The BBC reports that Altavista is looking for a way to guarantee that Chinese surfers can access their Search Engines. No indication on a solution. Isn’t there any trick that would allow bloggers to put a no-name search engine on our pages so that the Chinese can visit our blogs and flow through Google or Altavista without being blocked? Might be a dumb question, I just dont know.

As you have probably read (via J. Robb) already, Chinese authorities are blocking Google because of its capabilities of making a search in Chinese. Google is fighting it. This is obvious paranoia. Contribute to the paranoia by linking to this page and find other pages that are being censored.

Altavista, Playboy, MIT (???), Columbia Univeristy(???), BBC , Amnesty International are not NOT available, hotbot, lycos, Harvard University and ixquick are. Harvardsucks is blocked, go figure, loyalty to the alma mater? At least The Google Dance is still available there……does not mean they can use it

I have always felt a desire to have a laugh by replying to one of those Nigerian-like scams in which you supposedly can get rich by simply “lending” your bank account to some relative of a jailed official who just happens to have, let’s say, some $30 million stashed away and needs your account to get it out and is willing to give you, let’s say, ten percent for your efforts. Well, I would like to pay tribute to Zach Beane of Maine who actually followed up on replying and made an absolutely hilarious exchange with the mysterious spammer (or is it scammer?) Dr. Solomon (Some credit should be given to the tenacious Dr. Solomon for keeping the exchange alive):

even if the whole thing were made up, it would still be hilarious!!!

Thanks to John Fleck for providing the link 

Coincidentally, I received a new version of the scam today, this time asking to help repatriate the $15 million someone named Jeffery Octavio had in Dubai before his unfortunate death in a car accident. I am considering answering it, given that Zach’s thread might be coming to an end.

up, it would still be hilarious!!!

Thanks to John Fleck for providing the link 

Coincidentally, I received a new version of the scam today, this time asking to help repatriate the $15 million someone named Jeffery Octavio had in Dubai before his unfortunate death in a car accident. I am considering answering it, given that Zach’s thread might be coming to an end.

From Tyromaniac:

My brother the Tyromaniac still finds time to blog and look for interesting articles while on vacation in S.F., like the one he posted today by Paul Graham on blocking spam. While filtering should work, I still think that only those that are not uncomfortable with reading the term Bayesian statistics, will trust a filtering system. It will be like the fear of using credit cards online, its irrational, but in the back of their minds the common user will always wonder whether that one once-in-a-lifetime all-important you-are-a-winner e-mail is being blocked by the filtering.

From Tyromaniac:

My brother the Tyromaniac still finds time to blog and look for interesting articles while on vacation in S.F., like the one he posted today by Paul Graham on blocking spam. While filtering should work, I still think that only those that are not uncomfortable with reading the term Bayesian statistics, will trust a filtering system. It will be like the fear of using credit cards online, its irrational, but in the back of their minds the common user will always wonder whether that one once-in-a-lifetime all-important you-are-a-winner e-mail is being blocked by the filtering.

From Tyromaniac:

My brother the Tyromaniac still finds time to blog and look for interesting articles while on vacation in S.F., like the one he posted today by Paul Graham on blocking spam. While filtering should work, I still think that only those that are not uncomfortable with reading the term Bayesian statistics, will trust a filtering system. It will be like the fear of using credit cards online, its irrational, but in the back of their minds the common user will always wonder whether that one once-in-a-lifetime all-important you-are-a-winner e-mail is being blocked by the filtering.

From Tyromaniac:

My brother the Tyromaniac still finds time to blog and look for interesting articles while on vacation in S.F., like the one he posted today by Paul Graham on blocking spam. While filtering should work, I still think that only those that are not uncomfortable with reading the term Bayesian statistics, will trust a filtering system. It will be like the fear of using credit cards online, its irrational, but in the back of their minds the common user will always wonder whether that one once-in-a-lifetime all-important you-are-a-winner e-mail is being blocked by the filtering.

Digression 2: US lags in Broadband

Surprising (to me!!) article by Jim Seymor of RealMoney.com (need subscription to read it), about how the US has been lagging in broadband due to silly pricing policies. The following table tells the whole story:

The US has lower broadband penetration than Korea or Canada after being the leader in recent years. Seymor blames stupid and inept marketing as well as misunderstanding of management of what broadband is.Do you believe it? Any other explanations out there?

Digression 2: US lags in Broadband

Surprising (to me!!) article by Jim Seymor of RealMoney.com (need subscription to read it), about how the US has been lagging in broadband due to silly pricing policies. The following table tells the whole story:

The US has lower broadband penetration than Korea or Canada after being the leader in recent years. Seymor blames stupid and inept marketing as well as misunderstanding of management of what broadband is.Do you believe it? Any other explanations out there?

Digression 2: US lags in Broadband

Surprising (to me!!) article by Jim Seymor of RealMoney.com (need subscription to read it), about how the US has been lagging in broadband due to silly pricing policies. The following table tells the whole story:

The US has lower broadband penetration than Korea or Canada after being the leader in recent years. Seymor blames stupid and inept marketing as well as misunderstanding of management of what broadband is.Do you believe it? Any other explanations out there?