A Curious Statistical Anomaly

I really couldn’t believe it when I read this article on PC Pro. The article said:

The three-app rule includes applications running in the background, meaning that a user running Windows Messenger and Skype, for example, could only use one further application on their machine. Antivirus software is excluded from the app count.

Microsoft says the restriction is designed to ensure that users get the best possible performance from limited netbook hardware. However, it admits it will encourage netbook manufacturers to install the unrestricted Home Premium in the UK.

Of course if you want to run more than 3 apps, and who wouldn’t, you’ll need to upgrade to the Home Premium edition of the software. I have a full-size laptop that’s over three years old that is my work horse of a machine — but it is getting old. I recently purchased a netbook for travel (Asus Eee PC). The Asus is Linux using Open Office. I saw this as a way to get myself used to another operating system — looks like I made a wise choice.

On my full-size (FS) laptop, I hardly if ever run just three applications running. I can’t imagine working with less than seven — if I had to really pare things down. Wonder how they got that magic number 3. An informal poll among a group of friends on ICQ and email (2 apps I always have open) showed that the fewest apps was 7. Hmmm, me thinks that MS did their research among non-standard computer users. My informal survey was among writers and non-computer professionals. My geek friends would have had a much higher number of apps open.

Since, Microsoft often does these little weirdnesses in marketing when they’re trying to figure if they could squeeze out more money from their users, this article makes me nervous. I hope the UK balks at this attempt to extort more money from netbook users.

There are times when good ideas should just be left alone. When you try to implement that idea, especially into law, it often becomes a bad idea. For example: check out the proposed law that South Carolina is considering. Here’s a short snip:

SECTION 1. Article 3, Chapter 15, Title 16 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
“Section 16-15-370.
(A) It is unlawful for a person in a public forum or place of public accommodation wilfully and knowingly to publish orally or in writing, exhibit, or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.
(B) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than five thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

SECTION 2. Article 3, Chapter 15, Title 16 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
“Section 16-15-430. (A) It is unlawful for a person to disseminate profanity to a minor if he wilfully and knowingly publishes orally or in writing, exhibits, or otherwise makes available material containing words, language, or actions of profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.

I can almost hear some legislator thinking to himself. People swear too much and we need to force them to clean up their act. But, look at the link to the law or just the snippet I’ve posted above. Now think about it — because obviously the legislature hasn’t…

Evidently, South Carolina hasn’t realized that once this law passes there goes TV, or at least every channel except the Disney and the Family channels and even some of those programs won’t pass this test. Of course profanity is in the mind of the hearer, so with laws you have to think of the worse case scenario. That means no TV or movies (theaters wouldn’t be able to show any current films). Even one of my faves Quigley Down Under has one swear word in it. You’d have to close all those DVD rental places because they distribute and disseminate profanity.

Then of course libraries would have to cull all those books — like the dictionary — which “make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.” Not going to be much left to read in South Carolina after this bill goes into effect (IF it passes).

Then there’s the problem of what the bill doesn’t cover. If parents buy a film “containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature” and their children see it. Could they be charged? Sounds to me like they could. Golly gosh, sit down to watch Lethal Weapon (minor language) or Beverly Hills Cop (wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap language) and little Billy gets up for a drink of water,  hears something he shouldn’t, and before you know it Mom and Dad get raided and Billy is in foster care. After Mom and Day pay fines and do their jail time, is anyone better off? I doubt it.

Heck under this law you couldn’t even have a copy of the Bible now that I think a bit more about it. Have you ever read some of the sexier parts of Psalms? Woo. Hoo. There’s some hot stuff in there. Now that I think of it — yup, the Bible has to go.

So, what started as a good idea to get people to clean up their language and keep smut out of the state will have ramifications that I bet never occurred to the writers of this proposed change to the law. At least, I’m giving them the benefit of a doubt when I say they couldn’t have thought about the implementation and consequences. But then maybe they did plan for the big excitement for the population of the state would be getting to watch paint dry — they certainly won’t be able to watch TV, read books, watch movies, or use the internet.

