April 10, 2002

Reading entrepreneur Tom Barrett, has recently cut a deal with Media One Advertising/Marketing of Sioux Falls, S.D. to offer e-mail forwarding for all those AT&T subscribers still getting mail at their old mediaone.net addresses. Barrett says his forwarding service will cost $19.95 for three months, and $49.95 for a year. He's sharing any profits with his new pals in South Dakota. The change stems from a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the S.D. agency, founded in 1974, several years ago Media One sued cable company Mediaone, then owned by U.S. West, over the use of the Media One name. AT&T bought the cable provider about three years ago. The lawsuit settlement required AT&T Broadband to give up the Mediaone.net name for e-mail, newsgroup and personal Web page services, and to migrate subscribers to the new domain, attbi.com. Well, I suspect that Barrett is finding he has a tiger by the tail.   A great majority of the 630,000 former Mediaone.net email address holders have a lot of SPAM mail still being delivered.  I am sure the servers he has set up are being overwhellmed by the traffic. Not my problem I guess, but if you do have a mediaone.net email address and want it forwarded to you just head over to http://www.mediaone.net/ and you can set it up.   Note that there is nothing more than a threat of criminal and civil penalties stopping anyone from forwarding someone elses mediaone.net email address to thier own email.  Making it very easy to hiijack someones email identity. 1:53:16 PM

My Horoscope today has me scared! (by astrocenter.com) "An older male visitor may come to your home, momentarily interrupting plans which you may have made for today. Don't despair; listen to what he has to say and let him go. You may be feeling somewhat bored with the appearance of your home, dear Aquarius, so pick up a few bright decorative items to spruce it up a little. You might also want to plan more extensive redecorating. For now, some hothouse flowers can really brighten up your environment." Why does this sound to me like I am going to have a home invasion?  OK, I don't actually believe in this stuff, but when I read between the lines I think the older male visitor is going to take my stuff forcing me to redecorate.  Why wait until the last minute, I am going to start to dispair now. 10:40:21 AM

Secret List of Potential Suitors for Global Crossing Exposed Be very careful with your CC settings for your email. While more than 50 companies have expressed confidential interest in acquiring Global Crossing, their identities are no longer secret to one another, AND their Email addresses are now PUBLIC, courtesy of an e-mail message from Global Crossing's lawyers.  An actual copy of the email, with all the email addresses exposed is published here.  You may need to sign up for NYT access, but it is free.  I found this on Ernie the Attorney . 10:18:37 AM

My, What Magnetic Eyes You Have. Injecting magnetized nanoparticles into the eyeball sure sounds icky, but the controversial new technique to repair torn retinas may prevent blindness. By Louise Knapp. [Wired News] 8:44:11 AM

More from the "Recycle SPAM into Dollars" Dept.: Found on Slashdot.org The BBC is running a story about the law firm Morrison and Foerster which is claiming damages against the spam company Etracks based in California. They are asking for $50 in damages for each spam they receive, up to the maximum of $25,000 per day. This is the way to fight spam.  If they can't make money at it, they won't do it.  Simple economics. 8:13:29 AM

Seattle man has telemarketer's number: he gets apology and $500.  A great story about how one man's battle with telemarketing is netting him cash.   The law in Washington State is making it easy to sue for damages from illegal spam, faxes or automated calls.  The $500 he got was sent on behalf of a Web site, "YourHomeCareer.com", which invites consumers to pay $36 to learn the secret of earning money by working at home. Read it here at [ Seattle Pi. ] 8:00:28 AM

I remember when all tech suport was free, with 1-800 toll free numbers.  I also remember that a Wordprocessor would cost $495!  Today when most software is $99 or less we pay for the long distance (it got cheaper) and even sometimes pay for the tech support.  Yahoo is testing  fees for phone help.  The struggling online media company is testing a plan to charge customers $1.99 a minute for phone support, starting with customers who use its free e-mail service. [CNET News.com] 7:47:48 AM