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3D display - new technology

Posted 9/27/2002 - 5:35PM, by johnnyace
Reuters has news of new flat panels from Sharp with high resolution immersive 3D. The press release is very light on details, but gleaned from the Reuters articles, we can see that the British researchers were almost reinventing the wheel to achieve this.

Three-dimensional displays that need no special glasses have been around for some time, he said.

But the main challenge was making it possible to switch between the ordinary 2-D mode and 3-D with the push of a button, while providing the same image resolution in the 2-D mode as in a standard display without 3-D capability.

Sharp's Oxford laboratory, which spent 10 years developing the technology, also struggled to keep costs low enough for the price not to scare away consumers.

I'm surprised that the 2D resolution was the limiting factor. Hopefully, we can see displays built on this by late next year. Sharp's position is that the displays would be first used in arcade games, with consumer products following.

True 3D display rendering is still far in the future, but some companies are taking the first steps to provide us with the same displays that we've seen on The Jetsons. Actuality Systems sells their Perspecta system to the US military for 3D modeling. Resembling a witch's crystal ball, it offers an eight color display of a solid image. The product action shots remind me of the flight sims I used to play on my 386 (8 meg of RAM, VLB vid card, CGA monitor. Oh man, it was HOT).

[Discussion]

The latest scumware tactic: shades of 1999

Posted 9/27/2002 - 1:53PM, by Hannibal
It seems like file-sharing programs are getting more and more unscrupulous about the ways in which they modify your computer when you install one of them. The past year has seen a spate of stories about the kinds of programs these applications surreptitiously install on users' machines in an attempt to generate revenue for the file-sharing company. The latest move in the race to the bottom is a new tactic employed by file-sharing programs like Kaaza and Morpheus: stealing referral commissions from the affiliates of online vendors like Amazon.

Amazon's affiliates program pays affiliated websites a commission each time a user clicks through from the affiliate's site to Amazon and buys something. An affiliate code is embedded into the referring URL, and Amazon uses this code to identify the referring affiliate so that it can correctly distribute the sales commission if that referral generates a sale. What these new scumware viruses/programs do is replace that affiliate code with their own code anytime an infected user clicks an affiliate link, so that the file-sharing company gets credit for the sale instead of the website that actually referred the customer. This is low.

These jerks claim that since their EULA notifies the user of the practice, it's all legal and on the up-and-up. The problem is that it's not the user that they're stealing from; it's the affiliate, who hasn't agreed to the EULA and most certainly has not agreed to have his referrals hijacked. I think that the people who cook this sort of stuff up and then have the gall to try and defend it as "legal" and legit should be tarred and feathered, or placed in the stocks, or subjected to some other form of public humiliation. Maybe we could put them on one of those crazy Japanese game shows, where they make you drink lots of Coke and then sit in a vat of freezing water, and if you have to get out and go to the bathroom they hook up jumper cables to your nipples and shock you repeatedly while the audience laughs at you. Anyway, if they'll try something like this, what's to stop them from hijacking banner click-throughs and siphoning ad revenues from everyone? Is Paypal theft on the roadmap for the next release, too?

In closing, I'll leave you with some comments on this quote from the opening of the article:

Some popular online services are using a new kind of software to divert sales commissions that would otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites like Amazon and eToys.

I don't know where this writer has been for the past year, but eToys isn't going to be paying commissions to anyone--they've thankfully gone bye-bye. That was one site I was glad to see gone, exemplifying as they did much of the arrogance that ultimately undid the dot-com era. It's this same sort of arrogance, which seems to stem from the insane notion that you have a God-given right to make money any way you can, even if it means taking something that isn't yours as long as you're not violating the letter of the law, that lies behind scumware like these referral-stealing programs. I'll be glad when these companies go the way of eToys, and I have no doubt that they eventually will.

[Discussion]

distributed.net Completes RC5-64 Project

Posted 9/27/2002 - 8:54AM, by hanser

Since 1997 distributed.net has been utilizing the idle cycles of computers around the world. Distributed.net frequently runs multiple projects simultaneously. The longest lasting of their recent projects, RC5-64, recently concluded. The winning key was found by a machine in Japan, which revealed the message: "The unknown message is: some things are better left unread" (full details can be found here). The only active project currently is OGR-25, although other projects (including RC5-72) are currently under consideration. The OGR project's goal is to compute Optimal Golomb Rulers of various sizes (or number of marks). Conceptually, this is a "ruler" constructed in such a way that no two pairs of marks measure the same distance.

