RSS (the meaning of the acronym has changed from RDF Site Summary to Rich Site Summary to Really Simple Syndication) (Wikipedia 1) was created in 1999 by programmers at Netscape Labs. Subsequent to the release of its original version (0.90), RSS development took divergent and confusing paths. On the one hand, Netscape continued to develop RSS technology through version 0.91. On the other, Userland Software, an entirely separate company, simultaneously developed the same technology using different specifications but the same version numbers. For a time, there was chaos. However, Netscape eventually left RSS by the wayside and responsibility for the technology’s maintenance and evolution fell squarely on the shoulders of Userland Software (RSS-Specifications 1). In 2003, shortly after releasing RSS 2.0, Userland Software bequeathed ownership of that version’s specifications to the Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Harvard Law 1).
So what is RSS? Well, it’s an “XML-based format for content distribution” (RSS-Specifications 2). But if you’re here and you’re asking, that probably doesn’t tell you much at all. I’ve always had a favorite analogy for describing RSS. If you’ve ever watched the West Wing, you’ve almost certainly witnessed a scene in which Leo (the Chief of Staff) hands Jed (the President) his morning briefings. Essentially, those briefings synopsized everything important that had happened in the United States government since the morning before. They came from the Deparments of Justice, Defense, and Treasury. They came from the National Security advisor and state and local governments. They came from everywhere, and the number of staffers and officials involved in composing the final briefings was enormous. Consider RSS that staff. If you give it the opportunity. RSS will pair down information from all of your favorite websites into neat little feeds of headlines and summaries.
The way it works is simple. Webmasters provide information in the form of RSS feeds. Consumers then subscribe to those feeds using RSS readers (or, in the lexicon, aggregates), providing them with a streamlined condensations of website content. For those interested in utilizing RSS technology, the first step is obtaining a reader. There are a lot of options, but they all fall into one of two categories. Either they’re client programs which have to be downloaded and installed (e.g. Vienna, Mindity, Netnewsreader), or web-based programs which can be accessed through the websites that host them (e.g. Google Reader, Newsgator Online). Both have their advantages so choosing one is really a matter of preference. If you’re still having trouble deciding, the website Webagon offers a comparison of features for a number of different readers (Webagon 1).
Personally, I’ve been using Netnewsreader to monitor a boat-load of RSS feeds since 2003. Virtually every summer I end up working on a Democratic political campaign, often in a public relations capacity, meaning it’s always been imperative that I be up to date on current events. Prior to the advent of RSS I spent hours sifting through the contents of 10-20 different websites for relevant stories. Nowadays I’ve got a setup in Netnewsreader that provides me with all of the updates I need in an easily accessible format. If I were to offer one caveat to people who are considering using RSS to stay on top of the news, it would be to use primary sources. Subscribe to the AP Wire, or Reuters, or United Press International. One of the problem’s I often ran into subscribing to RSS feeds from sites like Breitbart or Drudge Report or the Huffington Post was that the sites themselves were actually summaries. That meant that I was getting a summary of an article from one of those sites in my RSS aggregator, which linked to that site’s complete summary of another article, which in turn linked to the article itself at AP or the New York Times. Subscribing to primary sources helps cut out that middle man and save time.
RSS is amazing. It’s simple, practical, free, and unreasonably easy to use. Really, there’s no excuse for not having an aggregator configured if you rely on the internet for your news. So hop to it already.
Unknown Author. “Web-application Comparison Engine.” Retrieved from Webagon on April 13, 2008.
http://webagon.com/comparison?filter0=2614&filter1=**ALL**&filter2=**ALL**
Unknown Author. “RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law.” Retrieved from the Berkman Center for Internet Technology on April 13, 2008.
