The Entrepreneur's Take On Spam.

That's easy. Don't do it. Being an entrepreneur is about leverage. It is not about highjacking communication systems, stealing identities, or forging addresses. As you can see from the post forwarded below, spamming comments on weblogs will get you even more negatives than plain old spam email. And plain old spam email might get you a few sales, but it will outrage millions of potential customers.

Comments are turned off on this weblog because spammers from e-Learning companies left commercial adverts in comments here within two days of the launch of eLearning Entrepreneur as a category. I could have dealt with it by embarrassing them publicly, but that wouldn't have stopped others. So it's not like it doesn't happen. Even people you think of as your fellow professionals are capable of being so desperate for sales that they do something stupid.

Get your sales the old-fashioned way. Work for them. And don't buy anything from spammers.

Coping with Comments Spam - Brainstorms and Raves.

http://brainstormsandraves.com/
archives/2003/10/03/feast_61_unwanted_comments/

If you have a hate-on for comment spam you probably already have seen this, but Shirley Kaiser at brainstormsandraves.com has written a great post containing much of the collected wisdom to date on how to deal with the nefarious good-for-nothings. - SWL

10:21:51 PM    

Open source CMS and using weblogs as replacements for CMS

Hands-on Segue Demo Available.

http://www.opensourcecms.com/
modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=74

There's been a little buzz over the last few months about using blogs as replacements for CMS, and this open source example from Middlebury College is sometimes held up as an example. So I was happy to see that you can get administrator access to a hands on demo through the invaluable OpenSourceCMS site. Thanks to Charlie for the post reminding me to keep going back to this site. - SWL

12:34:13 PM    

Microsoft moving to minimize impact of Eolas ruling.

Microsoft tweaks Explorer to address ruling. The software maker moves ahead with what it calls "modest changes" to its Internet browser as a result of the patent suit brought against it by Eolas Technologies. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

In September we first heard about the outcome of this patent suit and the potential fallout. Maybe things won't be as bad as it first appeared. Quoting from the article:

"The alterations proposed by the Redmond, Wash., company include changes to the manner in which Explorer handles some Web pages that use ActiveX Controls, object-oriented programming technologies and tools found in plug-in software such as Macromedia's Flash, Apple's QuickTime, and RealNetworks' RealOne. Microsoft said it expects to make the changes to Explorer by early 2004.

If Web developers choose not to implement Microsoft's recommended changes, visitors to their sites may see a pop-up box informing them of such before Explorer will load any affected plug-in software. Microsoft also said it was working with partners to create guidelines for building Web pages making use of the pop-up box unnecessary."

This is something that anyone using the Web for marketing and for delivery of services, including e-Learning and e-Commerce, will want to pay attention to.

More comments and links to information about Microsoft's fix at Tom Gilder's weblog (I'm not quoting the title of his post -- while it is totally appropriate, if you're going to be offended at the language, you can be offended there, not here).

11:06:32 AM    

Interested in keeping up with weblogs in education?

Check out the eduBlog list.

10:57:51 AM