It may be the first and heaviest financial setback for the band of Puget Sound area spamfighters who have taken matters into their own hands by using Washington state's anti-spam law to seek redress against junk e-mailers. It is also a sign that some spammers are deciding to fight back.

1. "It may be the first": How about you ask them so you know if it is or not?

2. "...and heaviest...": If it's the first, yes, it is the heaviest. Also the lightest, most effervescent, most ecologically-sound, most inspired by the teachings of Karl and Groucho Marx, and the most calorie-reduced with all the flavour. Why not ask?

3. "for the band of Puget Sound area spamfighters who have taken matters into their own hands by using Washington state's anti-spam law": When I see 'taken matters into their own hands' I think vigilante, I don't think 'by using... law'. Taking someone to court is not taking matters into one's own hands, it is putting matters into the hands of someone else, i.e., a judge.

4. "It is also a sign...": Also a sign? In addition to what? The other sentence in this graf is a conditional, so there is no "also".

(Yes, I'm sure there's at least one typo and grammatical error in this objection. Pay me to care as much as Peter Lewis does.)

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 09:33 AM

The point of the proposal isn't to punish developers of proprietary software. Instead, advocates point out that "closed" software adds costs and creates security risks, two problems the state needs to reduce.

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 09:21 AM

One protest Web site offers a download of a figure peering desperately out of a bar-code prison with the slogan "Ten digits for cows; 11 digits for people." It's a sarcastic reference to a state ID program for beef herds that began after mad-cow disease was found last fall.

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 05:10 AM

I don't want intrusive adverts, but I don't mind commercial links. I don't want pop-ups, but I don't object to Google's sponsored results at the top of the screen. I don't want the hard sell, but I don't mind a commercial net.

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 05:05 AM

Arafat told the Montreal newspaper La Presse he also wants Canada to urge the Americans to bring about free Palestinian elections as soon as possible.

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 05:01 AM

"It's an assertion of rights of a very disadvantaged minority," he says. "Perhaps the most marginalized minority, the ones that are denied legal aid they're so marginalized."

Posted by GeeTee at August 12, 2002 04:48 AM