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html
Unknown Author. “History of RSS.” Retrieved from RSS-Specification on April 13, 2008.
http://www.rss-specifications.com/history-rss.htm
Unknown Author. “RSS” Retrieved from Wikipedia on April 13, 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Second Life
According to its creators (the good folks over at Linden Labs), Second life is a fully immersive 3-D virtual world “entirely created by its Residents” (Linden 1). While it is often classified as an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game), Second life is less about users interacting with their environments than it its about allowing users to create their environment. Interaction between users is certainly remains a cornerstone of Second Life, but fighting and direct competition aren’t emphasized, because in spite of having some whimsical elements, Second Life is intended to live up to its name. It’s supposed to simulate an alternative life to the user’s own, and that’s precisely what’s made it so overwhelmingly popular. Since its inception in 2003, Second Life has grown exponentially. As of March 2008, over 13 million accounts have been registered with Linden Labs, and over 38,000 on average log in every day (Wikipedia 1_.
But Second Life has evolved in terms broader than simple numbers. Over the past 5 years, users have constructed a world that simultaneously parallels and deviates from our own. Presently, two countries have government-endorsed and funded embassies in Second Life (Sweden and the Maldives). Reuters has its own news desk to cover happenings in the Second Life universe (ironically, it broke the story about Philip Rosedale, the former CEO of Linden Labs, being fired) (Reuters 1). Harvard offers supplemental instruction in Second Life classrooms. The Second Life economy, based on its currency of Linden Dollars (which can be exchanged for US dollars) and its Lindex stock market average has bloomed into a commercial entity that has proven quite profitable for real estate moguls in SL. At the same time, Second Life is peppered with individual tributes to the world of Star Wars and other fiction (Wikipedia 2).
My own experience in Second Life was a bit overwhelming. I quite literally bumbled my way through Orientation and Help Islands, due in large part to the poor quality of my internet connection. Afterwards I navigated my way to some of the “Hot Spots” recommended by the Second Life website, namely a stunning reproduction of Mayan-era Mexico. I did my best to interact with my fellow Second Life users, but the perpetual lag I experienced made things a bit cumbersome. Nevertheless, it was an enticing experience, and the scope of opportunities and endeavors being undertaken in Second Life was certainly awe-inspiring. So much so that it got me a little worried. I know that personally, there are plenty of occasions when problems in my life come to a head, and there’s a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me to just run away from it all. To escape and start over. I’ve never humored that voice, and thankfully so. The thing about Second Life is that it’s so realistic I could see it tempting me to do so. After all, what’s the point in working my tail off and starving for four years to get my name on a psych diploma when I could be an advertising magnate in Second Life?
That’s not to say I wouldn’t take a class if it were offered on Second Life. I think Second Life could offer a nice compromise between the convenience of online classes (such as this one) and traditional lectures. Though I can imagine myself being constantly tempted to wander off and explore.
Reuters, Adam. Rosedale to Step Down as Linden Lab CEO. Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Reuters—Second Life
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/03/14/exclusive-rosedale-to-step-down-as-linden-lab-ceo/
Unknown Author, Second Life. Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life
Unknown Author. What Is Second Life? Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Linden Laboratories
http://secondlife.com/whatis/
But Second Life has evolved in terms broader than simple numbers. Over the past 5 years, users have constructed a world that simultaneously parallels and deviates from our own. Presently, two countries have government-endorsed and funded embassies in Second Life (Sweden and the Maldives). Reuters has its own news desk to cover happenings in the Second Life universe (ironically, it broke the story about Philip Rosedale, the former CEO of Linden Labs, being fired) (Reuters 1). Harvard offers supplemental instruction in Second Life classrooms. The Second Life economy, based on its currency of Linden Dollars (which can be exchanged for US dollars) and its Lindex stock market average has bloomed into a commercial entity that has proven quite profitable for real estate moguls in SL. At the same time, Second Life is peppered with individual tributes to the world of Star Wars and other fiction (Wikipedia 2).
My own experience in Second Life was a bit overwhelming. I quite literally bumbled my way through Orientation and Help Islands, due in large part to the poor quality of my internet connection. Afterwards I navigated my way to some of the “Hot Spots” recommended by the Second Life website, namely a stunning reproduction of Mayan-era Mexico. I did my best to interact with my fellow Second Life users, but the perpetual lag I experienced made things a bit cumbersome. Nevertheless, it was an enticing experience, and the scope of opportunities and endeavors being undertaken in Second Life was certainly awe-inspiring. So much so that it got me a little worried. I know that personally, there are plenty of occasions when problems in my life come to a head, and there’s a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me to just run away from it all. To escape and start over. I’ve never humored that voice, and thankfully so. The thing about Second Life is that it’s so realistic I could see it tempting me to do so. After all, what’s the point in working my tail off and starving for four years to get my name on a psych diploma when I could be an advertising magnate in Second Life?
