New travel website about Australia and NZ. Feedback needed!

Going to New Zealand?

Check our new travel website about beautiful New Zealand and
Australia:

http://www.triptouch.com/new-zealand/ni/auckland

Please give us feedback !

On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:55:04 -0800 (PST),
wrote in

:

Going to New Zealand?

Check our new travel website about beautiful New Zealand and
Australia:

http://www.triptouch.com/new-zealand/ni/auckland

Please give us feedback !

Sure, am pleased to offer some immediate feedback. Firstly, you
don't offer much information in your in your initial post to this
group.

Secondly, when your web site is accessed, you demand that
visitors
"register" and demand a "password" before any meaningful
information is offered.

You are trying to sell a service or a product.

Suppose I go down to a local supermarket or any other retail
store in Australia.

A security guard at the door demands a "password" or
"identification"

Do you think I would be willing to produce same? Not that I have
anything to hide, but would be highly irritated at the demand.

I would make a rude remark to him and go elsewhere.

My advice to you, if you are trying to sell any product or
service is that you don't even make an offer on the net.

Some of us don't want to "sign up" even to see what services you
are offering, as we know that if we do we will be bombarded by
junk email and postal advertising.

As have mentioned on other groups, perhaps even this group, if I
go to a local retailer of electronic goods and offer to pay with
a valid credit card, they demand a lot of additional information.

Here, a valid credit card just has my name, my credit card
number, and an expiry date, and on the back, a signature.

Most retailers simply run the card through a machine that checks
the validity and this is enough for them.

They don't bother to check the signature, nor should they.

The card is valid or it isn't.

Even at a major supermarket, if I was asked to "validate" my
signature, I would simply walk out and go elsewhere.

Why should I put up with such an invasion of my privacy?

Yet the retailer mentioned above tries to demand my home address,
my phone number, and so on.

Perhaps needless to say, I don't deal with them any more. Even
their web site advertising "specials" require that the potential
customer "signs in" and requires a "password".


If even their advertising requires a "password" I want nothing to
do with them.

So, as a matter of interest, just why do you require a name and
password to even view your Webster?

IMHO, a very poor sales technique. If you don't trust me to even
look at your advertising, why should I trust you?

Enough "feedback" for the moment?

Regards,
Kangaroo16

Sydney, 1:36 AM, Friday, 21 Dec. 2007

"kangaroo16" wrote in message Going to New
Zealand?

Check our new travel website about beautiful New Zealand and
Australia:

http://www.triptouch.com/new-zealand/ni/auckland

Please give us feedback !

Sure, am pleased to offer some immediate feedback. Firstly, you
don't offer much information in your in your initial post to this
group.........................shortened

Kangaroo16, may I suggest that you set up a Gmail account. Something like
. Then you'll have a legit email address and you can
safely sign up to any web site and hand your gmail address out all over the
interent and not worry about spam. Google are experts in spam filtering.

Also sites ask you to register because many allow you to upload pictures and
post to their forums. Without names, a forum can quickly be destroyed by
spammers. Porn can get uploaded into the picture section and pretty soon the
site is worthless.

I suggest you get yourself a free gMail address and start signing up for a
few of these web sites. You've nothing to loose, they don't ask for your
house address or anything else personal. The internet has changed, spam
isn't the problem it once was - thanks to our friends at Google.

Regards

Keith

Incidently, ignore any of the stupid comments that certain people post
around here. Keep posting! You're my favourite poster in this newsgroup.

Keith

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:18:13 +1030, "Keith Manning"
wrote in
:


"kangaroo16" wrote in message Going to New
Zealand?

Check our new travel website about beautiful New Zealand and
Australia:

http://www.triptouch.com/new-zealand/ni/auckland

Please give us feedback !

Sure, am pleased to offer some immediate feedback. Firstly, you
don't offer much information in your in your initial post to this
group.........................shortened

Kangaroo16, may I suggest that you set up a Gmail account. Something like
. Then you'll have a legit email address and you can
safely sign up to any web site and hand your gmail address out all over the
interent and not worry about spam. Google are experts in spam filtering.

Perhaps, but I don't know _how_ expert. Spam, scams, key
loggers, Trojans, worms, etc. are continuously evolving, and if
you read the fine print of the service contracts, which I do, I
have yet to see any security program that is claimed to be
foolproof.

