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It's funny. Laugh. Space Science

Craigslist to Beam Ads into Space (for Free) 251

Posted by timothy from the unintended-consequences dept.
rdarden writes "According to a press release issues yesterday, Craigslist will be broadcasting 10,000 ads into space later this year. CEO Jim Buckmaster won an eBay auction offered by Deep Space Communications Network, a Cape Canaveral, Florida company. According to an article at Technewsworld.com, they may have already received permission from 10,000 ad submitters."
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Craigslist to Beam Ads into Space (for Free) More

Craigslist to Beam Ads into Space (for Free)

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  • Beam ads ? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:51AM (#11821895) Journal
    What's the point ? Isn't this a form of pollution, anyway ? Even if we do not actually know what we pollute if these are radio waves...
    If itz's light, no doubt, it is. The Macunmba disco (near Geneva) had to stop lighting the sky at night for ecological reasons.

    • Re:Beam ads ? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Actually, I believe that the ruling that Macumba should turn off their lights was made on the basis that they constituted "advertising outside of a rural area" which is apparently not permitted in France.

      However, it was a group of ecologists who pushed for the prosecution (rather like prosecuting Al Capone for tax evasion).

    • Re:Beam ads ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:24AM (#11822007) Homepage
      It doesn't matter. a Ham radio operator with $300.00 worth of gear can do the same thing.

      Point high gain direction antenna into space, crank watts up to 100, have TNC transmit tones into space.

      Want to get fancier? use a old discarded sattelite dish, point it straight up. get a 2ghz transmitter surplus Microwave oven at the focal point will do.

      either modulate the carrier (hard) or transmit Via CW (easier

      have a 10,000 watt deep space "transmitter" (1000 watt microwave into a 10dbi gain antenna is close to that... most 10 foot dishes are 20+dbi)

      either way the signal is not going to go very far (interstellar speaking) and is a huge waste of money that is purely for the fool to spend his money on.

      Case in point.... CEO of Craigslist.

    • Re:Beam ads ? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kernelblaha ( 756819 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:35AM (#11822040)
      It's a great publicity stunt, just cos it's quirky. Look, it's even made it on /. Similar thing happened with the "Milka" cows in Switzerland. They painted cows with a variety of adverts (for a reasonable fee) and let the cows graze close to the railways in Switzerland. But most of the influence was due to people telling other people about the idea, because they found it interesting. An example of memes in action.

    • Re:Beam ads ? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Laurentiu ( 830504 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:59AM (#11822097)
      Haven't you noticed yet? Human beings sorely lack the capacity to put things in the proper perspective. Their view of their immediate surroundings almost always superceeds whatever large-scale or long-term effects their actions might have.

      "Yeah, we'll dump the nuclear waste in the Pacific. The containers are sealed so tight, there's no way they're gonna leak." 350 years later our children's children will have an ecological disaster of such scale on their hands that Hiroshima will be remembered fondly as "the good ol' days".

      "Stop pollution? But that would cost us votes... erm, jobs! No way!" What is the long term cost, we wonder? I don't want my grandchildren to live in a future where they buy CocaCola Pure Mountain Air, do you?

      This is just the newest folly in a long list of follies that the human race produced over the centuries. Craigslist sees it as a slick marketing move - they'll get all the free publicity they need with this one. They can now safely claim they boldly spammed where nobody spammed before. But that's as far as they think; other consequences, if any, escapes them completely.

      Anyone remember the Voyager message? That was something our race could be proud of. 15 years later we're sending another message, which makes me wish there's no one out there to receive it. I wish they would begin and end their transmission with this disclaimer:

      "This message represents only the human corporation known as Craiglist, and not in any way, shape or form the entirety of the human race. Any complaints, jams, deathray beams or any other form of communication related with this transmission should be directed towards the aforementioned entity."
    • Imagine what aliens will think of us when they decipher their first "Enlarge your p3n15 today!" message from these "humans".....
    • I for one do not wish to send spam to our new alien overlords.

  • spammers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:51AM (#11821896)
    Cue thousands of angry alien civilizations rushing in to destroy the earth-spammers.

  • 2035, first contact with an alien species (Score:5, Funny)

    by Laurentiu ( 830504 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:53AM (#11821903)
    Earth: "Greetings, friends from space, welcome to Earth!"

    Alien spaceship: "All your Burger Kings are belong to us."

