Infórmatica

Cabina Oviedo...

Pues eso, un borracho hoy por la mañana se la han cargado...

Cabina en Oviedo...14 Junio

Ahi va....

JoyToGo specs, divx, mpeg4 captura y reproduce

Seen some of this news pop up before, but here are some new specifications on two rather interesting products from AnexTek Global: the "JoyToGo" and "Black Diamond". Bot use HDD-technology for storage purposes.

JoyToGo specs:

1.8" HDD, 20GB or 30GB
480×234 2.5" colour LCD
Supports MP3, WMA
Supports MPEG-4, (Motion-)JPEG, DivX 5.0
SD memory slot
Built-in speakers
Docking station (enables direct-recording to MPEG-4, up to 640x480 @ 25fps)
95.6×73.1×26.7mm
Release planned for September 2004
http://www.austinv.com/pics/joytogo.jpg

Baterias de movil solares...

Gawker Media Web Dork Prime Nick Aster sends us this link to Sunpower's solar assisted cell-phone batteries available for a variety of Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and Nextel-branded phones. You won't be making phone calls with our star's light alone, but on a sunny day the Sunpower batteries can manage to add about 15 minutes of talk time to your battery for every hour they spend charging. Depending on how actively you use your phone (and what part of Arizona you live in), your phone might not have to hit the charger at all. Prices run from about $40 to $60 per battery via their website.

http://www.snpower.com/

Lo mejor del E3 : Game Critics Awards

Lo mejor de E3: Sony PSP

Juego mas original: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Mejor juego de PC: Splinter Cell 3

Mejor juego de consolas: Halo 2

Mejor harware: PSP

Mejor juego de acción: Halo 2

Mejor juego de acción/aventura: Splinter Cell 3

Mejor juego de lucha: Def Jam: Fight for New York

Mejor RPG: Jade Empire

Mejor juego de conducción: Burnout 3

Mejor juego de simulación: The Sims 2

Mejor juego de deportes: Madden NFL 2005

Mejor juego de estrategia: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth

Mejor juego de puzzles: Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat

Mejo juego multijugador online: Halo 2

Mención especial de gráficos: Splinter Cell 3

Are you a Geek ?

41.8146% - Major Geek

http://www.innergeek.us/geek.html

TREMCAST - Dreamcast portatil

First up ladies and gentelmen is the rather nice Treamcast - a portable dreamcast with an LCD screen built into the lid, runs any DC disc, plays VCDs and music CD's and can run from a car lighter socket so is good for those long journeys.
Crazy Taxi anyone?

http://www.gbax.com/new/retro.html

Grabadoras DVD+DL Doble cara en Taipei

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpc.watch.impress.co.jp%2Fdocs%2F2004%2F0602%2Fcomp05.htm&lp=ja_en

How Sony Cemented iPod's Supremacy

In the March 2004 article "Heir to Walkman's Throne," iPodlounge examined three companies - Sony, Microsoft, and Apple - and the products they have touted as successors to Sony's Walkman, or "iPod killers." We ended the article without reaching a conclusion as to which of the companies' products will actually replace the Walkman, though we did have some feelings on that subject at the time.

After three separate events last week, we now strongly believe that one company has effectively eliminated itself as a contender to the next-generation Walkman crown: Sony. Controversial though it may initially seem, we will explain our conclusion in light of the three bad moves Sony made over only several days time, including our hands-on experiences with the PlayStation Portable music, movie and game playing "Walkman of the Future," Sony's unexpected premiere of a completely separate "iPod killer," the hard disk-based VAIO Pocket, and finally, its disappointing launch of the Sony Connect music store.

PlayStation Portable

Los Angeles is not the first place you'd expect a Japanese electronics giant to unveil its newest product, but with generally friendly journalists already in town for the annual Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) show, Sony couldn't have picked a more receptive audience. And, in fact, it did pick its audience, restricting invitations to its downtown pre-E3 press conference, selectively denying advance requests from journalists to attend the event, and posting security screeners at its gates to turn away unwelcome attendees.



There was good reason for Sony to be concerned; skeptical journalists would have seen through the artifice it had planned. The debut of its PlayStation Portable (PSP) was to be a carefully stage-managed event, starting with the presentation of a supposedly working prototype of the device that appeared to be physically larger than the product Sony promised to deliver. Compounding the intrigue, Sony would never actually show the prototype playing a game; instead, it would only be used to show six or seven minutes worth of pre-recorded music video and movie trailer content. Finally, key developer Electronic Arts would present upcoming software on a large video screen - rather than on the prototype - and precede its showing with an unusually legalistic disclaimer: the audience would be watching a video capture from a PC emulating "early specifications that Sony released in their public statements about the PlayStation Portable."

The quote seemed to confirm what developers had been whispering for days if not weeks before the event: as of May 2004, Sony hadn't finished the device they were supposed to be manufacturing for a huge fourth-quarter 2004 Japanese launch, and no games were really ready, either. Only days earlier, The Wall Street Journal had reported that key game developer Square Enix - minority-owned by Sony - was "still not sure what Sony wants to do with [the PSP] - that's a problem[,]" and didn't know whether PSP would "be a game machine or a Video Walkman[.]" Consequently, Square Enix's contribution to the PSP press conference was merely footage from a straight-to-video movie it planned to release. As the United States release date of the PSP had already slipped to 2005, even members of Sony's hand-picked friendly audience began to wonder when and how the company actually intended to sell its new device. If PSP was to be the "Walkman of the Future," some began to suspect that the future wasn't about to start any time soon.

Many observers hoped that Sony would leak additional details on one of the three official days of the E3 show, but it didn't. A small, roped-off section of Sony's booth allowed people to stand in line to photograph or touch actual-sized prototype PSP shells, which were wired to display Evanescence music videos, the Spiderman 2 movie trailer, and pre-recorded game footage. Three kiosks, rumored to be PSP casings wired to PC emulation hardware, displayed modestly interactive game demonstrations. The Sony representative on the floor would not confirm whether the prototype PSPs were actually running the games they were showing, or whether they had working UMD discs inside. After extended probing, two noted journalists claimed that the only "real" prototype at the show was a larger-sized unit being carried in the jacket pocket of Sony COO and PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi, a claim we could not independently verify.



More importantly, Sony refused to disclose at E3 two critical facts regarding the new platform: its price and actual battery life. Though developers have been led to believe the PSP will launch at a price point between $249 and $299, one Sony executive previously went on record with a 48,000 yen price estimate - translating to approximately $420 U.S. or 350 Euros. Sony representatives at E3 would only say that the company was waiting to see what component prices looked like closer to the unit's release, and that the PSP's battery might range in performance "comparable to portable DVD players" at "two and a half hours," and music players at "approximately eight hours."

Finally, as we discovered at the show, the weakest link in the PSP's chain of Walkman appeal is its utility as a music player: you can't record on its discs, only on Memory Stick Duo Pro flash cards, which are sold separately. As of today, it's a foregone conclusion that any device based on pre-recorded discs or flash cards doesn't have a prayer of beating the iPod, and this is especially true if either medium is a proprietary new Sony format. (Recall Betamax, MiniDisc, and any number of other Sony format flops.) But those are the only media the PSP uses, so unless your favorite artist releases music on UMDs or you want to shell out for the expensive newest-generation Memory Sticks (512 Megabytes = $250 and up), the only music you'll hear on a PSP will be in the background of a game.

In sum, even if Sony's PlayStation Portable turns out to be a popular portable game console - which would itself be a historical anomaly given Nintendo's dominance with sub-$100 portable game hardware - we think that the chances of the device becoming the "Walkman of the Future" are close to zero. Unless there is a dramatic breakthrough in flash memory prices, the immediate future of portable audio entertainment is in hard disk-based solutions.

VAIO Pocket

In order to appreciate what we're about to describe, it's important to understand the corporate bureaucracy that is Sony, a Japanese corporation that includes several distinct subsidiaries, each a separate fiefdom with unique assets and a prince-like leader. Though all of the subsidiaries are overseen by Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei, who was incidentally named one of the world's worst corporate managers by Business Week magazine last year, each subsidiary operates more or less independently, developing products that compete with other Sony offerings almost as frequently as those from other companies.