That’s not to say I wouldn’t take a class if it were offered on Second Life. I think Second Life could offer a nice compromise between the convenience of online classes (such as this one) and traditional lectures. Though I can imagine myself being constantly tempted to wander off and explore.
Reuters, Adam. Rosedale to Step Down as Linden Lab CEO. Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Reuters—Second Life
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2008/03/14/exclusive-rosedale-to-step-down-as-linden-lab-ceo/
Unknown Author, Second Life. Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life
Unknown Author. What Is Second Life? Retrieved April 6, 2008 from Linden Laboratories
http://secondlife.com/whatis/
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Sorry For "Twittering" My Thumbs on This Assignment. Aha. Aha.
Web 2.0 is a term originally coined by Tim O’Reilly. According to O’Reilly, Web 2.0:
“…is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")” (O’Reilly 1)
Admittedly, that definition requires a little unpacking. The key element of Web 2.0 is the idea of “harnessing collective intelligence. O’Reilly regards Web 2.0 as a movement wherein business attempts to adapt its needs to the unique features of the web. Meaning that it utilizes open architecture and open source programming in making web site content accessible and modifiable by its user base. O’Reilly provides several examples of companies that embody his fundamental tenets of Web 2.0, namely eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, Skype, and dodgeball. (O’Reilly 2)
Twitter is on the forefront of a movement known as “mini-blogging.” Essentially, it allows users to text, IM, or post via the web brief updates concerning events in their everyday lives. Posts are limited to 140 characters–so waxing poetic is difficult–and are generally intended to provide practical information about the user’s status (e.g. “at the bank and then getting dry cleaning” or “econ until 12:30, lunch at Einstein’s after”). While the vast majority of Twitter blogs are self-run, there are a number of exceptions when it comes to celebrities and, more recently, political candidates.
Twitter has garnered a great deal of criticism for its simplicity; many see it as nothing more than a way for young adults to humor delusions of grandeur, narcissism, and popularity. Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine, however, feels differently. He argues that, if anything, Twitter is a collectivist service, which allows friends and family and coworkers to stay that much more connected. By monitoring Twitter updates, one can know who’s overstressed and best to avoid and who’s “on a roll.” Twitter, Thompson claims, only seems ridiculous on the surface, when reading single entries from random blogs. Once people begin to actually use it, so they inevitably begin to appreciate the added dimension of social awareness that it provides (Thompson 1).
Conceptual criticism aside, Twitter has suffered from a number of technical problems since its inception. First and foremost, Twitter has begun to develop a reputation for being unreliable. In 2007, the service boasted an uptime rate of only 98%, meaning that it was down for almost six days over the course of the year. While this might not sound like much, Twitter’s users have voiced considerable outrage on the matter, proving that many people have come to truly rely on the service for social-connectedness (Caverly 1). Another concern with Twitter is security. Courtesy of SMS spoofing services offered online, which allow users to send text messages “from” the number of their choice, individuals can effectively update the Twitter account of anyone whose phone number they know (Dhanjani 1). This is how many individuals are able to simultaneously update the same Twitter blog for a celebrity or political candidate.
In spite of its flaws, millions of users remain enamored with Twitter. After all, it’s a free service with absolutely no advertising. Moreover, security concerns are relatively minor: there’s just not that much damage that can be done by hijacking someone’s Twitter account. Since going public, Twitter has seen the rise of over one hundred competing services, many of which offer more advanced features. Nevertheless, Twitter remains the masthead of mini-blogging.
For those interested, I created a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/daelphium) under the name daelphium. I don’t really know how I feel about the whole thing, I get the feeling I’m far too private to make full use of Twitter. Plus I don’t really know anyone who uses the service, or at least if I do, I have yet to locate any of them. Still, it’s new, and it’s pretty, so we’ll see.
