The only thing …

The only thing that worries me about such an astonishing invention is that the marketing weenies are going to take advantage of it. Can you imagine walking down the street and suddenly hearing “Buy Coca-Cola” inside your head? This, in my opinion, is the worst form of privacy invasion because you can’t control what you hear. It’s a remarkable breakthrough, though. I just hope it’s used appropriately and with discretion. [via Madman]

I can’t figure out why a reader would submit this link, except that perhaps it is an amazingly bad example of web design. Of course, it’s a Microsoft Front Page site. Don’t forget to be mesmerised by the “webdesigners” page.

This guy wonders why Microsoft is dead silent about the amount of spam its Hotmail servers receive. It must be costing them a fortune in hardware and bandwidth. I have no proof whatsoever, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to learn that Microsoft either sells its Hotmail account databases to “marketers” or is accepting money in exchange for funneling spam. They’ve got to make money off their investment somehow. I gave up a long time ago keeping my Hotmail inbox clean. Now I just let it fill up with spam until it meets its disk quota. Every couple of months I log in to re-activate the account, just in case I need a Microsoft Passport for something. My biggest fear is that Microsoft will cut a deal with the government to use their Passport technology for a national digital ID system.

A reader writes:

Not only is Microsoft letting spammers bombard MSN, they are giving us the option of getting a bigger mailbox for the low-price of $19.95 a year so we can get even more spam. Isn’t life grand?

And so Microsoft loses more customers who are fed up with the levels of spam. It’s common sense that if Microsoft offered a spam-free webmail box, they’d retain and attract more customers for their Hotmail system, many who would likely fork over the money for added services. Microsoft is only shooting themselves in the foot by not blocking spam for their users.

Motley Fool: Monster earnings for Pixar. I’m not surpirsed. PIXR is the only stock in my portfolio that is doing well. It’s up about 35% since I bought it. By weird coincidence today I am wearing a Toy Story 2 t-shirt that Dan gave me a couple years ago.

NY Times: The Scooter Trash and the Weekend Warriors. The yuppies are infiltrating the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It sure is different these days. When I was in first grade (summer of 1979) my family lived in Sturgis, South Dakota and the week of the motorcycle rally was the only week my parents forbid me to ride my bike downtown. These days, families are an integral part of the rally, which seems to get bigger every year. All in the name of commercialism, I guess.

New Yorker: Why George Bush is scared of Ron Kirk

Reading this story about how college funds are being affected by the stock market, I caught the tidbit about a guy whose stock in TYCO has dropped 80% because the sprinkler manufacturing company he retired from was acquired by Tyco. It made me realize that these large holding companies like Tyco are dragging otherwise good/solid companies down the toilet with them.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at August 9, 2002 01:16 PM

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