I’m really, really, glad I don’t live in South Carolina. Too bad too because it always sounded like a nice place to visit and I had it on my TODO list but guess I can scratch that one off — I enjoy movies, books, and — well I have been known to utter a few words I shouldn’t once in a while…

This is another one of those cases where someone has decided to legislate morality, and that’s always a mission fraught with disaster. First of all, laws should never be passed if you can’t define your terms. What is “profanity”? Aside from George Carlin’s 7 dirty words, there are a wide host of words that some people believe to be profanity, and others do not. Who gets to decide? Same thing goes for vulgar, lewd, lascivious, and indecent. Is a woman in a short skirt sexy, or lewd? Is a wink flirty, or lascivious? Is a woman breast-feeding her child a natural act, or an indecent one?

The Supreme Court once ruled that there was no way to define profanity, and that legislatures would need to tread very carefully.  In the last few years there have been several laws passed to “protect the children”. Every last one of them has been struck down for pretty much the same reason: Protect the children and you deny the adults their constitutional rights to free speech. About the best anyone has come up with are strange compromises like certain things can only be shown late at night, or only on pay channels, although what these “things” are tends to very from location to location, and year to year. But in every case the freedom of speech must be maintained. This law throws the First Amendment right out the door, which is what the courts will have to do with this law, assuming South Carolina suffers from terminal ignorance of the law and actually passes it.

I read today a short quote from Oscar Wilde:

, “A school should be the most beautiful place in every town and village – so beautiful that the punishments for undutiful children should be that they should be debarred from going to school the following day.”

I checked to see that he’d said it and found the quote listed in “The Schooldays of Oscar Wilde”
by David Robertson, Portora Archivist. It seems Oscar Wilde’s school didn’t live up to his belief that schools should be beautiful.

I went to school in the usual picture book schoolhouse — looking a bit like you’d expect a church to look actually. It was a small school with grades kindergarten through sixth grade. Then it was on to junior high (the first year in that school) and then high school (the last class to graduate from that building).

I was an okay student. Looking back I believe I could have been a much better student but I was more interested in learning in general than in learning just what was taught. If I found something interesting in an assignment, I was likely to go to the library or to our set of encyclopedias and look up more information and read on that topic until my interest got caught by something else. So, homework got a lick and a promise, but luckily in such small school I was still a A-B student.

Then came college. That’s when lots of things changed. You see I thought that college was the time to explore, learn, expand my horizons, and check out new areas of study. It took nearly flunking out to make me realize that that’s not what colleges are for. College is to polish the edges of what you already know and add depth to the knowledge that you already have. Taking a subject you know nothing about and studying like crazy and ending up knowing a lot but not as much as the students who came into it already knowing the basics and building on that knowledge usually left you at the C or D level, and that’s not how you graduate. So, eventually, I learned that college was not for learning and settled down to polish my edges and got a degree. I even did most of the studying for a MS before I decided I just couldn’t take the politics and rules for rules sake that made little to no sense to me.

However, looking at school now and talking to teens and younger children — schools are prisons now. There’s guards and police officers. In some schools students go through metal scanners similar to the ones in airports. Their belongings can be searched at any time. Some schools have won cases in court and banned students or punished them for things they did outside of school hours and off school grounds. With budget cuts and a worsening economy text books are getting older and older and more out of date. The buildings are decaying. Many classes are held in trailers set up next to the schools.

I honestly can’t think of an environment that is less likely to encourage learning. Then you add in the unfunded No Child Left Behind which translates into you will learn to pass the tests because we can’t do anything else with our budget. The bullying that children suffer from, that teachers can and will do nothing about — because Zero Tolerance means the victim is victimized twice, once by the bully and again by getting the same punishment as the bully if it’s reported. Zero Tolerance means that the letter not the spirit of all the rules is followed and that lowers students respect for and belief in fairness, justice, and authority.