Sony's internal conflicts manifested most dramatically last week when two of its subsidiaries unveiled products that arguably contradict each other: in the Western hemisphere, a U.S.-based Sony executive was unveiling the "Walkman of the Future," PlayStation Portable, only one day after his Japan-based counterparts had debuted the "iPod killer" VAIO Pocket, a hard disk-based handheld jukebox with a color screen. Assuming that the devices came out at roughly the same time - as they might if Sony intended to stick to its announced release dates - they would be competing iPod alternatives, each based on different technologies, media formats, and marketing schemes, yet both from the same company.

Clearly, the VAIO Pocket is Sony's most desperate attempt to clone the iPod: it acknowledges the strength of Apple's packaging by trying to be stylish, the simplicity of the iPod's large touch wheel interface by using an odd square of touch-sensitive nubs called "G-Sense," and the power of Apple's chosen storage medium by including a hard disk.

More interestingly, the VAIO Pocket avoids all of Sony's prior music and portable brand names, including Walkman, Network Walkman, and CLIE, instead relying on the branding of the company's personal computer line. And it adds two features the iPod lacks: extended (20 hour) battery life and a color screen. The color screen can be used to display digital photos, but apparently not movies or other video content.

But in addition to being physically larger than the iPod - an issue that has dogged other iPod competitors - the VAIO Pocket, like the PlayStation Portable, has two critical Achilles' Heels: the first is Sony's proprietary standards. As is the case with Sony's other digital music devices, the VAIO Pocket requires users to convert their songs into the proprietary Sony ATRAC audio format, which takes more time and hassle than transferring MP3s straight onto an iPod. Notably, users of other Sony devices have previously complained loudly about the poor performance and stability of Sony's ATRAC conversion and uploading software.

The second problem is a high price: at 53,000 yen (currently $468 U.S. or 390 Euros), the 20GB VAIO Pocket will cost about as much as a 40GB iPod, itself currently a low seller relative to Apple's more popular mini, 15GB and 20GB iPods. Given that consumers have complained about the iPod's price, the prospects for a product that is relatively more expensive, larger, and requires ATRAC conversion software are very weak.

The Final Nail in the Coffin: Sony Connect

It would have been a bad enough week for Sony if the company had only shown two products that were unlikely to knock the iPod off its perch, but on May 7, the company launched Sony Connect, a competitor to Apple's iTunes Music Store. Relying on a digital jukebox program called SonicStage, which pales in comparison with the sophisticated iTunes, Sony Connect cloned parts of Apple's pay-per-download music strategy, but poorly.



Within days of its debut, Sony Connect had been roundly criticized from all corners, including deep complaints from The New York Times ("almost embarrassingly crude," "maybe they ought to call it Sony Disconnect"), USA Today ("a flop," "poorly designed," "confusing"), and others. Not only did users and critics complain about the software and Sony's music library, but prices earned scorn as well: Sony decided to ask double their standard charge for tracks longer than seven minutes in length, a perceived "price creeping" violation of Apple's consistent and popular 99 cent per track philosophy.

Sony Connect's biggest limitation: like Sony's audio devices, it only uses songs in ATRAC format, which renders the service next to useless for both iPod users and those with WMA-based audio players. And its biggest "uh oh" for the future? Sony has touted Sony Connect as its centerpiece for selling music, and potentially downloadable games, for both the PlayStation Portable and VAIO Pocket devices. That's only a good thing if you can accept the fact that you can't easily convert anything you bought from iTunes, Napster, or other paid services and use it with Sony's products.

Historically, Sony's record with personal computer software has been terrible: application bugs, refusal to update drivers for anything other than recently-released computers, and other issues have plagued Sony's PC development efforts. As a result, we remain skeptical of their ability to fix the problems with Sony Connect any time in the near future - and certainly even more skeptical that the company will catch up with iTunes or the iTunes Music Store.

Concluding Thoughts

Stepping briefly out from the curtain to offer a personal opinion as the primary author of this piece, I would like to add the following: after roughly a dozen years writing about electronic entertainment products, I've seen plenty of interesting new technologies - enough to know the difference between likely hits and certain misses. Last year, I was one of the first writers to publish a print article tearing apart 2003's false prophet of consumer electronics, Nokia's $299 N-Gage, which tantalized some writers and analysts by blending MP3 and game playing features with a cellular phone. Nokia's size and large advertising budget encouraged less than critical early journalism on the platform, and it was only after the N-Gage crashed spectacularly on launch that supposedly informed critics were willing to publicly condemn it.



Given the tricks Sony appears to be pulling with the PlayStation Portable, from manipulating journalists to refusing to disclose key launch details, as well as the mistakes it has made with its ATRAC format, its consistently high pricing, and the near-universal condemnation of the only legal download service available for its platforms, I and we at iPodlounge feel quite strongly that Sony is too organizationally confused to mount an effective challenge to the iPod juggernaut. Even if we are wrong, and the company releases the PSP for $199, we think that its proprietary media formats and likely release date will cripple its appeal as an iPod-competitive audio device. At best, it will be the Gameboy of the Future, and nothing more. Similarly, even if the VAIO Pocket was cheaper and offered direct MP3 playback support, Apple's lead with the iPod now is so large that Sony would be hard pressed to match it.

Some may prefer to dismiss our conclusions, especially in light of the otherwise under-critical press the PSP and VAIO Pocket have previously received, and particularly given that iPodlounge is, after all, an iPod-specific site. Bear in mind, however, that we continue to keep an eye on all emerging technologies, and have previously complimented iPod competitors when they have bested Apple on features or pricing. Our feelings about Sony's PSP, VAIO Pocket, and Sony Connect should therefore be understood for what they are: critical, but reached after hands-on testing and serious consideration.

When Sony first disclosed the concept for the PlayStation Portable last year and called it the "Walkman of the Future," it was clearly jabbing at Apple's global success with the iPod. But after using and learning more about the PSP last week, we're now convinced that Apple, not Sony, has already landed the knock-out punch in the Walkman wars. Only time will tell whether Sony will keep trying for a rematch, or take the wiser road and join forces with a clear winner. The sooner it abandons its obsession with proprietary encryption and storage mediums, the sooner consumers will return en masse to its products. In the meanwhile, the digital music revolution definitely won't be waiting around for Sony.

Renegades of the empire...

Alex St. John

Arranque del DooM 95....

Digital joystick support by Marcus Andrews
Orchestrated by Alex St. John
Kudos to Craig Eisler, Eric Engstrom and Todd Laney
Grudging respect to Robert Hess
Additional assistance by Monolith, Inc.


Craig Eisler


Eric Engstrom

Fedora Core 2 Released...

What is The Fedora Project?

The Fedora Project is a Red-Hat-sponsored and community-supported open source project. It is also a proving ground for new technology that may eventually make its way into Red Hat products. It is not a supported product of Red Hat, Inc.

The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from free software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora Core about 2-3 times a year with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in the building of Fedora Core and will invite and encourage more outside participation than was possible in Red Hat Linux. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system that uses free software development practices and is more appealing to the open source community.

To learn more about the process, refer to About, the Objectives, and the FAQs.
Fedora Core 2 Available!

Fedora Core 2 is now available from Red Hat and at distinguished mirror sites near you, and is also available in the torrent. Fedora Core has expanded in this release to four binary ISO images and four source ISO images, and is available for both x86-64 and i386. Please file bugs via Bugzilla, Product Fedora Core, Version 2, so that they are noticed and appropriately classified. Discuss this release on fedora-list.

http://fedora.redhat.com/download/#download

http://www.tlm-project.org/distributions/

Tengo que echarle un ojo al Turbo Linux...

http://www.turbolinux.com/support/download/

Se aprueba la propuesta sobre patentes de 'software' con el rechazo de España

El Consejo de Competitividad de la UE alcanzó un acuerdo político sobre la directiva de patentabilidad de invenciones aplicadas en ordenador con el voto en contra de España, que no halló suficientes garantías para evitar que las multinacionales de la informática se apoyen en esta norma para patentar programas informáticos.
Martes, 18 mayo 2004
AMIGOT NEWS / EUROPA PRESS
Formalmente, la norma sola pretende regular las patentes de programas informáticos que tengan aplicaciones en "invenciones técnicas" --un automóvil, una impresora o cualquier otra maquinaria-- y en la medida en que tengan esta implicación con la invención.

