Not so. Sallie Mae sent out emails with statements as password protected PDF attachments. The email also helpfully pointed out that the password was your SSN. It made cracking the PDF a trivial job, with the bonus of learning the SSN in the process. (The SSN wasn't in the statement itself.)

Sallie Mae doesn't have the best record for account security:

http://www.ownrecognizance.com/salliemae.html

Kinda old, but a real world example. Sallie May (the student loan company) used the borrower's SSN as the password to the PDF statements.

http://www.ownrecognizance.com/salliemae.html

So, cracking the password gives you the SSN as well as access to all the other account details. Brilliant.

"The result is that Britain is suffering from a severe case of 'libel chill', where publishers and newspapers are afraid to publish a story because the subject, usually a celebrity, might decide to sue. "

So? Stop wasting paper on celebrity gossip and the problem disappears. Wake me when the lawsuits affect real news.

Well, then the solution is simple. You two get together and come to some agreement on how much he's going to pay you for each email that ends up in one of your inboxes. When you receive an email (or many), send him an itemized invoice and he can send you a payment. If there's a problem, just take him to court with the contract in hand and demand payment.

If he had asked me, I would have agreed to $10 per email -- quite a bargain compared to the $100 (plus damages) he agreed to when he decided to spam.

> there is no way in hell he'd ever spend that much on Viagra >> Of course he wouldn't -- he would spend 6k on the hookers, 6 on the viagra, and 6 on the blow. :-) ...and the rest he'd just squander.

If you're ever in the neighborhood, a tour of the mine and the lab are well worth the visit.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Soudan,+mn
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/soudan_underground_mine/index.html
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/soudan/physics_tour.html

(Generally open June-September -- check before you come.)

"Every one should email the bank banker@rmbank.com to ask them of their shady practices." No. Everyone should email some personal information to banker@rmbank.com, then insist that their domain be shut down.

I predict some pacing up and down the halls and maybe a bit of hand waving in the near future.

http://www.nominum.com/company/advisory_board_vixie.php
"Today, Paul is considered the primary modern author and technical architect of BINDv8 the Berkeley Internet Name Domain Version 8, the open source reference implementation of the Domain Name System (DNS). He formed the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) in 1994, and now acts as Chairman of its Board of Directors. The ISC reflects Paul's commitment to developing and maintaining production quality open source reference implementations of core Internet protocols."

https://www.isc.org/about/leadership
President Paul Vixie
"Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. (ISC) is proud to be the producer and distributor of commercial quality Open Source software for the Internet Community" (read: BIND, among other things.)

They are. I can tell from the prickcells.

First they make you accept their DVR box, then they change what the DVR box will allow you to do. Maybe they won't allow you to skip advertisements. They deliver more eyeballs to the advertisers and they make more money.

The Purdy paint brush folks (part of Sherwin Williams) had their marketing firm (M Force, Brown & Martin) spamming usenet and message boards with fake customer testimonials. http://www.ownrecognizance.com/purdy.html

We aren't fast enough to run away from any significant predator, so it must be for running towards prey.

You don't have to be faster than the predator, just faster than someone else in your group.

Reminds me of this: http://www.satirewire.com/news/0011/cubist_site.shtml

"Can we instead quasi-fight for our quasi-right to quasi-party?" That should be slashdot's quasi motto.