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Well if you're the kind of person predisposed towards pessimism and depression then I hope that the stories on today's news wires (it's all in the news-links below) don't drive you over the edge.

Firstly, a report issued by MessageLabs in the USA claims that 90% of all email received by US mailboxes is now spam. This is up from 60% just six months ago.

According to Network Management company Sandvine, 80% of that spam is being sent through hijacked PCs which have been infected with a virus or worm allowing them to be used as a spam relay.

Clearly the spam problem is very close to reaching a point where the whole viability of email as an effective communications medium (especially for business) must be questioned.

Of course the more optimistic amongst us would turn this around and say that right now there is a *huge* opportunity for an email replacement that offers the benefits of net-based communications without the burden of spam.

No doubt there are many very clever minds working on capitalising on this opportunity right now -- but I'm wondering why it's taking so long.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

But back to the bad news...

I see that National's IT idiot, Maurice Williamson, has come out and said he believes the "vast majority of New Zealanders" would have no problem accepting a national ID card.

What's more, he's all in favour of such a "smartcard" which, according to Stuff.co.nz, he claims could be used to provide proof of identity when dealing with government agencies and "non-government organisations."

In an attempt to warm the public to such a prospect, clever old Maurice has flattered those who are perhaps a little worried about the effects such a card might have on their privacy by calling them "lunatics" and making references to "an asylum".

Gosh Maurice, you've won me over -- bring on the valium and lithium!

Think yourself lucky however, that Maurice hasn't yet got himself into a position where he could introduce his little piece of plastic. Over in the UK where plans are well underway to do just this, there's a growing groundswell of public disquiet.

The UK card, like the one Maurice Williamson is mooting, has been designed with the supposed goal of simplifying interactions between government and citizens. However, it appears that there are holes in the proposed legislation that would allow the power such a card gave to the government, to be abused.

Once again I must say that it worries me deeply that National continue to back Maurice Williamson, despite his proven incompetence in the role of IT Minister during the last National government.

But cheer-up, at least I can finish on a note of good news today as the NZ Herald reveals what we all knew anyway -- Telecom's JetSurf 10GB plan allows you to download a whole lot more than 10GB at 256Kbps.

Yes, even though they threaten users with a sudden drop in speed if they exceed the monthly cap, the truth is that many people have boldly surfed on to 15, 20 or (according to the Herald) as much as 120GB without any penalty.

Telecom says this shortcoming will be addressed when changes to the billing system are installed in September. In the meantime I guess a lot of people will be busy squeezing everything they can out of Telecom's idea of a broadband connection and for the next couple of months we really will have one of the cheapest broadband rates in the world.

Yes, it's true -- the sun is coming out after all :-)

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