Ars Technica Team Beef Roast (TBR) has been th Ars representative for the distributed.net projects for quite some time. Through the contribution of their members they were been able to achieve 12th overall in the RC5-64 project and are currently placed 17th overall in the OGR-25 project. TBR has been, for the most part, the "quiet" Ars team, currently only 22 active members strong on the OGR-25 project. With a little help we would be able to establish ourselves firmly in the upper echelon of teams on this project.

At the same time, TBR has been hard at work re-designing the website to accommodate increased stats functionality which includes addition of OGR-25 statistics tracking and an updated look-and-feel. Last week marked the production rollout of the new website, and everyone is invited to stop over and have a look. You'll find all sorts of useful information in the FAQ about joining TBR, and find out what the OGR projects are all about. TBR wants to thank everybody who has contributed to TBR, past and present, you've done some amazing work, keep it up! Viva la Roast!

For more information about our Distributed Computing teams see The Ars Technica Distributed Computing Food Court, our Distributed Computing Forum and IRC: isis.arstechnica.com, port 6667, #distributed. -Writeup by TheJet

[Discussion]

WLAN market still heating up

Posted 9/26/2002 - 11:30AM, by Caesar
Linksys and Intel may be teaming up to provide WLAN products based on Intel technology to the emerging market, showing that although Intel has discontinued its AnyPoint brand of networking hardware, they're still looking to participate in the market. Back in May Intel announced a dual-mode (Wi-Fi & WiFi-5) wireless LAN chipset, signaling the beginning of the company's shift to focus on mobile wireless systems integration. Partnering with Linksys, who is currently the #1 seller of wireless networking components, would afford Intel the chance to focus on proliferating their core technology without getting bogged down in marketing and producing consumer networking hardware from top to bottom.

Intel unveiled in June its first chipsets to include WLAN radio, an area long dominated by Intersil and Agere Systems. In 2003, Intel will bundle 802.11b and dual-band a/b mini-PCI modules with sales of Banias-codenamed mobile processors next year, according to its product roadmap.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning on releasing its own branded networking hardware for wired and wireless networks. While Microsoft's late entry into the game may return less-than-stellar results, I have to applaud them for this: they are shipping their wireless routers with WEP security enabled by default. The company will include a floppy disk with the router that can be used to automagically configure clients for those who are scared by 26-digit 104-bit hexadecimal strings. Not surpisingly, the hardware will take advantage of XP's wireless configuration manager and UPnP, two things that Microsoft has invested heavily in only to see them largely ignored.

[Discussion]

MSN Messenger to offer premium benefits

Posted 9/26/2002 - 10:23AM, by Caesar
MSN Messenger 5 will include "premium" features that are only available to subscribers of the MSN service, bifurcating the client into a MSN and non-MSN (totally free) version. The move is merely a plotted point along a trajectory that will see Microsoft unveiling a number of post-Hailstorm services to MSN subscribers, including enhanced Wallet features and online calendaring. As of yet, it does not appear that the free version of Messenger will be crippleware in any meaningful sense. Microsoft is also working to enhance MSN Messenger support on XP.

Another big change is planned. "We're going to have co-existence with MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger on XP," Grothaus said. "If I'm running, say, Windows Messenger in my corporate environment, I'll also be able to run MSN Messenger 5 and be logged in as a separate Passport. Today, you can't." Passport is Microsoft's online authentication service.

Just exactly what these new features are is not clear, although parental controls is known to be one of them. The principle of the matter is more interesting, especially since the move is reminiscent of Trillian's latest plans, which also splits their line into free and fuller-featured premium offerings. We can expect to see more and more of this as the dot-com crunch still reverberates through the universe.

[Discussion]

Ace's on Intel's x86-64 plans

Posted 9/26/2002 - 12:31AM, by Hannibal
Not too long after AMD announced its plans to extend x86 to 64 bits with its upcoming Hammer line, rumors started surfacing about a secret Intel project to do pretty much the same thing. I could go back and dig up the relevant links, but Ace's has already done the all the necessary homework in this news post that gives the skinny on Yamhill. Yamhill is the codename for Intel's Hammer counterpart, a chip that would extend the x86 instruction set to 64 bits and if released would probably take enough wind out of the sales of their flagship 64-bit processor, Itanium2, to leave IA-64 dead in the water. So, for now, Yamhill is dead...or is it?

