“We see things as we are, not as they are…” Isaac Asmiov
BBC NEWS | Technology | Spam messages on the increase
Spam now accounts for 70% of all mail!
Aggrhhh!!!!!!!!!! I am sure Shakespear would have written ‘ Kill all the spammers’ instead of the lawyers…
Edit: Especially Blog comment spammers - go away you annoying ********!
BBC NEWS | Technology | E-mail shrinks the world
An experiment has found that messages only have to be forwarded between five and seven times to reach almost any other e-mail user.
The idea was tested by asking participants to forward an e-mail to friends, relations or colleagues they thought were closer to a randomly chosen target e-mail user.
The experiment updates a pioneering test of the small world idea carried out in the late 1960s.
So can you therefore now connect anyone to Kevin Bacon?
Obviously not to me…
You guessed it! My email serer at work is down making today painful and slow.
I’ve just seen some mail come through but approximately 3-4 hours after they were sent. Strangely not all are arriving in the order they were sent, despite being sent by the same person (agggh, just had 1 that is 8 hours old!).
Okay its not as stressful as it could be… I still have Internet access 
BTW - internal email is not the same as the mail that is provided to customers… it could be worse (I promise you).
BBC NEWS | Technology | Loss of e-mail ‘worse than divorce’
According to Veritas, the survey shows “alarming deficiencies in current e-mail system management and backup and recovery methods, placing businesses at risk and causing undue stress in the workplace.”
And when something goes wrong with e-mail for a week, the experience can be more traumatic that moving home, getting married or divorce, at least for a third of those taking part in the survey.
Really? More stressful? I think perhaps either these people are too up tight or haven’t yet been through a marriage or divorce, and perhaps their house moves went well.
Sans email isn’t good but its not that bad
Of course that’s at work. At home my ISP deserves a good seeing to… oh but I work for them… and on this type of stuff too. Perhaps I need a good seeing to?
BBC NEWS | Politics | MPs uncover seedy world of spam
But it was the chilling evidence of Steve Linford head of the Spamhaus Project that really made members of the summit sit up and listen.
He said the project’s team of 12 investigators had tracked down 200 of the worst spammers, responsible for 90% of all unsolicited e-mails, and registered them on its ROKSO database of known spam operations.
‘Prolific fraudsters’
To be eligible for registration, the guilty have to have been thrown off three consecutive internet service providers (ISPs) for spamming.
“These guys are prolific fraudsters. They have been at it for years. They have been thrown off ISP after ISP,” said Mr Linford.
They have got criminal records as long as your arm - they have no intention of stopping whatever the law says
Steve Linford
Spamhaus Project
The investigators’ work focuses on identifying the spammers, tracking them back and finding their names and addresses, he says.
“We dredge up everything, including their criminal records, everything that a judge would need for a prosecution.
“We get a lot of threats from them.
“They have got criminal records as long as your arm - they have no intention of stopping whatever the law says.”
Threats
The ROKSO operation, obviously upsets the spammers, says Mr Linford.
It beggars belief that these people can get away with such behaviour! Why should anyone have to have spam when they don’t want it? More importantly why should someone who tries to do something about it get threatened in such a way?
I’ve expressed my thanks to Steve before for his help with aspects of work. Now I’m in awe!
Round of applause for Steve and his team.
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