[moved from my LiveJournal, where there are also comments on this post that i have not moved to here…]
101 Ways to Save the Internet [wired.com]
Where’s a superhero when you need one? The Net, which once seemed so invincible, is under attack by the forces of evil. Viruses knock servers to their knees.. Spammers hijack our inboxes. Hackers and identity thieves menace our collective security and personal privacy.
Desperate solutions range from abandoning email to requiring a license to log on. Halt, fools! The Internet’s problems stem from the same virtues that make it great: open architecture, the free flow of information, peer-to-peer cooperation, and a bias for linking strangers, not disconnecting them. Take those away and the Net might cease to infuriate us – but it will also cease to amaze us.
Here’s a smarter approach: 101 proposals that harness the Net’s own superpowers to defeat its foes. Up, up, and away!
a few examples…
Build a .sex red-light district – Icann, the committee that assigns top-level Internet domains, refuses to create an adult zone that can easily be kept from kids’ eyes. Porn won’t disappear, so deal with it.
from the “Microsoft To-Do” section of the list…
Hey Steve, fire someone – Somebody’s not living up to the company’s tough talk on fixing bugs. Developers, developers, developers should be accountable, accountable, accountable.
Give away a good spam filter
Ship antivirus wizard – Why can’t the paper clip guy tell us something important, like “This message is infected with Sobig”?
Take the blame – Software license agreements that absolve you of, oh, deleting three years’ worth of email are irresponsible. Bugs are negligence, and negligence should cost you, not us.
from the “Google To-Do List”
Crawl the Internet Archive
Let us link to a page we hate without boosting its ranking
from the “Your To-Do List” section…
Switch your ISP – Some offer anti-spam and anti-virus tools and support. If your current provider won’t help you defend yourself, find another that will.
Death to fax machines – Send us an attachment instead.
Stop with the jokes – If we get the one about French military victories one more time, we’re going to come over and unplug you personally.
people who continuously forward junk to me get treated like any other spammer…
people, please, just repeat the mantra from the Earthlink Internet Hour radio show:
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
Turn off your HTML email – It makes you vulnerable to viruses – and bugs us.
Tell Kelly on Geocities to take down her Macarena tribute page It’s over, Kel.
damn straight! i have written much on this subject in the past and i am sure i will write more in the future…
Celebrate diversity – With nearly every computer on the planet running Windows, Outlook, and Explorer, it’s too easy for a single virus to spread everywhere.
and, finally…
Add a “Skip All Flash Intros” option to Macromedia players
in the words of Sam Steele, “Flash is evil.”…
ok, final thought, say it with me now…
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
go and do likewise…