Readers get another turn

One last word of thanks before we move on to the gift-giving madness: Buzz truly appreciates almost all of you who take the time to send e-mail. . . . The exceptions know who you are. Let’s look at the recent correspondence:

One last word of thanks before we move on to the gift-giving madness: Buzz truly appreciates almost all of you who take the time to send e-mail. . . . The exceptions know who you are.

Let’s look at the recent correspondence:

A number of writers piped up to clarify a column in which another reader had cited “The Zappa Crappa Factor” – namely that “90% of everything is crap.”

“Sturgeon’s Law, as it is known among programmers, was originally spoken by Theodore Sturgeon, and the original words were: ‘Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. Ninety percent of everything is crud,'” Don Rea offers. “Frank Zappa was a genius, to be sure, but he wasn’t the originator of everything clever.”

Relative to an item about the demise of Slingshot, another reader accuses Buzz of wielding a wide brush by lumping that former supplier of prepaid Internet access in with a company called BAMnet.

“BAMnet has a great concept – you pay 6.5 cents per minute of time used,” David Hoerl says. “You can connect for 1 minute or 1,000 minutes – the rate is the same. There is no prepayment, up-front investment, or monthly charge – you get billed for what you use, period.”

No disrespect was intended toward BAMnet.

A column about rampant tax cheating by online tobacco merchants and those of you who buy the cut-rate smokes drew howls from opponents of online taxes (“You’ll kill the Internet”), and, of course, the hopeless nicotine addicts (“What about our rights?”).

One of my favorites came from a New York butt fiend:

“Since you are so worried about the nonpayment of these outrageous taxes that you and the mayor seem to think that the people of New York should be paying because they choose to smoke, why don’t you donate some of your salary to offset the losses? Until then, keep your opinion to yourself.”

I tried explaining to her that keeping my opinions to myself would likely result in the loss of my salary, which in turn would keep me from contributing to the cause of the poor, beleaguered smoker. She didn’t write back.

A September column criticized a new business by Go Daddy Software called Domains by Proxy because it will potentially render useless the already unreliable Whois database of Web site operator contact information. Reaction from those who put privacy ahead of accountability was predictable. There also were thornier issues raised, such as Whois being a spammer’s delight . . . and this one:

“My 9-year-old daughter has a Web site with a really great domain name. She would like to post pictures of herself and her friends, but because of the Whois database, I have not allowed her to post anything that might allow her to be identified,” Karen Anderson writes. “While I appreciate the expediency of being able to contact business-related domain owners directly, I also see a real need for privacy protection for kids.”

A Buzz rant about pop-up ads brought out a surprising number of pop-up defenders, most of this ilk:

“I don’t understand the problem,” Paul Stafford writes. “Web sites, including yours, need some way to make money to keep publishing. Orbitz ads are pop-unders, not -overs, and go away with a single click. The ads are not offensive. They work, so Orbitz is likely to continue supporting online content. This benefits the very people who are complaining. If it is an insufficient trade-off for them, they always have the choice to stop patronizing the sites that sell pop-ups, or Orbitz, or both.”

It’s that last part that will be bring an end to pop-ups soon enough.

You, too, can be heard here. The address is buzz@nww.com.