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The problem is that an e-mail only tax is too easy to get around. Assuming such a tax is enacted in the UK, for example, what's to stop the commercial e-mailers from using VPNs to servers in other countries?
If you enact a tax based on the amount of data sent from a given IP address, you'll run into protests from everyone from legitimate commercial users to heavy downloaders and users of streaming services (those ACKs aren't free).
I'm open to suggestions...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Heavens no. I wasn't implying that there should be a tax. Government already sucks too much money out of the private sector.
I was suggesting that email providers charge for the service of sending email. That would serve two purposes. One, it would remove the sender's anonymity, and two, it would dissuade people from sending spam.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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The same objections apply. If only some providers in the country charge for e-mail, what's to stop them from registering with a provider that doesn't? If all providers in the country charge for e-mail (e.g. because it's mandated by law), what's to prevent the spammers setting up in another country?
I am certain that you'd find enterprising people who, for a fee less than the e-mail fees, would set up a spam server for you in the "free e-mail" zone.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I'd say it would be a community service to return to charging for text messages - think of all the people returning to living in the real world.
As for the two comments with the "get around", I can assure you this will be done. In the US there is a do-not-call-list to prevent telemarketing. So what did that do? They simply do their calling from outside the US (where the law doesn't apply).
But most importantly, your plan punishes the innocent along with the guilty. Some corporate bastards abuse email . . . so I should have to pay for this?
I do it a different way: I wrote an SMTP application that lets me send a 'cease and desist' to the offender 100, 200, 10000 times - and it can spoof return addresses and slightly modify the subject and body to get through their spam filters for a while. It works wonders !
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I have a somewhat different approach available: all of my mail, and I do mean all of it, goes through email forwards. I can redirect the mail they send to me (with an address that usually has their name built right in, like amazon@ or newegg@ ). It can go back to them or perhaps to another spammer.
Case in point: some years ago I was looking to buy a new car so I allowed kelly blue book to give my requirements to local dealers to sent their prices. After I finally got a car (I use the "one bid" method for a dealer: they get one bid and if it's the best I'll come back and buy the car but I will not ask twice). Anyway, when I wanted them to stop it seemed they really didn't care. They all used the email forward I had for kelly blue book, kbb@ - and so I redirected the car dealer offers to one of the car dealers and let them spam one of their own.
QED.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Try sending them snail mail (us postal) insured with signature required delivery. Once some hand is applied to the receipt, send them some more snail mail but address it "ATTENTION" (like on those TV legal aid adds and medical insurance verts targeting seniors with hearing and vision impairment) person-with-hand-who-signed-the-return-receipt. Ask him/her to take name off mailing list (oh, wait a minute, there is no mailing list).
Once you have the hand's name you could address him at corporate in attachments and wotnaut.
Continue with your studies in communication.
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RedDk wrote: Try sending them snail mail (us postal) insured with signature required delivery
That is both costly and time consuming.
I'd rather hit them "in kind".
In the spirit of your methodology, I once looked up the online presence (it was a small educational institution and HR spammed people to get possible suckers students). Well, as it turned out, they had their top staff and board members on the site, complete with an email contact address - well, I can send out a few hundred angry emails to the bunch of them as easy as to the HR directory - and I did.
There was a lot of displeasure heaped upon the HR director (per his unhappy "apology" - for bothering me). When the sh*t flows uphill, as in this case, the effects are quite gratifying.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos, GHB wrote: and I did
Often contemplated here.
I once was subpoenaed by a court south of here because I ended up on a list of names of people who were seeking justice in the state for having been wronged by a small business that "took the money and ran". I wasn't on the list for the obvious reason, like contacting State's attorney and BBB etc and complaining, but for dialing up on my land line the actual phone number obtained by going online and seeing who's who on the products (the product I never received, having it ordered through US postal and magazine advertisement) website legal page.
I talked to the head honcho's attorney's secretary, who had a name and, under the guise of seeking legal aid from her boss, began asking particulars about where I might find the office, send more particulars, etc … long story short the story I gave the class-action attorney who was representing the wronged listed sat there at our first meeting the day of the trial trying to think of ways that my testimony could possibly have added to the vigor of his prosecution of that boss … and guess he wasn't satisfied with what I said under oath to the jury of 12 because he never contacted me again to let me know how the trial turned out.
Sound like a nightmare? Long since settled for having done due diligence giving up my $100.00 for a product I never received chalking the whole thing up to experience.
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If you cut down a talking tree, would it dialogue?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I'd imagine it wood not leave it alone, and bark orders to try and get to the root of the problem. But the converse might be true, and it would fall silent.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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The tree felt pine until it had its trunkate. Now it's more of a shadbush.
