Spamhaus gives in

It seems that Spamhaus has given in. Not to the spammers who routinely threaten it, nor (directly, at least), to the one that sued it in a foreign court. But to one of the world’s biggest[1] pits of corruption, the U.S. legal system. That means that Spamhaus, a small UK non-profit organisation providing one of the most valuable services anywhere on the ‘net, is now feeding the world’s most grossly overpaid bunch of crooks.

Should Spamhaus have given in? I don’t know: I’m just grateful for the service they provide. But surely, if the worst that could have happened was loss of the domain name, it should have been simple enough to carry on under another name, in a hierarchy well clear of U.S. jurisdiction. Spamhaus’s many satisfied users care about the service, not the domain name!

[1] Not the deepest, but it’s certainly big. And no, I wouldn’t claim the UK system is any better (in fact it’s less accountable and therefore more deeply corrupt), but that’s not the point at issue.

Amsterdam 2007

So, ApacheCon 2007 is to be in Amsterdam. That’s a pretty convenient, central location for the cluster of Apache developers in North-Western Europe. And it’s a nice city. On the downside, it’s expensive and has a lot of bad hotels, judging from my previous experience. But overall, I’ll be happy to pay another visit, though I don’t look forward to searching for an affordable hotel in Amsterdam.

A quick visit to tripadvisor shows the conference hotel has mixed reviews: better than that dump in Dublin we had this year, but not as nice as the OSCon hotel in Brussels was. Smoke-free is a definite plus. As usual, far too expensive to stay there at ones own expense.