Los programas informáticos en sí son considerados en la UE como ideas y no puede por tanto ser protegido por su creador con patentes industriales, sino con el régimen más flexible de derechos de autor --a diferencia de lo que ocurre en Estados Unidos donde sí pueden patentarse--.

Sin embargo, organizaciones de usuarios y defensores del llamado software libre, han alertado de que la redacción de la nueva directiva tiene zonas grises que abre la puerta a la posibilidad de patentar programas, lo que llevó al Parlamento Europeo, en primera lectura, a aprobar drásticas enmiendas que especificaban la imposibilidad de estas actuaciones.

La presidencia irlandesa y la Comisión Europea asumieron algunas de estas enmiendas en este sentido. Entre otras cosas, introdujo la prohibición "de patentar software en tanto que tal" en el articulado, y aclaró la definición de "innovación técnica" que justificará la patente de algunos programas informáticos.

Los cambios satisficieron a Bélgica --que cambió del voto en contra por la abstención-- y a Alemania --de la abstención al voto a favor--, pero no a España. El secretario de Estado de Asuntos Europeos, Alberto Navarro, "tras consultar con Madrid", decidió expresar un voto negativo, tal como el Gobierno había anunciado antes del inicio del Consejo. Italia y Austria se abstuvieron.

En rueda de prensa, Navarro justificó el voto al hecho de que "este es un tema muy sensible" en aquellas comunidades autónomas cuya administración "utilizan software libre" --Andalucía, Extremadura y Valencia--, aunque reconoció que las enmiendas "constituyen un gran avance" y no descartó que España reconsidere su posición "tras estudiar detenidamente como ha quedado el texto".

http://iblnews.com/noticias/05/107878.html

It's patently clear: EU now leaning toward software patenting

The European Union took a big step Tuesday in a relentless march toward software patenting. To the dismay and anger of many in the open source/free software movement, a meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council in Brussels won approval for a new draft, which must now go before the directly elected European Parliament later this year.

Previous amendments tossed aside

Last September, the proposed software patents directive was heavily amended by the Parliament. The majority of those amendments confirmed the status quo and would have kept software beyond the reach of patents. Tuesday's decision means that those amendments have now been thrown aside.

The new agreed-upon draft was strongly promoted and driven forward by the Irish Minister for Trade and Enterprise Mary Harney, who is also deputy prime minister. She has made patenting, including software, one of her priorities. Ireland currently holds the Presidency of the EU.

In a budget speech last December, she said: "The encouragement of patents is also a European and national priority. We want to give all possible support to the generation of new ideas and products. We are underlining that Ireland intends to become a world leader in converting ideas into jobs."

This strategy was further reinforced in the Irish Presidency's Programme for Competitiveness document: "The enforcement of intellectual property rights, a common regime for the community patent, community trade mark regulations, and the protection of software inventions form an important underpinning to the research and knowledge-based economy. We will ensure that progress is made in these areas."

Clearing up the Microsoft sponsorship

While Harney's pro-patent and zealous free enterprise approach is well known in Ireland, the country's stance has not been fully understood elsewhere.

For example, it has been alleged that the Irish Presidency was being sponsored by the Microsoft Corp. On investigation, however, the source of such speculation lies in the list of sponsors and contributors on the home page of the Irish presidency.

The sponsors listed on the site include a food company, a telco, a water company, and a car manufacturer. Microsoft is named as a contributor, alongside others such as Dell, two whiskey distillers, and a tour coach operator.

Press enquiries as to the fine details of the Microsoft contribution have so far gone unanswered, but industry sources believe that it amounts to the provision of server software for the duration of the Presidency, which ends in June.

More pertinently, the reasons for Ireland's conviction toward software patents lies in its economic relationship with the United States.

The Irish Times reported recently that U.S. investment in Ireland in 2003 was more than twice of that invested in China, amounting to more than $4.7 billion. Profits of U.S. companies based in Ireland rose by 45 percent in the same year.

What is central to the Irish government's cosiness toward software patenting is the presence of so many large U.S. technology companies in Ireland along with their enticing patent portfolios.

Yesterday's vote showed the Irish presidency's resolve for a new patent regime in Europe which, of course, may be of great benefit to Ireland in return. The country has placed many of its economic eggs in the information and communications technology basket.

Vote looms, but uphill struggle remains

The software patent directive still has to be put to a vote in the European Parliament in September, but following yesterday's vote it will now be an uphill struggle to defeat or amend it.

That battle is not yet over, according to James Heald of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. He told NewsForge: "It is harder to press amendments at second reading -- it requires absolute majorities -- but those were the sort of numbers we managed to get at first reading. So the vote in the autumn is likely to be on a knife-edge."

Direct elections will be held next month in all member states of the European Parliament. Heald said this "makes it especially important now to make candidates aware of just how important this is to so many of their constituents."

As part of that campaign, Free Software Foundation chief Richard Stallman has been touring European capitals speaking on the dangers of software patents. When he comes to Dublin next Monday, he won't be getting much of a welcome (OCead Mile Failte') from this Irish government.

Fergus Cassidy is a technology columnist with The Sunday Tribune in Dublin.

http://www.newsforge.com/trends/04/05/19/0738240.shtml

Forbes Names Slashdot as Best of the Web

Forbes recently named Slashdot as Best of the Web in its technology news category. In its Spring 2004 rankings, Slashdot was named in both the B2B and Consumer categories as a best in class news website.

--------
his tech-mecca Web log is the place for unrestrained Webheads who want to read highly technical news and trade posts about what's going on in the digital world. While links to news sites abound, what's here is governed by what posters care about, leaving the site a bit lopsided in focus. Techies who don't like ads can pay $5 for the right to see 1,000 ad-free pages. Regular surfers beware: Jargon is everywhere. If you don't speak geek, this is not the site for you.

BEST: Some posts offer smart takes on current events as they apply to the tech world, for instance the recent uproar over outsourcing.

WORST: Techie arrogance abounds. A FAQ on user login problems blithely notes that thousands of people have no trouble using the site, so the issue must be the user's computer.
--------

http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/review.jhtml?id=932

The Fight Against Spam, filtro de mail de Apple.

pam has become a supreme annoyance on the Internet. Everyone has to deal with it, just as everyone has to deal with telemarketers and mail-order catalogs in the real world.

However, assuming that we cannot get totally rid of it, spam can, to a large extent, be avoided by following a few simple rules. My goal in this series of three articles is not to provide you with the ultimate, fool-proof anti-spam strategy. Why? Because there isn't one, and I would be lying to you if I wrote that there was. What I will try to do is to list a few common-sense, easy-to-follow rules that should allow you to spend most of your time on the Web without having to worry.

In the first part of this series, we're going to focus on defining spam -- not an easy task, despite the appearances -- and see how you can start fighting against it. Once you have followed these steps, you will be just in time to read the following installments that focus on fine-tuning our strategy. They also feature an exclusive interview with Kim Silverman, principal research scientist and manager of spoken-language technologies at Apple, about Mail.app's junk-mail filtering capabilities.
Before We Start

As in my previous article, "A Security Primer for Mac OS X," let me remind you that your own needs may vary from what is listed here. This article is intended for home users and small businesses, but multinational companies or users who handle an unusual amount of mail every day will probably want to seek professional help and to rely on custom hardware and software solutions.
What Is Spam, Anyway?

When we say "spam" here on the Mac DevCenter, we rarely speak about the "tinned luncheon meat made largely from pork, developed in 1937."

Related Reading

Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition
By David Pogue
Table of Contents (PDF)
Index (PDF)
Sample Chapter

Read Online--Safari Search this book on Safari:


Code Fragments only

The definition of spam varies greatly from user to user, therefore raising issues in the detection and reporting processes. However, mails that have been sent to multiple users without their prior consent is generally considered to be spam.

An email sent on your request or sent to you specifically -- by a relative, a coworker, or someone who wants to hurt you in some way -- is technically not spam, although it can be just as dangerous and bothersome.

