The Aussie Pinball Arcade

Aussie Pinball Forums => General Discussion => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: Jomac on February 03, 2009, 02:44:20 PM

Title: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 03, 2009, 02:44:20 PM
Hi everyone,

I am pretty sure I know a lot of people here already , I am better known for monitor chassis work but I do provide full technical support to the amusement industry , below is a snip from another thread I posted in.

So everyone knows I'm not jumping into unknown waters here , I have also been repairing pinball's as long as I have been in business , I do mostly the boards now as the refurbishing side of it is too time consuming for me.
I used to write technical topics for LAI magazine Australia and StarTech Journal in the US covering pinball's but as I specialize in Chassis and Sega Board Repairs many people don't know me for Pinball board repairs.

About me and when I get spare time , I am an active anti spam activist administrating on some of the worlds largest blacklists although it did get me in a bit of hot water a few years ago when I become the first person in the world to be sued by a spammer.

I'm a rev head of course a Holden man :) , also have ridden dirt bikes all my life but lately having plenty of fun with the YFZ450 Quad but also cant stay away from technology and play around with Solar Power , inverters etc .
If I'm lucky I manage to slip in about 6 hrs sleep :)

Joey
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: felixthadog on February 03, 2009, 03:12:33 PM
Hi & welcome Joey!  #*#

Matthew
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Strangeways on February 03, 2009, 03:13:53 PM

 $.$ Joey and  %)%

Great intro post. Look forward to you contribution on the Forum.

 $#$
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Peach on February 03, 2009, 03:16:23 PM
Hi Joey &  %)%

Cheers Peach  %$%
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: v8racefan on February 03, 2009, 03:35:27 PM
 %)% mr jomac
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Extra Ball on February 03, 2009, 04:49:05 PM
Hi Joey, didnt know you did pinball pcb repairs. You have a great reputation for sure.
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: markc on February 03, 2009, 05:45:48 PM
welcome mate

more sega boards sent today too....
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: ktm450 on February 03, 2009, 09:15:29 PM
 %)%
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: v8racefan on February 03, 2009, 09:52:38 PM
Hi Joey just curious to what pinball boards you repair, do you repair most boards or only a select few, please also advise of your hourly repair rates. thanks.
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Pinfan on February 03, 2009, 09:59:14 PM
Hi Joey just curious to what pinball boards you repair, do you repair most boards or only a select few, please also advise of your hourly repair rates. thanks.

+ 1 ^^^
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: ajlaird on February 03, 2009, 10:14:39 PM
First of all, hello and welcome.

About me and when I get spare time , I am an active anti spam activist administrating on some of the worlds largest blacklists although it did get me in a bit of hot water a few years ago when I become the first person in the world to be sued by a spammer.

Two questions: how did that work out? (and a subsidiary question - Was it Spamhaus or SPEWS you were involved with at the time?)

And can you comment on the future of SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in regards to spam reduction?
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: pinnies4me on February 04, 2009, 12:22:30 AM
Welcome, and would love to hear more of the spam story - fits right in with the spamways situation in this place...   *)*
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 04, 2009, 05:35:59 AM
Hi Joey just curious to what pinball boards you repair, do you repair most boards or only a select few, please also advise of your hourly repair rates. thanks.

Basically anything that is repairable , I haven't come across many that cant be repaired apart from early system 80 gottliebs , 80% of pinball boards I repair on the bench without a test rig or machine needed , including display drivers , MPU boards , Sound boards , driver boards etc no matter what brand as long as parts are available , although I do have just about everything I need.
I can burn all Eproms , pals , gals , you name it , EG: just converted an old Fire power sound and speech board to 2716 eproms because 2516's are to old now , will fix an old FJ holden ( Hankin ) MPU tomorrow as well so old is ok :)
Talking of old I can make "any" electro mechanical pinball work as long as it is complete but of course Gottliebs are my favorite :)

As for cost , most people know it can cost more to fix some boards than they are worth so I rarely ever charge on an hourly basis , I consider the harder ones a challenge so I dont charge for my learning or fun :)
I will always tell you what I think it's going to cost before insulting you with a bill , I always prefer you were happy first and money later , a lot of people can vouch for me on that :)
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 04, 2009, 06:25:24 AM
First of all, hello and welcome.