While the project was officially cancelled, it didn't die totally as some of the results of this study have been implemented in hardware... Intel's management was - and still is- however firmly committed to IA-64, and launching a 64 bit x86 CPU would make it very hard to convince ISVs to invest in IA-64. Taking out the transistors that are responsible for the 64 bit extensions in Prescott would however result in a schedule slip for Prescott. The result is that Prescott contains the Yamhill or 64 bit extensions, but the extensions are disabled. And it remains very unlikely that Intel will ever enable Yamhill. Unless the AMD Opteron eats a lot of marketshare away from Intel's Deerfield and Xeon...

Craziness, but it sounds like a classic Intel move; they'll do anything to their hardware to maintain a desired market segmentation. Anyway, if you read the discussion thread attached to the Ace's news post, you'll find some fascinating speculation on how Intel might actually make good use of some of the Yamhill technology in Prescott.

[Discussion]

VNC marches on!

Posted 9/26/2002 - 12:20AM, by johnnyace
JerkyChew just sent word that the VNC project is marching forward at realvnc.com. VNC is the open source system administration tool that allows for complete system control via a GUI interface, much like Microsoft's Terminal Services and Remote Desktop Protocol. Unlike RDP, VNC is highly cross platform. One client program can access linux boxes, Sun machines, and Windows machines. This software is used by administrators and enthusiasts on a daily basis, and it's great to see that the project is going forward.

Back in April it was announced that AT&T labs was to close. Since this was the home of VNC, it was expected that VNC would cease development. However, much like Eazel, Icecast, and countless other Open-Source ventures, the software was able to continue on! Its new home is at http://www.realvnc.com/ - they've just announced a new version, and it seems a lot snappier than the previous builds. The new features mentioned in the release notes make it a must-have upgrade.

As a Windows system admin, I've installed VNC on literally hundreds of workstations. It's great, easy to use, and best of all, free. It's yet another triumph of the Open Source movement, and I'm glad to see that this very important project wasn't allowed to die. They are now accepting donations to keep the project moving forward, and I'll gladly donate some cash.

[Discussion]

New products hold hope for radio

Posted 9/25/2002 - 11:43PM, by johnnyace
XM Radio and Delphi have announced that they are marketing a personal XM Radio receiver, as well as a receiver in the 'boombox' form factor. These are the first devices in this industry, and may eventually be the perfect alternative to limited storage mp3 devices.

Reuters is reporting that retailers have already ordered over 120,000 units, and they are banking that XM Radio service is good enough that most current subscribers will have to have one.

XM said it has received orders from retailers for between 120,000 and 150,000 devices, and expects brisk sales through the holiday season, although it declined to give any specific forecasts.

The system gives users attracted to satellite radio, with its diverse selection of music, talk and news channels -- many of which are broadcast free from advertisements -- the chance to listen to the system when not in a car. XM radios typically are installed in autos either at the factory or local dealers.

As XM Radio currently has less than 200,000 subscribers, these numbers are optimistic. The portable unit will retail for $129.99, with the car and home adapter kit costing $69.99. We covered satellite radio in our technology overview, and the technology does not have far to go to being an on demand medium. Imagine creating a personalized playlist, and having a private radio station. People have shown that they are willing to pay for quality content, and these new receivers are an avenue for XM Radio to hit a demographic that they're currently been missing. I'm not content with, or willing to pay for, ClearChannel content. Let's face it, 90% of the mass media content blasted out at the consumer is complete tripe. I want to see this technology grow to the point that radio stations get their act together, and start offering me what I want to hear.

