Computers

101 Ways To Save The Internet

By : Sarabjit Singh	Previous \| Next
Posted on : 04 Mar, 2006	Total Views : 608

101 Ways to Save the Internet
By Paul Boutin

Where's a superhero when you need one? The Net, which once seemed so invincible, is under attack by the forces of evil. Viruses knock servers to their knees. Spammers hijack our inboxes. Hackers and identity thieves menace our collective security and personal privacy.

Desperate solutions range from abandoning email to requiring a license to log on. Halt, fools! The Internet's problems stem from the same virtues that make it great: open architecture, the free flow of information, peer-to-peer cooperation, and a bias for linking strangers, not disconnecting them. Take those away and the Net might cease to infuriate us - but it will also cease to amaze us.

Here's a smarter approach: 101 proposals that harness the Net's own superpowers to defeat its foes. Up, up, and away!

1 Unleash vigilante justice on spammers One activist has proposed filters that launch distributed denial-of-service attacks back at spammers. Great. Just make sure we have the right addresses first.

2 Slash song prices charge 29 cents per download. You''ll make it up in volume.

3 Quit already, Jack Valenti

4 Appoint Larry Lessig to the Supreme Court Is he a Democrat or a Republican? Who cares! Laws governing information flow are the new affirmative action, abortion, and gun control rolled into one.

5 Create the all-in-one inbox Email, phone calls, instant messages - they should all go into a single app.

6 Triple our cable modem speed First step: Just turn off the Golf Channel and UPN.

7 Demand truth in advertising for software updates C'mon, AOL 9.0 is really AOL 8.0 with the version number increased 1.0.

8 Declare spammers are terrorists And put Ashcroft, Ridge, and Rumsfeld on their tails.

9 Hands off Internet phone calls Just because the creaky old phone system was regulated to death doesn't mean VoIP should suffer the same fate.

10 Free the handsets We should be able to buy any cell phone and match it with any service plan.

11 Larry Flynt, build a porn browser It should cover our tracks coming and going.

12 Make email addresses portable

13 Don't let the Pentagon hog the airwaves The DOD doesn't need that many civilian-free radio frequencies to do its job.

14 Dump the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

15 Stop the US Patent Office before they patent the hyperlink Oops, too late.

16 Simplify Web publishing Why can't we post files from our desktop to a Web site in one drag-and-drop move?

17 Let a thousand Wi-Fis bloom Open spectrum is the new open source.

18 Build a .sex red-light district Icann, the committee that assigns top-level Internet domains, refuses to create an adult zone that can easily be kept from kids' eyes. Porn won't disappear, so deal with it.

19 Make privacy a personal asset Canada has it already: a law that prevents firms from consolidating all customer information after a merger.

20 Roll out GAAP for geeks Just as with accounting, create an industry standard for network security. Don't forget the penalties for companies that don't comply.

21 Bring on the perp walks We want to see the next CEO whose company's servers leak 10,000 credit card numbers marched past TV cameras by the FBI.

22 Take back UHF We're tired of running our wireless network on the same frequency as the microwave, the cell phone, and the neighbor's baby monitor. Channel 83 is just sitting there.

23 Offer real RIAA amnesty Instead of telling us to delete MP3s or pay a fine, how about you let us pay a fair price to keep them.

24 Release Episode III on the Net It's going straight to video anyway.

25 Pass a White Hat Protection Act Hackers who find holes in corporate networks should get thanks, not handcuffs.

ANTISPAM TOOLBOX
None of these is a magic bullet. But together, they can force junk mail down to levels we can all live with.
Items 26-33

26 Pass the Do Not Spam list Chuck Schumer's Senate bill sticks American inbox bombers with steep fines and creates a special circle in hell for those who send porn to tots. It's not 100 percent enforceable, but neither is the speed limit on Interstate 80.

27 Automate the FTC Replace the Federal Trade Commission's manual email address for reporting spam (uce@ftc.gov) with a nationwide collaborative filtering service like Cloudmark's SpamNet.

28 Simplify disposable addresses

29 Stop email forgery A geeky feature called Reverse MX makes it impossible to masquerade as gwbush@whitehouse.gov.

30 Scramble archived addresses Online archives of mailing lists are a treasure trove for spammers. Give members the option to have their addresses scrambled in posts.

31 Enable digital signatures Crypto certificates are the most reliable way to tell email friend from faux. ISPs and corporate IT guys should pass them out as a competitive advantage.

32 Build friend-of-a-friend filters Think of it as Friendster for your inbox. Everyone on our list can email everyone on yours, but outsiders have to fill out those annoying SpamCop forms.

33 Create a P2P email program We directly trade MP3 files, instant messages, and now phone calls without the bother of backend servers. So why not email messages?

34 Spyware vs. Spyware Counterspyware shouldn't just find spyware installed on our computers. It should hunt down the punk who put it there.

35 Link Moviefone and Fandango Cut a deal so we don't have to search both your sites for theaters.

36 Allow Wi-Fi roaming The Cloud and Boingo share their hot spots - now how about T-Mobile, Verizon, et al.?

37 End broadband monopolies You can't get DSL without first signing up with the local phone bureaucracy for a line you won't use. This is deregulation?

Visit personal website of Sarabjit Singh

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