The MySpace Spamularity

It’s finally happened. MySpace has reached a point where it now defies all
laws of physics and creates matter (SPAM actually). Recently, for reasons that
are beyond explanation, I logged into my MySpace account. This would normally
be a non-event, since I have only a few links in my MySpace profile, but this
time I noticed a strange occurrence.

During the time that I was logged in on my MySpace site, I receive about 10
SPAM messages from MySpace users advertising various websites (mostly porn).
So I logged in the next day to delete the SPAM and while I was logged in, I
received another 20 messages that were porn-SPAM.

When users are punished for using your software, but they still use it, that’s great Web 2.0.

Ok, this is hilarious. The amount of MySpace SPAM I receive is directly
correlated with the amount of time I spend logged into the system. The more I
log into the system to delete the SPAM, the more SPAM I receive. Their system
actually provides a disincentive to use their site. Awesome!

Here, in a highly scientific graph, I display the effect.

As you can see, as the number of users of a site increases, the level of SPAM
sent to those users eventually reaches a SPAMularity, where the entire system
exists for the purposes of SPAM and SPAM alone. The site becomes completely
unusable for anyone other than a SPAM-bot and over time, SPAM-bots become the
site’s only users. But here’s my question…

When only SPAM-bots use MySpace, will advertisers still advertise there?

If so, I should be able to design the ultimate Web3.0 application that skips
the troublesome middle part of _being useful to users_ and _gaining traction_
and just write my own SPAM-bots. If I can feed the system enough SPAM-bots, I
should never have to have a single living, breathing user on the system, but I
should still be able to generate advertising revenue based upon the number of
users and page hits per day, right?

Ok, that’s it, I have to build this thing, but what should I call it? MySpam?
SpamBook? SpamSpace? Spamster? Email?

Document, Automate, Delegate

Everyone I know who works in IT is overworked. Really overworked! Overworked like nothing I have seen before in any other field (excluding hedge fund managers). Is IT the only profession where there is a never-ending supply of urgent work? Has the youthfulness of the IT industry blinded it to traditional work-flow management techniques? Are a few evil-minded overlords afraid they will not be valuable if they do not keep all the secrets hidden?

Why are highly skilled (paid?) IT staff performing repetitious work? Does IT just attract egos who refuse to believe something that was “that hard” to figure out could be done by someone without a degree and without 10 years of experience in the technology field?

Could it be even more simple? If we think about what challenges IT workers, maybe we’ll gain some insight into what they like to do. When asked, most IT workers describe the reasons they got into IT as (in no particular order):

• Solving Puzzles
• Money
• Dazzled by wires and buttons

Read more »

Choices, Choices, Choices….

Recently, I was responding to the Windows Updates on Apple OSX desktop at work and I was presented the following choice:

Now, this is one of the reasons I ditched Microsoft Windows in favor of GNU/Linux way back when that was cool (it still is cool, but I sometimes need MSOffice). Now, my Macintosh is doing the same thing! Well done Steve.