SpamCop: A cure that's worse than the disease

SpamCop and I go back a long way. I subscribed to the service many years ago and still have a few dollars worth of credits with the organization. Recently the vigilante aspect of SpamCop has gotten entirely out of hand. Today (October 14, 2006), for example, SpamCop has listed both Wide Open West (my Internet service provider) and Indiana University (where I'm the co-owner of a discussion list for editors) as a source of spam. Their real-time blacklist, which is used by many ISPs, is causing mail from Copyediting-L and mail I send through smtp.mail.wowway.com to be bounced. Grrrr!

The WOW block, as far as I can tell, is new. Indiana University has been wrestling with the problem for nearly two weeks now. One of the editors on the list wrote on her blog, "The word that comes to mind is 'iatrogenic.' I didn't even have to look it up; I've loved this word for years, ever since I read it in a discussion of childbed (puerperal) fever. Women generally got childbed fever because their attendants had dirty hands. These attendants were usually doctors, because midwives knew enough to wash their hands. So 'iatrogenic' refers to problems caused by attempts to solve a problem. SpamCoppers, are you listening?" Read the rest of it here.

When I wrote to thank her for the comments, my message bounced:
The original message was received at Sat, 14 Oct 2006 05:54:10 -0500
from d149-67-27-215.col.wideopenwest.com [67.149.215.27]
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<email.address.was.here>
(reason: 551 Connection refused. Your ip number 64.233.207.24 was found on the
spamcopbl.gis.net RBL database)

How to resolve the problem?

One might think that it would be easy to resolve the problem with a phone call like this:

Spamcop: SpamCop.
Indiana University: Hi, this is the system admin at Indiana University. It seems that you've listed one of our IP addresses on your blacklist.
Spamcop: Yes, that seems to be the case.
Indiana University: Well, we're a university and we operate a lot of discussion lists. Subscribers are being inconvenienced.
Spamcop: Right. We understand that sometimes spam complaints are made in error. We'll take care of it right away. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Indiana University: Thank you.

One would be wrong, however, because SpamCop has no published phone number. No published e-mail address for support. Nothing. This is SpamCop's idea of a "solution":

How can I get removed from SpamCop's blocking system?
The short answer is that you cannot be removed.
SpamCop automatically handles blocking and unblocking of ISPs. If SpamCop continues to receive reports of spam originating from the networks you are responsible for, those networks will continue to be blocked. If not, then you will be unblocked by SpamCop automatically after 24 hours.

When I looked up WOW's IP address, SpamCop said, "If there are no reports of ongoing objectionable email from this system it will be delisted automatically in approximately 17 hours." So meanwhile, anyone who wants to send mail from WOW to a user whose ISP is dumb enough to use SpamCop will not be able to get through.

Near the bottom of the page is a space where I can dispute the listing: "If you are the administrator of this system and you are sure this listing is erroneous, you may request that we review the listing. Because everyone wants to dispute their listing, regardless of merit, we reserve the right to ignore meritless disputes."

In other words, "We make the rules. We interpret the rules. If you don't like it, tough!"

What will it take to wrest the office
away from Microsoft Office?

Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on standard office applications -- Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, and Access. Neither Open Office nor Corel Wordperfect offers the full line-up. Within the next several months, Microsoft will release Office 2007, the new version of the suite that's been in development since 2003. The user interface will change dramatically and that will perplex some users. There's also the cost of upgrading. Upgrading one or two copies in a small office might not be a big deal, but upgrading tens of thousands of copies in a large corporation will be expensive. Managers may look more closely at Wordperfect's office suite, which is less expensive, or at Open Office, which is free.

Neither offers a unified e-mail/task/calendar application such as Outlook. Wordperfect has an e-mail client, but it doesn't work work with an Outlook Exchange server. For a lot of people, that's a critical requirement. Open Office has no e-mail client. Not all companies use an Exchange server, though, and those who need calendar/task management that can be shared can choose from several free on-line services. If their e-mail system runs on IMAP or POP3, nearly any e-mail application will work.

So for some of us, there are options other than the one from Microsoft.

I like the idea of Open Office, but not always the implementation. On a Mac, Open Office won't run as a native application. You'll need to install the X11 X-Window system. This is an antique with roots in the 1980s. The current protocol was developed in 1987. Open Office is an application that runs natively on Windows machines, though. Windows is, of course, what most office workers use.

Each of the applications in Open Office is less robust than the Microsoft equivalent, but maybe you don't need all the robustness that Microsoft provides. And in some cases, the Open Office version is better. For example, I sometimes receive an Excel file that has been created by a database application that runs on Oracle. Excel cannot open these files; it claims that the file has been damaged. OpenOffice Calc, on the other hand, opens the files without a problem and saves them in Excel format. Then Excel can open the file.

Writer offers features similar to those in Microsoft Word and can both read and write Word files. Writer can save files in Adobe PDF format. Writer makes many functions from Calc (the Open Office equivalent of Excel) available in Writer tables.

• Calc is the Open Office spreadsheet program.
• Impress is similar PowerPoint and can export presentations in Adobe Flash format. Impress is probably the weakest application in the suite.
• Base is the database application. It allows the user to create databases in Access JET format, ODBC, and MySQL/PostgreSQL. Base was added to Open Office in version 2.
• Draw is a vector graphics editor patterned after Corel Draw. It has no Microsoft Office equivalent.
• Math is similar to Microsoft's Equation Editor. Formulas created in Math can be embedded in other Open Office documents.
• Quickstarter is a useless application that automatically starts with Windows and loads core files and libraries for Open Office. If you use Open Office, turn this off.
• The Open Office macro recorder can record user actions and replay them. This feature can be compared to Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). It is based on StarOffice Basic.