About me and when I get spare time , I am an active anti spam activist administrating on some of the worlds largest blacklists although it did get me in a bit of hot water a few years ago when I become the first person in the world to be sued by a spammer.

Two questions: how did that work out? (and a subsidiary question - Was it Spamhaus or SPEWS you were involved with at the time?)

And can you comment on the future of SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in regards to spam reduction?

Thanks ,

Basically Wayne Mansfield was Australia's largest spammer running a company at the time called T3 Direct and many other aliases  , thankfully due to this case Australia now has the worlds most strict anti spam laws .
Poor old Wayne had the world against him when he said these words to me " I am in this business ( spamming ) because I dare to challenge the rights of anyone who tries to shut me down"  Well basically Wayne waved a red flag at me and I promised him that I would take up that challenge.

At the time I was on a capped internet plan that I was constantly exceeding because spammers kept using up my bandwidth , Most people still struggle to understand this , but you pay to receive spam , it doesn't matter if you delete it you have already paid for it , the sender ( spammer pays nothing ) in reality it's the same thing as being forced to take a reverse charge phone call without the option of saying no.
Most people think spam is the same as Junk mail you get in your letter box but it is very different , because you pay to receive spam , but you dont pay to receive junk mail in your letter box , the sender / advertiser pays for that.

In short life become very difficult for Mansfield , to point that any ISP hosting him was instantly blacklisted around the world until he was removed as a customer , I am not ignoring the question about Spamhaus or Spews although I confirm the problems being listed in these blacklists can cause is massive for any service provider or customer.
Steve linford was from Spamhaus fights the same cause I do so was a great support , SPEWS doesn't exist :) No one knows who SPEWS is or who managed the databases , It is now called aSpews and the administration dont exist :)
SORBS is another I am involved with , I also work with large Providers who were spam friendly hosts who have decided to clean up their act.,  as anyone who has ever tried to get removed from some of these lists know it is almost impossible , unless you know the right things to say in the right places.

Back to Mansfield , he was forced to concede defeat when the judge informed him that everything I said and that everything posted publically about him was fact , it could not be proved I had anything to do with SPEWS or getting him blacklisted in every ( I mean every ) black list in existence.

He was back soon after up to his old tricks but this time via unknown sources every move he made was used to turn the cards on him after the new Australian laws come into effect , His was finally fined over 4 million dollars that forced his company into bankruptcy and also fined just over 1 million dollars personally.

There is obviously a lot more that went on behind the scenes and things that I cant talk about because of the work I am still currently involved in.


SPF , I am a fan of this and honestly cant understand why it hasn't taken off quicker than it has , people are catching on slowly that is does help , not a total answer by any means but certainly effective.
I think these days the most effective solution is outbound SMTP filtering considering that 80% of the worlds spamming is done via compromised Trojan or virus infected pc's on larger networks.


 



Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 04, 2009, 06:26:47 AM
welcome mate

more sega boards sent today too....

Almost got the bench cleaned up too :)
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: ajlaird on February 04, 2009, 09:20:32 AM
First of all, hello and welcome.

About me and when I get spare time , I am an active anti spam activist administrating on some of the worlds largest blacklists although it did get me in a bit of hot water a few years ago when I become the first person in the world to be sued by a spammer.

Two questions: how did that work out? (and a subsidiary question - Was it Spamhaus or SPEWS you were involved with at the time?)

And can you comment on the future of SPF (Sender Policy Framework) in regards to spam reduction?


There is obviously a lot more that went on behind the scenes and things that I cant talk about because of the work I am still currently involved in.


SPF , I am a fan of this and honestly cant understand why it hasn't taken off quicker than it has , people are catching on slowly that is does help , not a total answer by any means but certainly effective.
I think these days the most effective solution is outbound SMTP filtering considering that 80% of the worlds spamming is done via compromised Trojan or virus infected pc's on larger networks.

Thanks for the response, it certainly sounds like there is an extremely interesting story there.

I guess outbound SMTP filtering is an obvious solution when you think but is it expensive or difficult to set up? It is probably less expensive than inbound filtering? I suppose a lot of ISPs just may not be bothered setting it up?
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Skybeaux on February 04, 2009, 10:06:53 AM
Hi Joey just curious to what pinball boards you repair, do you repair most boards or only a select few, please also advise of your hourly repair rates. thanks.