Emails sent by viruses in order to propagate themselves are usually not considered spam, although they can have a similar effect -- and be sometimes even worse, since their attachments weigh a lot and eat precious bandwidth.

Notifications sent to you by an overzealous provider about network status, bounces, delivery failures, and viruses are not technically spam, either.

Bounced spam is trickier: a spammer may have impersonated you and you are just receiving emails that did not reach their destinations or were bounced back by users. While you are technically not directly spammed, it is important to react quickly since the situation can quickly become unbearable.
Is There Such a Thing as Legitimate Spam?

In a way, yes -- although it probably shouldn't be called spam in this case, but "bulk mail." Many, if not most, web sites will ask you whether or not you will allow their "partners" to send "information" and "promotional offers" to the email address you provide to them.

As soon as you give your consent and allow multiple companies to use your address, the advertisers sending you mail are not necessarily at fault -- unless you can prove that they are sending you mails that pose a threat to the normal operation of your network or computer.

Most countries have specific laws regarding the use of contact information by third-party companies, making it difficult to establish what is and is not legal in your area. As a general rule, however, you can expect a site to follow the rule of the country it is located in, and not yours, even if it is stricter. That's why you should always have a look at where the company you are dealing with is located. A few countries ask foreign companies doing online business on their territory to follow local regulations, but unfortunately, the lack of a worldwide law enforcement system in such matters makes it almost impossible. Whether this is a bad or a good thing I don't know.

Usually, legal "spam" (notice the quotes) can be stopped: simply ask the company that sends it to you to stop, and it should work. If you do not want to receive the O'Reilly newsletter, contact O'Reilly: this will work much better than setting filters for it in your mail client.

Therefore, the absolute first step in any anti-spam strategy is to go through the list of your "spammers" and to ask yourself what can be stopped peacefully and legally. While this may not account for the largest part of the promotional mails you receive, it is guaranteed to make a difference. This step is often overlooked by users who receive so much spam that they can no longer take the time to ask themselves whether they signed up for it or not.

Here is our first anti-spam tip: never, ever allow a company to send your address to "partners." Why? Because you may not know who these partners are, and this will make tracking down the source of legal "spam" much more difficult, even if a serious company has a good chance of having selected serious partners. It is also a good idea to maintain a list of the newsletters you are subscribed to: write down their names, the companies' URLs, and the opt-out procedures that should have been clearly explained to you when you signed in. Such information is extremely useful and often hard to find after a few months!

Within the "legal spam" category falls another that is rarely talked about: all of the promotional emails and newsletters you signed up for but cannot stop, for some reason. Since you signed up, it's technically legal, but the fact that you cannot stop them once you don't want them any more makes them look frighteningly similar to spam. Some companies -- or at least their online marketing departments -- actually engage in such practices, so watch out before signing up!

A good place to look for such clues is Usenet. Luckily, you can browse most of the posts through services such as Google Groups that do not require any setup on your end. Google Groups contains the entire archive of Usenet discussion groups dating back to 1981. Of course, you will find very diverse -- even opposite -- opinions, slandering, and strong language in these groups too, so read with care.
Who May Receive Spam?

Anyone may receive spam. More precisely, any active user on the Internet who uses an email address and sends it to third parties.

Did you post your email address on your site or on a forum? Well, there are robots specifically designed to read millions of web pages, extract any email addresses they can find from them, and add those addresses to mailing lists. Some forum software packages actually create forums that are so complex that most robots get stuck and never get to actually read the addresses; WebX, for example, is supposed to be quite spam-resistant. You should, however, treat every forum equally and avoid posting your address without scrambling it.

Do you send mail to PC users? Well, they may receive viruses that will read their address books and, while sending you dozens of infected mails per day -- which are, if you remember what we said above, not "spam" -- will also subscribe you to lists and flood your inbox with messages.

A less common but equally frightening case: some people use anti-spam software that subscribes you to lists, and you begin to receive even more spam than you can accept, a "fight back" way of protecting oneself. Unfortunately, since addresses are easily spoofed, this means that these applications very often end up punishing the wrong person.

A little unsettling, isn't it? Luckily, there are ways around most of that, so don't panic. However, it's important to realize that even someone who leads a perfectly respectable online life and is cautious may receive spam.
Help! I'm Already Flooded with Junk Mail
Create a New Address

If you're already flooded with junk mail, the easiest, most effective way to get rid of it is to create a new email address. Indeed, spam can reach a point where deleting it and looking for legitimate correspondence in your inbox slows you and your work down.

It can also be dangerous, transforming your mailbox into a floodgate for malicious code. Imagine what can happen the next time that you check your mails from your work PC or on a friend's XP Home machine!

Of course, creating a new address alone won't help; you also need to understand at what point your address was revealed to spammers. Otherwise, you may well end up creating a new address every few weeks -- and this definitely isn't practical.

One of the biggest issues when creating mailboxes is letting your correspondents know about them. In fact, many users never do this because they fear that they are going to lose customers, friends, or other contacts they may have. This is a legitimate fear, but everyone moves and changes addresses in the real world, too. What can be managed in life should normally be manageable online!

Obviously, you cannot set your old address to send auto-reply mail containing your new address. Otherwise, you would simply send your new address to spammers even before all your legitimate correspondents have had the time to learn about it. Worse, should one of your correspondents have an auto-reply system too, your two mail servers could enter an auto-replying loop, filling your mailbox and preventing other legitimate users from receiving the new address notification.
Using Address Book to Solve Transition Issues

Chances are that the last time you moved, you had to send cards to everyone to make sure that they were aware of your new contact information. You can do the same online by using the Panther Address Book and its great Send Updates feature.

The Send Update feature will automatically send your new contact information to a group of people, by clicking on a few buttons. A lot easier than doing things manually, isn't it? Of course, it sends your information as a vCard, ensuring cross-platform compatibility and consistency in what you send -- so you won't make a typo in your new email address on half of the cards you send, something that can happen when writing hundreds of notes in a few days.

To send the update, here are the steps to follow:

* Select your card in Address Book and make sure that it is up to date. Also, make sure that it is marked as "Your card." You will see "me" written on the picture you have set.
* Create a group: Open your Address Book and select the "Card and column" view by using the switch located on the top left of the window. Notice the "+" button at the bottom, on the far left. Click on it to create a new group and give the group a meaningful name, such as "New address mailing."
* Populate the group: Click on the "all" group and pick the cards you want to put into the other. To click on multiple contiguous cards, hold down the shift key. To pick cards at random, hold down the Apple key. Once you have selected the cards you want, drag them over the new group icon and drop them. This will populate the group you have just created.
* Make sure that you use the right address: If your correspondents have multiple email addresses, you can use the "Edit distribution list" feature, available through the "Edit" menu, to select the addresses to which your note will be sent.
* Once you are all set: Use the "File" menu to chose the "Send Updates" menu item.
* In the window that appears: Select the group to which you want to send the note. In our example, this is the group we just created.
* Then, enter a title and a message: Try to make the title and message personal enough so that spam filters don't stop it and that your correspondents actually read it!
* Once you are ready, click on "Send": A few seconds later, you will hear the mail-sending sound from Mail.app.

Of course, while sending an update, make sure that you don't send it to a potential spammer -- in case you have companies in your address book -- or to PC users who collect spam-inducing viruses on their hard drives. You should also make sure that Mail is properly set up and doesn't display the addresses of all of the members of the group. Revealing the addresses of your correspondents can cause the (justified) ire of some of them -- and is also a great way to promote spam if one of them uses an virus-infected PC.

Here is a privacy-related tip: before sending out your card, drag it onto the desktop to export it and open the resulting vCard in TextEdit. You can do so safely since vCards are nothing more than a text document in disguise. This will reveal the actual contents of the card and help you make sure that it doesn't contain information that you don't want to share, such as an email address or a custom category.

Address Book also has a very nifty feature called "Enable Private Me Card," accessible through the vCard preference pane. When turned on, this feature allows you not to share some of the contents of your vCard. This can be very handy if you want to create a "meta vCard" on which you have all your contact information, and pick on the fly what you want to share. It is, however, always a good idea to make sure that it is properly configured before sending the information out.

In the same pane, you will see a checkbox called "Export Notes in vCards." You can use this to add a comment to your own vCard that you will hand out. This can be a short bio or a note that explains your address change and apologizes for the inconvenience this may cause.