[Discussion]

Top 10 science experiments

Posted 9/25/2002 - 10:57PM, by Caesar
Top x lists always create quite a stir amongst the nit-picky (like me), but you'll nonetheless probably be interested in the checking out "Science's 10 Most Beautiful Experiments." If nothing else, it's a nice overview of some of the more important moments in scientific history. For example, Foucault's Pendulum (which is also a amazing book, BTW):

Using a steel wire 220 feet long, the French scientist Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault suspended a 62-pound iron ball from the dome of the Panthéon and set it in motion, rocking back and forth. To mark its progress he attached a stylus to the ball and placed a ring of damp sand on the floor below. The audience watched in awe as the pendulum inexplicably appeared to rotate, leaving a slightly different trace with each swing. Actually it was the floor of the Panthéon that was slowly moving, and Foucault had shown, more convincingly than ever, that the earth revolves on its axis. At the latitude of Paris, the pendulum's path would complete a full clockwise rotation every 30 hours; on the Southern Hemisphere it would rotate counterclockwise, and on the Equator it wouldn't revolve at all. At the South Pole, as the modern-day scientists confirmed, the period of rotation is 24 hours. (Ranking: 10)

Of course, I'm biased towards ancient history, so I'm a little sad to see ancient "scientists" missing, especially Galen (medicine), Jabir Ibn-Haiyan (chemistry), and Leucippus and Democritus (beginnings of atomic thought). Indeed, many of the "experiments" that are on the list are simply successful challenges to the ancient theories and observations of a certain Aristotle, many of which held sway for 2000 years in the Christian and Islamic worlds (which some would blame on human stagnation, but that's a hard argument to maintain considering the scientific prowess of Islam in the middle ages). I also think excluding Pythagoras is a little rough, too. Keep in mind that some of the "experiments" on the list are theorizations of unobservable phenomena. Like I said, I'm picky. But it's a cool read, regardless.

[Discussion]

The XBox makes huge news

Posted 9/25/2002 - 5:14PM, by johnnyace
Microsoft continues to make news, both good and bad, with their first independent foray into the console gaming world. Despite strong sales here in its "home market" (USA), the XBox is doing poorly in Europe and even worse in Japan, where reports have XBox console sales at around 250,000 since its release in February. Microsoft will be pushing hard this holiday season as it introduces the XBox Live online gaming service (and possible hacker finder). The service could be the key to profitability for the console, which just underwent a redesign that reduced manufacturing costs and thwarted current mod-chips that allowed users to play copied games and run custom software.

But the biggest news has been Microsoft's purchase of British game developer Rare, who formerly developed exclusively for Nintendo. For XBox fans, this can be looked at as a major win for the console, since Rare's games have all been top-notch efforts, and their classic Nintendo 64 title Goldeneye redefined the way college students wasted their time.

Although Rare doesn't own the Donkey Kong or James Bond licenses, they won't be coming over empty-handed: they retain the Bond-esque "Perfect Dark", the platform-based "Banjo-Kazooie", and the utterly lewd "Conker". This last title, while certainly not Rare's most successful financially, could shed some light on the reasons behind the move. Rare had recently shown interest in making more "mature" titles (if you call a urinating squirrel "mature"), which is at odds with Nintendo's family-friendly image but would be right at home with Microsoft's target market.

Before you go crying for console-veteran Nintendo, realize that they had a 49% stake in Rare, and Nintendo's share is worth over $180 million. Rumors have it that Nintendo will use the money to woo Sega into some sort of exclusive deal, which would be the ultimate irony for anyone who remembers the 16-bit console wars. For those of you that don't remember that far back, you can find your daily supply of irony in this: the biggest Rare title out for the 2002 X-Mas season is the just-released Star Fox Adventures. Exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube. -write-up by Calvin

[Discussion]

Aye, sir - and maybe a wee bit more

Posted 9/25/2002 - 1:58AM, by zAmboni
For most, antimatter lives in the realm of science fiction. An equal mixture of matter and antimatter would result in mass annihilation producing energy to power starships or whatnot. But antimatter is not science fiction, it is science fact. During the Big Bang vast amounts of both matter and antimatter were produced. But something strange happened within a nanosecond of the Big Bang which helped shape the universe as it is today. Matter and antimatter came together in a dance of death, but subtle differences between the two allowed matter to predominate and form the matter based universe as we know it. Now fast forward to the 1960's where scientists observed a difference in decaying matter and antimatter which they called the charge-parity (CP) violation. 

CP violation means that, when a matter particle interacts with its antiparticle, the total amount of electrical charge and of another quantity called parity does not have to be conserved in the process. The CP budget doesn't necessarily have to balance.