O’Reilly, Tim. What Is Web 2.0? Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
O’Reilly, Tim. Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/web-20-compact-definition-tryi.html
Caverly, Doug. Twitter Downtime Revealed, Ridiculed. Retrieved March, 1 2008 from WebProNews.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/12/20/twitter-downtime-revealed-ridiculed
Dhanjani, Nitesh. Twitter and Jott Vulnerable to SMS and Caller ID Spoofing. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from his personal blog.
http://www.dhanjani.com/archives/2007/04/twitter_and_jott_vulnerable_to.html
Thompson, Clive. How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from Wired Online
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson
“…is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. (This is what I've elsewhere called "harnessing collective intelligence.")” (O’Reilly 1)
Admittedly, that definition requires a little unpacking. The key element of Web 2.0 is the idea of “harnessing collective intelligence. O’Reilly regards Web 2.0 as a movement wherein business attempts to adapt its needs to the unique features of the web. Meaning that it utilizes open architecture and open source programming in making web site content accessible and modifiable by its user base. O’Reilly provides several examples of companies that embody his fundamental tenets of Web 2.0, namely eBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, Skype, and dodgeball. (O’Reilly 2)
Twitter is on the forefront of a movement known as “mini-blogging.” Essentially, it allows users to text, IM, or post via the web brief updates concerning events in their everyday lives. Posts are limited to 140 characters–so waxing poetic is difficult–and are generally intended to provide practical information about the user’s status (e.g. “at the bank and then getting dry cleaning” or “econ until 12:30, lunch at Einstein’s after”). While the vast majority of Twitter blogs are self-run, there are a number of exceptions when it comes to celebrities and, more recently, political candidates.
Twitter has garnered a great deal of criticism for its simplicity; many see it as nothing more than a way for young adults to humor delusions of grandeur, narcissism, and popularity. Clive Thompson of Wired Magazine, however, feels differently. He argues that, if anything, Twitter is a collectivist service, which allows friends and family and coworkers to stay that much more connected. By monitoring Twitter updates, one can know who’s overstressed and best to avoid and who’s “on a roll.” Twitter, Thompson claims, only seems ridiculous on the surface, when reading single entries from random blogs. Once people begin to actually use it, so they inevitably begin to appreciate the added dimension of social awareness that it provides (Thompson 1).
Conceptual criticism aside, Twitter has suffered from a number of technical problems since its inception. First and foremost, Twitter has begun to develop a reputation for being unreliable. In 2007, the service boasted an uptime rate of only 98%, meaning that it was down for almost six days over the course of the year. While this might not sound like much, Twitter’s users have voiced considerable outrage on the matter, proving that many people have come to truly rely on the service for social-connectedness (Caverly 1). Another concern with Twitter is security. Courtesy of SMS spoofing services offered online, which allow users to send text messages “from” the number of their choice, individuals can effectively update the Twitter account of anyone whose phone number they know (Dhanjani 1). This is how many individuals are able to simultaneously update the same Twitter blog for a celebrity or political candidate.
In spite of its flaws, millions of users remain enamored with Twitter. After all, it’s a free service with absolutely no advertising. Moreover, security concerns are relatively minor: there’s just not that much damage that can be done by hijacking someone’s Twitter account. Since going public, Twitter has seen the rise of over one hundred competing services, many of which offer more advanced features. Nevertheless, Twitter remains the masthead of mini-blogging.
For those interested, I created a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/daelphium) under the name daelphium. I don’t really know how I feel about the whole thing, I get the feeling I’m far too private to make full use of Twitter. Plus I don’t really know anyone who uses the service, or at least if I do, I have yet to locate any of them. Still, it’s new, and it’s pretty, so we’ll see.
O’Reilly, Tim. What Is Web 2.0? Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
O’Reilly, Tim. Web 2.0 Compact Definition: Trying Again. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from O’Reilly Net.