Basically anything that is repairable , I haven't come across many that cant be repaired apart from early system 80 gottliebs , 80% of pinball boards I repair on the bench without a test rig or machine needed , including display drivers , MPU boards , Sound boards , driver boards etc no matter what brand as long as parts are available , although I do have just about everything I need.
I can burn all Eproms , pals , gals , you name it , EG: just converted an old Fire power sound and speech board to 2716 eproms because 2516's are to old now , will fix an old FJ holden ( Hankin ) MPU tomorrow as well so old is ok :)
Talking of old I can make "any" electro mechanical pinball work as long as it is complete but of course Gottliebs are my favorite :)

As for cost , most people know it can cost more to fix some boards than they are worth so I rarely ever charge on an hourly basis , I consider the harder ones a challenge so I dont charge for my learning or fun :)
I will always tell you what I think it's going to cost before insulting you with a bill , I always prefer you were happy first and money later , a lot of people can vouch for me on that :)

Hi Jomac and  %)%

2716 eproms are identical to 2516 ,plug them straight in......so there is no converting :lol
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Pinball Fixers on February 04, 2009, 11:12:15 AM
Hi Joey, and  %)% to Aussie Pinball!
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 04, 2009, 03:49:34 PM
Hi Joey just curious to what pinball boards you repair, do you repair most boards or only a select few, please also advise of your hourly repair rates. thanks.

Basically anything that is repairable , I haven't come across many that cant be repaired apart from early system 80 gottliebs , 80% of pinball boards I repair on the bench without a test rig or machine needed , including display drivers , MPU boards , Sound boards , driver boards etc no matter what brand as long as parts are available , although I do have just about everything I need.
I can burn all Eproms , pals , gals , you name it , EG: just converted an old Fire power sound and speech board to 2716 eproms because 2516's are to old now , will fix an old FJ holden ( Hankin ) MPU tomorrow as well so old is ok :)
Talking of old I can make "any" electro mechanical pinball work as long as it is complete but of course Gottliebs are my favorite :)

As for cost , most people know it can cost more to fix some boards than they are worth so I rarely ever charge on an hourly basis , I consider the harder ones a challenge so I dont charge for my learning or fun :)
I will always tell you what I think it's going to cost before insulting you with a bill , I always prefer you were happy first and money later , a lot of people can vouch for me on that :)

Hi Jomac and  %)%

2716 eproms are identical to 2516 ,plug them straight in......so there is no converting :lol

Sorry mate it was nearly 4am when I posted that :), I meant converted from 2532 to 2732 , they are not the same pinouts
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: markc on February 04, 2009, 05:14:52 PM

Sorry mate it was nearly 4am when I posted that :), I meant converted from 2532 to 2732 , they are not the same pinouts
[/quote]


so you went to bed early ???

shit  Larry rang me  at midnight  and was 5  am by the time i got him off the phone and told him to go see you **) **)
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 04, 2009, 06:24:57 PM
Haha no wonder here was grumpy when he called a couple of hours ago , He keeps asking how the hell do I get Mark off the phone , he reckons you can yodel underwater with a mouth fall of marbles :)
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: markc on February 04, 2009, 07:28:58 PM
now now Joey ...

wasnt that you who told me Larry could do that and talk on 2 phones ...... #@! #@!
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: The pinballist formally known as Dean Morgan on February 05, 2009, 11:54:13 AM
 $.$ and  %)% Joey, sounds like you provide a great service.  Gotta love good old fasioned service, I like your business acumen of customer satisfaction first $$ later.  Look after the customer and the business takes care of itself.  %$%
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 05, 2009, 03:49:03 PM
$.$ and  %)% Joey, sounds like you provide a great service.  Gotta love good old fasioned service, I like your business acumen of customer satisfaction first $$ later.  Look after the customer and the business takes care of itself.  %$%

Thanks Dean ,

It has worked for me and made a lot of happy people :)






