Heh...I especially liked the one telling you it's time to change your password on your own server. Brilliant.

Let me just wipe this tear from my eye.

Sure you don't want to buy generic \/iaggrra? This seems to be my usual spam pillage, and I'm pretty certain I don't need it...do I?

It's a pity we can't just have a concerted effort to track down spammers and crush them beneath our collective booted heels. Or pehaps Spam them back with small tactical nuclear weapons.

Ahh...happy thoughts.

Agree with Charlie. Unholy trinity of television advertising, spam emails and cold calling had driven me to the edge of sanity. Consequently: all TV goes onto a hard drive recorder, watched on delay, fast forward through ads at 30 speed; new .mac account has received no (can hardly believe it) spam in 12 months, after all others reaching a spam ratio of 30:1; and caller display, so any caller not in the phone's address book is screened by answerphone, and cold callers don't leave messages. Safe for now, presumably ads will soon be lasered directly onto my retina.

"Is this was US judges consider an exemplerary sentence?"

They might as well bring him onto the military base. They could profit even more.
Yeah and any sensual pleasure must be coupled with pain/withdrawel. Ad-blasting doesn't give allot on the pleasure end though.

Just noticed that Jeanson Ancheta has done a deal following conviction for setting up zombie networks for spam blasting. He's agreed to take 4 to 6 years inside, make $15000 restitution to the US military for hijacking their systems (anyone remember War Games?) plus forfeiting his gains.
I wonder, will he get his job with the CIA before he goes to jail, or after.
Is this was US judges consider an exemplerary sentence?
When it comes to spam, I am afraid I agree with Herman Goering when he heard about culture (something that does NOT make me feel good; its even worse than finding myself in agreement with Norman Tebbitt) He reached for his revolver. I don't have one of those, and don't want one. On the other hand, I do have a reel of strong stranded wire and there is bound to be a lamp post nearby should Mr Ancheta appear in my neighbourhood.

Another thing I notice are catch-phrases and then everyone hovers around like vultures. They seem to be timed by companies or government to a certain degree of peakness for maximum take.
Like an adgasm.
It is traditionalism.

I didn't need LSD to grow to hate advertising. The sheer distraction factor is hateful enough.

It's endless, and always will be. I developed a deep distaste for advertising after a bizarre LSD experience back in the late nineties. For the last five years I have been television-free, which really helps. But there is without a doubt a massive barrage of advertising everywhere, on every available surface. Which is why I love to see graffiti and stickering; the kids are trying to reclaim their public space (though with little success, to be fair).

To tie this in to a SF context (though admittedly not a 'hard' SF one), an interesting view on the future of advertising and entertainment can be found in the 'Vurt Cycle' books by Jeff Noon (Vurt, Pollen, Nymphomation, Automated Alice). They're a bloody good read too, if rather eccentric and off-the-wall.

VelcroCityTouristBoard

Things like diminished rights will really hurt the economy in the end like the scandals did at the end of the 90s. So if that's what they want then there it is.

And people are giving more excuses about the economy ‘doing well’ (didn’t I here this in the 90s during the beginning of the oil-for-food and Enron scams?), yet we still have extreme poverty plus diminished rights. The economy goes up and down like always. We came to this country to get the hell away from the government and ads I thought. that's why I like it here at least. We usually have most power over our privacy but now it's joke like the rest.
So maybe we just have to blast off planet to a new horizon. I was comparing that to the Internet sort of lately, how it’s been an escape to the new frontier, it was interesting about survival and The New World concept. But surely we wouldn’t have to upload ourselves and maybe just get a ship to another planet first...probably still not an escape.

I don't know why the US Government wants to know the 10 million most used words on Google (or whatever it is they want to know) What I do know is tht their motivation has nothing to do with any 'war against internet ponography', 'cos that's like their 'war on drugs' and 'war on terrorism' - all in the imagination of speech and leader writers, because Gee Whiz and people like him (and who pay for him) make much too much money for any of those 'wars' ever to be succesfully concluded.
Of course, if it was the Chinese government making those demands, there would be no question about compliance.

I don't go to sites where their prime focus is to frustrate and lambaste the user with colorful crap(Yahoo AOL). Maybe Yahoo is better now as I haven't looked; as I don't want to miff someone of their favorite site, but I still don't like AOL. Google serves me well in this regard although maybe no adisms at all one day.

"I know it's Google, the newest Darth Vader, but sharing spam filtering is a good way to unite against spam."

I don't have too much of a problem with Google. it's Yahoo and AOL that are allot more evil I think. At least Google stands up for our rights and seems more impartial on the news sight unlike Yahoo which hand picks.

::Yahoo admits it let White House access its databases::
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2002169,00.html
::Google defends our rights::
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=5576

Not sure how far Google will get but when it comes to money they could get taxed heavily. I personally would skirt the money since I am so idealistic :)

PC virus celebrates 20th birthday
Many unhappy returns
By John Leyden
Published Thursday 19th January 2006 20:52 GMT

Analysis Today, 19 January is the 20th anniversary for the appearance of the first PC virus. Brain, a boot sector virus, was let loose in January 1986. Brain spread via infected floppy disks and was a relatively innocuous nuisance in contrast with modern Trojan, rootkits and other malware. The appearance of the first Windows malware nonetheless set in train a chain of events that led up to today's computer virus landscape....

" if there was absolutely NO advertising, how would any of us know when there was a new Charles Stross book for us to buy?"

Definitional problem here: the meanings are quite distinct for advertising, marketing, publicity, public relations. I will not provide definitions; good ones exist online by respective professional organizations. I hate Emperor Bush II also, but I doubt that he takes donations from any American Society of Professional Spammers -- because that no more exists than does the Union of Anarchists, or the Consortium of Solipsists.

Personally, I blame George Bush for spam, only then I realised that made me sound like Ralph Nagin blaming George Bush for Katrina and THAT is just plain stupid.
So I'll content myself with blaming people who think like George Bush, those who worship (cue Extreme) the almighty dollar.
I used to be plagued with it, but now it seems as though my providers have come up with ways to protect me (AOL and MSN respectively) Yeah, bloated and plutocratic they may be, but I don't have to search through 300 offers of fake Viagra and a degree from the same storefront college sold Iain Paisley his doctorate to find the real stuff.
Seeing as money is all that motivates the spammers, I'd suggest the best way of stopping them is taking away their money - automated spam reflectors that generate a gazillion replies for every spam received and destroy their sites (yes, I know some of the tricks they use - the idea is really a knee jerk, like wanting to kneecap the little bastard who threw stones at me on the way home from the station) or taking them to court and having them locked up.
Yes, I know. Futile hopes.
The thing about advertising is that its only the advertising that isn't directed at you that you really hate (which is most advertising, if we're honest) Just think, though, if there was absolutely NO advertising, how would any of us know when there was a new Charles Stross book for us to buy? Surely you wouldn't have us poring over the shelves of bookshops would you?
On the other hand . . .
Repeat after me, kill a spammer a day . . .