Carefully Choosing Your Email Provider

There are thousands of email providers out there, some free, some fee-based. However, as easy as opening an email account somewhere may seem, it is important to pick your provider carefully and to ask you not only what mail box size they offer (you will rarely use more than a few MB and even the ones offering tons of space restrict attachment size, making this feature somewhat less attractive), but what features they provide and how they fight spam and viruses.

Of course, even the best provider cannot prevent all spam from reaching your inbox, but server-side filtering can make a huge difference. In my experience, Apple's very own .Mac mail is extremely resistant to spam. Also, the support teams do reply to your inquiries and are extremely helpful.

As a way to test whether your mail provider filters for viruses, you can send yourself an EICAR.COM test file. These files are not actual viruses but are used to trigger anti-virus systems and test them. To create an EICAR.COM file, enter the following string in a new TextEdit text-only document:

X5O!P%@AP[4PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

and save it. Test it with your anti-virus software and make sure that it triggers an alert. If it doesn't, make sure that you have created it properly. Then name the file EICAR.COM, attach it to an email and send it to yourself. Good email providers should stop the file in transit or provide you with a warning.

Figure 2: Virex and the EICAR.COM file

Of course, since this file actually triggers anti-virus systems, it is a bit like testing the smoke detectors of your local supermarket by smoking underneath them. It can cause unnecessary concern and be illegal in some areas, so, please, do check with your provider first whether this is permitted or not. As we said, emails generated by viruses are not technically spam, but they can be so devastating that checking whether you are protected against them right now cannot hurt.

It is generally a good idea to pick an email provider that is independent from your ISP. That way, if you need to switch ISPs for any reason, you do not need to change your email address.

Webmail, IMAP, and SSL are three features that no Mac user should be without, either. Make sure that they are available when you sign up. When a provider states that "SSH tunneling" is required for secure mail reading, this is both bad and good news. It means that they know something about security (a plus), but that checking your mail will likely involve Perl scripts and shell commands (a huge minus for most users).
Carefully Picking Your Email Address

When you sign up for an email service, you are usually encouraged to select a cool, easy-to-remember address. However, this is not always a good idea.

Indeed, spammers now use nifty robots that invent addresses by compiling common user names with common domains. For example, if your name is "John Smith," you are guaranteed to be spammed if you pick "smith," "john," or "jsmith" as your email address. The same applies to nicknames like "Bill," "Geek," or "Superdude."

That's why your IT manager at work may have assigned to you an address that contains strangely placed dots, dashes, or underscores. Sure, it may be a pain to type sometimes, but it can also be a lifesaver. Apply the same rules to your home email and the amount of spam you receive should decrease.

Of course, the chances increase if your address is hosted on a commonly used domain such as Hotmail, Yahoo, or the like. Don't get me wrong, this does not mean that there is something wrong with these domains. They simply make a more tempting target since once is almost guaranteed to find a match for any name there.
Using Multiple Addresses

This may sound silly and expensive, but it is now a strategy that you should consider. Some tutorials advise you to create two different accounts; I would suggest using three.

That way, you can have one account to receive email from trusted people. In other words, any user that is technically minded enough not to submit this address to a spammer and to protect her computer against viruses and trojan horses. The trusted group can also include very important people for you -- your boss, your close relatives -- but do make sure that providing them with your address does not ruin all of your anti-spam efforts.

The second address will be for a semi-trusted group. In other words, the general public, your customers, and your extended family. You can expect to receive a certain amount of spam on this address and should exercise caution when checking it. Of course, this does not mean that the people you give the address to are "semi-trusted" as individuals, but simply means that this address will circulate a lot more around the Internet and could potentially be intercepted.

The third one will be your junk address, the one you will give to untrusted companies and people you don't know. Of course, you should still be prudent. The fact that you can throw this address away does not mean that you should knowingly allow spammers to use it. Why? Because it would make checking it a lot more difficult, and even potentially dangerous.
Additional Tricks to Create a Well-Protected Address

Now that you have created these addresses and paid your yearly subscriptions, they should be relatively safe and spam-free. However, if you use them heavily, there are additional ways to protect yourself.

The easiest precaution is to create a screen of smoke and dissociate the address you give to people from your real one. This may look like a superfluous step, but it can be extremely effective. In fact, more and more, people I know use this tactic every day.
Register Your Domain Name

We have seen that commonly used domain names are more commonly used as targets to attacks. Why not create your own? Some registration services allow you to register your own domain for a low price.

Even if you do not host a web site, having your own domain will increase your chances of not receiving spam and will also make your email address look ultra-cool. Families, friends, or small businesses can create a common domain name and have separate addresses to share costs. Just make sure that you establish in advance who will be your postmaster.

Of course, you should make sure that the company that you deal with to create your domain name is a trusted one. Also, some countries may not allow you to register a domain or restrict the process: always ask your legal advisor before purchasing one. If such limitations not exist where you live, please, do respect naming conventions: .com for commercial sites, .org for non-profit, etc. This will make things easier to remember for your correspondents. And, let's face it, it makes more sense.
Set Up Mail Forwarding

Now that you have set up your domain name, it is time to create inboxes associated with it. However, professional mail services and customized mail servers are not cheap.

Therefore, you can simply set up mail forwarding to your existing addresses. That way, you can give a professional-looking address to your correspondents and keep your "real" address for you. When they receive a reply from you, your correspondents will be able to find out what your real address is, but if you receive spam, you wouldn't reply anyway. If you're willing to go the extra mile, you can have a custom SMTP server set up for a few dollars a month. But at this point, it may be simpler to get a "professional" email account.

Forwarding in itself cannot protect you against spam. However, what makes this method interesting are the spam filtering and anti-virus scanning systems provided by your forwarding company, meaning that the mails that you receive will travel through two layers of scanning: the one set up by the forwarding company and the one set up by your actual email provider. Since spam can go through various detection software, having multiple layers that use different engines will greatly improve their efficiency.

One of the other advantages of this method is that it allows you to create disposable addresses extremely easily. Many forwarding services allow you to create a few addresses for a fixed price and to change them as often as you please.

With such a setup, you can create a bogus username such as "spam_from_strange_site.april_04," send it to a site you don't trust, and once you have the information you want, destroy it. This is much easier to do than opening a free mailbox somewhere, and has the advantage of not cluttering your provider's customer database with unused mailboxes that can ultimately raise a security concern -- if you forget about them and someone breaks into them to perform illegal actions, for example.

Of course, we are not talking about anonymity here, just protection from unwanted mails. When you register a domain name, you are normally required by law to give valid contact information.
Setting Up Your Email Client

Now that you have a perfectly well-chosen address, safely put behind a smoke screen that allows you to give various identities to various people without paying a cent, we need to see how you can protect yourself in the long run.

The easiest way to do that is to use a good email client and to set it up properly. Email clients are like browsers: they allow you to interface with an open world in which the best and the worse coexist, which makes them extremely important. They should provide a good balance between security features and flexibility.
Which Client?

Email clients are not created equal. However, nowadays, it's impossible to say that one client is "good" and that another should be avoided at all costs. Most of them have pros and cons and you will probably find one that best fits your needs.

In this article, however, we will have a look at Mail, the client that is built into Mac OS X. Why? Well, it is free, is capable of handling huge amounts of mail, is quite powerful under its user-friendly interface, and is perfectly integrated with iChat and Address Book. However, the main reason is that it features a state-of-the-art "Junk Mail filter," developed by the world-leading scientists that work on Mac OS X's language technologies -- which include the Speech technologies I discussed last month.

Even if you use another client, you will want to read the following paragraphs. The advice they give can be easily translated (for the most part, at least) and you may actually discover that the application you have always dreamed of is right at your fingertips.
Mail Tips

In a successful attempt to make it even easier to use for newcomers, the Mail development team has designed an interface that allows users to access emails directly. That's great, but for various reasons, heavy mail users will want to turn off some of these features.

The first feature to disable is "Display images and embedded objects in HTML messages." To do so, simply uncheck the corresponding checkbox in the "Viewing" preference pane.

