Flow My Thoughts, The IT Professor Said

The Meat That Won't Go Away

http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=5839

Though it may be uncharitable to paraprhrase Mr. Clemins and say "everybody talks about halting spam, but nobody does anything about it", nevertheless the tide appears to be rising above our chins with alarming rapidity. Those nestled behind a good corporate spam-control system may not notice much, but if you have a home account [even one which uses the slightly pitiful blacklisting method] you are probably seeing about 40% of your input taken up by UCE. True, with a good mail client, you can delete it with a click, but even a couple of minutes a day adds up to some serious time considered on a yearly basis.

My gut instinct tells me this is going to get worse before it gets better, and the article referenced above looks at present [failing] and future ways to control spam. For my money, the price of ending spam will be an unforgeable and mandatory identification of source and author for every piece of e-mail -- and despite the charms of InterNet anonymity, given the scope of the problem, it is a price I would gladly pay.