These "people" are not us, and yes, they really do want to get email. I don't understand it, but working in the industry, I cannot deny it. There are a several dynamics that give rise to perversely excessive amounts of email across the board, but at the heart of it all, you'll find 10 or 20 million people who *really do* *actually* want companies clogging up their inboxes, and they reward the behavior by following links from those emails to buy things.

The senders then tune their programs to serve these most prolific users and send these high-frequency campaigns to everyone in hopes of stumbling upon a few more people who will tolerate them. The economics of the market do not justify investment in identifying lower-frequency strategies to reach broader audiences, so we are stuck, unfortunately, with the financially optimal solution.

There is, however, one dynamic of the system you can use to your advantage. Don't open any email you didn't want to get. Legit senders, like me, are doing everything we can to *stop* sending mail to people who don't want it because any email sent to someone who didn't want it damages our ability to send to those who do. Unfortunately for all of us, Apple's upcoming mail privacy feature loads external assets from all your emails--telling us you opened them--so once you opt in to have Apple "protect" you from spam, senders will no longer be able to tell whether or not you wanted each message. Those who care will no longer know when you want them to stop, and those who don't care....still won't care.

Hasn't it? I am currently sitting in a small business that would have been forced to close permanently without covid-related subsidies. You should try getting acquainted with some average Americans. You will learn a great many uncomfortable truths.

Killing the third party cookie is an anticompetitive play by the largest marketing companies (Google, Facebook, and Apple) to lock out any smaller advertisers from effectively targeting web users. It's shameless rent-seeking masquerading as altruism.

Do you want anyone to be able to predict what ads you might like, or should that capability be reserved only for the few companies to whom you have already sold the bulk of your time and attention?

Most people are experiencing some degree of depression, which inhibits the formation of memory. We are wired to forget the excruciating texture of pain, remembering it only in vague terms of intensity. As we become unable to feel good, we become unable to remember. The minutes seem interminable but the months, and for some, years, pass in a blink. For those of us with chronic, life-long depression, this is just a particularly irksome bout of it--same old syndrome, different day.

Those who have never felt it before think it's some novel phenomenon particular to the pandemic. Bless their hearts.

Just think about how this felt before you tell someone to "cheer up," or "snap out of it." The struggle is real, and it's complicated.

I prefer to read some sorts of technical books on paper. I feel disheartened coming out of a bookstore with nothing but 500 pages of facts that no one will care about in 10 years. If I find myself holding a copy of "Coding FadLanguage for Dullards," I pick up "The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson," hoping that if I read both, I won't get any dumber on balance. Sometimes the later has to wait. Sometimes the former expires.

I believe it has been alleged that he conspired with and encouraged the now-imprisoned person who leaked the information. Even if he claimed to be a journalist, the first amendment only goes so far. The laws about anyone handling classified information are strict and specific. Besides, there are still some people in Cuba who can attest that habeas corpus also only goes so far.

In any case, if the US government were willing to do something nasty over this, they would have done it before the information was published. They might not have stopped it all, but I have no doubt they could have forced it into the hands of someone who would have handled it more carefully.

Nothing can stop a determined attacker with physical access. The benefit of anything more complex than this is marginal and illusory.

November 5, 1955?

Whenever I leave a job (whether by my or my employer's decision), I always ask what sort of wrap-up or pass-down I should do. I do not get walked because my employers know that I work for the company until the door locks behind me. Of course, you have to demonstrate that in your first two weeks, not your last two.