UPDATE: APPARENTLY I’M A JACKASS
Yeah, this’ll teach me to do more thoroughresearch. I was e-mailed a link to thisarticle - thanks to Joe Buck for that one.Another reader, Christopher Golden, sent me thisarticle, which discusses how the media istwisting some of Gates’ words to miscommunicatewhat he wants to do. That’s it, no more posturingfrom me - just read up and form your own opinions.
Spam and e-mail are a complicated issue. The firstpart is simple - there’s really nobody who wantsspam, so we need to do away with it. That aboutsums it up. As for how to get rid of it, that’swhere things get more difficult. The new anti-spam laws aren’t working. Gatesis suggesting we buye-stamps. The way that would essentially workis that, in order to send an e-mail, you would beforced to buy an electronic stamp. These stampswould cost a penny or less, so for those who sendvery few e-mails, it “wouldn’t be a big deal”. Forthose who send millions of spam messages a day, itwould become very costly very quickly. It seemslike a sensible proposition, but people are wary -e-mail is something that they are used to gettingfor free. And of course, there’s the “Wait, soGates wants more money?” factor. It would beprofitable, and who’s to say that - once thee-stamps law is instated - that they won’t just goahead and periodically raise the price of stampslike they do for snail mail? It seems like aviable solution at the time, but I’m wary of whatwould happen a decade down the line. Most peoplelike free e-mail.
That’s probably recycled material for some of you,but I felt like trying to be a bit informativetoday. ^_^; If any of you have more info orrelevant links, drop me a line.