Why? Because many spammers use HTML as a way to check whether or not your address is valid. When this option is turned on, your computer will download any image that the mail contains, in order to display it properly. By doing so, this alerts the spammer that the mail has indeed reached someone and that, therefore, the address is valid.

Most legitimate mails do not use HTML code or, at least, images, but these are sometimes used only by companies who wish to send attractive advertisements and newsletters. If you receive legitimate HTML mail, Mail will display a button as soon as you open it, allowing you to load the images on the fly, viewing them as the original author intended.

If the companies you deal with give you a choice, I would recommend that you chose to receive text-only emails. They weigh a lot less, won't clutter your mailbox, and won't take hours to download from your mailbox -- an especially good point if you are on the go, away from your broadband connection.

The second setting to alter can be found in the "Advanced" tab of your account preferences. The "Keep copies of messages for offline viewing" pop-up menu allows you to specify whether or not Mail will download attachments automatically. Unless you cannot do so for a specific reason, I would recommend that you download messages but omit the attachments. Why? This will make Mail faster and allow you to avoid downloading malicious attachments to your computer.

The final step to take is to prevent Mail from automatically loading the messages you receive. As long as you follow the steps above, you should be safe, but it cannot hurt to add a layer of security.

In order to do that, look closely at the line that separates the mail list with the viewer area: it has a small dot in the middle. Double-click on that dot so that the line moves to the bottom of the window. Do not drag the line, since this would resize the viewer instead of closing it, even if you make it really small. Now, you will need to double-click on the emails to open them, but you will also be able to delete junk mails without actually opening them.
Next Time

In part two, which will run this coming Tuesday, I'll drill deeper into Mail.app, especially examining the underpinnings of its junk mail filter. Be sure to stop by for a look.

In Part 1, I focused on laying the foundation for an anti-spam strategy and covering how to block most of your unwanted mail. In today's article of this three-part series, I'm going to fine-tune this strategy, plus take a closer look at Mail.app, so that you can more fully unleash its potential.
The Real Show Stopper: Mail's Junk Mail Filter

Created by the engineers who bring the Japanese input method and the Speech technologies to you, Mail's junk mail filters are outstanding. When trained for a sufficient period of time, the filters can reach 98%+ accuracy against spam and are surprisingly painless to use. In fact, this feature alone has convinced many users to switch to Mail.
How Does Junk Mail Work?

Author's note: Kim Silverman, principal research scientist and manager for the Spoken Language Technologies at Apple, helped as I prepared the following paragraphs. I appreciate the information he so kindly provided. Needless to say, if there are any inaccuracies, they are entirely mine.

Many myths have emerged about Mail's junk mail filter. No, it's not an extremely complex set of rules, no it doesn't look for keywords, and no, it doesn't use white magic. To truly understand what makes it so much better than the competition, we'll have to take a closer look at the recognition engine and the technologies it relies on to do its work. It may sound a bit complex at first, but things will begin to make sense as we work through the mechanics.

Interestingly enough, the technology that underlies the Junk Mail filter began its life as an information retrieval system, developed in the Apple labs to help users who managed thousands or millions of large documents find the one they were looking for easily. In order to do that, this technology had to allow users to perform a search by topic.

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Code Fragments only

The traditional approach to this has been called "vector representation." Imagine a huge table in which each column is labeled by a word in the union of all the words in the document. Every row is labeled by a document. And every cell contains the number of times that word appears in the document.

Each document is in turn represented by a long string of numbers, one for each word in the corpus. In mathematical terms, we would say that every document is a vector of n numbers or a point in a space with n dimensions. I know it sounds quite geeky but if you can visualize that, you're halfway there.

Here comes the interesting part. Since every document is a point, you can cluster them. Cluster analysis will find groups of points (sometimes called "clouds") in a graph that consists of multiple, unevenly spread points. It will then tell you how these clusters describe the overall spread of the points.

That's what we do with our files, and all the documents in a cluster tend to be about the same topic. The part of Mac OS X that does all that is called the "Apple data kit." It's an engine that specializes in vector representation and can be used to find documents, sort a corpus into topics, and yes, it even auto-discovers them. The Apple data kit allows the user to find the single document that best represents each topic. Best of all, it also produces a summary of a document. That's what allows the accompanying AppleScripts to write summaries of your reports (this is called Summarize, located in the Services menu for Mail.app).
The Joys and Pains of Vector Representation

The main advantage of vector representation is that this technology does not rely on word order to do its work -- you can have a look at our speech article to learn more about why this is important.

The representation looks very much like a "bag of words," since it is based on the total number of times a word appears in a document. Documents about the same topic will usually contain similar words.

Also, whereas statistical language models capture local patterns only to do their work, vector representation captures non-local patterns. So, a document that contains "Aunt Emma" and "cooking tips" at the beginning and the end of a page can well be in the same cluster as a text that talks precisely about "the time Aunt Emma sent you cooking tips."

However, as with every technology, the benefits come with a few drawbacks. First of all, since the dimensionality is huge, it is computationally expensive. Also, since most words do not occur in any particular document, there are lots of zeros in the numbers that represent them. In mathematical terms, the matrix is sparse. Do you feel lost? Imagine this: take the biggest issue you can find of the Mac Developer Journal and put it in your left hand, and put your favorite dictionary in your right hand. How many words in the dictionary can you find in the Journal? Not many.

These "details" explain why clustering doesn't always work so well.

Also, most counts are low, and therefore inaccurate since they can more easily contain sampling errors. Let's say, for example, that your Aunt Emma, in her cooking tips, talks about a "hippopotamus" (as in "For the turkey to be tasty, it should be quite large but obviously, you don't want a hippopotamus-sized one."). The fact that she used it once does not mean that she will use this word again in her cooking tips. This phenomenon is called "noise."

To address all these issues, and reliably recognize the topic of documents, we need to jump into Latent Semantic Analysis.
Latent Semantic Analysis to the Rescue

To make up for the shortcomings in vector representation, we use something magical called "Singular value decomposition." It reduces the dimensionality, gets rid of the sparseness, and statistically finds the regularities in the noise. In other words, it captures the underlying stable pattern in the data we have. In case you're wondering, this involves using regression lines, but that's another story.

If each document is a point in a X0,000-dimension space or so, we reduce its dimensionality into a small number of dimensions that capture the salient patterns and the majority of the variation in the corpus. Then, we can do the Latent Semantic Analysis. In this new space, each axis is a weighted combination of all the words: documents and words coexist in the same space.

Like we did before, you can perform a bit of cluster analysis and find clusters of documents that each represent a topic. You now have under your eyes a computational representation of semantics.

Because words are distributed in the same space as documents, you can find the words that are closer to the center of a document cluster. Those will be the words that characterize the meaning of the documents in that cluster, even if a document does not contain all those words.

So we can find words that describe a document without requiring that they be necessarily found in the document.
Everywhere on Your Mac, for Your Pleasure
Even though Apple is not the only company working on such technologies, they do seem to be the only ones to have made it so accessible to end users and powerful at the same time. In fact, they do it so well that it is now at the center of many system components as we have seen, requiring them to continuously refine the calculations and develop the formal mathematical representations -- all for your benefit.
How Does This Apply to my Spam?

So, we've endured lots of math. But now, let's get back to our main topic and see how this math applies to your spam.

There are two traditional approaches to spam. The first looks for keywords in a message and flags any mail containing those words as spam. This has a major drawback. What if your Aunt Emma happens to mention to you as an aside, in a very important email about a family gathering supposed to take place in a few days, that your uncle had an opportunity to take Viagra? The mail will be flagged and deleted, causing you to miss the gathering -- or, if it were in the business environment, potential revenue.

Of course, systems that rely on such keywords are continuously updated and refined. Nevertheless, they are never entirely satisfying, even when using sophisticated Bayesian filters that are essentially weighted keyword systems.

The other traditional approach is to look at the sender and not accept any message from any known junk-mail sender. However, this is even less likely to work since junk mailers keep changing their addresses. Some people have proposed that you only accept mail from senders in your address book, but for obvious reasons, this isn't realistic.

That's why latent statistical analysis is much better. It doesn't make binary decisions based on any single characteristic of a message. It analyzes the meaning of the words and acts accordingly.

And to make this work even better, you can add your own rules to Mail.app to shape its behavior.

