Goodies to Go ™
July 2, 2001–Newsletter #137
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Greetings, Weekend Silicon Warriors,
From the “how is this possible” department, I used the
Web to check into a round-trip flight from New Orleans,
LA to Raleigh, Durham, NC. I went to three sites and the
prices were, get this, over $220 dollars apart. Someone is
not playing fair, or “fare” as the case will be. I bought the
cheap one. It actually has a better departure time
anyway. I’m looking forward to seeing the gardens on
the Duke Campus.
Did you hear…
At the time of my writing this newsletter, New York State
is a signature away from becoming the first state to ban
talking on hand-held cellular phones while driving. It
may be law by now. If you’re caught, it’s a $100 fine.
Of course, the term “hand-held” is the loophole.
Companies that make hands-free devises for cell phones
stand to make a ton of cash. Still, I like the idea. More
times than I can remember, people driving those huge
SUVs have come a little too close to me while gabbing
away on the phone. I saw on my local news last night
that Louisiana is also considering a ban on phones. I
hope it passes.
Earthlink has raised it fees in the wake of AOL’s decision
to do the same. If you’re an Earthlink customer, expect a
$2 monthly increase.
The days of the Dick Tracy “two-way wrist radio and
video device” are just around the corner. Yahoo has
announced that it is adding video to its instant messenger
system. The video will come in at, get this, one frame per
second. Of course this is just the beginning. In three
years the video might very well be television quality. But
as for now…move slowly.
Now onto today’s topic…
I have an ethical question for all of you.
I am a teacher. I teach Web design. I am, in fact,
teaching the class this coming semester. I’d like you to
put yourself into my place and think about how you
would have handled the following situation.
I require that every student create a six-page final Web
site. If they are not creating a personal Web site, I
require that they run their topic idea past me before
delving in. I have set parameters that must be met for a
personal Web site. Other sites must at least meet those
requirements. That’s why I like to have the idea run past
me.
One of my male students came to me to ask about a topic
his final Web site project. Mind you, this was a very
good student. He was not a jokester nor flippant in any
way. He was also a joy to have in class. His topic?
He wanted to put up a pornography site.
I sat there waiting for his face to crack and for us both to
giggle. It never happened. This young man truly wanted
to do a pornography site.
After a quick mental run-through of the school’s policies,
I told the student that wouldn’t be acceptable because the
university server didn’t accept “obscene” material to be
posted on the server.
He said that would be fine and that he would post it on an
ISP under a virtual domain name.
I said that he might be searching long and far to find such
an ISP. No dice. He knew of one.
What about content? Where will you get content?
He had some leads.
I finally just said, flat out, that I wouldn’t allow him to do
a pornography site for a final project as my clever attempt
at talking him out of it failed.
He then asked if I would help him by looking at a site he
would create after the class was over. He basically
wanted me to consult for a porn site he would make after
the class had ended.
Herein lies the moral concern. It was easy to wash my
hands of the university project. I just simply said “no”
citing the school’s rules on the subject. I serve on the
Web committee so I was fairly versed in them.
I had always thought, in the past, that people had used
HTML Goodies to create less-than-upstanding Web sites,
but this is the first time it has actually been brought up
and placed in front of my face. I was teaching someone
and that person was going to turn around and create
something that I wouldn’t want my mother to see.
But it’s not illegal. What he wants to do is certainly on
the up and up.
Would you help him out? Would you take the steps to
ensure that the site built was the best it could be?
I must admit that I was intrigued by the idea. It was
certainly a topic I had never attempted to design for in the
past. I actually found myself in thought regarding how I
would move users through the site rather than just create
some sleazy thing with pictures thrown around like leaves
off a tree. I found myself hanging onto a few SPAM
emails that suggested a business opportunity to those who
could make a site. I could make a site. I could make it
stunning. I could make it interesting. I could make it art.
Darn it! I could make a pretty good pornography site!
Could you? Would you? Would you if no one knew
about it? Would you if you could keep it private and
make a small pile of money? What if you could make a
large pile of money? A supplier would get you the
content. You wouldn’t have to get anywhere near the
content end. All you would have to do is build the site,
set the advertiser code and keep the errors to a minimum.
How about it? Would you?
It was foremost in my mind for a while. I gave it some
serious thought. Then I gave him my answer.
Read the pornography laws of the U.S. and the State of
Louisiana. In addition, read the Communications
Decency Act. Consult a lawyer too. You’re going this
one alone.
Nope. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I toyed with the
idea and to this day wonder what kind of site I would
have built.
I’ll never know.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That’s that. Thanks for reading.
Joe Burns, Ph.D.
And Remember: The Mississippi watermelons have
arrived here in Louisiana! For three or four dollars you
can get a melon that will take you six or seven sittings to
eat. Oh man, are they sweet. If you’re like me, you find
yourself spitting the seeds for distance. Well, have you
ever gone over 30 feet? The record for watermelon seed
spitting currently topped 75 feet in 1996. That’s 25
yards. That means that if the spatter were standing at
home plate, he would clear the pitcher’s mound. Gosh.