Are we coming to the end of spam?

The BBC reports the results of a US study on the profitability of spam networks. Seven researchers set up a fake pharmacutecal website and used the Storm network to drive traffic to it through spam messages.

Out of nearly 350 million messages sent 28 people attempted to buy something which the researchers estimate would have returned about $US 100 a day.

Not bad money, but hardly worth the effort of setting up a fake site, arranging the merchant facilities and getting on to the Storm botnet. 

The return also assumes all the potential purchases were genuine. There’s a good chance many of them would have been fraudulent which would have further eroded the returns.

If those returns are typical, then we’re probably seeing the end of the mass spam, although I’m worried that a new breed of 419 type scammers might take advantage of people in financial straits as the economy worsens.

The full study is available at the UCSD website.

Similar posts:

The bravest man in Australia

Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner

Federal Finance minister Lindsay Tanner’s now repeated claim the “worst is over” will either make him a prophet or a fool. Either way, he’s pretty brave to make that statement.

What makes his courage even more impressive is his belief is based on IMF, Treasury and Reserve Bank advice.

These three groups, along with almost the entire economic world,  failed to see this crisis coming  and have consistently understated the effects since it arrived.

For Australian business owners, more worrying should be policy responses of our politicians.

While China’s stimulus package includes funding for building railways, roads and hospitals, Canberra’s response is to repeat the mistakes of the previous government by ramping the property market.

To compound the problem, the Federal government seems obsessed with keeping Australia in the 1950s. While the Chinese government is encouraging investment in the IT industries, we’re pouring our resources into propping up a vehicle manufacturing industry.

Even worse is the NSW Government’s blind faith in the ratings agencies. It’s a shame Nathan Rees won’t show Lindsay Tanner’s courage in telling these corrupt and incompent fools where to stick their phoney triple A ratings. 

Instead he chooses to further reduce our investments on infrastructure and the state’s future.

The lesson to business owners is clear; you’re on your own and you cannot expect any help from the state or Federal governments.

Similar posts:

  • No Related Posts

Everything old is new again

It was a funny week last week. It seems everybody wants to announce Software as a Service websites.

The first SaaS experience I had was over a cup of coffee with Mark from MyWorkSpace on Tuesday. I like to hear what smaller, Australian operations have to offer and this one seems quite good application.

On the Wednesday I went to the Telstra-Microsoft Joint Venture announcement. This was a strange beast as the current T-Suite services are simply managed Exchange and Sharepoint and in that don’t seem to be anything new over what Telstra was reselling from WebCentral until recently.

The main thrust of the press conference was that you’d be able to do this on a mobile phone.

Unfortunately none of the mobile phone manufacturers has had an opportunity to put Telstra’s new application on their Windows Mobile smartphones, which meant we only saw demonstrations and had no opportunity to try it ourselves.

From a distance it appears the mobile service is just the same synchronisation tool you get with a Windows Mobile device setup to use the Telstra servers.

On a positive side, both the MyWorkSpace and the T-Suite applications are reasonably priced and a good deal for smaller businesses, particularly those start ups wanting to save cash.

In my Smart Company column tomorrow l’m explaining what SaaS, cloud computing and Web 2.0 mean.

The funny thing with all of this is everything is new again. We’re going back to the 1970s way of running computers.

Similar posts:

  • No Related Posts

Bundled netbooks rise again

The Wall Street Journal’s reporting HP are considering bundling netbooks with 3G phone plans. 

This is a good idea and following the mobile phone business model makes sense, particularly given netbooks are cheaper than most smartphones and 3G data plans are more expensive than most standard talk plans.

However it has been tried before in Australia by both Telstra and Optus and both plans have sunk like a stone. Probably because the marketing was poor, the dealer commissions non-existant and the plans didn’t offer real value.

If HP are going to make this work they will need to partner with a number of telcos in each market and make sure there is enough margin in the product for dealer commissions while offering a good value product to the customer.

I think it’s doable but the product needs to be bundled properly with the 3G plan and services.

I suspect we may see these products start to be marketed as dealers start to look for alternatives to their traditional mobile phone revenues as spending falls.

Similar posts:

  • No Related Posts

Why your boss shouldn’t be your Facebook friend

I’ve always believed you shouldn’t say anything on the net that you wouldn’t like to be seen next to your photo on the six o’clock news.

Well you also shouldn’t put anything on your Facebook profile your boss might read. This is a message between a manager and an ISP tech staffer in Sydney last week.

From: The Boss
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:35 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXX
Subject: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008

Hi Kyle,

Please provide a medical certificate stating a valid reason for your sick leave on Thursday 21st 2008.

Thank You

The Boss

===========

From: Kyle XXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:38 a.m.
To: The Boss
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008

 Boss,

1 day leave absences do not require a medical certificate as stated in my contract, provided I have stated that I am on leave for medical reasons.

Thanks

Kyle XXXXX

=========

From: The Boss
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:39 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008

 Hi Kyle,

Usually that is the case, as per your contract. However please note that leave during these occasions is only granted for genuine medical reasons. You line manager has determined that your leave was not due to medical reasons and as such we cannot grant leave on this occasion.

 The Boss

=========

_____________________________________________
From: Kyle XXXX
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:43 a.m.
To: The Boss
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008

 Hi Boss,

My leave was due to medical reasons, so you cannot deny leave based on a line manager’s discretion, with no proof, please process leave as requested.

Thanks

Kyle

=======================

From: The Boss
Sent: Wednesday, 27 August 2008 9:50 a.m.
To: Kyle XXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Absence on Thursday 21st 2008

 Hi Kyle,

I believe the proof that you are after is below

Whoops kyle is busted
Whoops kyle is busted

Similar posts:

  • No Related Posts