Also sites ask you to register because many allow you to upload pictures and
post to their forums. Without names, a forum can quickly be destroyed by
spammers. Porn can get uploaded into the picture section and pretty soon the
site is worthless.

If their internal programs for filtering "spam", "porn" etc.
aren't good enough to prevent these problems on their own
sites, how trustworthy can the site be?

Personally, I don't worry about porn filters as have no kids
to try to protect, but I have yet to heard of any that haven't
been fairly quickly cracked.

Of course, nothing is really totally secure. Am sure you have
noticed that sellers of security hardware no longer advertise
"unpickable locks" or "uncrackable safes". :-)

Governments can afford millions of dollars to protect their data,
but even they have had their sites cracked.

You will have probably heard of the crackdown on child porn.
Every email message has a unique code, and is trackable to the
sender if the police want to pursue the issue.


I suggest you get yourself a free gMail address and start signing up for a
few of these web sites. You've nothing to loose, they don't ask for your
house address or anything else personal. The internet has changed, spam
isn't the problem it once was - thanks to our friends at Google.

Regards

Keith


Personally, I can see absolutely no advantage in G-mail. Even
ordinary email isn't really all that secure.

However, did do a quick search for warnings on G-mail, including
a "phishing" scam that seemed to originate from Google G-mail
itself.

Try Googling the string

gmail caution warnings

and you will get ~ 31,000 links

I also took a look at the "terms of use" for its services. Not
too impressed by the conditions, which seem unnecessarily long
and complex.

The way I read it, they can reproduce anything I post on their
online storage, and don't even seem to promise that they won't
sell my name to other advertisers, spammer's, etc.

If proceed to the sign up page, noticed that I will allow them to
place "cookies" on my system, and I generally don't allow this.

I have an adequate email program, and see no advantages to
starting one with them.

I seldom use email at all, especially when posting on a group
such as this. I consider anything I post on travel or
immigration groups to be of general interest or I wouldn't bother
to write it.

As have said many times before, those who don't choose to read my
posts need not do so. Or they can make this a moderated group,
and censor posts to their hearts content.

I do sometimes post to moderated groups under other names, but
would see no reason to follow either of these should they choose
to convert them to moderated groups.

Most groups on Usenet aren't moderated, for the simple reason
that
it most people don't like having their posts censored, and the
delay involved in this.

Suppose I was posting on a newsgroup which dealt with general
"security" issues. Travel or immigration can both involve a
whole lot of security issues, and I doubt that anyone could
devise "group guidelines" which could possible cover all of them.

Australia is free of some diseases, plant or animal species that
could, and have, become major pests in the past.

There is also a fairly lengthy list of prohibited imports, unless
apply in advance to import them. This includes, or
used to include, bulletproof vests, personal defense devices,
eavesdropping devices, replica firearms, and so on.

If a tourist or traveler declares these, they might well have,
the item seized, be fined.

If has a prohibited import and doesn't declare it, and customs
detects it, he or she could have his or her visa cancelled on the
spot and be put on the next plane home.

If the visitor or migrant manages to get through customs without
it being detected, and is later caught with it, they might be
fined and or imprisoned. The penalties can be pretty heavy.

Tourists and travelers sometimes, or even often, assume that the
laws of any country they visit are similar to their home country.

A few S.E. Asian countries regard anyone carrying over
25 gms of heroin as being a dealer or smuggler, and the penalty
is death.

A couple of years ago, from memory, a female American tourist
had been visiting another country and decided to make a stopover
in Mexico City on the way back to the USA. She was carrying some
analgesic product [such as "Aspirin" or "Paracetomol" which
contained a few milligrams of codeine.

In many, or even most, countries, this is an "over the counter"
pain reliever, and requires no prescription. So she didn't
bother to declare it, and was caught with it when went through
Mexican customs.

Apparently, in Mexico, any amount of narcotics, such as codeine,
must be declared. Now, in this particular case, the US Consular
officials managed to convince the Mexican authorities that it was
an honest mistake on her part. Most people would have enough
sense to declare prescription drugs, but I suppose it doesn't
occur to some people to read the ingredients label on an over the
counter product, and even if she had read it, she might know that
codeine is a weak narcotic, and that she should declare it.