Schools now-a-days seem more about not offending anyone anywhere rather than teaching facts, skills, logic, science, and how-to find out about a topic. To me it is a wonder that anyone learns anything in schools now-a-days and from some of the studies that show up showing that most American’s think the Sun goes around the Earth, that can’t name the states of the US (or even half of them), and can’t find countries on a labeled map. [Hyperion: Or my own pet peeve: That still think global warming and/or evolution are hoaxes.]

Our schools need help and we need to encourage learning. Schools are not supposed to be just places where sports occur at regular intervals with pep rallies. Schools are supposed to be where learning occurs. Where students open their minds to learn about new ideas, new thoughts, and new ways of putting those ideas and thoughts together to form hypotheses, and to gain skills to help them find jobs and work that will be satisfying to them.

Schools should be beautiful places of learning, knowledge, and exciting ideas. Punishment should be denying us the ability to attend schools. Of course, right now your economic ability to pay impacts your ability to attend school more than any other factor. Education should rest on ability to learn not ability to pay.

Just some thoughts…

Well, finally the campaigning is over and it has been one of the longest bitterest campaigns I’ve seen in my lifetime. Towards the end, well, lets just say the Republican candidates were getting ridiculously negative. About they only thing they didn’t claim is that Obama’s mother wore army boots and his dog was ugly — otherwise they hit just about every innuendo and near-slanderous remark they could. What were they thinking? Nothing evidently, because the lower they sunk the lower their numbers got and they still didn’t catch a clue.

I voted early this afternoon. I don’t know how it is going to turn out and I’m following the early returns but I figure we won’t know anything until tomorrow sometime. This election has so much riding on it. Our country’s economy is in the toilet. We’re in a war we never should have started. We have no moral high-ground left after all that our current administration has done. Our constitution has been filled with bullet holes from the present administration and Congress couldn’t find a spine if they all chipped in to make one from what is left of their backbones. We need some change and we need some hope that the next leader of the country will work to bring that positive change to our problems. We also need to mend fences with our allies and with the world.

Tomorrow will tell us — who the people of this country chose to make move us forward. The choices were pretty clear — someone with a new vision or someone who wanted to continue with the policies that got us into this mess. I’m hoping for the guy with the funny name because the maverick certainly has never done anything to deserve that nickname.

As I was deleting my spam today — well yesterday and the day before too. I got to thinking about the spammer that finally got arrested and went to trial in Virginia. They let him go because the judge didn’t think it was fair, the law was too broad, and so on and so on. Well, as I’ve been clearing out the spam not caught by my filters — usually around 1,000 per day — and remember, that’s not counting the spam caught by my filters on my PC or the ones that the ISP catches before it even gets to me. I have to wondered about this double standard.

Well, we all know that the security at airports is just security theater. It causes people discomfort and inconvenience so they think it must be keeping them safe — when in fact it doesn’t make anyone a bit safer than they were before. It’s all just for show. If they keep telling us we’re safer and we’re all in long lines and it looks like they’re actually doing something somehow we’ll believe it.

Congress talking about protecting children from pornography on the internet is the same. They talk and the pass laws and they make things inconvenient for everyone — yet they don’t do anything to protect anyone from pornography, let alone the children. How do I know? They won’t pass any legislation to protect us from spam. We need a Can Spam law with teeth but when it’s proposed then they start saying we can’t have that because it will restrain trade and yadda yadda…

I’ve been using computers for years, and the internet before it had webpages — I know hard to believe but back in the early years you had to put in these really long addresses to route your email to the places and people you wanted to reach. In comparison to today, we carved our messages on rocks and threw them in the direction we wished them to go and crossed our fingered that they’d get to the one we wanted to communicate with.

In all the years I’ve been on the internet, I’ve never come “accidentally” on pornography. It is out there, I know that it is, I’m just saying I’ve never accidentally stumbled upon it unaware. The closest I came was when I offered to look to see if I could find a prosthetic breast for my mother after her mastectomy for breast cancer. Seems a good place to buy a breast is at sites for transvestites, cross-dressers, costumers, and sex sites. Who knew? So while it wasn’t pornography, it’s as close as I’ve come in close to 40 years of active internet/computer use.