The Standard Model takes into account this CP violation and can be quantified by the measurement called sine two beta. Earlier this year, scientists using the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center through analysis of B mesons and their antiparticle counterpart (B Bars) came up with a value of sine two beta within 0.07 of the predicted Standard Model value. One problem with this experiment was the researchers had to find instances of B meson (and B Bar) decay in the middle of a haystack and note the differences. It would be so much easier if they had some matter and antimatter on hand to experiment at will. Their chance may come soon.

Last week, the ATHENA group at CERN announced they created 50,000 atoms of antihydrogen. The scientists trapped antiprotons and positrons separately and then mixed the two together...

The researchers combine these ingredients in a magnetic mixing trap. When some pair up to form antihydrogen, the electrically neutral anti-atoms drift out of the trap, hit the walls, annihilate and produce particles called pions. Pions signal the death of an anti-atom.

Judging from the number of pions, the ATHENA team calculates that their trap holds at least 50,000 anti-atoms, all cooled to within 15 degrees of absolute zero.

While many were overjoyed with the news, others said "not so fast!" A competing group, ATRAP (also based at CERN), claimed ATHENA basically repeated one of their previous experiments and any signals they found may not have been antihydrogen. The complaints may have been little more than sour grape scientists who hadn't read the results. Now the ATRAP group has conceded defeat.

While 50,000 particles of antihydrogen isn't enough to propel a starship to Warp 9, the physicists say it would be enough to directly test the Standard Model. They have no way of storing the antimatter, and more of it would have to be produced for an experiment. No one is predicting whether the experiments will support or punch holes in the Standard Model, but now they at least have the tools to conduct the experiment.

[Discussion]

Audigy 2 - Creative's new hope?

Posted 9/24/2002 - 11:38PM, by Caesar
Creative has officially announced the birth of the Audigy 2, their next-gen "audiophile" sound card with 24bit/192kHz DVD-Audio, 6.1 surround gaming, and THX certification (among other things). It's difficult to tell as of yet, but it appears that little has actually changed hardware-wise from the original Audigy line, which itself didn't make huge waves as most Creative users were happy to stick with their Live! cards, and Turtle Beach fans typically despise Creative anyway. Audigy 2 will face similar challenges, because it adds little in the way must-have features, and true audiophiles look upon the card with great suspicion. Here's the PR:

Millions of PC users who have a DVD-ROM drive on their PC can use the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 to experience Advanced Resolution™ DVD-Audio with amazing 24-bit/192kHz sound quality. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 delivers 106dB SNR and is the only stand-alone sound card with THX® certification, for cinematic 6.1 surround sound from Dolby Digital® EX movies and unparalleled realism from the hundreds of existing DirectSound® 3D game titles. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 enables 24-bit/96kHz recording, and also provides digital music enthusiasts with the next generation Creative MediaSource™ player for a variety of digital music enhancements, including up-mix of stereo MP3 music into full 6.1 surround sound. The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum are both slated for worldwide shipment in October.

At issue among enthusiasts is Creative's sound quality (and for some, it's stability in a system). Supporting 24bit/192kHz doesn't mean squat if it comes out the analog end sounding less than perfect, and most gamers seem quite content with any A3D sound card capable of making a crisp *bang* (A3D provides aural positioning, which is a benefit for many FPSs). At $129.99, the card is somewhat pricy. Still, the "true 24-bit/96-KHz playback" (which may mean DSP improvements) and DVD-Audio support will likely draw more than a handful of buyers. I for one am leery of DVD-Audio simply because it seems to be primarily a ploy to gain control over my listening experience(s). Many of us also have negative memories relating to Creative's invasive software/driver packages. They've got a long row to hoe, but that doesn't mean we can't be surprised.

[Discussion]

Inside Palladium

Posted 9/24/2002 - 11:01PM, by Hannibal
In the discussion thread attached to my most recent news post on the TCPA/Palladium initiative, Ars Centurion quux submitted a link to an absolutely fascinating Palladium article at K5. If you don't read another Palladium article this month, read this one, if only to get a look at the interplay of forces that can work inside a company and an industry to effect the kind of directional shift that Palladium represents. This article is not another call to arms against Palladium or another warning about Palladium's many dangers, but rather it gives some insight into the dynamics of Palladium from someone who claims to have been an insider at MS when this initiative first started to take shape.

