Further to my previous entry about people responding to spam, I heard back from one of the people I sent a response to. I'll back up a bit and show you the whole exchange. First, his original message to me:

From: "Don" <...@cox.net>
To: "Rosamund Stephenson" <lchta@hewgill.net>
Subject: RE: monsoon

Ok knock your shit off please and stop sending me this

[original spam message quoted in his message]

My response:

From: "Greg Hewgill" <greg@hewgill.com>
To: "Don" <...@cox.net>
Subject: RE: monsoon

On Fri, Apr 28, 2006 at 08:29:26AM -0700, Don wrote:
> Ok knock your shit off please and stop sending me this

I understand you received some spam that appeared to be from an email
address in a domain I own (hewgill.net). Unfortunately, today spammers
are using software that can easily forge the "From" address on email
messages. They don't use their own name to try to hide their identity.
They insert random email addresses from domains they don't own and so it
looks like the spam came from me. I can assure you that it did not.

If your email provider has a spam blocking system, you may want to try
turning that on. On my own email system, I have a number of different
layers of spam protection and it brings the spam down to a manageable
level (I receive thousands of spam messages per day, most of which are
automatically blocked). With luck, people will stop buying products from
spammers and it will no longer be profitable for them to send their junk
mail.

Have a great day.

Greg Hewgill
http://hewgill.com

I thought that was clear, succinct, and quite understandable. However, our friend Don appears to have not read any further than the very first sentence:

From: "Don" <...@cox.net>
To: "Greg Hewgill" <greg@hewgill.com>
Subject: RE: monsoon

Own it or not I don't need it so STOP sending me this

Of course he didn't read my explanation about forging of email headers; he didn't read that I did not personally send him that spam; he did not read about my recommendation regarding spam filters; he did not read that I too am subject to receiving spam from junk mailers; he is probably not even having a great day today. I had originally thought about mentioning SPF and how that would have prevented him receiving the message in the first place, but I'm sort of glad I didn't waste my energy. (Instead, I'm using that energy to rant about this here.)

Perhaps I'm old and jaded (at least in internet years), but it's surprising to me that people using the internet today have no clue how email works. I imagine our friend Don could, perhaps with a bit of effort, understand what happened if he received a forged written letter in his mailbox delivered by the post office. However, the same does not appear to be true about email delivered by his computer. If he hits Reply, the message must go back to the person who sent it, right? I fear for him if he ever starts receiving phishing messages.

Ok, I know this is boring. I'm done for now.

So I was listening to the radio on the way in to work this morning, and an ad came on. It went something like this:

"The thing about kids is they really try to pry into the deeper questions. First it's "why is the sky black at night?" then I find myself trying to explain stars, and then black holes... yuck. Then I remembered movies. The thing about movies is that kids don't ask questions when they're watching a movie. That's why I bought a Saturn..."

Yeah, that's the way to proactively raise your kids. Let Disney take care of it, I'm sure they'll do a great job.

While driving to get lunch today, I saw five instances of the flag of the United States being flown at the top of the mast. The offenders were an apartment complex, a car dealership, an office building, a small business, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Section 175 (m) of Title 36 Chapter 10 of the United States Code states in part:

"By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory."

I hope that news is disseminated quickly enough these days such that everybody in the country has heard about the recent death of President Ronald Reagan. If you care enough to fly the flag, you should also care enough to lower the flag to half-staff when appropriate. I wonder how many will continue to fly the flag at half-staff for the required 30 days.

I've recently noticed a lot of drivers around here with bad driving habits. Perhaps this isn't stuff that they explicitly teach you in driving school, but it's just common courtesy and sense.

To all the drivers out there with annoying driving habits:

• If you have the right of way, take it. If I'm waiting to turn left from a side road onto a main road, and you are turning left from the main road onto the side road, don't stop and wave for me to go just because I've been waiting longer.
• Keep up with the speed limit. Yesterday I found myself behind traffic going 45 in a 70 zone.
• If you are going straight through a light and have a choice of two lanes, don't pick the rightmost one that blocks people behind you from turning right while the light is red. Especially with the long lights around here.
• If I'm waiting to turn right, and you are approaching from the left intending to turn out of the lane I'm turning into, use your signal so I know what your intentions are.
• If you are ahead of me and intend to change lanes into a turn lane, don't slow down too much while you're still in front of me unless there isn't enough room to do it in the turn lane.

Thank you for your attention.

Tip: Keep messages short by using text abbreviations. A common example is "C U" for "See you!"