So If I post something on these groups warning that certain
common items aren't allowed in Australia, I consider it a valid
post.

In passing, even the 50 states of the USA have widely varying
state laws and penalties, usually relating to sex or drugs. Some
states have, or had, laws banning certain forms of sexual
behavior between adult married couples. From memory, a husband
was caught practicing some forbidden activity, and spent two
years in the state pen as a result.

I apologise for the long post, but wanted to make my position
clear. :-)

Thanks for the suggestion on G-mail though, and will probably
look further into the possibility. In general, though, if wanted
an "anonymous" service, there are such services available, and
they aren't that expensive. Nor do they demand cookies.

Still, if law enforcement officers want to trace someone badly
enough, they can usually do so.

Anyway, thanks for the support and advice!

Cheers,
Kangaroo16
Sydney, 3:16 PM Saturday, 22 December.

On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:21:02 +1030, "Keith Manning"
wrote in
:

Incidently, ignore any of the stupid comments that certain people post
around here. Keep posting! You're my favourite poster in this newsgroup.

Keith

Thank you for the compliment, but you will probably be criticised
by others for posting it. :-)

Cheers,
Kangaroo16
Sydney, 3:22 PM Saturday, 22 Dec.

.. wrote in message
...
On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:18:13 +1030, "Keith Manning"
Look at any Usenet ng, including this one, and see where the majority
of the spam is originating - Google.


The spammers may appear as having Gmail accounts but they're not necessarily
originating from Gmail.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

kangaroo16 wrote:
On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:18:13 +1030, "Keith Manning"
wrote in
[...]
Also sites ask you to register because many allow you to upload pictures and
post to their forums. Without names, a forum can quickly be destroyed by
spammers. Porn can get uploaded into the picture section and pretty soon the
site is worthless.

If their internal programs for filtering "spam", "porn" etc.
aren't good enough to prevent these problems on their own
sites, how trustworthy can the site be?

So it's OK for you to be totally paranoid about a site which looks
perfectly fine, but they should trust everybody, no questions asked?
The mind boggles.

Anyway, it's *impossible* to 'filter' "porn" (whatever *that* is) -
let alone "spam" - with 100% accuracy.

So any site with any clue *must* require login/password. If they
don't, *they* will be held legally responsible for any inappropriate
material - i.e. also copyright violations, etc. - on their site.

Just think about it: Is there *any* company with any sense to which
you can upload files without authentication?

Personally, I don't worry about porn filters as have no kids
to try to protect, but I have yet to heard of any that haven't
been fairly quickly cracked.

I hope you realize how inconsistent that statement is!

Boggle, boggle, ...

[...]

On 22 Dec 2007 14:31:14 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote in
:

kangaroo16 wrote:
On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:18:13 +1030, "Keith Manning"
wrote in
[...]
Also sites ask you to register because many allow you to upload pictures and
post to their forums. Without names, a forum can quickly be destroyed by
spammers. Porn can get uploaded into the picture section and pretty soon the
site is worthless.

If their internal programs for filtering "spam", "porn" etc.
aren't good enough to prevent these problems on their own
sites, how trustworthy can the site be?

So it's OK for you to be totally paranoid

How about you give us your definition of "paranoid", let alone
"totally paranoid"? :-)

about a site which looks
perfectly fine, but they should trust everybody, no questions asked?

It may look "perfectly fine" to you, but it doesn't to everyone.
As I indicated in the post, all messages have a unique message
number and are traceable if necessary. How much do you claim to
know about computer and Internet security?

Historically, are you aware that the US Amateur Radio service was
highly restricted during both WW1 & WW2. If you don't, check the
history of amateur radio at:

http://www.ac6v.com/history.htm

Now, Frank, do you follow the logic of this action in wartime?
Do you think that the U.S. Gov't was "Paranoid" to institute
these regulations?

Why do Governments allow the Internet if messages are not
traceable?

The mind boggles.

Perhaps yours does.:-)

Anyway, it's *impossible* to 'filter' "porn" (whatever *that* is) -
let alone "spam" - with 100% accuracy.