 
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: SPURR on February 05, 2009, 09:38:09 PM
Hi from Spurr @@*
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: markc on February 05, 2009, 09:41:40 PM
Joey


spoke to LARRY  again mate
he is bringing you over sugar for your coffee   tomorrow ......   there goes ya morning ...  well afternoon
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 06, 2009, 03:59:27 AM
Joey


spoke to LARRY  again mate
he is bringing you over sugar for your coffee   tomorrow ......   there goes ya morning ...  well afternoon

Oh great can you call him back and tell him I have converted to no sugar anymore please :) come on mate it's Friday hehe
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: markc on February 06, 2009, 12:08:45 PM
Joey


spoke to LARRY  again mate
he is bringing you over sugar for your coffee   tomorrow ......   there goes ya morning ...  well afternoon

Oh great can you call him back and tell him I have converted to no sugar anymore please :) come on mate it's Friday hehe


its ok mate

I will pop some daytonas boards in the pin I am sendind him  so he has to bring them to you ....
you need any parts put in there too ??


Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: Jomac on February 07, 2009, 03:42:44 AM
Quote
Thanks for the response, it certainly sounds like there is an extremely interesting story there.

I guess outbound SMTP filtering is an obvious solution when you think but is it expensive or difficult to set up? It is probably less expensive than inbound filtering? I suppose a lot of ISPs just may not be bothered setting it up?

Sorry I thought about the response but forgot to post it :)

Luckily for most of us it is ISP's that are mostly taking the initiative and setting up outbound filtering , it's nothing like censorship or anything as some people assume it's simply looking for known spam patterns as used in 419 Advanced Fee Fraud Spam , phishing spam , enlargement medz etc , outbound filtering can detect unusual sending patterns that should not be coming from their networks , this is helped places like Bigpond /telstra , westnet ,iinet to name a few to avoid regular blacklisting.
If only some of the free mail provider like Gmail ( google ) , yahoo , wannadoo france etc would get their acts together we could rid the world of about 30% of all spam
This is some interesting reading and advice for mail server admins
http://www.wiki.sorbs.net/wiki/bin/view/SORBS/FAQforISPs#Spam_Database


There is also new problem that is causing more blacklistings than spam itself , its called backscatter ( or NDR's ) , It's when mail servers bounce known spam addressed to legitimate users on their networks or to none existent users back to the sender.
Any ISP admin with a brain bigger than a jaffa should know that spammers never use their own address in the " from " field , the from field in spam is always forged meaning that when they bounce spam back to sender they are always sending it back to someone who never had anything to do with spamming to begin with , basically making their problem someone else's .
Title: Re: Hello from Jomac
Post by: ajlaird on February 07, 2009, 07:35:31 PM
Quote
Thanks for the response, it certainly sounds like there is an extremely interesting story there.

I guess outbound SMTP filtering is an obvious solution when you think but is it expensive or difficult to set up? It is probably less expensive than inbound filtering? I suppose a lot of ISPs just may not be bothered setting it up?

Sorry I thought about the response but forgot to post it :)

Luckily for most of us it is ISP's that are mostly taking the initiative and setting up outbound filtering , it's nothing like censorship or anything as some people assume it's simply looking for known spam patterns as used in 419 Advanced Fee Fraud Spam , phishing spam , enlargement medz etc , outbound filtering can detect unusual sending patterns that should not be coming from their networks , this is helped places like Bigpond /telstra , westnet ,iinet to name a few to avoid regular blacklisting.
If only some of the free mail provider like Gmail ( google ) , yahoo , wannadoo france etc would get their acts together we could rid the world of about 30% of all spam
This is some interesting reading and advice for mail server admins
http://www.wiki.sorbs.net/wiki/bin/view/SORBS/FAQforISPs#Spam_Database


There is also new problem that is causing more blacklistings than spam itself , its called backscatter ( or NDR's ) , It's when mail servers bounce known spam addressed to legitimate users on their networks or to none existent users back to the sender.
Any ISP admin with a brain bigger than a jaffa should know that spammers never use their own address in the " from " field , the from field in spam is always forged meaning that when they bounce spam back to sender they are always sending it back to someone who never had anything to do with spamming to begin with , basically making their problem someone else's .


Thanks for your insights in this area - I find it one that is very interesting as our company runs a little server setup including a mail server (mainly incoming).