Re: Getting old, I am, when......

[Leon]

How is the bird house book coming along?

[Dave Balderstone]

Check the headers, Leon. This one's coming from the asshole at dizum.com, not Charlie.

Charlie went for eye surgery today, IIRC.

djb

[Dave Balderstone]

That wasn't Charlie.

Check the headers.

[RWM]

Even if it wasn't Charlie, I still feel the same way.

[Leon]

Geeeez Its getting bad when the bad ones are making sense.

[Charlie Self]

try rec.photo.digital

Sheest. It wasn't early or late, either.

Charlie Self "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Thomas Jefferson

[Swingman]

Just driving to the grocery store is often enough, and getting on any freeway a guarantee, of validating your observation.

[Charlie Self]

Swingman responds:

Yeah, but not even that's needed. I drove across the river for eye surgery yesterday, taking my wife with me (kind of blurry coming back). As I pulled away at a light that had just turned green, an ambulance in the oncoming lane started to shoot in front of me, as if he had his lights on. He didn't. And he'd just sat through the same light, other side, that I had sat through.

He really didn't like my horn, but he did stop. My wife was a bit annoyed, because she knew I wasn't about to stop and that makes her nervous. I don't usually dare anyone anywhere when I'm behind the wheel, but this guy caught me in the wrong mood. So, in effect, two fools almost colliding. He was wrong, but I should have been far less bullheaded. Given the circumstances, though, I would have been perfectly happy to let a local hospital pay for my retirement party. My wife would not.

So, next time, I blow the horn but be ready to stop.

Charlie Self "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." Thomas Jefferson

[Silvan]

I guess they tell themselves that you only ignored the first spam because you were so tempted that you couldn't control your terrible urge to buy, so you were trying to hide it from yourself so you wouldn't. Or something.

[Charlie Self]

Silvin posits:

Probably hit it with that last one. Or something. That something being the fact that they are idiots.

Someone once told me that people pay spammers to do spamming. I find that incredible. Early on, I worked for an ad agency and later a newspaper selling advertising. One of the truisms is (or was) that a good coupon ad will draw a

5% response, maybe a bit more. I have to wonder what percentage of 5 million spam messages draws anything at all, except justifiable abuse that does nothing but validate the abuser's email address.

Charlie Self "If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin." Charles Darwin

[Danny Boy]

OK, it's not woodworking, but if I give a really good reply, maybe people will think that's enough and get on with something about wood and saws and stuff.....

Same reason. People send money to other people for two reasons: Fear and greed: Fear of dying poor, and wanting to die rich.

Spammers send spam to annoy you. That's also why you are sent viruses. They have a twisted sense of power, like an adult child with a pea-shooter; they can get to you, and you can't get to them.

You think of 5% of 5 million. Spammers reach many times more. They do it because it's worth it to them ...the same reason coupon ads work. [I throw mine away without another thought, and deal with spam the same way.]

Oh, yes. They also get a big kick out of getting people to clog up the internet with back and forth messages about their efforts, making them even more worthwhile to them ...solid evidence that they are really annoying people. The best single way to avoid them is to not respond in any way, shape, or form. Hmmmmm... those last words remind me of wood.

Dan.