  • Yay Earth! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Farmer Tim ( 530755 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:54AM (#11821907) Journal
    Universe's leading source of spam!

    • Re:Yay Earth! (Score:2, Funny)

      by MrZilla ( 682337 )
      "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of them have tried to contact us" - LazyBoy
    • What if we're not? What if SETI (the I stands for intelligence, remember) just filters out all incoming spam, on the basis that it's evidence of exactly the opposite of what they're looking for?

  • In a Galaxy Far Far Away... (Score:5, Funny)

    by liloconf ( 560960 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:54AM (#11821908)
    Alien 1: Sir we're receiving a transmission...
    Alien 2: What does it say?
    Alien 1: Increase it's size by 3 inches!!!
    Alien 2: ?????

  • Great (Score:5, Funny)

    by twodiabolo ( 265880 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:56AM (#11821914)
    That should be enough to get us blacklisted as spammers. There goes any hope of making first contact!

  • SWMISOGAAP (Score:2, Funny)

    by dfn_deux ( 535506 ) *
    Single White Male in Search of Grey Alien Anal Probe

  • I know!!! (Score:2, Funny)

    by liloconf ( 560960 )
    1. Create an ad
    2. Send it into space
    3. ???????
    4. Profit

  • I can see it now (Score:3, Funny)

    by proverbialcow ( 177020 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:57AM (#11821925) Journal
    Humanity finally perfects FTL travel, and the first colonists are lost because the communications channel is filled ads for v|@gr4 and old 'Friends' re-runs and Hitler kicking off the '36 Olympics.

    Fan-frickin'-tastic.
    • Right, because they're going to be communicating with Earth while travelling faster than light. With normal radio waves.
      • because they're going to be communicating with Earth while travelling faster than light.

        Who said that? I was thinking more like:

        "Hey, Earth. The crops we planted seem to attract the wrath of horrifying space monsters, and we only have enough supplies to last us exactly as long as it would take for you to ship us more... Hello? Hello? Yeah, Ross in those leather pants is pretty funny, but seriously, we're hosed."

  • I can just see the ads beamed out into space... (Score:5, Funny)

    by idlake ( 850372 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @06:59AM (#11821931)
    Polyamorous alien within 1003.2 light years (same galactic arm only please) with prime number of piercing into tentacle sex and black hole bondage wanted by endoskeletal ape descendant (some hair) with XY sex chromosomes and external genitalia (tentacle-like but not prehensile). Please be between 3'2" and 10'7" along your longest dimension, weigh no more than 500 pounds (no prejudice against big boned aliens, but there are physical limitations), have skin pigmentation that absorbs IR and fluoresces under near UV light. I still live with my evolutionary relatives, so you must have your own spacecraft.

  • Don't panic (Score:3, Funny)

    by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:00AM (#11821932) Homepage
    October 13, 2005: Craigslist beams 10,000 ads into space
    October 14, 2005: Earth obliterated by the Intergalactic Anti-Spam Defense Force
    October 15, 2005: [Nothing]

  • Last request (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jonathan the Nerd ( 98459 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:01AM (#11821935) Homepage
    The last thing humans will ever see will be an intergalactic missile streaking towards earth, inscribed with the alien word for "Unsubscribe".

  • Why not (Score:5, Funny)

    by ebrandsberg ( 75344 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:03AM (#11821944)
    It's not like the response rate for my personals ads will get any lower by beaming them into space, I figured they were doing this already.

  • I can see it now (Score:5, Funny)

    by OldManAndTheC++ ( 723450 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:06AM (#11821957)
    "We wanted to be the first to offer free job postings, apartment listings, personals and other classifieds to the extraterrestrial community.

    FOR SALE: **DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH**. Third planet from Sun. Surface mainly dihydrogen monoxide with some silicates. Good starter planet for young, carbon-based species. Still has much of original fossil fuel deposits. Excellent views of Venus, Mars. Small hole in ozone layer. Aboriginal biped humanoid species infestation can easily be removed with genetically engineered plague, or runaway nanotech "accident".

    PRICE: 1.2 Million Quatloos. **CALL NOW** will not be listed for long at this price!

  • we won't have to ask why...

  • Beaming? Where? (Score:2, Redundant)

    by troon ( 724114 )
    The article didn't say: does anyone know *where* the beam will be pointing?