Now back to spam — that’s where I’ve been subjected to pornography. Blatant, disgusting images of body parts. Before you ask, I’ve got my machine set to not display photos unless I tell it to, but the spammers get around that — as you well know. I get propositions, offers of videos of the act and all its variations, and some that just aren’t right….ick…all with coming into my inbox without my permission or consent, and with no way to stop it.

So, I say to Congress if you really want to protect children from pornography on the internet — do something about spam — you know, unwanted, unsolicited email. My experience of 40 years of internet use with lots of searches and miscellaneous website browsing has resulted in no porno. But everyday on my PC without my permission, I get spam with lots of porno. So, lets not have “protect the children” theater. Let’s get rid of the spam.

PS: I happen to like the canned stuff and hope that the unwanted, unsolicited junk that fills our inboxes each day doesn’t put you off. As a student, spam was a food staple — you either acquired a taste for it or your food budget didn’t last very long. Today it’s gotten a bit pricey but it’s the same hearty meal stretcher.

According to a Scientific American article from September 12, 2008:

In fact, oil companies have yet to take advantage of the nearly 86 billion barrels of offshore oil in areas already available for leasing and development. So why are they chomping at the drill bit to open up the moratorium waters and survey them anew?

“Oil company stocks are valued in large part based on how much proved reserves they have,” says Robert Kaufman, an expert on world oil markets and director of Boston University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies. Translation: just having more promising leases in hand would be worth billions of dollars.

As for reducing the price of oil:

Even by 2030, offshore drilling would not have a significant impact on oil prices, according to Martin, because oil prices are determined on the global market. “The amount of total production anticipated—around 200,000 barrels a day—would be less than 1 percent of the total projected international consumption.”

I found this even more interesting quote from Kaufman in the Scientific American article:

“At its peak in production, which occurred in 1970s, the U.S. produced about 10 million [barrels of oil] a day,” Kaufman says. “Now, after 30 years of fairly steady decline, we produce about five million barrels a day,” whereas we consume 20 million barrels daily. “Whoever talks about oil independence has to tell a story about how we close a 15-million-barrel gap.”

Not even all Republican’s are for off-shore drilling. I found this interesting quote from Arnold Schwarzenegger (Gov. of California) in a U.S. News article from Sept. 13, 2008:

Schwarzenegger was quick to acknowledge that the high cost of gasoline, which is selling for an average of $4.58 a gallon in the state, is taking a toll on California even more than other states. Recent national polls show as many as 67 percent of voters believe offshore drilling is a good solution. But Schwarzenegger today threw his support behind conservation and alternative fuels, instead. “We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil,” Schwarzenegger said. “The direction our nation needs to go in, and where California is already headed, is toward greater innovation in new technologies and new fuel choices for consumers. That is the way we will ultimately reduce fuel costs and also protect our environment.”

What can I say but that I also believe that this is the direction that this country should be going in. Energy experts believe that we’ve pretty much achieved peak oil, meaning that the oil that we can get is no longer going to outpace demand no matter what we do. There will always be needs for oil and if we don’t reduce our dependence on oil and find alternatives for many of the oil-based products and uses that we have now we are going to run out. The only question is how much longer do we have. It’s also a given that as oil fields are emptied the places where we can get oil are going to require methods that are dirtier and harder on the environment than the present methods — and global warming is not going to get any less global or warm if we increase our pollution of the atmosphere.

Folks we need to find alternatives — no matter what the politicians say, there are no easy answers and off-shore drilling is not an answer at all. At best, it’s a way of making it sound like they’re doing something for us to reduce cost but it will only line the pockets of the oil companies and in the long run it is going to cost all of us citizens and people of the planet Earth big-time. We need to begin to look at alternatives and ways to reduce our reliance on oil.

