"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

The Back Page

About This Month's Authors
Not Linux

About This Month's Authors

Shane Collinge

Part computer programmer, part cartoonist, part Mars Bar. At night, he runs around in a pair of colorful tights fighting criminals. During the day... well, he just runs around. He eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's sleepy.

Fernando Correa

Fernando is a computer analyst just about to finish his graduation at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Now, he has built with his staff the best Linux portal in Brazil and have further plans to improve services and content for their Internet users.

Eric Kasten

I'm a software developer by day and an artist, web developer, big dog, gardener and wine maker by night. This all leaves very little time for sleep, but always enough time for a nice glass of Michigan Pinot Gris. I have a BS double major in Computer Science and Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science. I've been using and modifying Linux since the 0.9x days. I can be reached via email at kasten@sunpuppy.com or through my website at http://www.sunpuppy.com.

Mark Nielsen

Mark works at ZING (www.genericbooks.com) and GNUJobs.com. Previously, Mark founded The Computer Underground. Mark works on non-profit and volunteer projects which promote free literature and software. To make a living, he recruits people for GNU related jobs and also provides solutions for web/database problems using Linux, FreeBSD, Apache, Zope, Perl, Python, and PostgreSQL.

Ben Okopnik

A cyberjack-of-all-trades, Ben wanders the world in his 38' sailboat, building networks and hacking on hardware and software whenever he runs out of cruising money. He's been playing and working with computers since the Elder Days (anybody remember the Elf II?), and isn't about to stop any time soon.

Kapil Sharma

Kapil Sharma is a Linux/Unix and Internet security consultant. He has been working on various Linux and Unix systems for more than 2 years. He is providing commercial support for Linux/Unix systems and writing technical articles. His professional web site is linux4biz.net.

Mark Taylor

Mark works at Motorola Computer Group on diagnostics for the custom circuits on MCG's x86 computer board products. He has also done 68K firmware, a SCO Unix device driver, some Ada applications, and 10 years of avionics software. Mark is happiest down in the lowest levels of the system tweaking hardware.

Alan Ward

Alan teaches CS in Andorra at highschool and university levels. He's back to Unix this year after an 8-year forced interlude since he graduated -- it makes networking so much easier. His hobbies include science photography (both digital and traditional), trekking, rock and processor collecting.

Irving Washington

Irving Washington (pseud.), as witnessed by his personal server www.fifthgate.org, is mostly interested in creating useful web services.

Dan York

Dan recently joined the staff of LinuxCare, to work full-time on developing the Linux Professional Institute certification program. He has been working with the Internet and UNIX systems for 13 years and PCs since the early Apple computers in 1977 . While his passion is with Linux, he has also spent the past three years working with Windows NT. Dan has written numerous articles for technical magazines, and has also spoken at various conferences within the training industry. He is now a member of the Certification committee of the Systems Administrators Guild (SAGE - a division of USENIX).

Not Linux

www.linuxgazette.com usage stats

Here are the top 10 browsers/spiders which viewed the main LG site in August:


Top 15 of 1071 Total User Agents

#	Hits		User Agent

1	880501	38.63%	MSIE
2	829419	36.39%	Netscape
3	269986	11.85%	Wget/1.5.3
4	44209	1.94%	Teleport Pro/1.29
5	29842	1.31%	WebCopier
6	25202	1.11%	testspider
7	11080	0.49%	HTTrack 2.0
8	8966	0.39%	AVSearch-3.0(EoExchange/Liberty)
9	8432	0.37%	Opera 4.0
10	7927	0.35%	AvantGo 3.2
11	7438	0.33%	Slurp/2.0-BigOwlWeekly (spider@aeneid.com; http://www.inktomi
12	7107	0.31%	GETWWW-ROBOT/2.0
13	5985	0.26%	Slurp/2.0-RedtailCrawl (slurp@inktomi.com; http://www.inktomi
14	5160	0.23%	Konqueror/1.1.2
15	4717	0.21%	sitescooper/3.0.0beta (http://sitescooper.cx) libwww-perl/5.4

Usage has been hovering at 80,000-90,000 readers (=unique IPs) per month, or 135,000-155,000 visits (from the same IP within a short time period). Of course, some IPs represent multiple readers, but on the other hand, readers with dynamic IP addresses are counted for each address they visit under, so it probably evens out. This includes only www.linuxgazette.com, not the mirrors.

The Gazette mailbox overfloweth with spam

Fed up with being shut down by your ISP? People screaming? People sending you FLAMES? Being bombarded with COUNTER OFFERS? LOW response rate? Then let us take over the hassles for you... Promote your web site without the worries of it being shut down because of spam complaints. Our operation centers are protected by Central Intelligence Agency level security.
I was wondering if you were interested in DRAMATICALLY increasing your INTERNET SALES and SIGNUPS and getting MORE WEBSITE TRAFFIC.
Build a residual income from time you spend on the Internet placing FREE advertisements like this.
As you can guess this is unsolicited mail and some people are cross when they get it and complain to the ISP.. For this reason we do not want to send it through our ISP WHO MAY STOP serving us. I hear that at your end things are not as strict. Can we host a site with you and use your ISP for mailing? If positive -what is the cost.
We have found your resume on web. We would like to know if you are still pursuing a position. [Since when did Linux Gazette have a resume? -Ed.]

But this piece qualifies as the Spam Of The Summer

It's no secret that the Internet has very recently developed into the hottest marketing medium since television! Those with the skills to take advantage of this new medium are starting to make some very serious money.
My offer to you is this. You send me $39 bucks I will mail You my E-mail Marketing Kit CD Disk containing the following information and software.
Bla bla bla The Bulk E-mail Handbook bla bla bla The Targeted Direct E-mail Marketing E-Book bla bla bla...
As if this wasn't enough, hold on to your seat, I am even going to give you absolutely FREE the following software:

1.) A copy of CHECKER CHECKS BY FAX SOFTWARE... This is a fully functional program not a crippled demo. Now you can take payment from your customers by Fax, Phone or E-mail simply by taking their Checking account information.

2.) A copy of smtp lookup software that will find you foreign mail servers you can use to send your mail completely undetected. This software will test mail through hundreds of servers an hour. I will even Supply you with a list of 16000 foreign domains to insert into your testing.

And I will throw in 500,000 Fresh E-mail addresses. If you are selling a product or service these are the addresses you want.
SPECIAL BONUS if you order your CD By 9/30/00 I will supply you with a copy of E-mail Software you can use to send your message to millions and a copy of E-mail list extracting software you can use to extract E-mail Addresses from all over the Internet.
Just make out your check for $39 payable to X and write void across the face then tape or glue it to the order form at the bottom of this page and you will have your E-mail Marketing Information Kit mailed the same day.

Why would somebody ask you to write "VOID" on the check you're sending them as payment? Doesn't that mean he won't get paid?

Read paragraph "1." again. He'll send you software which allows you to "take payment from your customers ... simply by taking their Checking accunt information". Thus, he has software which allows him to take payment from you simply by taking your checking account information.

When do people normally ask for a voided check? When you're setting up automatic payment with them, of course! So you can pay the monthly electric or ISP bill without having to write a check. But this is a one-time payment, isn't it? Or is it?

No wonder he tells you to write "VOID" on the check. He doesn't plan on cashing it anyway. Now the question becomes, will he put the order through at $39? Or $399?

Happy Linuxing.

Michael Orr
Editor, Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com