  • The first interstellar 419? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My esteemed colleague,

    Let me introduce myself. I am James Obayyama Coquhamm'uoy of Nigeria, on the African continent, on a small blue-green planet circling a star known as 'sol'

    Recently, my government was overthrown by dissidents and my father, General Christian Obayyama Coquhamm'uoy was killed.

    Upon his death, it was discovered that he had accumulated a large fortune which we need to get off this planet as soon as possible.

    My dear friend. I am a God-fearing man. I am putting my trust in you, another Go

  • 2005: A Space Aneurism (Score:5, Funny)

    by bmo ( 77928 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:16AM (#11821982)
    "My God, it's full of Spam!"

    --
    BMO

  • Any signal is worth sending.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by aug24 ( 38229 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:19AM (#11821993) Homepage
    All that an intelligent species will care about is the non-natural arrangement of information - then we have first contact.

    If it's paid for by idiots for the expected publicity, then all the better - less budget for them to spend on spamming me!

    Justin.

  • Lets just pray they filter the ads (Score:5, Funny)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:22AM (#11822002) Homepage Journal
    I don't really want to see a "goatse" constellation up in space.....
    • Heh.. That's a funny thought isn't it? Somewhere on planet X in solarsystem Y intrepid scientific pioneers sit at their radio eqipment searching for signs of life, messages from other planets. After years of searching they finally get the message they have been waiting for. They spend months decodign it and finally manage to make sense of it. The gather around a display device full of expectation. Is it the encyclopedia galactica? The cure for all their diseases? The secret of universal peace? Somebody pus

  • First Contact (Score:2, Funny)

    by fyoder ( 857358 )
    Great. Now instead of first contact being with the Vulcans, it will be with the Ferengi.
  • In three weeks there will be an news article:

    - ICANN to regulate new galacy-TLDs

    - FCC demands broadcast flag for interplanetary communications.

  • new message (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tethys_was_taken ( 813654 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:55AM (#11822080) Homepage
    FROM:
    MR.SOLOMON ALEMAYEHU
    WORLD BANK OF EARTH
    STREET P.O.BOX 5550
    ADDIS ABABA,ETHIOPIA, EARTH, THE MILKYWAY.

    DEAR SIR/MADAM/THING,

    I AM MR.SOLOMON ALEMAYEHU, BANK MANAGER OF WORLD BANK OF EARTH.

    THIS IS AN URGENT AND VERY CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSITION.

    ON 1123.423123 METRIC DATE ,A FOREIGN OIL CONSULTANT/CONTRACTOR WITH THE EARTH INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGY, MR. MICHAEL FOSTER MADE A NUMBERED TIME(FIXED) DEPOSIT FOR TWELVE EARTH MONTHS, VALUED AT 26,500,000.00,(TWENTY-SIX MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITS GALACTIC CURRENCY) IN MY BRANCH.

    UPON MATURITY,I SENT A ROUTINE NOTIFICATION TO HIS FORWARDING ADDRESS BUT GOT NO REPLY. AFTER A MONTH,WE SENT A REMINDER AND FINALLY WE DISCOVERED FROM HIS CONTRACT EMPLOYERS, THE MARTIAN PETROLEUM CORPORATION THAT MR. MICHAEL FOSTER DIED FROM AN AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT.

    ON FURTHER INVESTIGATION,I FOUND OUT THAT HE DIED WITHOUT MAKING A WILL,AND ALL ATTEMPTS TO TRACE HIS NEXT OF KIN WAS FRUITLESS.

    I THEREFORE MADE FURTHER INVESTIGATION AND DISCOVERED THAT MR. MICHAEL FOSTER DID NOT DECLARE ANY KIN OR RELATIONS IN ALL HIS OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS,INCLUDING HIS BANK DEPOSIT PAPER WORK IN MY BANK HERE ON EARTH.THIS SUM OF 26,500,000.00 HAS CAREFULLY BEEN FIXED IN MY BANK FOR SAFEKEEPING.

    NO ONE WILL EVER COME FORWARD TO CLAIM IT.ACCORDING TO EARTH LAW, AT THE EXPIRATION OF 5 (FIVE) STANDARD EARTH YEARS, THE MONEY WILL REVERT TO THE OWNERSHIP OF THE GOVERNMENT IF NOBODY APPLIES TO CLAIM THE FUND.CONSEQUENTLY, MY PROPOSAL IS THAT I WILL LIKE YOU AS A ALIEN TO STAND IN AS THE OWNER OF THE MONEY WHICH WAS FIXED DEPOSITED IN MY BANK.I AM WRITING YOU BECAUSE I AS A PUBLIC SERVANT,I CANNOT OPERATE A NON-SOLAR-SYSTEM ACCOUNT.