Figure 1. Spam message flagged by mail.
Why Make it Trainable Then?

A common question about the spam filter in Mail.app is why the Apple engineers decided to make it trainable. After all, if it truly understood the meaning of a mail, it would immediately see what's junk and what's not, right?

Well, not exactly. Let's imagine that you, like most Mac users, are constantly receiving spam about mortgage opportunities. Mail would naturally flag them as junk. But what if you were in the market for a house and had requested quotes from legitimate companies? This is when the ability to train Mail comes to the rescue. You may want to alter the rules while you shop for a mortgage.

Does it Work with Other Languages?

Mail is often criticized because the system it uses "only reads English." Nothing could be further from the truth. Mail does accurately flag messages in other languages. The corpus on which it is pre-trained uses mail in different languages, and it is just as trainable in German or Japanese as it is in English texts -- thanks to a few other cool Apple technologies regarding tokenization that go beyond the scope of this article.
This Sounds Complex, Should I Disable it on my iBook?

Don't worry. Even though Junk Mail relies on very complex technologies, it's very efficient and easy on the computer, even on slower G3 laptops.

This is a good example of expanding capability without sacrificing performance, by writing good code.
An Introduction to Using "Junk Mail"

As soon as you launch Mail, the Junk Mail filter is turned on in "training mode." As long as training mode is on, Mail will display all the messages you receive in your inbox, including the junk. However, potential spams will be marked with cute, paper-bag icons and will appear in a disgustingly distinctive brown color, making spotting the unwanted messages easy.

If you notice a message that is incorrectly flagged as junk, simply open it and click on the "Not junk" button located at the top of the message in the brown banner. If you notice a message that should be marked as spam but isn't, select it and use the "Message" menu to "Mark it as junk mail." Alternatively, you can place a "Junk" button in your toolbar; simply use the "View" menu to customize it.

As soon as you mark a mail as Junk or Not Junk, the junk mail filter will fine-tune its analysis, learning what you consider to be junk and what it should let go through to your inbox. This simple-looking learning capability is actually what makes Mail amazing and very different from its competitors.

For most people, Viagra ads are spam and gardening-related messages are updates from their grandparents. But what if your grandparents like to talk about Viagra and you are being spammed by a gardening service? While most other programs won't be able to adapt to your situation, Mail will, and effortlessly.

Once you're satisfied with the accuracy of its analysis, you can switch it to "automatic" mode.

Figure 2. Mail's junk preferences.

As soon as automatic mode is turned on, any mail flagged as junk mail will be moved to a special Junk mailbox. Of course, you are still responsible for what happens to this mail. Should it be deleted? Kept for archiving> We'll see in a minute how to fine-tune this behavior.

Turning automatic mode on is a big step since it may prevent you from reading legitimate mails, especially if you don't check the Junk mailbox or you choose to delete your junk mails immediately. Although the number of false positives is extremely low (or, in most cases, null), you may want to add a signature to your mail or a note to your web site, stating that you use anti-spam filtering technologies. You can also ask that your potential correspondents resend emails if they do not receive answers in a certain timeframe.
Fine Tuning and Automating "Junk Mail"
In order to customize the filtering, use the "Mail" menu to open the Mail preferences and click on the "Junk Mail" button. Switching between "training" and "automatic" mode is as simple as selecting the corresponding radio button. As soon as you enter "automatic" you will see that Mail creates a new Junk mailbox with the same paper-bag icon. The following preferences are easily understandable. However, here are a few notes about what they can do:

* Preventing messages that come from senders in your Address Book from being flagged as junk is probably a good choice. However, in some cases, you may not want to leave this feature on. Let's imagine that your aunt has your address but stores it on a virus-infected PC that sends your mail to spammers. In that case, applying filtering rules to the emails she seems to send to you may be a good idea.
* The same applies to the Previous recipients. While this feature can usually be safely turned on, business users or users who deal with dozens of emails per day will probably want to have it off, to ensure maximum protection.
* The fact that a message is addressed using your full name is in no way a warranty that it is legitimate. In fact, in my case, it is almost always a warranty that it isn't. Everyone I know calls me "F.J.", and only spammers who got my name off of a list use my real name.

The "Trust Junk Mail headers set by your Internet Service Provider" feature is great, but only as long as your provider uses standard junk-mail filtering options. Indeed, some ISPs use proprietary solutions that Mail doesn't know. If this is the case, you can create a special rule that scans the "Header" used by your provider to rate junk messages and decide whether it should be marked as junk or not -- a simple task that does not require any programming on your part.

Figure 3. Typical mail headers.

However, when turning this feature on, you will want to take into account how reliable your mail provider's filters are. Indeed, some of them are known for setting up paranoid filters that block all legitimate mails while some others let everything go through. Some of them now allow users to customize filters, a great step forward. In most cases, server-side junk-mail filtering features can be accessed through the provider's webmail interface, so it's worth having a look if you haven't checked in for awhile. You may actually find other nice features there. For example, the .Mac webmail allows you to set up a custom mail icon visible by all Mail.app users.

The "Advanced" button is extremely interesting. Do you remember the old days when Junk Mail was listed in the "Rules" category? Well, this button allows you to see junk-mail settings as a rule. For example, you could also set mail up to run an AppleScript when you receive mail. What about getting the headers of the message so that you can send them to your IT department? Or your email provider?

On a less ambitious scale, you can use this rule to mark junk mails as read automatically -- to avoid seeing the "unread messages" notifications while sorting through your legitimate mail. Play a specific sound as a reminder to have a look through your Junk Mail mailbox from time to time or, let's be crazy, switch the mail color from brown to purple.
What Should I Do with Spam Once It's Flagged?

We've seen that Mail.app will put flagged mail into a special mailbox called "Junk." However, your messages will stay there unless you specifically tell Mail what to do with them.

In order to do so, check the "Special Mailboxes" tab of your various account preferences. It contains a popup menu that allows you to specify what should be done to this mailbox.

Usually, storing junk messages on the server is a bad idea since it will increase the chances that your server will be cluttered and that your mailbox will reach full capacity, effectively bouncing legitimate messages back.

Deleting Junk messages when "Quitting Mail" would be my setting of choice since you probably don't want to keep them on your hard drive for too long. However, you should remember to check this mailbox for false positives before quitting Mail. Otherwise, they go unnoticed and may be deleted without you ever seeing them.

It sounds silly, but I suggest you use this opportunity to make sure Trash (in Mail.app) is set up well and that deleting messages from your various accounts does not simply move them to another folder on the server.

Since the trash setting is applied evenly to all of your accounts, you can set up separate rules to manage them individually if need be. For example, you may want to delete junk mail from your Home account automatically -- since your friends probably won't be too mad if you miss one of their healthy cooking tips. But you should purge your business account every week, so that you have a chance to scan it and avoid missing a potential customer.
Next Time

I'll wrap up this series on Friday with a closer look at techniques for applying rules, address masking, and some general tips to confound spammers. See you then!

Una gran victoria para la libertad de información

Enviado el Viernes 14 de Mayo de 2004

El Tribunal de la Competencia no autoriza a los grandes editories españoles la creación de Gedeprensa
Una gran victoria para la libertad de información

El Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia (TDC), en una resolución divulgada ayer, "ha resuelto no autorizar el acuerdo marco relativo a la creación de una entidad Gestora de Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual para la elaboración de resúmenes de prensa solicitado por Prisacom, Unidad Editorial, Recoletos y el Grupo Godó".

Gedeprensa, compañía creada por Recoletos, Prisa, Vocento, Godó y Unedisa --a los que se unió posteriormente Prensa Ibérica-- para cobrar por los resúmenes de prensa, ya ha anunciado que recurrirá ante la Audiencia Nacional la «sorprendente» y «extemporánea» resolución del Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia.