I know everyone laughed when Obama suggested that every American keep his or her tires inflated to the proper level. Yeah, funny wasn’t it. However, it does increase your miles per gallon. Not a lot, true but if every car in American was running on tires that were properly inflated that little tiny bit for every car on the road can reduce the amount of gas used overall by a significant amount. It may not help you personally all that much; maybe a few dollars a week at the pump, but it helps the country. There are many other little things that can be done to help your mileage and if everyone did them it would help the country.

Why do we laugh? Because it’s not a single magic bullet? Probably. Most people want the problem taken care of without them having to do anything different. They want life to go on and all the problems to be fixed with no input or change in their own behavior. Sorry, life isn’t like that. It never was. You have to all work together.

So, I know you’re wondering what have I done. Well, we make sure that the car is empty (we don’t carry extra weight if we don’t have to). Our tires pressure is checked regularly, and we make sure we have tread on them too. We plan trips to work in a circle to reduce back and forth driving. During the week, my husband goes to work and stops at the post office and/or store on his way home as both are on his travel route. I work at home. Our weekend shopping includes in a loop: dropping off the recycling, stopping at the post office (if needed), getting groceries (two stores), and returning home. Occasionally, we add a stop or two on the loop if necessary. If a doctor visit is needed mid-week, we plan to take care of any other stops along that route so we don’t need to drive it again. We’ve been doing this for years and there really isn’t any way to reduce the number of miles traveled in a month. Twice a month we go to a social event and while we try to match that with other tasks, we often can’t but we don’t want to give up this group either (I mean we really need some fun in our lives too.) We also have a Honda and based on our calculations of number of gallons purchased versus number of miles driven — we get 28 miles per gallon and we don’t yet have a hybrid but we’re saving for one.

These are simple things that can be done. They’re simple things anyone can do. It takes advanced planning and may seem difficult at times but you get used to it and the planning gets easier and finally becomes second nature.

Just to recap the top of the post on oil drilling.  If drilling is allowed off the coast or in the refuge in Alaska:

1. The oil companies already own leases on millions of acres that they’ve never bothered to even look at.
2. Not one drop of oil could be produced for at least 10 years. The oil companies have admitted that they don’t have the equipment or crews to even start exploiting any new sites.
3. Once oil did start flowing, it would be years more until any appreciable flow could be retrieved.
4. The amount of oil extracted, even at peak, will be such a small percentage of the total world oil market that it will have no effect whatsoever on prices.
5. ANWR is estimated to contain 7 billion barrels of oil … total.  Since America consumes about 20 million barrels a day, that means Alaska has enough to supply the U.S. with oil for ONE year.
6. How much is offshore?  That’s unknown, but the guess is about 18 billion barrels.  Enough to supply the U.S. for two more years.
7. So will drilling make us self-sufficient.  Sure … for three years … maximum.
8. Will the oil be used to fuel America?  Maybe.  The oil pumped belongs to the oil companies.  They can sell it to whomever is willing to pay the highest price.  Maybe that’s the U.S., maybe it’s China.  That’ the beauty and terror of a free market.
9. So, who really benefits from new drilling?  The oil companies, and only the oil companies.
10. Oh, and who pays for clean up if the new drilling causes an ecological disaster?  The tax payers.

And what sets the price of oil?  Speculation (using the English definition, not the economic one).  Russia MIGHT cut off oil: Price goes up.  A hurricane MIGHT interfere with oil platforms in the gulf: Price goes up.  Iran MIGHT cause problems in the Gulf of Hormuz: Price goes up.  Things don’t really go wrong for a while: Price goes down … slowly.

Why isn’t the price of oil based on the cost of pumping it out of the ground, refining it, and transporting it?  Actually, I haven’t got a clue.  It’s all part of the consensual hallucination we call economics.  Why isn’t the price of a house based on the lumber, bricks, nails, etc that went into building it?   It’s all a mystery to me.  I think if anybody actually tried to make sense of the market, the whole thing would come crashing down on us.  We’re the emperor with a new set of clothes.  Heck, if I balanced my home accounts the way the Fortune 500 balances their books … I’d be in sent to jail.