    I WANT TO PRESENT YOU AS THE OWNER OF THE FUNDS SO YOU CAN BE ABLE TO CLAIM THEM WITH THE HELP OF MY ATTORNEY. THIS IS SIMPLE.I WILL LIKE YOU TO PROVIDE IMMEDIATELY YOUR FULL NAMES AND ADDRESS SO THAT THE ATTORNEY WILL PREPARE THE NECESSARY DOCUMENTS WHICH WILL PUT YOU IN PLACE AS THE BENEFICIARY OF THE FUNDS.

    THE MONEY WILL BE MOVED OUT FOR US TO SHARE IN THE RATIO OF 80% FOR ME AND 20% FOR YOU. THE PAPERWORK FOR THIS TRANSACTION WILL BE DONE BY THE ATTORNEY.

    IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, PLEASE REPLY IMMEDIATELY VIA THE SAME METHOD THIS REACHES YOU AND UPON YOUR RESPONSE, I SHALL THEN PROVIDE YOU WITH MORE DETAILS AND RELEVANT DOCUMENTS THAT WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE TRANSACTION.

    PLEASE OBSERVE UTMOST CONFIDENTIALITY, AND BE REST ASSURED THAT THIS TRANSACTION WOULD BE MOST PROFITABLE FOR BOTH OF US BECAUSE I SHALL REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE TO INVEST MY SHARE IN REAL ESTATE WITHIN YOUR PLANET.

    AWAITING YOUR URGENT REPLY.

    THANKS AND MY REGARDS.

    SOLOMON ALEMAYEHU.
    WORLD BANK OF EARTH

  • Is this what the editors at Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)

    by carlmenezes ( 204187 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @07:59AM (#11822094) Homepage
    have resorted to nowadays? I'm sure you had stories MUCH more worthy of acceptance, instead you choose to publish rubbish like this.

    Don't mean to sound like a troll, but are you sure you don't choose stories based on random numbers and a team of trained hansters?
  • The phrase "getting blackholed for relaying spam" is about to take on a sinister new meaning.
  • Did anyone else notice the glaring spelling and grammatical errors on the company's website?

    * New South Whales (should be Wales - as in the country)
    * Incorrect use of capitalisation - earth (should be capitalised), Movie (should not be)
    * The place in NSW where the radio telescope is is called Parkes (not Parks) and the movie it appears in is called "The Dish" (not "Dish").

    Do we really want these people communicating on our behalf?
  • ...to the overall amount of "radiation pollution" or whatever the term is. Some of almost every radio communication ever made leaks into space - if we ever discover faster-than light travel and seriously good attenna technology, our ancestors could watch the original transmission of friends hundreds of years in the future from some where in the galaxy!

  • Cat: What happen? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Zog The Undeniable ( 632031 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @08:25AM (#11822169)
    Somebody set up us the ad!
  • Just piss off those aliens. You know, it wasn't enough with people.

  • Every radio transmission that I make with my garage remote control eventually makes it's way into deep space. I mean, a bunch of those photos have gotta be escaping earth's atmosphere. After that, they're gonna propagate until something stops them and there's not much to stop them in space.

    Maybe I could set up a company doing this with a ham radio and charge people for it.

    • I mean, really, just look at these people's web site. They do all they can to come off as a reputable scientific organization and still it makes me laugh. What a way to make a few bucks off of the stupidity of a few people in the general public.

      They probably really aren't using anything more than their own wireless router - and it still fits the technical description of the snake oil that they're selling. What a hoot! I wonder what they would say if someone asked to tour their facility?

      I can hardly be
  • oh yeah, the one thing we need is to attract a bunch of aliens who want viagra and bigger penises with which to roger us into submission.

    I, for one, welcome our new SpamAssassin overlords.

  • Spam the galaxy (Score:3, Funny)

    by TractorBarry ( 788340 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @08:56AM (#11822289) Homepage
    Great. Now they're spamming the galaxy.

    I hope this attracts a Vorlon planet killer in response.
    • "I hope this attracts a Vorlon planet killer in response"

      When the Vogons and Vorlons arrive at the same time, there's going to be an interesting fight over which force gets to illuminate this planet-sized spam cannon we live on. However, I have faith. If there is one thing that Earth excels at on a galactic scale, it is our lawyers. We will be able to put off destruction with barages of C&D letters aimed at the Vo***ons who defame us by calling us a malware planet.

