# From the Annals of Improbable Research
Having long been genuine admirers of the United States Postal Service (USPS), which gives amazingly reliable service especially compared with many other countries, our team of investigators decided to test the delivery limits of this immense system. We knew that an item, say, a saucepan, normally would be in a package because of USPS concerns of entanglement in their automated machinery. But what if the item were not wrapped? How patient are postal employees? How honest? How sentimental? In short, how eccentric a behavior on the part of the sender would still result in successful mail delivery?
[Add a comment]

#$20,000
According to an email I've just received from a nice man called Dave, that's how much money I could be making by sending out spam. For only $19.95 plus p+p, he'll tell me all about it.

On the other hand, if you live in the US, sending out spam can get you heavily fined or even jailed. If I can get enough evidence on a certain Knoxville resident that's exactly what will happen.
[Add a comment]

# Starting to get a bit of a profile of "my" spammer. He's using a CoreComm dial-up account (not AOL as I said before), usually dialing into a subnet in Knoxville (presumably because that's where it is). So far he's mailed out spam for Tax dodging, Viagra, a porn website and a "totally legitimate" way to make $10,000 a month. I reckon he's behind all of these "enterprises" in some way or another.

He sends out his spam in the late afternoon and through the night (his time), presumably when he gets in from work. While I've received a lot of bounces messages, I've not yet received any fuck-off-and-die mails despite the latest spam saying To be REMOVED from this list simply reply with REMOVE as the subject. And you will NEVER receive another email from me. This seems to suggest that everybody recognises a forged address when they see one or that people are simply inured to spam. Hopefully, as the eager response to his quality adverts doesn't materialise, he'll just pack it in as a bad job.
[Add a comment]

# I spoke too soon. More spam claiming to originate from jezuk.demon.co.uk, this time advertising Viagra, directing you to a website which says "Temporarily Unavailable".

What is the point?
[Add a comment]

# It looks like the spamming incident is over, I haven't received any bounced mail since this morning.

Whether it's stopped because Demon or AOL stepped in, or simply because the spammer got fed up or started using another victim's domain name, I don't know. I'm just pleased it's finished without having been mailbombed or having my website pulled down.
[Add a comment]

#If you are receiving spam apparently from jezuk.demon.co.uk, it did not come from me.
Yesterday afternoon I got some email bounced back to me. Nothing so odd about that - happens to everybody now and again. Except that it was mail I didn't send.

Some spam-merchant was sending out emails apparently coming from my machine. I've no idea why someone would chose my hostname, or indeed any real hostname to forge their spam from. All the mails have a fake user (the bit to the left of the @), so if you don't want the replies why not just make up the bit to the right of the @ too?

Legally No More Filing Taxes!!!

 You Can LEGALLY, LAWFULLY, & ETHICALLY NEVER FILE A 1040
  tax return again. Are you OPEN to that? Learn more before you make up
  your own mind to not live under the fear of the IRS or Revenue Canada ( for Canadians)

   Call 1-618-355-1165

If you ring that number you get a labyrinthine message (ring another number, listen to the message, call back and so on and so on) which no doubt eventually ends up leaving you nothing but a large phone bill.

I notified Demon, and as the message appears to come from an AOL account I let AOL's abuse department know too. I didn't know what else I could do, so I comforted myself that at least it wasn't porn and if they were on AOL they were probably on a modem so there was only so much mail they could squeeze down the phone.

But that all went out the window this morning. As the spam went on, I was getting bounced copies with a little disclaimer on the bottom insisting that it wasn't spam (err, yes it is) and email address to respond to. Later still the disclaimer is there (just reply to removed from our list) but the email address isn't. Then the porn adverts started.

ADULT WEBSITE

 The Hottest adult site on the net come on in and check it out

  for yourself click on http://www.imwebhosting.com/sites/R89500/

If you follow that link, you finish up at http://www.eroticmidnight.com/. WHOIS tells us that domain is registered to JIS Communications, Inc. I rang their number. It's been disconnected - why am I not surprised?

So far I've received something over a hundred bounces, which will only be a tiny fraction of the number sent, and I've no idea how long it will go on for. I just want it to stop.
[Add a comment]

# Have you ever lusted after a Bang & Olufsen system but never been able to afford one? Well, download the BeoPlayer and enjoy the wackiness that is the B&O user experience on your PC. It's pretty baffling to begin with, but it's fabulously cool too.
[Add a comment]

# Here's a top bit of geek humour.
[Add a comment]

# Tired and unmotivated this morning - which is partially my fault and partially not. The tired bit comes from going to bed at around 1ish after Marilyn Manson's NEC gig and getting up at 5 to drive down to Luton for a day at (my soon to be ex-)work. Unmotivated comes from my increasing conviction that the work I've been doing for the last year is just going to wither once I've left.
[Add a comment]

#Stealing Roy

When a pretty, young Hollywood call girl arrives at the apartment of her latest john, a sleazy art dealer, she's impressed by a big Roy Lichtenstein painting hanging on the wall. She then calls her driver and plots to steal it. In this comedy of bad manners, the question is: Who is real, and what is hype?