Okay, finally the new external disk drive arrived.  Thankfully, it got here before everything blew up.  When it arrived I had only 1 GB of space left — everything was sooooo slow I was growing moss on my mouse.  But, once I got it plugged in and moved all the photos and electronic books to the external, I had 21 GB free and things were moving much faster (except for the expected slow down because I have some virus checking done every time I open files.  So, I’m happier and now I should be back on track with the blog and photos.

This months coffee cup is a Starbucks Blue Mug.  It was in all the Starbucks this summer but seems to be pretty thin on the ground when I was in Starbucks shops during the last few weeks.  I checked their website and they have a brown mug but not this blue one.  Luckily, I picked this one up this summer and saved it for September.  It’s perfect for hot chocolate, tea, coffee, or any warm drink.  I love the heft and feel of it.  The slight curve to the lip is really nice.  It’s very reminiscent of the old white mugs you used to get in diner — not that there’s that many old diners around anymore.  It has modern lines but with the comfortable feel and psychological comfort of the old diner mugs.  Also, it’s big enough so I don’t have to make repeated trips to the coffee machine when I’m working and holds heat fairly well — as well as any uninsulated cup anyway.  I like it.

Next, I said I was going to post a picture of my organized pantry area.  Last time I posted a picture, the shelves were nearly empty and everything was piled on my living room floor.  Well, now it’s all back in the pantry area including a lot of stuff that didn’t fit before.  Having the baskets helped because you can pile/load more into them than you can when lining things up on the shelves.  I also put things in the baskets by type so all the mixes, sweeteners, baking stuff, etc. are in one basket, all the soup and soup related stuff is in another, one is all spices, and another (on the floor) is all drinks, whether powder or bottle.  So now the hallway is navigable when going back to do the wash or to the bathroom, which is around the corner and out of sight (and is currently another new project but stalled as I try to figure out just how far I want to go with it — at first I thought just paint but now…I’m thinking, and that’s always dangerous.)

I’m thinking a curtain over the pantry might help disguise it and make the hallway (visible to anyone from the living room, the kitchen, and the dining room) look nicer.  But then you have to move it out of the way every time you want something there, and the number of times that would get done could make for a very dirty curtain very quickly unless it was a dark color and that would make the area too dark.  What do you think?

I’d decided to learn to knit socks on circulars so I could knit both socks at the same time.  I got a couple of books out of the library and looked online for some tutorials and finally cast on some yarn and started a pair of winter socks for wearing around the house when it gets cold instead of shoes.  Well, truthfully, I hardly ever wear shoes in the house anyway, but in winter my feet get cold, so nice warm socks are a must.

Anyway, it said in most sources to use a 40 inch needle, so that’s what I used, but I’m thinking of switching for a 60 inch if I don’t get the hang of moving the socks about when I change sides pretty soon.  Maybe just putting a marker between the edges so it’s easier to find when the circular gets sucked into the sock and I don’t have an end loop left when I finish the second sock before I turn to come back on the other side.  Otherwise, it’s not so hard once you get used to it.  The fact that I’m making both socks at the same time is wonderful, especially since I don’t have a pattern and these are sort of ad hoc — so now I can do the same thing to both socks without having to remember way back to when I did it on the first one (so far the whole note taking thing isn’t working out too well).

Once I finish increasing to the even knitting for the foot, I plan to do a tighter knit on the sole of the foot — I’m thinking knit on one row and knit 1, slip 1 on the other row — sort of what you do for the heel flap but for the entire bottom of the foot.  Hey, it’s worth a try to see how it comes out.  What I love about knitting is the wonderful way you always can have do overs when something goes wrong.

Speaking of things that need a do-over, the following is a political rant (I’m still upset) so move along if you’re avoiding such rants …. Really, I’m Democrat with extreme Liberal tendencies, so bail now if you offend easily.