		When you install OpenOffice, the application will ask if you want it to answer for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. Instead of just assuming you want OO to take over for MS Office, the default is to leave things as they are. Click any of the images for a larger view.
		When you've installed the suite, you'll have OOWriter, OOBase, OOCalc, OODraw, OOImpress, and OOMath. Writer and Calc are robust applications. Draw and Impress are not. Math is the equivalent of Microsoft's formula editor.
		Writer's default format isn't "doc", but it can open Word files without problem. Most of Word's features are available, although Writer may call them something else. Before deciding to replace Office with Open Office, it's important for you to examine each of the applications to be sure that the features you need are present.
		The second most important application in Microsoft Office (for most people) is Excel. OpenOffice Calc imports even complicated Excel files with little problem.
		Yes, Open Office Base can convert a Microsoft Access database to Open Office format!
		The Access tables convert to OOBase, but some of the additional components (forms, for example) seem to disappear during the process. I suspect that most people who use OOBase will use it with MySQL. (Just a guess.)
		It's not Corel Draw and it's not WIMP. You can draw simple things with Open Office Draw, but if you give it to your graphic designer, she'll leave in a huff. (A huff, by the way, looks a lot like a 1949 Plymouth coupe.)
		Impress will allow you to open an existing presentation (including PowerPoint) or create your own.
		Impress is probably the least impressive part of the Open Office suite and I didn't write that just to be a smart ass. Impress doesn't handle transparency properly and cannot deal with most of PowerPoint's advanced animations. If PowerPoint is a critical part of your regular workflow, do not try to replace Office with OpenOffice.

Overall: If you need the features that Microsoft Office provides, you need Microsoft Office. If not, Open Office is an outstanding bargain. (3 cats)

Microsoft's Office Suite clearly leads when it comes to features, but not everyone needs all the features. If you're one of those people Open Office might be right for you. The Mac version still requires using X-Windows (X.11), which makes it a non-starter as far as I'm concerned. If you're a Linux user, this is the right choice for you. You can download Open Office here.

Nerdly News

Who will download which browser?

IT Vibe, a British tech news service conducted a survey of its readers. Which browser will you download: Internet Explorer 7, FireFox 2, both, or neither. It's important to note that surveys such as this one and those operated by radio and television stations that allow those who take the survey to select themselves as survey participants are worse than useless. They're misleading. So take the results with the appropriate warnings.

IT Vibe doesn't even say how many people took the survey, so it might be 10 people or it might be 10,000. In the final analysis, that doesn't really matter.

The useless and untrustworthy results are: 39% for Firefox, 35% for both, 19% for IE7, and 7% for neither.

The technorati are Firefox fans and IT Vibe could reasonably be expected to attract many of the technorati ("The name Technorati is a portmanteau, pointing to the technological version of literati or intellectuals." --Wikipedia) so it's unsurprising that the largest number say they will download Firefox or that the second largest number will download both browsers. The technorati, after all, want to know what's going on. So if the first 2 are unsurprising, maybe the final 2 are, also. Nearly 1 in 5 say they will download just IE7. That is a bit surprising given IT Vibe's core audience. Even more surprising is that 7% will continue using what they have now. That could be IE6 on Windows 2000, which cannot be upgraded to IE7. It might represent Mac users, who have Safari and haven't had a new version of IE since 5.2. It might be Linux users (although I would expect them to download Firefox.)

But, as I said, the survey is just silly fluff.

"Battery" and "recall" didn't always occur in the same sentence.

Sony's earnings dropped 94% in the quarter that ended in November and things don't look much better for this quarter. Last year, Sony earned $240 million in its 2nd quarter. That dropped to $14 million this year. Sony has already taken a $430 million charge for the quarter and most of that is attributed to battery recall issues.

If you haven't been keeping track, the recall of Sony batteries has now increased to nearly 10 million units worldwide. The batteries pose a fire hazard and they're used by Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and most other manufacturers of portable computers, including Sony

Ouch.

Does your car have a 10-year warranty?

Technology Corner doesn't usually talk about cars, but this is worth noting. Hyundai Motor America says it is extending its 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty through 2010. Remember when Korean cars were given little chance of success in the U.S. market?

"Ten-year warranty coverage is only possible because of the extremely high quality standards Hyundai has achieved, and we’re excited to offer new Hyundai owners this benefit for at least the next four years," says Steve Wilhite, HMA chief operating officer.

According to Ward's Automotive, Hyundai also has a 5-year, 60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and 7-year, unlimited anti-perforation coverage included in its Hyundai Advantage warranty. The warranty was introduced in 1999 and Hyundai has sold 2,750,000 cars in the United States since then.

Also this week, Ford closed the Atlanta Assembly Plant after assembling the final Taurus, which helped pull Ford out of one of its darkest periods. In its early years, the Taurus outsold Toyota's Camry. I bought one during the early years and by 1992 the Taurus was the top-selling passenger car in the US.

The Taurus was the top seller until 1997, when the Toyota Camry took over. Taurus sales in 2006 dropped to less than 200,000 units, most of which went to rental fleets. This is not a profitable market. Even with rental fleet sales, the Taurus is now the 8th best-selling car in the US.

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