I’m not linking to it, because that would be tantamount to signing it, but Adam Kalsey has posted a manifesto regarding blog-comment spam at http://kalsey.com/2003/11/comment_spam_manifesto/. He seems to overestimate the power of bloggers, or maybe I’m overestimating the power of postmasters and large corporations. I believe ISPs are doing as much as they’re going to do to control ill-behaved clients, and that there will continue to be more open relays and proxies created (in some cases using worms) than can be shut down by any group of right-thinking geeks.
There’s also the issue that there are some relatively clever people on the dark side, helping propagate spam. I’d love to be wrong on this, but Mr Kalsey’s bluster just looks like an invitation to be taken out of the game, as happened to relays.osirusoft.com, which used to provide extremely valuable spam-fighting information, and has now been DoS-attacked off the net. Best of luck to us all.
And lest anybody think I know nothing of what I’m talking about, fighting spam takes up a substantial portion of my work day. I know the patterns of delivery; I’ve just recently gained an appreciation for the vast number of outfits benefiting from it; and I know better than most just exactly how hard it is to stop a determined spammer, even with the legal resources of a large corporation and some fairly smart people on my side. Fortunately, a surprisingly small percentage of spammers are truly determined. Unfortunately, that percentage will inevitably rise as blocking tools get more sophisticated.

The esteemed Harald Seiwert confirms that his piece "Chicken" (as previously linked in FP) is Photoshop-assisted. As he points out, Photoshop would have been necessary to get the colors matched, even if he did have time to play with extreme depth of field (which he doesn’t, what with his book deadlines hard upon him—keep your eyes open next year).

Ooh, take a look at the new Prius– it’s got back seats and covered storage in back. The storage demonstration reminds me of a Flash game. It also has a DVD based mapping gizmo, but you have to pay extra for updates.

In the name of equal time, here’s the Insight.

Where are you on the political compass (actually, the political graph)? I’m at (-6.0,-4.82), in the neighborhood of Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, though I think I’m farther down and left than they are. The quiz lacks useful answers like “I agree with the statement, but not with what I think you mean,” and “I reject the premise”.

Wearable meets cellphone: the finger whisper phone (actually a wrist phone). More info here.

Cornell’s archive of Home Economics information gives you a peek into the practical courses students could take, including Practice Apartments, complete with Apartment Babies.

In one of the great shockers of the young millennium, U of Chicago scientists discover guys are horny.

A startling discovery in Target: Fertilmarq brand male fertility tests. And I always thought that sort of situation was your best excuse to buy a microscope.

My actual Target purchase: edible notepaper.

Though relatively straightforward for the most part, some of those clothing care symbols can be tricky.

It’s a bummer everybody I know is pretty booked up travel-wise, since Travelocity is offering a 3-day sale: $205 round-trip ($265 if you want to fly near a weekend) to London. Must travel between now and 4 April 2004.