January 2007

Robert Scoble recently responded to the question “Do A-list bloggers have a responsibility to link to others?”…¬† ¬´ Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger:I can‚Äôt speak for anyone other than myself, but, yes, I try to link out to as many people as possible.¬† I got found because other people linked to me, and I view it as my responsibility to link to other people as well.¬† I also leave my comments open so people can post their own opinions and links to things.

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Dave was discussing his attendance at an identity conference when he made the statement that:…the reason I was able to make RSS 2.0 stick was that for a brief period I controlled all sides of the technology and could create consensus over a cup of coffee, with myself….¬† Seems there’s no equivalent opportunity in identity, which was already a contentious, fractured and divided world, before the Internet even existed.I don‚Äôt think anyone could argue that the introduction of RSS 2.0 wasn‚Äôt a good thing for the Internet and it‚Äôs users….¬† Being open creates opportunities for companies like Apple, it allows them to coexist with monopolies like Windows, to develop a superior product, even though another company has dominant market share.¬† Maybe someday Apple will dominate, but that day will likely be a bad day for open interfaces because while Apple benefits from the openness of others, they themselves aren’t willing to leave the door open for others.How is the conflict resolved between; it was a good thing when Dave had complete control over the technology and could quickly and efficiently create the standards for RSS 2.0, thereby giving the public a superior product; but it‚Äôs a bad thing when Apple has complete control of it‚Äôs technology in order to deliver a superior product that just works?I know there is a huge difference in scale here but is not the principle the same or am I totally off base?

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Generally, a compromised machine is only one of many in a “botnet”, and will be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction….¬† Because the vector tends to be unconscious, these computers are metaphorically compared to a zombie.Infected zombie computers ‚Äî predominantly Windows PCs ‚Äî are now the major delivery method of spam.Zombies have been used extensively to send e-mail spam; as of 2005, an estimated 50‚Äì80% of all spam worldwide was sent by zombie computers.[1] This allows spammers to avoid detection and presumably reduces their bandwidth costs, since the owners of zombies pay for their own bandwidth.The most effective technical countermeasures to date against this spam barrage has been effective filters that can automatically detect 99% of spam with almost no false positives.

…I realize some might say that I‚Äôm creating another type of spam by reporting all this, but it does seem to have reduced the amount of spam I‚Äôm receiving.As the Wikipedia article states, most users are unaware that their PC is being used as a zombie….¬† Perhaps there could even be some custom free tools that would make clean-up of zombie machines easier.Wouldn‚Äôt it seem more effective eliminate up to 80% of the email spam by identifying, eliminating, or blocking the zombie computers that are being used for spam?

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