Yes, I've already pointed this out.

So any site with any clue *must* require login/password. If they
don't, *they* will be held legally responsible for any inappropriate
material - i.e. also copyright violations, etc. - on their site.

Unlikely, and too hard to enforce anyway. Firstly, how would
they know that the name and address is correct anyway. Is your
name actually "Frank Slootweg"? I note that you don't bother to
provide an actual email address, incidentally.

Just think about it: Is there *any* company with any sense to which
you can upload files without authentication?

How do you define "company", "any sense", "files" ?

Personally, I don't worry about porn filters as have no kids
to try to protect, but I have yet to heard of any that haven't
been fairly quickly cracked.

I hope you realize how inconsistent that statement is!

Feel free to explain why you think it "inconsistent" :-)


Boggle, boggle, ...

If your mind "boggles" easily, I cannot help that.:-)

Incidentally, just as an idle question, do you consider
your computer as absolutely secure? Would you use it for
Internet banking, for example?

Cheers,
Kangaroo16
Sydney, 11:14 Sunday 23 Dec.
[GMT +11 hours]

kangaroo16 wrote:
On 22 Dec 2007 14:31:14 GMT, Frank Slootweg
wrote in
:

kangaroo16 wrote:
On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:18:13 +1030, "Keith Manning"
wrote in
[...]
Also sites ask you to register because many allow you to upload
pictures and post to their forums. Without names, a forum can
quickly be destroyed by spammers. Porn can get uploaded into the
picture section and pretty soon the site is worthless.

If their internal programs for filtering "spam", "porn" etc.
aren't good enough to prevent these problems on their own
sites, how trustworthy can the site be?

So it's OK for you to be totally paranoid

How about you give us your definition of "paranoid", let alone
"totally paranoid"? :-)

I'll leave that to the self-appointed ... ahum ... specialist in that
area.

about a site which looks
perfectly fine, but they should trust everybody, no questions asked?

It may look "perfectly fine" to you, but it doesn't to everyone.

It looks perfectly fine to anyone but yourself. QED.

As I indicated in the post, all messages have a unique message
number and are traceable if necessary.

Which "post" and which "messages" are you babbling about? The *point*
is that without authentication the "messages" to the site are *not*
traceable (to a responsible person).

How much do you claim to
know about computer and Internet security?

Compared to you? Sorry, can't say with any reasonable precision,
because my computer does only 64-bit floating-point.

[irrelevant babble deleted]

The mind boggles.

Perhaps yours does.:-)

Anyway, it's *impossible* to 'filter' "porn" (whatever *that* is) -
let alone "spam" - with 100% accuracy.

Yes, I've already pointed this out.

*And* the *exact opposite*. *That*'s why the mind boggles.

So any site with any clue *must* require login/password. If they
don't, *they* will be held legally responsible for any inappropriate
material - i.e. also copyright violations, etc. - on their site.

Unlikely, and too hard to enforce anyway. Firstly, how would
they know that the name and address is correct anyway. Is your
name actually "Frank Slootweg"?

How much do you claim to
know about computer and Internet security?

QED.

I note that you don't bother to
provide an actual email address, incidentally.

We note that you continue to abuse the invalid.com domain, which is an
*existing* and *valid* domain (despite its name), which is not yours
to use. 'whois' is your friend######enemy.

How much do you claim to
know about computer and Internet security?

QED.

Just think about it: Is there *any* company with any sense to which
you can upload files without authentication?

How do you define "company", "any sense", "files" ?

http://dictionary.reference.com

Knock yourself out!

Personally, I don't worry about porn filters as have no kids
to try to protect, but I have yet to heard of any that haven't
been fairly quickly cracked.

I hope you realize how inconsistent that statement is!

Feel free to explain why you think it "inconsistent" :-)

Because, you say *that* *and* the *exact opposite*! May I suggest
Logic 101 (and Reading 101, Comprehension 101, GAL 101, etc.)?

Boggle, boggle, ...

If your mind "boggles" easily, I cannot help that.:-)

Incidentally, just as an idle question, do you consider
your computer as absolutely secure? Would you use it for
Internet banking, for example?

No. Yes (and I actually *do*, with HTTPS and a crypto device).

And your *point* is?