Taupe Hat Systems

It all started with a fluffy bunny.

A friend of mine linked me to a story at MSNBC about a fluffy bunny. There was a video linked to that story, and I wanted to watch it. OK, I can certainly view that, right? After all, my browser works fine at Google Video and YouTube, right? Surely this will work fine. So I clicked on the video link. (For those of you who don't know, I do my web surfing using Firefox on Linux, which some consider strange for some reason)

Instead of the fluffy bunny, I was instead confronted with a page that told me this: "To use this product, you need to install free software." Huh? Did Microsoft suddenly gain wisdom and decide that Free Software is the way of the future? Can I now look forward to standardized network protocols, well-documented APIs, and the opportunity to clean up the horrible, bloody, insecure mess that is the Windows OS?

Did Satan just get hit in the face with a snowball?

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[UPDATE 10.30.06] Due to improvements in technology, I don't really have a need to do this any longer. On the other hand, I'll leave this post up for posterity - a look back at just how bad things were getting. I still get a ton of background noise from these bums, but it's really just that anymore. No more email spam, no more referral spam (nor a referral block), and most importantly, no more database thrashing trying to keep up with the deluge. Good riddance!

It's hard to be happy about doing this, but at this point, I've reached a limit. I've heard the debate rage about which networks generate the most spam, and perhaps it's different for large organizations. I don't know. What I do know is that about 80% of the email and blog spam I've been getting is coming from APNIC address space. I also get a fair amount from the Carribean.

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