BiggAndyy the Magazine

In 2001 Microsoft, in co-operation with Compaq, Dell, HP, and Intel, published a paper “Network PC System Design Guidelines“. This was not the birth of the Network Computer but it was the point where the NC enjoyed its biggest audience. People like Larry Ellison and other tech heavy hitters were falling all over themselves to be the first to predict the Rise of the NC.

The idea was sound but the behemoths that were jockeying to position themselves to be first to bring the product to market doomed the NC project to failure everywhere it was tried. Something like the “diskless workstation” would have to wait for a new set of paradigms to be in place.

In the decade since the first fledgling thoughts of a network computer were dreamed up those paradigms have shifted. Microsoft, while still an 800 pound gorilla, no longer enjoys the solitude of being the only viable player on the market. Linux has taken a chunk of the OS market. Apache has taken a bite of the web serving market. Open Source has, for a great degree, become mainstream.

Prices have plummeted and availability has skyrocketed for network bandwidth, memory capacity, network connectivity, and software flexibility. The confluence of improved technology, technology that was unavailable 10 years ago (USB storage devices of the gigabyte capacity), and a large segment of the general public actually capable of utilizing this technology, has brought the Network Computer back to the forefront of industry leaders.

No longer a bleeding edge concept, the NC of today is small, sleek, modern, expandable, and affordable. The Linutop appears to hold the best promise of straddling the bull market of NC demand just at the right time. A Network Computer makes good sense where the tremendous processing power of today’s dual core architecture is overkill when all is needed is internet connectivity.

Okay, I probably deserved this when I ruminated about spam and why I wasn’t getting any. I probably even asked for more when I said I was getting some. It will probably increase 10 fold with this missive.

But enough is enough! Israel Stop Spamming Me!

Well, not the entire country, just a couple of IPs in Israel. As a plugin I run Firestats, a great tool for seeing who visits, where they come from, and how many times a page is served. Normally my Country breakdown for visits is thusly, 92% from America and the rest of the world divvies up the remaining 8% or so.

As I scroll down the list today I notice America has slid all the way down to 75%. Whoa, that is quite a drop. So who is number 2? Used to be Canada (America North) but they have also lost their number 2 spot to… Israel with a whopping 11% of my visit count.

In my personal politics and faith I am partial to Israel, but that has never had opportunity to come across in the blog, so why am I so popular there?

SPAM.

Almost all of my Akismet catches are posts coming from Israel and much of my Inbox email spam originates from there as well. What to do? I could blacklist the IPs (84.108.x.x, 84.109.x.x, 84.110.x.x) but those machines are probably just part of a bot farm and will change in a day or two.

My posts counts are rising, and that does do my ego a bit of good if nothing else. But in the back of my mind I know that is an artificial rise, and it masks what my readers are genuinely interested in reading.

If I can’t tell what articles are generating positive readership and feedback I can’t keep improving the quality of BA (and the Adsense revenue either). I suppose I can just live with the spam, and even the fact that right now it is coming from Israel.

Maybe next time my spam will come from the Bahamas. I have always wanted to visit the Bahamas but could never afford to. At least my spam will have had a good time there.