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That ent funny!
-- Treebeard
I ought to hit you one! 
-- The Whomping Willow
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Is that a sapling tree wit? Perhaps an attempt to branch out but you arboreal out of us, this time! Ultimately, some part of this will end up board.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Ash to Ashes.
I'd rather be phishing!
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The thought of it shivers me timbers!
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I was reminded of this recent event reading Kent's post 5 Project Management Skills Every Developer Should Have[^]
My coworker (I'll use "C" for their name) and I were recently asked by the project manager (for context, he was a very new hire, but that doesn't imply he was new to the field of project management) assigned to our project, "Can you and C put due dates on all of the tasks for this project?"
My one line answer. "No"
The silence was deafening.
After the pregnant silence gave birth, the obvious question "Why not???" was asked.
Well, because:
1. Our daily activities include a variety of other unpredictable tasks that are constantly shifting in priority (aside - such is the life in a small company. Isn't that the definition of Agile?  )
2. We are working with undocumented verbal specifications where new information is provided every week in the weekly meeting with the client and often previous requirements change slightly. (aside - we're an Agile team, right?)
3. The nature of the work requires interfacing with third party API's that are finicky and difficult to map their data responses into something we understand how to map to our fields. (aside - everyone is Agile nowadays, right?)
4. Your own (the client's) dataset doesn't have all the information we need and we're waiting for you to update your datasets. (aside - are THEY Agile???)
5. To put a due date on something, yes, we can estimate the number of hours, on average, per day that we can work on the project, but a due date means figuring out how many hours the task will take, and we're dealing with some unknowns that make that impossible at the moment. (Agile!) Once we have removed those unknowns, it may become possible to predict the hours.
Of course, the senior project manager started off the whole conversation with the typical Dilbert-esque management speak: "I am here to facilitate -- if you need something from the client, let me know and I'll make it happen." I've been around the block enough times to know what utter BS that is.
So the manager decided that what his male ego needed was a daily 30 minute conference call with moi and C to review, each and every day (except weekends) the status of each ticket. Riiiight. So we complained to our direct manager, who "managed" - managed to get that stopped. I mean really, the guy can just look at the ticket to see the status, right?
The irony is that this project manager went from being a bull in a China shop to a mouse - no facilitation, no responses to our emails when we actually need some information from the client that he could "facilitate", in fact, no communication at all except an hour before the scheduled weekly meetings "Are you guys ready?"
It's amazing, the Power of No (apologies to Eckhart Tolle)
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For a moment there I thought I was the 'C' in this tale of woe!
I have had almost identical experiences over the last few weeks, so I feel your pain.
HoweverQuote: (aside - everyone is Agile nowadays, right?)
No.
One size does not fit all.
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CHill60 wrote: One size does not fit all.
Tell that to the airplane sits 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I love that word.
We live and work in a transient resort town.
Yesterday a fresh (they get off the greyhound daily) 1/2 wit was rolling a trash bin from the local thrift store past our shop.
On the way back it stopped rolling right in front of our screen door. (ruh-row).
"Hi, I found a google pixel phone under the chairlifts (skiing) and want to borrow a computer to remove the password. Do you have one?"
No. - your not virus infecting one of my pcs I thought.
The silence was also deafening.
"I'm helping W!" - (the thrift shop owner).
I just stared him down.
He went on to enumerate all the reasons why I should do this for him and when I seemed unconvinced, he left.
But I tell you, from project managers to street people (indistinguishable at times)
one way to turn their disdain for types like you to respect, is the good old , NO! - at all probable costs.
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Ron Anders wrote: Hi, I found a google pixel phone under the chairlifts (skiing) and want to borrow a computer to remove the password.
Sheesh.
Security (yours) reasons aside, for starters, the phone isn't his to remove the password from. That should've shut him up right there and then.
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The best project manager I worked with used to take my estimates and treble them - the estimates were then generally accurate.
A decent project manager will ask for an estimate knowing that it's really a bit of a guess and communicate that when asking the question.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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The Scotty principle - always multiply your estimates by a factor of four. How else can you maintain your reputation as a miracle worker? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I was told one a little different: "double the number and increase the units".
Two days becomes four weeks.
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Never, ever, met one like that.... 
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I have come across a few project managers who are like that, project managers who want to help the people they work with are not that rare.
I sometimes wonder if the contempt some devs feel for some project managers is what is partly responsible for the occasional problems between project managers and devs.
I have generally found that if as a dev I take the time to explain the complexity and issues involved then most project managers are quite grateful, understanding and do their best to support me as a dev.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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