Box of Meat

Slate: What's "Port 25," and what does it have to do with e-mail spam?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:40:44 -0600

Slate: What's "Port 25," and what does it have to do with e-mail spam?

Seth's Blog: The statesman, the lawyer and the marketer

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:46:03 -0600

Seth's Blog: The statesman, the lawyer and the marketer:

Is a marketer’s job always to promote their product, no matter how much damage it does to society?

“This attitude leads to spam (hey, it’s not against the law and it helps my client) and to dicey product claims and to awful side effects like obesity, shoddy products and massive debt. If your job is to represent a product and ensure its short-term sales, that’s exactly what you’re sworn to do.

…What happens when marketers stop arguing on behalf of their corporate or organizational client and start arguing on behalf of the customer instead? What happens when marketers become statesmen?”

Comments

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:00:00 -0600

I’m working with the staff at Intense Debate to get their blog comment system integrated into Box of Meat. Right now, the “Comments” link doesn’t work — but that’s a known problem, and once it’s fixed I’ll delete this posting. Whee.

— your non-anonoymous pal J.D.

Intellectual Intercourse: ESPC: Simplicity is so complicated

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:58:29 -0600

Intellectual Intercourse: ESPC: Simplicity is so complicated:

Trevor Hughes of the ESPC is earning his lobbying paycheck by insisting that the new CAN-SPAM rules are bad because they make it too easy to unsubscribe.

It’s a shame there’s no money in lobbying for the recipient.

Washington Post Security Fix: Amazon: Hey Spammers, Get Off My Cloud!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:06:41 -0600

Washington Post Security Fix: Amazon: Hey Spammers, Get Off My Cloud!:

Amazon’s EC2 is a new favorite with spammers, who enjoy the computing power and anonymity.

Question: why is Amazon allowing outbound SMTP connections from the cloud in the first place?

Washington Post Security Fix: Forty Percent of Web Users Surf With Unsafe Browsers

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:43:06 -0600

Washington Post Security Fix: Forty Percent of Web Users Surf With Unsafe Browsers: “…researchers from Google, IBM and the Communication Systems Group in Switzerland…found that of the 1.4 billion Internet users worldwide at the end of March 2008, 576 million surfed with outdated versions of Web browsers.”

Marian Bantjes: spam one“This drawing was made for the...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:19:37 -0600

Marian Bantjes: spam one

“This drawing was made for the centerfold of the Vancouver Review, and is created verbatim from a spam email (you know the kind).”

(via metafilter, which has some interesting comments)

Return Path: MAAWG's Latest Documents Improve Accuracy of Reputation Systems

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:55:00 -0600

Return Path: MAAWG's Latest Documents Improve Accuracy of Reputation Systems: J.D. explains what MAAWG’s freshly documented best common practices actually mean for email

ZDnet: ICANN and IANA’s domains hijacked by Turkish hacking group

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:27:00 -0600

ZDnet: ICANN and IANA’s domains hijacked by Turkish hacking group:

“The official domains of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority were hijacked earlier today…”

David Cawley explains how this attack could used for bad email, too.

Freakonomics (New York Times): Why Do You Lie? The Perils of Self-Reporting

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:08:45 -0600

Freakonomics (New York Times): Why Do You Lie? The Perils of Self-Reporting: “Not only does it deliver a surprising insight into why we lie, but it is also a sobering reminder to naturally distrust self-reported data…”

PC World: Woman Gets Two Years for Aiding Nigerian Internet Check Scam

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:56:56 -0600

PC World: Woman Gets Two Years for Aiding Nigerian Internet Check Scam: “Edna Fiedler pleaded guilty in March to attempting to defraud U.S. citizens in a scheme known as a Nigerian check scam.”

The Email Wars: Please Remove Me From Your List

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:03:10 -0600

The Email Wars: Please Remove Me From Your List

PC World: Antispam Group Outlines Defenses to Block Botnet Spam

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:58:33 -0600

PC World: Antispam Group Outlines Defenses to Block Botnet Spam: Jeremy Kirk talks to Richard Cox of Spamhaus about MAAWG’s latest best practices documents

A VC: Losing A Phone - A Social Media Security Breach?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:54:41 -0600

A VC: Losing A Phone - A Social Media Security Breach?: Fred Wilson muses about (in effect) his habit of saving security credentials on an insecure device

SC Magazine US: Szirbi botnet causes spam to triple in a week

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:23:56 -0600

SC Magazine US: Szirbi botnet causes spam to triple in a week

Washington Post: Former Customers Off Limits To Verizon

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:38:12 -0600

Washington Post: Former Customers Off Limits To Verizon:

“Verizon had been using its proprietary data to contact former customers and try to persuade them to give the company another try. But a majority of members of the Federal Communications Commission yesterday said such practices are illegal and infringe a consumer’s privacy.”

This may (and probably should) apply to other companies which collect data about customers.

(via consumerist)

TheSpoof.com: Prime Minister presents first annual Spam Awards

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:22:58 -0600

TheSpoof.com: Prime Minister presents first annual Spam Awards: congratulations to winner James W. Anker!

ClickZ: Get the "And" Out!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:57:21 -0600

ClickZ: Get the "And" Out!:

that complex privacy policy that nobody reads might satisfy the legal requirements for notice, but not the human requirements for making an informed choice.

guess which one affects deliverability?

Deliverability.com: When email marketers and blacklists meet

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:17:37 -0600

Deliverability.com: When email marketers and blacklists meet:

J.D.’s comment on deliverability.com describes why “double opt-in” is the wrong term, and why that makes some people angry.

(whether those people are sane or not is a different discussion)

New York Times Digital Domain: In the E-Mail Relay, Not Every Handoff Is Smooth - NYTimes.com

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:10:00 -0600

New York Times Digital Domain: In the E-Mail Relay, Not Every Handoff Is Smooth - NYTimes.com:

an interesting review of the reliability of message delivery throughout history, with a surprisingly accurate depiction of how email works

(via deliverability.com)