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Capital of Nasty Electronic Magazine
Volume II, Issue 36, Year AD MCMXCVII
Monday, September 15th, 1997
ISSN 1482-0471
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"The world today is hungry not only for bread but hungry for love;
hungry to be wanted, to be loved."
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
August 27, 1910 - September 5, 1997
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"Let's not talk about death. I'm going to Rochester in the morning."
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1. Editorial
2. Almost barred on Barf
3. CoN Eireann
4. Privacy on the Internet
5. Diana
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This week's Golden Testicle Web Award goes to
Ian Brady's Homepage
http://www.worldy.com/~brady
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1. Editorial
CoN, according to Slather 1-5,33
Welcome to yet another issue of Capital of Nasty. Changing the zine
to a bi-weekly format has allowed us to keep up with the pace of
what life has been throwing our way. In the mean time CoN has been
reviewed by another e-zine, called e-Slather. They really liked our
Golden Testicles, however they also said a lot of stuff that made no
sense, unless you like rap music. In any case their bottom line was
"thumbs up!" If you want to check it out, you can read the review at
http://members.tripod.com/~hardpack/e-capnasty.html
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And what is your problem today?
This e-mail arrived shortly after issue II.35 of CoN was sent out:
Date sent: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 06:34:49 PDT
To: con@capnasty.org
From: Bronwyn Mitchell
Subject: you pervert
and what do you think I am a man I'm a woman and I think your a
pervert lendro.
your exreader bronzzy
Can someone take a wild guess to what this person is referring? Our
readership is invited to comment.
-------------------------------------------
Macintosh from hell
Date sent: Sun, 31 Aug 97 22:13:25 -0700
To: CoN Editorial
From: Robin Miller
Subject: My oh my!
Hi. Thanx for the mention but you made a horrendous glaring error!
You said:
Mac users shouldn't snear at Win users: where do you think your
Windows interface came from?
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!
Mac pioneered the 'windows' interface (otherwise known as the
graphical and/or WYSIWYG interface) for personal computers in 1984.
Windows (and X windows too, incidentally) was a rip off of that
innovation, allowing DOS (or Linux) users to approximate the
The answer to the rhetorical question demostrates that you are
unsure about the true origins of the GUI. The development at Apple
were the pioneers of stealing the GUI. Apple discovered the GUI when
Steve Jobs and company were present for a demostration in 1979 of a
machine developed in 1973 by Xerox PARC called the Alto.
simplicity and ease of use that the Mac was famous for. Apple even
took Microsoft to court in the early 90's for copying its "look and
feel", a case that was ended in an out of court settlement.
The out of court settlement was over the trash can. The look and
feel case was eventually defeated in the Supreme Court. By the time
Windows was developed, there were a number of platforms boasting
GUIs, including the Amiga, Atari ST, and the Commodore 64 (GEOS).
From the PBS documentary Triumph of the Nerds:
Windows may at first have been a joke compared to the Mac. But Gates
is persistent. Slowly it got better - and the guys at Apple got
worried. As each new feature appeared on the Windows gui, the more
they thought Microsoft was copying the features on the Mac. So
finally they sued Microsoft, accusing them in a long legal battle of
stealing the look and feel of Apple's gui.
John Sculley
The look and feel which is how it looks, the experience of using it
was not patentable but it was copyrightable but there was no
precedent law. This was going to be a precedent setting case.
Bill Gates
But it was a period of five years where, Microsoft er, our whole
strategy would have been ruined because Windows was very important
to us.
Larry Tesler
They weren't going to change anything and ehm they were going to get
us to cave in or take us all the way to the Supreme Court on this
thing.
Bill Gates
We assumed that the lawyers, the judges would all come to the right
conclusion which eventually they did.
John Sculley
And Apple lost. But in that period of about six years that this case
was going on it may have lulled us into a bit of complacency
thinking that we were going to be insulated, you know, from the
Windows attack.
And Windows still just don't beat the original.
Read above, re: Xerox.
