Editorial
A Call To Spammers -- XTRA Loves You
In November I received an unsolicited commercial email, sent from an xtra.co.nz address, from a self-proclaimed "Internet Marketing Consultant" -- so I filed a complaint to abuse@xtra.co.nz

Within a short space of time I received an automated response telling me that my complaint had been received but that they would be unable to advise me what, if anything, was going to be done about it. The automated response claims that to do so would be a violation of the privacy act.

A few weeks past and I received nothing else from this "expert" so I figured that they'd dealt with the matter.

However, yesterday I received my second, seemingly monthly edition of this "expert's" newsletter -- again unsolicited, very commercial, and most definitely unwanted.

So I have filed another complaint -- reminding them that this is a second offense for the person concerned.

It appears that so long as you're prepared to pay your $2.50/hr or $39 a month, XTRA is happy to let you do whatever you want -- regardless of whether it breaches netiquette and creates a nuisance to other Net users or not.

Given XTRA's propensity to run open mail servers and their seeming lack of concern over the abuse of their dial-up accounts I suspect it will soon become NZ's spammer-haven.

Then of course there's the little issue of many ADSL users being grossly overcharged for traffic in recent weeks. An honest error?

One Sleep To Christmas
Yes, just one sleep to Christmas and even Aardvark gets a few days off.

If there's anything newsworthy or worth commenting on over the Christmas/New Year's break I'll update this page, otherwise you can expect the New Year's edition Sometime between Jan 1 and Jan 3 in the Year 2000 (Y2K bugs notwithstanding).

Suffice to say -- I have my generator standing by, 10,000 gals of fresh water stored in 2 concrete tanks, a septic-tank sewerage system and a Vodafone digital cell-phone and modem at the ready.

I would like to wish all readers the very best for Christmas and I look forward to bringing you everything that's fit to publish (plus a lot that probably isn't) next year and in the years that follow.

Vote In The Awards
You'll find last year's winners here and this year's voting form here.

Remember -- one lucky voter will be chosen at random to win a brand new Microsoft eunuch-Mouse (officially known as the IntelliMouse) with a cool ball-free approach to mouse maneuvering.

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