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/12/web-20-compact-definition-tryi.html
Caverly, Doug. Twitter Downtime Revealed, Ridiculed. Retrieved March, 1 2008 from WebProNews.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/12/20/twitter-downtime-revealed-ridiculed
Dhanjani, Nitesh. Twitter and Jott Vulnerable to SMS and Caller ID Spoofing. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from his personal blog.
http://www.dhanjani.com/archives/2007/04/twitter_and_jott_vulnerable_to.html
Thompson, Clive. How Twitter Creates a Social Sixth Sense. Retrieved March 1, 2008 from Wired Online
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Usenet!
I ran across a discussion in a newsgroup concerning an incident involving a woman in Louisiana who was brutally beaten by a police officer during a DUI stop. It ended up evolving into a discussion about the characteristics of fascist regimes, and whether the story in question was something of a bellwether for things to come in the realm of human rights violations in this country, especially considering the Bush administration’s unabashed hostility toward certain constitutional rights (read: the Patriot Act’s infringement on privacy rights, as well as controversies concerning torture).
I used to spend late nights browsing the Usenet back in middle school and early in my high school career, but until tonight I hadn’t been on it in years. Like most Usenet users, I came to loathe so-called “trolls.” According to the Straight Dope, Trolls are individuals who bait other users by posting highly controversial and often pointlessly offensive material in the hopes of evoking a heated response. Obviously, the term is a pretty direct reference to the act of fishing, as in fishing for a response. True trolls earn their keep by intentionally misleading others, detracting from the overall health of discussion boards. There are two schools of thought in regards to how people should deal with internet trolls. The first is to simply ignore them. The second is to contradict any false information the troll provides in such a way as to provide little–if any–fuel to his/her fire. Both can be effective, depending on the troll (Straight Dope 1).
As far as the role that Usenet will play in further development of the online community, I think things will remain pretty much status quo. If only because, save the development of access systems like Google Groups, things haven’t changed that much on Usenet since I stopped logging on several years ago. Nevertheless, I’d love to get back into the swing of things in the Usenet community. But I know the kind of time sinkhole that it can be, so I’d have to be careful.
Adams, Cecil. What Is a Troll? Retrieved February 21, 2008 from StraightDope.com.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtroll.html
I used to spend late nights browsing the Usenet back in middle school and early in my high school career, but until tonight I hadn’t been on it in years. Like most Usenet users, I came to loathe so-called “trolls.” According to the Straight Dope, Trolls are individuals who bait other users by posting highly controversial and often pointlessly offensive material in the hopes of evoking a heated response. Obviously, the term is a pretty direct reference to the act of fishing, as in fishing for a response. True trolls earn their keep by intentionally misleading others, detracting from the overall health of discussion boards. There are two schools of thought in regards to how people should deal with internet trolls. The first is to simply ignore them. The second is to contradict any false information the troll provides in such a way as to provide little–if any–fuel to his/her fire. Both can be effective, depending on the troll (Straight Dope 1).
As far as the role that Usenet will play in further development of the online community, I think things will remain pretty much status quo. If only because, save the development of access systems like Google Groups, things haven’t changed that much on Usenet since I stopped logging on several years ago. Nevertheless, I’d love to get back into the swing of things in the Usenet community. But I know the kind of time sinkhole that it can be, so I’d have to be careful.
Adams, Cecil. What Is a Troll? Retrieved February 21, 2008 from StraightDope.com.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtroll.html
Sunday, February 10, 2008
For Lack of a Clever Title: Internet Hoaxes
Any techno savvy individual is likely confounded by virus hoaxes and their ability to proliferate amongst internet users at such astounding rates. The vast majority of hoaxes are completely implausible and seem relatively harmless. Snopes.com provides a fairly definitive database of common hoax e-mails, even ranking them in terms of distribution or “popularity.” Among the most popular hoaxes circulating at the moment are rumors of Barack Obama’s radical Islamism (allegedly, he was sworn into office on the Qu’ran and belongs to a church that specifically excludes non-black membership), a warning that entering one’s PIN into an ATM backwards will issue a call to the local police, and a caveat against Starbucks (apparently they refused to send free coffee to G.I.’s in Iraq) (Snopes 1).
