I sometimes liked to ring neighbors doorbells and run away. This annoyed the neighbors immensely. Does that make me a member of a minority group? I have certain tastes in decorations and culture. Does that also make me a member of a minority group that needs special protection?
If your statement was simply stated tongue in cheek, then I apologize for the rant. Just let me know youre not an idiot liberal.
Sincerely,
Ed Secco
Page 2
The addition of Bayesian-type filtering to Ipswitchs Imail 8 is a big step forward.
I dont and wouldnt use Imail since it runs on Windows and I have found that Unix still scales better and requires less man hours spent on management. However, Imail is a very good product. I think Id say this is a case of the app being better than the underlying OS. :-)
Statistical analysis (SA) of e-mail for filtering seems to be the answer for killing spam. I use the e-mail client in Mozilla 1.4 and will probably move to the standalone Thunderbird once it becomes reasonably stable. The “Junk Mail” features are fantastic. Spam has become a thing of the past. :-)
Filtering on the mail server with SA is a bit trickier, but there are people working on it and Id bet that it becomes widespread within 6 months or so.
In thinking about SA for e-mail, I also wonder whether these techniques can be applied to other areas too. Perhaps to network traffic to help with intrusion detection? Analysis of trends to point out problems or help with planning? There are plenty of opportunities for the use of analysis and reporting.
I think we are entering into a new environment for IT where just faster, more features, more more more isnt enough. Its time to start concentrating on quality and usability.
“Future Shock” is here in spades. :-) Too much information appearing faster and faster. We need to weed out the non-essential and provide better tools for managing whats left.
The 2.6 Linux kernel:
These articles were rather interesting, but theres something missing. Its the same thing that is often missing in articles on new developments… “How will this improve my life?”
I agree that the 2.6 kernel will be an improvement. However, if you look at it carefully, you see that it is going to mainly be beneficial to those who are running hefty hardware and apps. Its aimed at the enterprise.
If I had the need for a large SMP server, I would probably choose a SuSE Enterprise Server or maybe even one of the RH Enterprise products. They already have added much of what will be new in 2.6 _and_ they offer support.
Would it be sane for me to purchase a $100,000 server and then d/l a free copy of Linux to run on it? I dont think so. I would want to purchase an OS that matches the hardware. Buying a copy of SuSE isnt a major purchase when you consider the cost of the whole package and the possible benefit of the entire package to the enterprise.
(I prefer SuSE because they seem to have a cleaner package overall, and they also seem to have had a consistent roadmap. RH has changed track several times recently. RH, in my experience, is also not as stable or bug-free as SuSE.)
I might also look at Solaris on SPARC for a large server or app. Perhaps even Windows in some cases.
Linux makes excellent sense for some applications. But not for all applications. The same goes for Solaris. Even Windows has its place.
Stuart
Page 3
Stan,
We hear all this proposed regulation on spamming. But how do you think it will effect them [the spammers]? Wouldnt you think they would relocate their operations off shore, where they cant be touched as easily legally?
Just wondering, its not something I have heard discessed yet.
Take care,
Damon Allen
Technology Consultant