How Spam Was Done 70 Years Ago 79
bitrex writes "Modern Mechanix recently ran a reprint of a 1934 article describing
the problem of offshore pirate radio stations broadcasting advertisements and drowning out local, licensed radio programs. 'The primary purpose of the unlicensed broadcast station was to advertise the gambling, liquor, and other dubious pleasure activities of the ship upon which it was built ... they found other sundry rackets, such as a fortune telling program ... After numerous unsuccessful attempts of a local nature, the floating broadcasting establishment was silenced, but only after the state department at Washington, D. C, had made diplomatic representations which forced a Central American country to cancel the ship's registry.' The article also has a great artist's conception of what might be called a machine age 'data haven' bobbing in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico."
Bender Radio (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Bender Radio (Score:4, Funny)
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-mcgrew
S'PAM! She's hot ain't she? Oh wait that one wasn't about Pam, sorry. Hey, I shot pool with Linda last night, we have a date tomorrow night. She might not be a hooker any more, I didn't ask her. Journal coming. SPAM SPAM WONDERFUL SPAM
"I'll have spam, eggs, sausage and spam please"
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Gulf of Mexico? (Score:1)
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If you were starting a 'business' that had no need to be near any natural resources, other manufacturers, or a financial hub, where would YOU put it? Buffalo/Cleveland/Toledo/Detroit, or somewhere warm?
Additionally, bribes are quite a bit cheaper and easier 'down south'.
They're sane (Score:5, Insightful)
What is it about spammers and tropical areas?
If you have to relocate to international waters, and you have a choice of tropical paradise or freezing your ass off somewhere in tbe North Atlantic, that's not a really tough call.
Also, from a practical standpoint, there's just a ton of countries bordering on the Gulf/Caribbean and finding one sympathetic to your plight (or more likely, one who will take some of your money in exchange for looking the other way) shouldn't be hard. On the other hand, in the North Atlantic or in the Pacific offshore of the US all you've got is Canadia and Mexico, our good NAFTA buddies who wouldn't foster such shenanigans. At least, not for the relatively paltry sums that spammers have at their disposal (compared to, say, oil companies).
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BTW--it's the storms here that make it cooler. We'd be in the triple digits if weren't for those.
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And before that (Score:5, Interesting)
There is nothing new under the sun. You can always find "people being people" throughout history. And bad people are always looking for some angle to exploit the masses.
Re:And before that (Score:5, Funny)
I need to put that on my mailbox.
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http://www.reddotcampaign.ca/ [reddotcampaign.ca]
I'm not sure if there's a US version of this, maybe someone south of the border can post it. You do however have the DNC List which I'd be happy to have.
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As far as I know there's no universal "don't send me junk mail" program, but there are a couple lists you can sign up for that will dramatically reduce the amount of junk mail you receive.
To get rid of most "pre-approved" credit card offers, there's an official opt-out program [optoutprescreen.com]. This is free and it does, in fact, work.
To get rid of a bunch of other junk mail (like catalogs etc), you can add yourself to the Direct Marketing Association's opt-out list at their website [dmachoice.org]. This used to cost a small amount ($1,
1934 form letter (Score:5, Funny)
( ) technical (X) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to defeating the menace of playbills. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before FDR passed a new law.)
( ) Bill posters can easily use it to harvest better locations
( ) Billboards and other legitimate posters would be affected
(X) No one will be able to find the knave or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop playbills for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of large surfaces will not put up with it
( ) Sears will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from playbill posters
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
( ) Many postboard users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Playbill posters don't care about unusable surfaces in their plans
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's job or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(X) Lack of centrally controlling authority for flat surfaces in public view
(X) Undocumented aliens who post the playbills
( ) Ease of searching tiny set of all flat surfaces in the area
( ) Men of ill repute
(X) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of fanciful new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept fanciful money not backed by gold
( ) Huge existing capital investment in buildings
( ) Susceptibility of buildings without flat surfaces to collapse
( ) Willingness of users to read playbills whilst passing by
(X) Legions of unattended buildings
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all mointoring approaches
( ) Extreme profitability of playbill posting
(X) Forgery of others' names
( ) Politicians ill-informed of new-fangled devices
( ) Extreme foolishness on the part of people who buy from playbill advertisements
( ) Dishonesty on the part of playbill posters themselves
( ) Labor costs that are unaffected by careful monitoring
( ) Tacks and glue
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(X) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown workable
( ) Any scheme based on requirement to leave the program is intolerable
( ) Legislation of bold message headings is not Constitutionally authorized
( ) Blacklists are humbug
( ) Whitelists are humbug
( ) We should be able to talk about alcohol without being censored
( ) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or check fraud
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public areas
( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
( ) Posting messages should be free
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your file warehouses?
(X) Jolly-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time postal addresses are cumbersome
( ) Killing them that way is not tortuous enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(X) Sorry friend, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a confounded idea, and you're a confounded person for suggesting it.
( ) Nice try, knave! I shall find out where you live and burn your rental down forthright!
Re:1934 form letter (Score:5, Funny)
To whom, sir, should I direct the invoice?
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In the UK the wording was slightly different, leading to fear and uncertainty for a few unfortunately named individuals [phrases.org.uk]
And even before that.... (Score:1)
Learned something (Score:4, Funny)
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It seems to be a generational thing.
Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
This is radio clash on pirate satellite
This is radio clash everybody hold on tight
A-riggy diggy dig dang dang
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It's probably the origin of the term, though I think it was popularised more by the likes of Radio Caroline, which broadcast to London from offshore in the sixties.
I liked the ads in the sidebars (Score:4, Funny)
I want me one of them.
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Those old-time bodybuilding courses are both funny and surprisingly informative at times. You can see the "Moulding a mighty " booklets they're selling on the last page of this reprint at Sandow Plus [sandowplus.co.uk].
The Future of SPAM? (Score:5, Funny)
dubious? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:dubious? (Score:5, Funny)
"L00k at th3se Ankl3s!"
"H4wt babe shoz her SH0ULDER!"
"Get UR sn4k3 0ilz heer. CH3APZ!"
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-mcgrew
In Soviet slashdot, joke laughs at YOU
THAT SNOT FUNNY DAMMIT!
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I really have to remember that the average IQ of Slashdot has fallen in recent years, and that I need to add explanatory supplements to every little quip.
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Lets see what mcgrew said, shall we?
What puritan modded that insightful comment as "funny?"
Now from this a few things can instantly be understood. mcgrew thought your comment was insightful, and he disagrees with the funny mod. A fraction of second thought would lead you to the conclusion that he believes that whoever modded your comment funny did so because he thought it was a joke and not insightful. That's why mcgrew
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That's not spam (Score:1, Interesting)
Junk snail mail is more spam-like than what the article is about.
-mcgrew
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I'll give you that, unlike spam, it's not written.
Costs money? To send spam, you need a computer and an Internet connection -- to send spam effectively, you need tens of thousands of computers with Internet connections. Sending spam costs spammers money -- the returns far outweigh the costs in either case.
Illegal? "pirate radio", as referred to in the article, is and was legal. Once you leave a country's territory (territorial waters), you are no longer subject to that country's laws.
Maybe
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Each and every one of which is absolutely free, thanks to the storm worm, other worms, viruses, and malware, and thanks to Microsoft's incredibly bad OS that makes such shitware easy to write.
I'll agree that unsolicited ads are spam-like, but who solicits advertising anyway?
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Note always true. English-speaking radio stations were often set up in Mexico near the US border using more power than allowed in the states, and Mexican radio laws were more lax back then than US laws.
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I'm sure the signal was heard further north.
We Didn't Start The Fire (Score:3, Funny)
Green Cards [wikipedia.org], Spamford [wikipedia.org], Snake Oil [wikipedia.org], these guys [modernmechanix.com],
Michael Lindsay [spamhaus.org], Nigeria [fbi.gov], Get Rich Quick Today [wikipedia.org].
CHORUS
We didn't start the fire...
Spam is eternal (Score:5, Insightful)
It was from a dentist. It was advertising his services.
The men were outraged, obviously and started the first campaign against spam. The point is that this is hardly shocking. It's always been around, but is simply much more prevelant now with the ease of email. I remember being a kid before caller ID and call blocking and getting lots of telemarketer phone calls at our house. Sometimes we got the door to door salesmen. Times change, spam doesn't.
I'm sure eventually we'll all get email spam problem licked. Then we'll have to deal with ads for Lightspeed Briefs beamed directly into our dreams.
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As for eventually getting the spam problem licked, I doubt we'll ever be able to get rid of it completely. Right now, for most people it's basically reduced to the status of background noise, and I'm fine with it being there. My bulk mail folder gets hundreds of messages a day, but I only see 2 or 3 a day in my main Inbox, and that's on a Yahoo account that I've had for like 9 or 10 years
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Junk mail is easy. Just get a wood-burning stove and start the fire with it. If it were not for the obvious environmental negatives (both related to burning the glossy crap they throw in my mailbox as well as the transport and manufacture costs) I'd just put my address on every crap mailer's list I can find to find my winters' supply of fuel delivered for free by the mailman. Use a briquette compactor to turn the crap into nice bri
Complete with piano and lounge! (Score:5, Interesting)
I notice that there are also no engineer or crew quarters. Fun lot, these pirates! And what, no Marconi and cross-bones flag?
This seems as outlandish as some of the scare tactics used now to "warn" us about terrorism. I bet people were just as gullible then as they are now. Really, just stick to the facts, and stop making sh!t up, please.
Not to mention the method of nailing domestic "radio pirates." The pirates claim that their meager 5w output does not cross state lines. The government uses super-high-sensitivity detection equipment to prove that the signals do indeed cross state lines. Seems a bit nit-pickish to me, as the average Joe Radio would pick up more powerful stations. But, as Bureaucrat Number 1.0 says, "you are technically correct - the best kind of correct."
Restroom? (Score:1)
"The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed..."
Wolfman Jack Blasting At You... (Score:3, Informative)
Only 0.00025 gigawatts? (Score:1)
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Thank Goodness the airwaves are safe! (Score:1)
I think I might have liked that (Score:2, Funny)
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Kinda like CAPTAIN MURPHY! (Score:2)
More recent than that! (Score:1, Redundant)
Spam is as old as life (Score:1)
it's a shame this era is lost really (Score:3, Funny)
Off-shore snot run amuck (Score:1)
Almost relived (Score:1)
Bach then (Score:2)
Hmmmmm..... (Score:1)
govs spams as well! (Score:2)
That's what you get for not shooting them! (Score:1)
Slashdot's ads contribute (Score:1)