While a pretty clear-cut violation of the Boulder Pledge (Ebert 1), for the most part it appears virus hoaxes are toothless. Sure, they take up space. Sure, they end up getting recycled to the point of being infuriating. But if there’s anything genuinely frustrating about virus hoaxes it’s that people are actually craven and stupid enough to bother forwarding them. Beyond that, they’re little more than an annoyance.
Or at least, they were. However, over the past couple years, a trend has begun to form wherein hackers actually turn hoaxes into reality. The jdbgmgr.exe hoax is a prime example. In April of 2002, an e-mail instructing recipients to locate and delete a file titled “jdbgmgr.exe” began to propagate rapidly across the internet. Jdbgmgr.exe is, in actuality, Windows’ very own Java Debugger Manager, and is present on all Windows machines. While not necessarily integral to that OS’s proper functioning, jdbgmgr.exe certainly does not need to be deleted. Over the proceeding months, the hoax’s circulation numbers became astronomical. Fortunately, its actual effects in terms of inconveniencing users were negligible. That is, until a programmer decided to exploit public knowledge of the e-mail to distribute an actual virus. Like the hoax, it instructed users to search out the jdbgmgr executable. But instead of deleting it, the e-mail informed users that the file was vital to certain system operations, and instructed them to instead inspect its properties. If it appeared with a grey teddy bear icon (as it normally should) the e-mail instructed users to replace the file with an attachment to the e-mail, thus infecting their computers. Known as the Recory worm, this virus inflicted inestimable damages to thousands of users (Hoaxbusters 1).
It’s imperative that internet users become more aware of these sorts of issues. Spam and hoaxes may not seem particularly insidious, but they have a way of transmuting if ignored and allowed to fester, as exemplified by the jdbgmgr.exe fiasco.
Ebert, Roger. The Boulder Pledge. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder_Pledge
Unkown Author. 25 Hottest Internet Legends. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from Snopes.com
http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp
Unknown Author. CIAC Malicious Code Hoax Warnings. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from the Computer Incident Advisory Capability Home Page
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBMalCode.shtml
While a pretty clear-cut violation of the Boulder Pledge (Ebert 1), for the most part it appears virus hoaxes are toothless. Sure, they take up space. Sure, they end up getting recycled to the point of being infuriating. But if there’s anything genuinely frustrating about virus hoaxes it’s that people are actually craven and stupid enough to bother forwarding them. Beyond that, they’re little more than an annoyance.
Or at least, they were. However, over the past couple years, a trend has begun to form wherein hackers actually turn hoaxes into reality. The jdbgmgr.exe hoax is a prime example. In April of 2002, an e-mail instructing recipients to locate and delete a file titled “jdbgmgr.exe” began to propagate rapidly across the internet. Jdbgmgr.exe is, in actuality, Windows’ very own Java Debugger Manager, and is present on all Windows machines. While not necessarily integral to that OS’s proper functioning, jdbgmgr.exe certainly does not need to be deleted. Over the proceeding months, the hoax’s circulation numbers became astronomical. Fortunately, its actual effects in terms of inconveniencing users were negligible. That is, until a programmer decided to exploit public knowledge of the e-mail to distribute an actual virus. Like the hoax, it instructed users to search out the jdbgmgr executable. But instead of deleting it, the e-mail informed users that the file was vital to certain system operations, and instructed them to instead inspect its properties. If it appeared with a grey teddy bear icon (as it normally should) the e-mail instructed users to replace the file with an attachment to the e-mail, thus infecting their computers. Known as the Recory worm, this virus inflicted inestimable damages to thousands of users (Hoaxbusters 1).
It’s imperative that internet users become more aware of these sorts of issues. Spam and hoaxes may not seem particularly insidious, but they have a way of transmuting if ignored and allowed to fester, as exemplified by the jdbgmgr.exe fiasco.
Ebert, Roger. The Boulder Pledge. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder_Pledge
Unkown Author. 25 Hottest Internet Legends. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from Snopes.com
http://www.snopes.com/info/top25uls.asp
Unknown Author. CIAC Malicious Code Hoax Warnings. Retrieved February 10, 2008 from the Computer Incident Advisory Capability Home Page
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBMalCode.shtml
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Spam, Spam, Lovely Spam!