I’m still in a snit over the political candidates for both parties.   This country can’t afford another term with a Republican in charge.  Especially, a Republican whose economic and foreign policies are nearly indistinguishable from the guy who got us into the mess we’re in in the first place.  And especially not with a Republican with a totally unqualified Veep who, based on her answers to the simplest of questions, just confirms my suspicions of her inability to do the job.  Heck, I’m more qualified than her and no one asked me to be Vice President.  I saw a YouTube video for an ad for Michael Palin for President — unfortunately he can’t run because he’s British, but they make a good case in a tongue and cheek way that he’d still be better.

I just want to vote FOR a president at some point in my life instead of voting against the lesser evil.  I’ve heard some people plan to vote Republican just because they figure if the country hits bottom people might finally wake up but just think of all the people who have to suffer first.  Why not try to do your best to help your country.   Look what fear has done to us over the last 8 years.  This just has to stop.  We need our Constitution and our Bill of Rights restored.  We need the checks and balances that our founding fathers put in place in the beginning of this nation restored so that we can move forward into the future and not backward into darkness.

[Hyperion here:] And it would be nice to have a V.P. that was capable of understanding elementary school level science.

I get spam.  I get lots of spam.  Spam, spam, not beautiful spam.  And it’s too bad because the real spam, the kind that comes in a can, isn’t bad.  When I was a poor struggling student, I ate spam a lot (and not the script for the play either).  I had spam sandwiches, spam and eggs, spam disguised as ham with cloves in it, fried spam, and scrambled spam.  It was cheap, filled you up, and with enough spice and imagination tasted pretty good considering the alternative was mac & cheese again.  So, email spam gives spam a bad connotation.  I get lots of spam and after awhile, when you’re scanning through the Junk folder before deleting — you occasionally notice trends.

Does anyone actually buy into the belief that their email address won them money in a lottery they never entered? Really, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is.
• Come on really, if you want me to click on you to find out how much trouble I’m in for sending a Western Union money order for several thousands of dollars to an organization that Homeland Security has flagged as a “bad group” and now I need to turn myself in or click on this link, shouldn’t you also know that I don’t have thousands of dollars to send to anyone? If it was a buck fifty maybe but more than that — give me a break. I might give to a valid charity but to some nameless organization — no way. No click. And, a good chuckle. Nice try in this day and age of heightened paranoia. Wonder how many will click before they remember they’ve never used Western Union to send money.
• Does any really believe the IRS would send you email — for anything? I mean this is the organization that charges you to file electronically, in order to save them money. Yeah, it saves them money because you pay extra to file that way — bonus time.
• Like I would trust anyone who sends me unsolicited email asking them to help me get out of debt. If I had a problem with debt, I’d start by talking to my bank, credit union, or a financial adviser and NOT some organization who sends spam.
• I’ve noticed that I’m still getting hundreds of spam a day letting me know that they can help me be more of a man and get my many-euphemism-to-get-past-spam-filters-tool bigger, harder, and better. Too bad, I’m a woman and your targeted email is to a totally inappropriate demographic.
• Along the same lines of getting bigger, harder, etc., etc., and so forth. What’s with all the references to violence? Do men really thing women are impressed by men who treat them as sex toys and that all women want to be abused? Hint: That’s a big NO. Excepting a very, very, very, small minority who may be into BDSM, no one wants to be hurt — ever, no way. If you’re a man that believes these ads, please get help. If you learn to respect women you might actually find it works better than these spam ads.
• I have to wonder about congress — they keep turning down legislation to create a Can Spam that works like the Do Not Call list. Are they really clueless enough to believe that anyone wants this garbage delivered to their inbox. We should have to Opt In, not Opt Out guys. Get a clue, please.
• And enough with the watches and designer thingies. If I wanted this stuff, I’d buy it from those carts on the side of the streets in the cities. I won’t buy it from spam. Sorry but if you send me spam, you’re obviously not a company, person, or service that I want to deal with.

Maybe some day, I’ll open my email and find only letters from people, companies, and services, that I’ve opted to receive email from. Won’t that be nice?