Thursday, February 28, 2008
I have been sick this week
Not that any of you really care about my physical well-being, but I have been sick and that is why I haven't posted all week.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Majoring in economics
A friend of mine is going back to school to major in economics. Good for him. The first thing he will learn about is the laws of supply and demand. The second thing he will learn about is that there is no demand for economics majors.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Spammers
I still get emails that try to sell me pharmaceutical drugs. Is there anyone out there who is willing to buy pills from a guy who spells "Viagra" with the numeral "1"?
As the Internet becomes more accessible, the average IQ among all users will decline. There was a time when only the best and brightest nerds roamed free among the bulletin boards. Then AOL hit the scene, but at least back then a user still had to know how to log in. Now you can get DSL and be online all the time. You don't even need to know how to read to use a computer anymore.
Still, there can't possibly be that many transactions that take place through spam enough to make it lucrative. The customer has to open an email that normally would have been ignored or deleted. They have to read a sales pitch with deliberately poor grammar. They have to somehow come to the conclusion that it is a good idea to turn your credit card over to someone who cannot structure a sentence. Of course, sometimes all it takes is one doofus to fall for the scam to make it profitable. But I have to wonder how someone that dumb gets a credit card in the first place.
I'm starting to wonder if most of the spam in my inbox isn't a sales pitch at all. It could be hackers who are simply trying to annoy people. Or it could be sleeper cells trying to contact their handlers. Ever see on TV where a spy places a fake classified ad, so that his contact knows if his mission was successful? How much revenue are newspapers losing because spies and terrorists no longer have to buy fake classified ads?
As the Internet becomes more accessible, the average IQ among all users will decline. There was a time when only the best and brightest nerds roamed free among the bulletin boards. Then AOL hit the scene, but at least back then a user still had to know how to log in. Now you can get DSL and be online all the time. You don't even need to know how to read to use a computer anymore.
Still, there can't possibly be that many transactions that take place through spam enough to make it lucrative. The customer has to open an email that normally would have been ignored or deleted. They have to read a sales pitch with deliberately poor grammar. They have to somehow come to the conclusion that it is a good idea to turn your credit card over to someone who cannot structure a sentence. Of course, sometimes all it takes is one doofus to fall for the scam to make it profitable. But I have to wonder how someone that dumb gets a credit card in the first place.
I'm starting to wonder if most of the spam in my inbox isn't a sales pitch at all. It could be hackers who are simply trying to annoy people. Or it could be sleeper cells trying to contact their handlers. Ever see on TV where a spy places a fake classified ad, so that his contact knows if his mission was successful? How much revenue are newspapers losing because spies and terrorists no longer have to buy fake classified ads?
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