Curious Rat

The Twitter Spam Must Stop

Harry Marks — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:05:30 +0000

It used to be a mild annoyance. Mention the word “iPhone” or “iPad” and you’d get a few tweets from some spam bot with a link to a “FREE IPHONE!!11!1!!” Click on their avatar, click the settings button, Report Spam, done. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, you handled it quickly and efficiently. You could also easily tell who the spam accounts were and who was legit.

I miss those days.

In the span of 48 hours this week, I was followed by no less than 14 spam accounts, all with usernames comprised of similar characteristics - typically, a first name followed by an “x” and several numbers (i.e. ChristinaX02756). I also get a few tweets a day mentioning me, as well as a group of other users, with a link to some phishing or malware site.

There is a serious problem with spam of all kinds on Twitter lately, mostly from the deal scam bots and porn bots. Pictures of chestacular women with profiles that broadcast their promiscuity, inviting you to follow them to see even more. It’s no longer annoying - now it’s pissing me off. As Louise Bolotin points out:

Dear @twitter and @spam I’ve blocked 17 pornbots in the last 3 hours. Sort it, please as its tedious for us users
— Louise Bolotin (@louisebolotin) February 22, 2012

Spam happens. We get it in our email, we get it from telemarketers calling us at all hours of the evening - we even get it from our grandmothers who just got online for the first time and want to warn us about not flashing our headlights at strangers on the road because they may be part of a gang. However, our inboxes have spam filters, there’s a Do Not Call list you can sign up for, and you can always set up a rule to automatically file all emails from grandma into a folder you check once a month.

Where’s Twitter’s solution?

The most recent post I could find on Twitter’s blog concerning the spam problem was from March, 2010, wherein the author implies (and I’m definitely paraphrasing here), “We’re popular and spam is what happens when you’re popular. We’re working on it, but you need to help.”

I help every day and I still get bombarded with bogus followers and obnoxious tweets hourly. Certain keywords trigger new followers, while others set off bots who harass me with promises of free electronics, but instead offer only viruses.

What can be done?

A dedicated spam prevention team that scours Twitter for bogus accounts would be a good start. So would a CAPTCHA at signup.

I’d also love to see an algorithm that automatically funnels similar accounts into a “Spam” list that the user must sift through in case legitimate followers were accidentally filtered in. Users could approve specific followers, or mark all as spam and report them simultaneously, eliminating them from the list and the possibility of following the individual in the future. You know, like an email spam box.

I’d even accept a monthly Twitter blog post outlining the progress being made in the elimination of spam from the site. That “State of Twitter Spam” piece is great, but not when it’s two years old with no updates since.

I’m glad Twitter is doing all these amazing things to make its service more user-friendly, like better interfaces, updated mobile apps and tight integration with iOS and OS X, but ease of use doesn’t matter when Twitter’s no longer fun to use. The sooner Twitter acknowledges there’s a problem, the sooner the healing can begin.

Spam is not user-friendly, no matter how large the breasts.

How Much Does It Cost to Manufacture an iPhone?

Harry Marks — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:09:48 +0000

Horace Dediu breaks it down:

An iPhone generates approximately $650 in revenue for Apple. This figure has remained fairly steady over time. Using deduction from overall margins, it’s possible to estimate the gross margin on the product to be around 55%.

RIM

Harry Marks — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:07:46 +0000

A Fascinating, in-depth biography of the Canadian company, as well as the two men responsible for its growth and eventual demise. Pieces like this remind me why I keep coming back to The Verge. Must read.

My Final Word On Piracy

Harry Marks — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:26:44 +0000

I’m done arguing. I have better things to do than bitch for hours on the Internet with people over something like this - I’m above it.

I could debate with others until the end of time what actually constitutes “theft” when it comes to piracy. Some believe copying and distributing isn’t theft - it’s infringement. I’m of the philosophy that, even if you aren’t physically stealing someone’s work, the act of copying is technically stealing money out of their pockets - and that is theft.

However, my main points of contention are the seeming advocacy of piracy by people like Matt Gemmell and Matthew Inman, as well as the sense of entitlement they share. I’m sure these guys don’t really want us to steal movies, but they’re upset that the studios have made it damn near impossible for us to buy their wares quickly and easily. And in their respective pieces, they appear to be making the case that it’s okay to pirate because the film industry dicked us over first.

Again, I don’t want to hear, “Well, they didn’t really mean that.” Don’t care. It’s hard to read anything but “I’m entitled to what I want when I want it,” and “I’m vindicated in my actions because I was screwed over first,” in statements like this from Gemmell:

We’ll buy stuff if it’s convenient to do so, and if the price is reasonable. Any sensible business would thus have as its goal “make our stuff convenient to buy, and price it reasonably”. You, however, suffer from some kind of brain cancer where your goal becomes “find ways to force people to buy our stuff regardless of how inconvenient and extortionate it is”.

Inman’s Oatmeal comic was nicer about it, but his main problem was “I want it noooowwwww” syndrome. Craig Grannell discusses this over at his blog, Revert to Saved:

Again, Marks and similar thinkers might consider anyone complaining about that whiners or ‘the entitled’, but the fact remains we now live in a connected world. If I can now chat to people all over the planet in an instant, it’s rather absurd that I can’t legally watch a US TV show—even a topical one—for many months (or longer) after its original broadcast date, by which point I’d probably know what happens in it anyway through spoilers being found accidentally.

We’ve been able to talk to people all over the world instantly for decades - it’s called long-distance calling. And guess what? You have to pay for that, too. But Grannell’s right in saying the situation is absurd. I hate that I have to wait until May for PBS to air the second series of Sherlock, but that’s what I’m going to do (unless BBC America airs it earlier). It sucks, but that’s the way it is.

Andy Ihnatko has a brilliant piece up at his site and in it, he states in two sentences what I’ve been trying to say in two blog posts:

The world does not OWE you Season 1 of “Game Of Thrones” in the form you want it at the moment you want it at the price you want to pay for it. If it’s not available under 100% your terms, you have the free-and-clear option of not having it.

The situation sucks, I agree, but just because it sucks does not mean you get to change it on your own. Feeling oppressed? So are people in Syria, China, Libya and all the other “yas”. Waiting a month for a movie to come out on DVD is meaningless compared to the actual problems facing our world.

So, I’m done with this whole debate. I’m glad to know that my online friends who were kind enough to take me on over Twitter last week also don’t advocate for piracy. They realize it does more harm than good - we just differ on the definition of “stealing”. And we’ll probably always argue over that until the courts address it properly, because whether you call it “infringement,” or “piracy,” or “theft,” the fact is it’s hurting artists. No amount of free exposure is going to put the money you’re taking from them back into their pockets.

If you want to change things, make your opinions known by voting with your wallets. Stop buying DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. Stop going to see movies in theaters. Don’t pirate them - just stop watching them altogether. Disconnect your cable, or, at the very least, cancel your movie channel subscriptions. Write to the studios, write to the artists - tell them why you’re doing this. Tell them you’re fed up with high prices and lack of availability.

But don’t steal. Stealing content just makes them want to crack down even more and then we all lose.

Fraser Speirs on iTunes U

Harry Marks — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:40:19 +0000

It’s always refreshing to hear about iPads in the classroom from someone who’s actually using them there. Great read.