Also, all computers are not prone to breaking down, at least not to
the same extent. Windows 95 is a notoriously unstable and unwieldy
system, not to mention a disk space/RAM guzzler. Using Apple's new
system, Mac OS8, my laptop has been running, with frequent use, for
almost a week without a reboot. It's a very stable system.
We can make my Windows '95 machine run for a week without any
problems. Does that make it as good as your Laptop? =)
Don't get us wrong, we are not dissing Macintosh. We did use them,
and we find ourselves more at ease with the problems of Windows =)
Maybe you should post a correction in your next mag... :o)
Great magazine, though.
Thanks ;-)
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To SPAM or not to SPAM
And just for everyone's amusement, if you receive spam, you better
be nice or else. Sanford Wallace, according to the Project McLuhan
On The 'Net, posted this message in which he openly states his fight
against anti-spam groups. For those that don't know him, Mr. Wallace
is one of the biggest and nastiest spammers in the world.
Warning: reading this message might cause high blood pressure.
Date sent: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 14:29:21 -0700
To: you@yourplace.com
From: donot@noreply.com
Subject: One Giant Step For Web Marketers
- *** TIRED OF NET USERS ANNOYING YOU WITH ABUSIVE E-MAIL?****
Let's face it. It's not a crime to advertise through e-mail, but
there are plenty of people out there who want to prevent YOU from
making a legitimate income from the Internet.
Now you no longer have to take spam retaliation lying down.
LastStraw v1.1 is scheduled for release Monday, September 15!
This amazing new application makes it possible to thwart vengeful
users who respond to your marketing message with spam, or even if
they just reply rudely.
LastStraw searches e-mail for words/phrases that you designate
worthy of reprisal. Then, LastStraw fires out it's own depth charge.
You can drown them in spam, or reply with text of your choosing.
After all, turnabout is fair play.
Best Regards,
Sanford Wallace
info@savetrees.com
http://www.savetrees.com
Stamford says: "If you burn down our house, we will build a new
castle...then buy our OWN box of matches."
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2. Almost barred on Barf
While pursuing one of the final credits for my Bachelor of Fine Arts
Degree at a well known Toronto University, I happened to enter a
class dealing with the politics of art, held at one of the most
prominant art galleries in Ontario. As a term project, debates were
assigned. Since my last name is what it is, I was given last pick.
Fortunately or so I thought, I was assigned a rather interesting
subject--that of Jubal Brown, the "barfing art critic."1
In attempt to do reasearch for the debate, I endeavoured to see one
of the paintings Jubal saw as being so banal that it became part one
of his primary colours triology. As you may know, Jubal Brown has
been banned from this gallery. After purchasing my admissions
ticket, I innocently asked for directions to this specific painting.
The gallery attendant was unaware of the painting to which I was
refering. In order to clarify, I nonchallantly said, "Oh, you know,
the one Jubal Brown heaved on."
Immediately the attendant was on the phone to her supervisor,
asking where was the location of the painting.
The attendant then blurted, "Do you know him!?"
"No, why?" I replied bewilderedly.
She then opened a drawer behind the counter and pulled out a
poster of the artist. The caption contained a remark stating that
neither he nor his cohorts were to be let into the gallery, and if
they attempted to purchase tickets they were to be barred.
So thats how I almost got barred on barf.
Anon.
A Statement about Modern Art.
Ontario College of Art student Jubal Brown told the Associated Press
in November that it was he who vomited publicly on two masterpieces
this year and that he plans a third episode. At the Art Gallery of
Ontario in May, he regurgitated red food coloring on a Raoul Dufy
work, and at New York City's Museum of Modern Art on November 2, he
threw up in blue on a Piet Modrian painting. His third work will be
in yellow. His goal, he said, is "to liberate individuals and living
creatures from [art's] banal, oppressive representation."