There is absolutely nothing interesting about Spam. As the name implies, it’s completely bereft of any nutritious (read: substantive) value. In a strictly definitional sense, Spam is “flooding the internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise want to receive it.” Most people are well-acquainted with Spam in the form of e-mails advertising prescription medications, penis enlargement, and a whole litany of products whose legitimacy is, at best, questionable. Without exception, Spam is pretty vapid stuff. In fact, the most interesting aspect of Spam is probably the term’s etymological history.
It’s frequently assumed that people began referring to mass-distributed junk e-mails as Spam as a simple homage to the Hormel lunchmeat, the intimation being that you essentially get nothing of value from either. Brad Templeton of ClariNet.org begs to differ. According to his detailed history of the origin of “Spam” in the internet vernacular, the term is in fact a nod to a Monty Python sketch involving several Vikings singing about Spam (really they just repeat the word over and over) until they’re told to desist. Such an explanation makes a lot of sense: both the song and internet Spam are obnoxiously repetitious.
Templeton also gives in interesting and seemingly accurate account of the communities and incidents that made Spam a household colloquialism. Spam was originally coined amongst so-called “MUDders” (users of multi-user dungeon programs, essentially early incarnations of programs like Second Life) who used it to describe a) flooding servers with data or b) bothering others by typing nonsense into a chat.
Of course, MUDders didn’t comprise a sizable portion of the general populace, and it took the actions of two lawyers and a rogue programmer to establish “Spam” as a staple of the American lexicon. According to Wikipedia, a husband-and-wife team of lawyers–Lawrence Canter and Martha Siegel–won their place in history as the first commercial Usenet spammers when they contracted a programmer to write a Perl script which distributed an advertisement for their services in an upcoming “Green card lottery” to upwards of 6,000 Usenet discussion groups. During the subsequent outcry from users, the advertisement was commonly referred to as “Spam,” and the term has continued to proliferate ever since.
Works Cited
Templeton, Brad. Origin of the Term “Spam” to Mean Net Abuse. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from the Brad Templeton Home Page.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html
Unknown Author. Canter & Siegel. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canter_&_Siegel
Mueller, S.H. Information About Spam. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from
http://spam.abuse.net
It’s frequently assumed that people began referring to mass-distributed junk e-mails as Spam as a simple homage to the Hormel lunchmeat, the intimation being that you essentially get nothing of value from either. Brad Templeton of ClariNet.org begs to differ. According to his detailed history of the origin of “Spam” in the internet vernacular, the term is in fact a nod to a Monty Python sketch involving several Vikings singing about Spam (really they just repeat the word over and over) until they’re told to desist. Such an explanation makes a lot of sense: both the song and internet Spam are obnoxiously repetitious.
Templeton also gives in interesting and seemingly accurate account of the communities and incidents that made Spam a household colloquialism. Spam was originally coined amongst so-called “MUDders” (users of multi-user dungeon programs, essentially early incarnations of programs like Second Life) who used it to describe a) flooding servers with data or b) bothering others by typing nonsense into a chat.
Of course, MUDders didn’t comprise a sizable portion of the general populace, and it took the actions of two lawyers and a rogue programmer to establish “Spam” as a staple of the American lexicon. According to Wikipedia, a husband-and-wife team of lawyers–Lawrence Canter and Martha Siegel–won their place in history as the first commercial Usenet spammers when they contracted a programmer to write a Perl script which distributed an advertisement for their services in an upcoming “Green card lottery” to upwards of 6,000 Usenet discussion groups. During the subsequent outcry from users, the advertisement was commonly referred to as “Spam,” and the term has continued to proliferate ever since.
Works Cited
Templeton, Brad. Origin of the Term “Spam” to Mean Net Abuse. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from the Brad Templeton Home Page.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html
Unknown Author. Canter & Siegel. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canter_&_Siegel
Mueller, S.H. Information About Spam. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from
http://spam.abuse.net
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