A Good First Step

This story brightened my day considerably.

LEESBURG, Va. — A brother and sister who sent unsolicited junk e-mail to millions of America Online Inc. customers were convicted Wednesday in the nation's first felony prosecution of spam distributors. More here.

I was only away for two weeks yet I came home to 10,000+ pieces of spam last Monday. Most people won't have that sort of volume but I have four e-mail addresses - two of them for business purposes - that are published on the web and available to every spam-bot in the universe. Theoretically, I can deal with my e-mail accounts while away from the website. But with a dial-up connection and the painfully slow loading of each new screen that that implies, combined with the volume of spam I receive, it's an impossible task. Spam arrives faster than I can delete it with that sort of set-up. (At home broadband, assorted filters, firewalls, Symantec's handy products, and Eudora's "Junk sorter" make it a much different situation. 90% of it I probably never even see when working here.)

And that is why I am smiling all over at this story. Although 9 years isn't nearly long enough. Nevertheless, a very good start indeed.