:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 12.10.2004 ::
:: "Sleighbells & Whistles" ::
Slip a Geek Book Under the Tree
From Wired News
ยป Tech gifts needn't be electronic. Geeks and non-geeks alike can enjoy the old-fashioned pleasure of curling up by the fire with a good read. Michelle Delio reviews a passel of new books just in time for the holiday season.
Sample review:
Tales of spam and woe: Technology reporter Brian McWilliams' Spam Kings: The Real Story Behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements ($23) is not fiction, though it's easy to see how someone might mistake it for a novel with characters like Dr. Fatburn, Terri Tickle, Mad Pierre and the Spam King himself -- Davis Hawke, a chess-geek Jewish neo-Nazi who turned to pushing penis pills only after he sadly accepted the fact that he was never going to be the next Hitler.
But wait, there's more: Jason Vale, a cancer patient who knows beyond a doubt that he was cured by taking Laetrile, a treatment that some cancer specialists dismiss as a toxic fraud. Medical protests aside, Vale wanted to save other cancer patients and make a tidy profit for himself, and he's been spamming ever since. Chances are if you ever received a cancer-cure spam, it came from Vale.
And remember those spams promising $5,000 for information on such time-travel gadgets as a Dimensional Warp Generator? McWilliams tracked the sender down and discovered a mentally disturbed 22-year-old who worked as a spammer specializing in sending out "Free Government Grants" messages by day; by night he e-mailed plaintive pleas for time- and space-travel gear that would help him flee this scary and sad dimension.
McWilliams has written a true crime thriller with just enough geek-pleasing details on how spam outfits work, interspersed into a rich and fascinating tale that documents the lives, loves and motivations of several spammers, as well as the antispam activists who are bound and determined to get these dorks offline and into jail.
If you've ever wondered who is behind those bizarre e-mails that promise you improved body parts, your own harem of nubile and alarmingly eager ladies, and plenty of money for nothing, read Spam Kings. You'll be horrified -- when you're not laughing like a lunatic.
(Revolution in the Valley, Tangent, Mind Hacks: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain in the World, & User Friendly are also reviewed.)
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 10:23:00 AM [+] ::
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