Sunday, September 07, 2003

Today's quote "As you may have heard, the U.S. is putting together a constitution for Iraq.  Why don't we just give them ours? Think about it -- it was written by very smart people, it's served us well for over two hundred years, and besides, we're not using it anymore." - Tonight Show host Jay Leno 9:55:28 PM     Losing that sense of confidence Two Arabic men pretending to be EDS employees gained access to the Cargo Processing and Intelligence Centre at Sydney International Airport, spent two hours disconnecting two IBM mainframe computers, and then wheeled them on a "trolley" out of the building and onto a waiting truck.  The Australian Customs Service has asssured everyone that no essential security information has been compromised.   Customs agents disclose, however, that the computers included many top-secret and confidential files.  The episode is being investigated by Australian counter-terrorist authorities.  (Source -- Sydney Morning Herald, September 5) 8:55:28 PM     Opting out from spam? Denise Howell's Bag and Baggage has an extended post covering the issue of spam and spam removal lists, including discussion of efforts by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to go after Remove.org for deceptive trade practices in connection with its claim that it can add your e-mail address to a purported national "opt-out" directory for $9.95 per year.   She links to the following news accounts: Internet.com, Direct Marketing News, and InformationWeek.   Denise shares the consensus view that such a list would never work, and that view underlies the AG's efforts against Remove.org. Not mentioned by Denise or anyone she links is the fact that there is no national opt-out listing, and that the site appears to be deliberately confusing its listing with the national opt-out phone solicitation list in an effort to suggest to the public that a similar such list exists for e-mail addresses.  Remove.org will, when challenged, undoubtedly claim that its listings are "national in scope" and thus that its representation is not false.  But the insinuation that its purported "opt-out" list is also government-sponsored is hanging in the air.  A somewhat similar scam is the company that operates the National Star Registry which offers to "name a star" for someone for $49 and promises that the naming will be "registered in the U.S. Copyright office".  11:08:21 AM

© Copyright 2003 Franco Castalone. Last update: 10/2/2003; 4:24:31 PM.