Neowin.net

Thanks for the heads up Frank. It appears, that as nice as it originally sounded, aluminium is still not see through. Here's a snipet for you!

Oops. Bad Fish Causes Gurgling.

Bad News: I jumped to some erroneous conclusions, and my mailbox exploded. Transparent Aluminium doesn't exist.

Good News: This indicates many polite, educated people are actually reading the site, as none of the mail called me an idiot and about 80% of it was thoroughly educational.

Point of contention: The article states the substance in question is alumina, which I presumed was simply a German spelling of aluminum (despite being closer to a latin-based spelling)...partially spurred on by the caption to the picture in the original article actually saying "transparent aluminum." My science background not being in chemistry, I completely missed that alumina is shorthand for aluminium oxide... a ceramic, which is why it makes more sense for a company specializing in ceramics to have developed a transparent version of it.

Oh well.....


View: Sci-Fighter Article

I’m tired of spam. It's number two behind AOL for things I despise about the Internet. This morning I opened Outlook Express to find about 50 new messages, two of which were from someone I knew or a newsletter I signed up for. It’s really is getting ridiculous. Of the one to two hundred emails I receive daily about 95% is spam. Subject after subject of Earn Extra Money From Home!, Use Our Software to Become a Net Detective! I don’t know how these guys do it. Who buys things from these people so that they are encouraged to blast out another 2,000,000 emails to a harvested list?

Nobody likes unsolicited email. But what are the best ways to get rid of it and keep it from coming back? I have put together a few simple steps that should help.

Don’t reply to unsubscribe. On almost every piece of spam there is the “Reply to this address to unsubscribe” option at the bottom. Don’t do it. All this does is let the spammer know that they have found an account that is still active. Even if they do stop, you can bet your lunch money that they will sell it to someone who will be more than happy to use it.

Report unsolicited mail to the FTC. In the Federal Trade Commission’s effort to eliminate spam, they have setup an email address that you can use to forward spam to them to investigate (uce@ftc.gov). This can be especially useful for unsolicited mail that comes from the same company or advertises the same product.

Don’t post your email address on websites. Most email addresses used in spam mailing lists are harvested by programs scanning random websites for email addresses. Sometimes this can’t be avoided. There are several programs that will allow you to post your address in a format that cannot be read by the ‘spambots’ that search pages. Some of the better known are Spammotel and Spamsecure. You could also use an address you rarely check, such as a free account. That is more of a hassle than you should have to go thru though.

When you get an unwanted message, block it. Almost all email programs, including those for the web include blocking and filtering technology. In a matter of clicks you could have the senders address blocked for good. The only drawback is that most spammers have adapted to this barrier by simply changing their address on each mailing, so its effectiveness is very limited.

Don’t respond to the SPAM. Don’t visit the website. Don’t reply for more information. Definitely do not purchase anything from someone who sends you unsolicited mail. By doing so you are simply telling the spammer that it is okay for them to invade your privacy and use your resouces, in fact it rewards them for it. This may be the best way to deter spam. Nobody will pay $500 for a mass mailing if they know they will not get a return on their investment.

Setup a Spam only account. This is what I have started to do. I setup an mailbox on my domain that I use when I shop online, download shareware or anything else that asks me for my email address. This way if I get junk email, I don't have to look at it. Of course not everyone feels like doing this, and in some cases it just eats up valuable resources.

Hopefully by implementing these measures I can slow down the flow of junk mail to my inbox. I doubt seriously that spam will ever completely go away. The only way that will ever happen is if its stops becoming profitable. That is where we come in. Until we stop giving these guys our money we will not stop getting emails that tell us that we can make $45,000,000 in the next two months.

Well I gotta go check my spam, um I mean email…