Another keen little film, although if I ever got the chance to steal a Lichtenstein I'd smash that bastard to bits.
[Add a comment]

# Being "let go" is something you get used to when you're a contractor. Usually your contract simply isn't renewed, rather than being actively roughed up and slung out of the building, and the reason is simply that you did all the work they had.

As I went into work on Monday, I knew my contract had just been extended by another three months. As I drove home, I was out of a job at the end of the month. Confused? I was.

Mike, the bossman, had just flown back from the big Berlitz international directors gab-fest in Atlanta. About this time every year, all the big smells from all the offices round the world get together somewhere and discuss the future direction of the company. Obviously that's code for "plot and scheme to make your own office look good and everyone else's look bad". While all present were agreed that the work we'd been doing was really good, they really didn't like spending the money on it, so I had to go.

(Getting rid of the only programmer on a software project seems slightly foolish to me, but what do I know? I'm not a director of a multi-national company, am I?)

Sacked by the board of directors - I still don't know whether to be annoyed or flattered.
[Add a comment]

#Is This The Stupidist Person In The Britain?
Stuart Wheeler is a man who has far more money than sense. He's donated £1million to the Conservative Party, with another £4million to follow before the election. Why?

I do want to see the Conservatives win the next election because I thing that would be far better for the country largely, though not entirely, because I think William Hague will be a very much better prime minister than Tony Blair.

Is there really anyone in the country who thinks William Hague would make a viable Prime Minister? He doesn't seem to have any kind of political direction - he and his party wave around like a reed in the wind. He can deliver a joke, but only when it's been written down for him, which suggests he can't really think on his feet. When he speaks, he doesn't sound like he believes what he says, or even that he's thought about it a great deal. What's his form? What does he think? What would his government do? If he knows, then he's not saying.

But Mr Wheeler's convinced to the tune of five million quid. Either he knows something the rest of us don't or the business nouse that built a business worth £253million has obviously abandoned him.

[Add a comment]

#He's got a fake foot!
He must have! Wrestling's not real!

CtodaJ [e] [w] said high school/college wrestling is real. brazlian jujitsu is real [added 5th Jun 2005]

Depends on what you mean by 'real'.

Here's the picture. It shows Sid Vicious of WCW breaking his leg during a match. You can see the pretty hideous wrong angle his shin. Now obviously professional wrestling isn't "real" in the sense that it's a genuine competition - it's a work. But sometime's it's a shoot :)

[added 6th Jun 2005]

Mariano [e] said hello..men..I ask you a question..in youtube.com I see enough of this shit, and I feel..sorry..when I wacht..this..in that case..amputation..of the leg..I see is happend to not in Wcw..also in kick boxing..?..and what ? why happend..?..thing like that..Mccallum leg..to..I tell you what..here is the page web and prepare..to wacht this shit..pain.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_GhxBZ271g&mode=related&search=

ok copy and see all..I want your best answer..because I practice karate and Aikido and never..loock this..Im tall..and strong..6 years...in a gym...you now..ok give me the..solution how I care for this that kick..when you see it..the videos..that kick..in kickboxing..is not a full strike..I think or what ever, for example bruce lee..he never broke his leg..in a fight..and he doesn¨t--are a big guy never use that kick in his movies?..please ..teach me?..because tome is important..to learn and for tell to my student..thank you..I mean seriuos problem in a real figth. ok bye from Argentina..Mariano [added 7th Oct 2007]

[Add a comment]

#Stop! Go!
Perhaps I was a little hasty in dismissing streaming video. Covert Operatives is 13 hilarious minutes of full-on stop-motion gunplay GI Joe action.
[Add a comment]

#Faster, Internet! Kill! Kill!
For the past few days I've been discovering a whole new world of possibilities at my fingertips. You probably don't know what I'm talking about - that was marketing-talk for had a cable modem installed last Thursday

A cable modem hooks onto your cable telly wire and gives you high-speed, always on internet access. High-speed means 10 to 15 times the speed of a conventional modem. Always on means exactly that - it's a permanent connection, so no waiting for the modem to dial-up, no engaged tone, no line-drops.

So what have I discovered? Well, it is much, much faster, although that you don't see a universal speed increase. Small websites load quickly anyway, and some websites can't deliver as quickly as I can now receive (yes, you Barclays Internet Banking). You really see the difference on large files - I installed a 50Mb service pack on one of my machines in the time it takes to make coffee, rather than the time it takes to go to bed, sleep all night, get have a bath and eat breakfast. Streaming video is a reality too, except that most of the video clips I've found arn't very good, or are very short (presumably so they fit down a conventional modem). Streaming audio (aka internet radio) is much better - you listen to good quality sound without buffering drop-outs or worrying about the cost.

I last played Quake online three or four years ago. I was on the end of a 28K modem and got fragged to bits by a load of Dutch guys with quick connections. It was fun, while being no fun at all. I'll be having another go now.

Is it worth the 33 quid a month it costs? I work at home and use the web throughout the day, and I think it is. Otherwise, unless you're a real hardcore gamer, it probably isn't.
[Add a comment]

# Does this make any sense at all?
[Add a comment]

#Radio Zombie
All Rob Zombie! All the time!
[Add a comment]

#Happy New Year

[Add a comment]