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3. CoN Eireann: Computers make you brain dead
by Colin Barrett
During three weeks in July, I had the fortune of visiting family in
Ireland (most of whom I've never seen in life). I stayed with my
uncle who, while he's one of the nicest men you could ever meet, he
is rather stubborn in his ways and opinions. He lives in a
neighbourhood in Dublin called Kilbarrack. A tour pamphlet published
by the DART, the city's urban railway, refers to Kilbarrack as an
interesting place with many colourful characters like the ones in
the movie The Commitments which, by the way, was filmed down the
street from my uncle's residence.
Colourful characters indeed.
One afternoon, my uncle, a neighbour of his, Dolores, and myself
are enjoying some tea and good discussion about the weather. My
uncle mentions he received a postcard from another neighbour
spending her vacation in Mallorca. I add that I still have to send
my friends postcards. I also say that I am very poor at writing
letters.
"I'm awful too," my uncle adds, "but Dolores is incredible for
writing a letter."
"I write from time to time." I argue, "But most of my friends do
not appreciate a letter from me as I usually use a computer to help
organise my tho..."
"They make you brain dead," my uncle interrupts.
"How do computers make you brain dead?" I ask. After posing that
question, I feel as if I opened myself to an easy attack. They may
mention spell checkers, grammar checkers, and electronic organisers.
"Well you know those things that scan the products at the
supermarket?" Dolores explains. "They add all the prices, and figure
out discounts and taxes and everything, and the girls don't have to
do one thing." I look confused. I wasn't expecting this, but
nonetheless, I try to show a bit of interest.
"Look, if you go into a shop where they are using calculators," my
uncle adds in a very stern voice, "people in that shop won't be able
to add in their heads... like says that's 2 n' 6, 10 pounds, and so
on. Whereas in a shop where they don't use calculators, people will
be able to add much quicker."
"That's because people tend abuse calculators," I reply.
"It's not abuse. They shouldn't be using them."
"Well, I don't agree with someone is pulling out a calculator to
add five and five. People who use them for such simple arithmetic
are abusing them."
"They're not. They shouldn't have them."
It's time to bring this conversation back home, I think. "What do
calculators and checkout counters have to do with making me brain
dead when I write letters?"
"What letters?" Dolores queries. My uncle is now the one with the
confused look.
"That's how this whole conversation started--with me mentioning
that I use my computer to write letters."
They both forgot in a span of three minutes.
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4. Privacy on the Internet
by Leandro+
The constant arrival of junk via e-mail through my office account is
annoying, and although it bothers me, the only reason I put up with
it is because my other accounts were spam-free. Or so I thought.
After I registered the domain name CAPNASTY.ORG with Internic, my
account in Finland, which is set as my e-mail address in their
database, started to receive the first signs of spam. I'm not
accusing Internic of giving my address to some spam list, however I
do find it a little strange that suddenly my mailboxes (electronic
and non) are filled with junk. Microsoft keeps on sending me
invitations to participate to their seminars, IBM would like to know
all about me, my company, my employees and my need for various
Intranet solutions. Not only all of these have my name on it, but
the words "President" or "CEO" are right after. My office e-mail
account, and now my account in Finland, receive spam of all sorts. I
don't want to receive this stuff, I don't want companies to know
about me, I don't want to find my mailboxes full of garbage.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to give the impression that I am
another Unabomber that wants to break all links with society, and
live in my little hut up in the mountains. It's just that I wish I
had a choice to who I am giving my personal information. The
Internet and the technology behind it are great, but unfortunately
the moment the net reached a level of popularity, and people saw the
potential of a growing market, it suddenly became a place where
people try to sell you stuff and make money. Spam, cookies from
which they learn more about you and know what advertising banners to
place in front of you and so on, requests of personl info just to
see a webpage. What can be done about it?
Don't use your real e-mail address - there are many places on the
internet (http://www.netaddress.com for example) which provide you
with an e-mail account free of charge. Create an account here, and
when writing on Usenet, or you find yourself obbliged to give your
e-mail address to someone, give them that one. Think of it as your
disposable address: once it's soiled, throw it out. Friends can
still reach you at your original address, spam and companies cannot.
Your e-mail is like your address and phone number. You have to be
careful to who give it to.
