Category Archives: Internet

Oracle (née Sun) joins the club of companies who can’t keep their mailing lists secure

In September 2009, I registered as a developer at sun.com. When doing so, I used a tagged email address, i.e., an email address part of which was unique to my registration at that site. I’ve never used that particular email address anywhere else or published it anywhere. In January 2010, Oracle completed its acquisition of… Read More: Oracle (née Sun) joins the club of companies who can’t… »

Mysterious identity thief uses my email address to create Skype account

As I previously reported, somebody has been interacting with Web sites using my email address. I suspect that in addition to the ones I know about, this individual is probably also doing things that I don’t know about, because I assume that not all the web sites at which he’s using my address are kind enough… Read More: Mysterious identity thief uses my email address to create Skype… »

“Nation of Change”, who are you and why are you spamming me?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: As of August 12, 2011, it appears that Brave New Foundation had nothing to do with the spam reported below and in fact they are as much a victim as I am. Please see this posting for details. Dear Nation of Change (along with Brave New Foundation), Let me tell you about a little strategy I… Read More: “Nation of Change”, who are you and why are you… »

UPDATED: “Basic Instructions” added to comics aggregator

I’ve added “Basic Instructions” to my comics aggregator. Tip of that hat to Seth Gordon for pointing me at this fine comic! UPDATE: Because the author of “Basic Instructions” sometimes publishes his strip after people have already read their daily comics, I’ve also added “Basic Instructions (1-day delay)”, so you can use that one instead… Read More: UPDATED: “Basic Instructions” added to comics aggregator »

Google AdWords is still staffed by poorly trained monkeys

Last month, I wrote about Google’s surreal attempts to collect from me a debt I don’t actually owe, and my unsuccessful attempts to make it stop. Things have gotten much worse since then. I sent a letter (appended below) to the office of Google’s CEO over a month ago. There has been no response. Today,… Read More: Google AdWords is still staffed by poorly trained monkeys »

A study in contrasts: handling stolen email lists

I try to make a habit of giving out “tagged” email addresses to web sites when I sign up for accounts / mailing lists / whatever. For example, when creating an account at widgets.com, instead of just signing up as “jik@kamens.us”, I might sign up as “jik+widgets@kamens.us”. It ends up in the same mailbox regardless,… Read More: A study in contrasts: handling stolen email lists »