  • Did Craigslist start the April fools season a bit early?
  • Cmdr, Cowboy? Considering beaming Slashdot into space for us next? Lord knows what sort of commotion it is going to cause among the real Borg when they find out that Bill Gates is one of them.
  • I've been relaying the whole internet to space for a couple of years now over my WiFi. Added a little WEP for challenge.
  • Spam Adverts in space!? Imagine the Orion Nebula Cluster full of those!
  • ... first thing any alien is gonna learn, is that we're all racist people who can't drive, hate fat people, and love oral sex.

    (Not kidding you - check out the RnR section of just about any Craigslist).

  • This kind of thing will catch on fast! We need a new catchy term to describe this type of advertising... let's see... it's marketing in space... so space marketing... how about... SPAM?
  • Even the Indians are asking too much now; we now have to recruit for jobs in outer space.
    • Damn those shifty, lazy martians stealing our jobs by working at slave-labor wages. Their icky green skin and the smell of the "Xvspoo" crap they eat and bring in their lunch-bags.
  • Craiglist: the 1990's called, and they want their dot-bomb business practices back.

    Seriously - when I hear of a company doing dain-bramaged things like this, I think to myself "Well, there's a company with more money than common sense (or business sense)."

    And of course, companies with more money than sense spontaniously decay, via moron emission, into companies with no cash and high debt, which then decay, via bankrupcy, into crap at auction.
  • Imagine the reaction at SETI if we finally got an obviously artificial signal from somewhere out there and dozens of people spent weeks or months trying to figure out how to decode it...

    ...only to find out that it was some stupid prank or stunt.

    I don't think NASA should be using their equipment (and my tax dollars) for this sort of thing.

  • My bets regarding the future of this venture:

    1. Aliens probably have no interest in Viagra or other herbal enchancers.
    2. The catchy new name for this will be SPIN (INtergalactic SPAM)
    3. Within 10 years, any alien civilization within ad-range will be building up an attack force to shut us up.
    4. The FCC will want full regulation of the industry (it's for the space-children. Think of the space-children)
  • I didn't know they were a significant commercial market..... :P
  • maybe I can sell my comic book collection!
  • I talked about my eBay auction on my PCS phone. A sphere of low-frequency light (PCS radio waves) emanated from my phone's antenna, headed for deep space at 3E8m:s. Microseconds later, a brighter "booster" pulse emanated from a PCS tower near the phone with which mine was talking, following my first pulse like a brighter shadow.

    For only $45, I will transmit your ad into deep space, using the same revolutionary light-modulation interstellar broadcast system.
  • Free means 'at no cost'. 'For at no cost' makes little or no sense.
  • Once an alien civilization sees the crappy products we have here on Earth, they'll never stop here! At least, not the good ones. We'll get plenty of visits from "green trash" bargain shoppers.
  • Craigslist to Beam Ads into Space (for Free)

    Well, of course it has to be free. Let's see here:
    1. Assume an alien civilization with trade goods is 50 light years away.
    2.The signal gets there and they immediately decide to buy.
    3.They send a signal back to indicate said desire and to order shipment.
    4.Shipment is (amazingly) ready to ship immediately upon receipt of signal.
    5.Shipment takes trip at .1C, or 500 years.
    6. 30 days after reciept, payment is sent by return post (.1C).

    In all, it's been 1,100 ye

  • This kind of reminds me of something. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Deal-a-Neil ( 166508 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @11:39AM (#11823598) Homepage Journal
    Remember the days of venture capitalists throwing money into high "burn rate" companies, and then the general public throwing money into high "burn rate public traded" companies? This is kind of like throwing your money away, again, but instead of having nothing to show for it here on Earth, you'll have nothing to show for it up in space... very profound.

    And I think that if you're going to send out images into space, you best send out a copy of Irfanview, or a JPEG viewer (read their FAQ), because those damn intelligent life forms just may not understand the JPEG file format. (I hear they're into PNG)

    I think the only thing that would actually effective would be to send huge banners or posters into space. I'm detaching my Heather Locklear and Motley Crue posters right now. ALl of these signal transmissions will just sound like space noise, but an old picture of Leather Locklear in a cheesy white bathing suit would be a far better way to communicate.

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