Stop Spam from filling up your mailbox. Believe it or not, there
are ways to stop 90% of spam from arriving into your mailbox. Here
at Scriba Org, our Administrator Gard, has taken several steps in
preventing garbage to ever enter our mailboxes. According to Scriba
Org system log, the following messages were rejected:
May 1997 : 0
June : 758
July : 6102
August : 1148
Sep 1-7 : 114
How does this system work? First of all the mailserver checks the
name of the sender of the incoming e-mail. As you may have noticed
in much of the spam that you receive, it usually arrives from a
bogus user (ex. 81254@13498.com.) By doing a DNS lookup of the name,
the server is able to determine if the site exist or not. If the
domain name does not resolve (it does not exist), the mail is
refused.
Of course there are domains that have been specifically created
for the whole purpose of sending spam. These domains are banned, and
if the name matches any of those in the ban list, again, the mail is
refused.
Lately spammers however have been using names of other domains
that unfortunately resolve, in an attempt to by-pass filters, which,
as Gard has stated "defintely isn't legal". However, from personal
experience this system works, and it works well, since not one of
our Capnasty Org addresses has ever received a single piece of spam.
Further info can be obtained at the following URL:
http://www.scriba.org/virtual
When surfing the Internet, Cookies collect information about who
you are. If you do a search with the Find command on your computer,
you'll find a directory where all the Cookies are stored. Take a
look and you'll see who's been lurking over your shoulders.
Cookies allow companies to invade your privacy and access your
phone number, credit card number, address, and other sensitive
personal information and preferences. The next time you enter that
website, they will know that you've been there before, what you've
been looking at and perhaps what advertising to throw at you.
To have Internet Explorer warn you before it accepts a Cookie,
click on Options, select Advanced and turn the option on. This way
you can refuse incoming Cookies, although some pages might not allow
you to continue. If you really need to view a page, go to
http://www.luckman.com and get a free "anonymous cookie" which
disables cookies and allows complete privacy.
The moment the Internet became popular to the masses, it ceased
from being a computer network and it became another place for
marketers to shove advertising and gain information about us. There
is no such thing as the word "Private" on the Internet. Even your e-
mails, have you been wondering who else is reading them?
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5. Diana
by The alarmingly uneventful Adventures of Rik
No doubt you have heard the news that princess Diana is dead. This
is a tragedy and I would mourn were it not for the fact that every
TV and radio station has been constantly ramming it down our throats
for the past 8 days. The radio stations are only just getting back
to playing proper music after days of panpipe drivel. If I hear one
more pan pipe song on the radio I will rip out my jugular with a
pair of chopsticks! This was not limited to one station. Every
bloody radio station has played nothing but that shat for days!
Moving onto the TV stations for example: they showed a documentry on
Diana's life. I thought that was quite nice, a televisual tribute to
her. Then was the news were they had a programme involving some
other royals and people talking about her, okay fair enough. Then
was the news going over exactly the same things as half an hour ago.
Then they repeated the documentary/tribute just in case you missed
it earlier. Then the news again. Then the people talking about her
repeated in case you missed that the first time. Then another
discussion thing. This went on all day! The same things over and
over again!
Don't get me wrong its not that I'm glad shes dead or that I'm
having a go at her. I'm having a go at the TV and Radio people. They
just cant stop going on about it. We know she's dead and everyone
will miss her so why cant they grasp this fact instead of always
telling us as if we didn`t know and continue with normal programming
instead of constantly showing documentaries and interviews with
someone that met her once or someone who owned a shop that she went
in once years ago.
Send your comments to: Rik Rich.h@btinternet.com
(A computer game called Paparazi was created shortly after Diana's
death. To read more about it, you can go to this site:
http://www.gamecenter.com/News/Item/0,3,1107,00.html -Ed)
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Who would win this fight? A Rottwieler, or a Rottwieler's weight in
Chihuahuas? Now keep in mind that the Rottwieler is covered in steak
sauce... please send in your vote.