The central thesis of the article is that Palladium is ultimately one prong of MS's two-pronged response to Sony and the threat to the PC posed by Sony's PS2. (The other prong is the XBox.) The PS2 was introduced as a home computing and content delivery platform that Sony completely controls: Sony can dictate what content runs on it and how, and it designed the PS2 to shield DVDs and games from unauthorized use. As the author notes, you can play DVDs on the PS2 and you can run Linux on it, but you can't do both at the same time. When the PS2 is booted into its most secure mode, the mode in which DVDs and games run, Sony has the ability to ensure that only content signed by Sony can be played on the device. (Actually, there's an important exception to this, which I'll mention in a moment.) The PS2, then, was designed from the ground up to offer the content industry, an industry in which Sony is a major player, a platform for the "secure" distribution of rights-managed content; and with the addition of a mouse, keyboard, hard drive, and broadband adapter, the PS2 also becomes a network client capable of using online applications and services of the kind that MS would desparately like to sell using .NET. Hence the XBox, and hence Palladium, which is an attempt to make the PC as a platform look more like the XBox and the PS2.

Now for that exception to Sony's control over content on the PS2. What technology takes away, it can also give back. I recently saw our boy Beeba demonstrate a beta version of BroadQ's QCast Tuner, mentioned in this post of Ator's. Using QCast, a PS2, a LAN and Caesar's crazy-big widescreen TV, Beeba was able to browse his laptop for content via the PS2, and stream MP3s and DIVX movies from the laptop right to the TV. QCast has a slick interface, and even my Mom, who though computer savvy is mystified by my dad's collection of remote controls for his various home entertainment system components, could operate the entire package with little to no trouble. It was great to see QCast in action, because it's the first time I've actually seen anything in person that really lived up to the thusfar vaporous promises of "convergence." It also seems to represent a huge blow to Sony's vision of the PS2 as a content delivery platform over which they and their peers can exercise complete control. Who cares about Macrovision when you can serve a massive DIVX library from your Windows machine (or, maybe eventually, a friend's Internet-connected Windows machine)?. If this becomes popular, I look for Sony to either laywer this to death or buy it out and neuter it by making it able to play only DRM-enabled media formats.

[Discussion]

The debate on spam continues

Posted 9/24/2002 - 10:13PM, by Ator

Lawrence Lessig has written an opinion piece on the continuing war on spam. But first, he wants to talk about vigilantism. The kind of vigilantism he has a beef with is the spam black lists, which he equates with the bill that would allow computer attacks on networks suspected of copyright infringement.

No doubt, the motives of the spam vigilantes are pure. These are talented coders doing a public service. But there's also no doubt that the effect of their work is to make e-mail worse. They looked at the open and flexible system of e-mail that gave birth to much of the Net and decided that this system created too much freedom—at least for spammers. Their response was to find a mix of code and norms to restrict the freedom of e-mail. The result of their good intentions is a much less flexible e-mail system but not much less spam. Indeed, it's hard to believe that this conspiracy to cripple e-mail has done anything except make e-mailing more difficult.

There's some truth to that. Having worked at a place that got itself on a couple of these black lists because the software we had (which was, after all, designed to be one of those open email services described above) couldn't close all the "holes" the blacklist said we had, there was definitely a sense of "Who are these people to be judging us?" Of course, the black lists wouldn't cause any damage to anybody if people didn't find them valuable. Equating a service that is completely voluntary with government-sanctioned, consequence-free h4x0ring is perhaps a bit overdoing it.

So, what does Lessig propose as a solution? It should probably come as no surprise that it's a legal one. Lessig argues for a scheme rather similar to some laws proposed or passed in some of the states. First of all, advertisers would be legally obligated to add a filterable [ADV:] to their subject lines, and secondly, the government would offer bounties for people who track down spammers operating outside of this scheme, with funds to come from the spammer's own pockets.

Color me sympathetic, but cynical. I'm sure you've all read one of us Ars folks bitching about the amount of spam we get. I've been pretty happy with SpamNet so far, but I've got to admit that it would be nicer to never receive those messages in the first place. Still, could national anti-spam legislation ever work? Even assuming that this proposed law wiped out spam in the United States, it seems to me that spammers would just move overseas. Heck, I already get a decent amount of stuff from countries that wouldn't be likely to respect a $10,000 fine ordered by the USA. Everything from Nigerian money scams to Asian manufacturing concerns looking for stateside distributors.

[Discussion]

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