Como explica Hispanidad.com, "la verdad es que, en esta ocasión, David ha vencido a Goliat"

De entrada, en un lado figuraban los señores de la prensa, con los grupos Prisa-Sogecable, Vocento-ABC, El Mundo, Recoletos y La Vanguardia, capitaneando la operación, agrupados en la sociedad Gedeprensa, que quería convertirse en una $$$$ de derechos de autor en periódicos. Enfrente, contaban con un conjunto de pymes dedicadas a elaborar resúmenes a medida para instituciones públicas. Los dos grandes partidos, PP y PSOE, apoyaban a los grandes editores. Respaldando a Gedeprensa, el bufete más famoso de Madrid: Uría y Menéndez, con una nómina donde se esconde un ex presidente de la CNMV o destacados ex jueces de la Audiencia Nacional. Es también el bufete favorito de Emilio Botín. Enfrente, la AESIP contaba con el pequeño despacho de abogados Letrados y Asesores, que dirige Javier Bravo. Incluso, Gedeprensa tenía dentro de AESIP a un submarino que trabajaba en su favor: Acceso Group, con el apoyo del inefable Leopoldo Rodés, hombre de los hermanos March y capo de la mayor central de medios española, Media Planning.

Pues bien, a pesar de todo lo anterior, el Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia no sólo ha dado la razón a los ‘clipineros’, sino que resucita el sentido tradicional del derecho de cita y de quienes tienen derecho a utilizarlo (artículo 32 de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual) y prohíbe a Gedeprensa crear un mercado por el que todo aquel que hiciera resúmenes de prensa debería pagar a los editores un canon.

El TDC afirma lo siguiente:

1. Ustedes, señores de Gedeprensa, no van a crear un mercado, como dicen. El mercado del clipping ya está creado. Lo que ocurre es que es gratis. Ustedes, señores editores, lo que quieren es encarecer ese mercado existente y expulsar del mismo a los pequeños operadores.

2. Ustedes hablan mucho del valor de la información pero nada incrementan ese valor.

3. Hablan de mercado universal, pero lo cierto es que no representan a todos (por cierto, lo mismo sucede con todos los intermediarios de derechos de autor discográficos, literarios, cinematográficos, etc.), dado que son ustedes los grandes editores, pero no todos los editores.

4. Ustedes no aportan nada tecnológicamente.

5. La solución que proponen es rígida y obliga a todo el que quiera hacer un resumen a pasar por los contenidos que usted les facilite, un auténtico embudo.

6. Lo más importante. Interpretan ustedes de forma muy especial la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual, actualmente en vigor. De hecho, el Tribunal considera que los resúmenes de prensa forman parte del derecho de cita porque permiten que fluya la información.

En definitiva, para el TDC, los resúmenes de prensa forman parte del derecho universal a la información.

Al final, todo el empeño de los grandes editores consiste en que toda la información fluya por sus periódicos. De ahí que la prensa gratuita (que ya ha empezado a formar parte de los clipping) y la prensa electrónica les desazonen: es lo que no pueden controlar. Los ataques contra las bases de datos, especialmente las que utilizan Internet, no eran más que el comienzo del camino hacia el control de la libertad informativa. Por ahora, en el segmento informativo de prensa se ha detenido la bestialidad en la que se ha convertido la intermediación de derechos de autor (en España, especialmente la $$$$). En este caso, las víctimas son, precisamente, los medios informativos, especialmente las televisiones, que se ven forzadas a pagar a no se sabe cuántos intermediarios de derechos de autor que no se saben ni a quién representan. Por ahora, en prensa, se ha parado la sangría. Que cunda el ejemplo.

http://antisgae.internautas.org/cgi-antisgae/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1084528883,61547,

Una sentencia exime a un bar de Sevilla del pago de las cuotas del SGAE por falta de pruebas

Una sentencia del Juzgado de Primera Instancia número 21 de Sevilla ha eximido a un bar de copas de la capital del pago de las cuotas que la Sociedad General de Autores (SGAE) le reclamaba porque esta entidad no ha probado que la música que el establecimiento reproduce es de los autores a quienes representa. El fallo recuerda que la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual de 1987 "dejó sin efecto el régimen de monopolio" sobre los derechos de autor que anteriormente tenía la SGAE.
L D (EFE) La SGAE, que actualmente tiene puestas cien demandas similares contra bares y hoteles sólo de la ciudad de Sevilla, interpuso el año pasado una querella contra el bar "Aviador", situado en la Ronda de Triana, por poner música sin su autorización y sin pagar las correspondientes cuotas, motivo por el que reclamaba más de 3.000 euros de las mensualidades con carácter retroactivo desde enero de 2001, además del pago futuro de las cuotas.

El abogado del establecimiento, Joaquín Moeckel, dijo que como pruebas, la Sociedad de Autores presentaba un "acta" elaborada por un empleado de la SGAE, un escrito de un detective que visitó el local en abril de 2003 y que constataba que en el bar había música puesta y un informe de un "gestor musical" contratado también por este organismo. El fallo judicial recuerda que la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual de 1987 "dejó sin efecto el régimen de monopolio" sobre los derechos de autor que anteriormente tenía la SGAE, por lo que el magistrado entiende que esta entidad, "en casos de reclamación tendrá que probar, no sólo que se reproduce música, sino a qué autores pertenece y que éstos tienen contrato de su gestión de derechos de autor con esta entidad".

La sentencia indica que, si bien se considera probado que en el bar se reproduce música, la SGAE no ha probado que le corresponda su representación o gestión del cobro de derechos de autor, por lo que "no puede prosperar" la petición de indemnización. En su fallo, el juez reconoce que las reproducciones de música sin autorización suponen "una infracción de los derechos de propiedad intelectual" y reclama al bar "Aviador" que "se abstenga de reproducir música de autores cuya gestión de explotación esté contratada por la Sociedad General de Autores y Editores sin autorización de ésta". No obstante, exime al bar, por esta falta de pruebas, de la indemnización que reclamaba la SGAE y del pago de la cuota que también solicitaba esta entidad.

Joaquín Moeckel dijo que esta sentencia, contra la que cabe recurso, es "pionera" en España, ya que contradice la jurisprudencia previa del Tribunal Supremo, según la cual en los procesos de este tipo se "había establecido la inversión de la carga de la prueba", de tal modo que el demandado tendría que demostrar que no pone música de autores de la SGAE sin autorización y no a la inversa.

http://www.libertaddigital.com/noticias/noticia_1276222966.html

España votó en contra de la propuesta de directiva sobre patentes de 'software'

MADRID.- El Gobierno Español votó en contra de la Propuesta de Directiva sobre patentabilidad de las invenciones implementadas en el ordenador. Dicha Propuesta fue tomada en consideración en la reunión del Consejo de Ministros de Competitividad celebrada el martes en Bruselas.

En dicha decisión se tomaron en cuenta tanto las consideraciones de ámbito económico como político.

La posición española se justifica tanto porque la actual redacción no refleja suficientemente algunas de las enmiendas del Parlamento Europeo, en particular el alcance del concepto de la "patentabilidad", así como la poca definición del concepto de "contribución técnica" objeto de regulación de la futura Directiva.

En este sentido, el Gobierno de España considera que no están claramente expuestas las ventajas de la protección que brinda la patentabilidad, teniendo en cuenta que ya existe una normativa de derechos de autor de los programas de ordenador.

El Ministerio de Industria ya anunció la pasada semana, en respuesta a la entrega de 25.000 firmas de empresas informáticas, sindicatos, asociaciones de internautas y grupos de ciudadanos contra esa propuesta, que mantendría en el Consejo de Competitividad una "postura coherente" con los "compromisos adquiridos" en su programa electoral.

La postura del Ejecutivo español coincide con la manifestada por cargo de casi todos los partidos políticos. Desde PSOE, PP, IU y BNG algunos políticos se muestran muy preocupados ante la posibilidad de que salga adelante la propuesta irlandesa de introducir las patentes de programación en Europa.

http://www.elmundo.es/navegante/2004/05/18/esociedad/1084869181.html

Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS

PsychoJ:My views on the new nintendo DS and Sony PSP...
Zaheera:Go on.
PsychoJ:PSP is like a hot girl with full round C cup breasts.
PsychoJ:Is experienced and has alot to offer for relatively little effort.
Zaheera:And the DS?
PsychoJ:Her flat chested 12 year old sister with a unibrow.

Bittorrent :-)

Pues un par de sitios para buscar y encontrar son...

http://raiden.se/torrents.php

http://crjt.net:6969/index.html

http://www.suprnova.org