The silicon.com Weekly Round-Up: 14.02.03

"I am Mr samuel savimbi of Angola whose father was killed on the 22nd of February 2002. I got your contact through 'The world business journal' when I was desperately looking for a thrust worthy person to assist me in this confidential business. My late father, Jonas sabimbi deposited large amounts of money in different banks in Europe..."

It's OK, the Round-Up's not been hi-jacked by Nigerian 419 scammers. But we did receive this fine example of their oeuvre this week. We liked it, largely because we're flattered by anyone thinking we could possibly be listed in such an esteemed tome as the World Business Journal. But to be described as 'thrust worthy'... Well really, you're making us blush...

There must still be people falling for the false promises of untold fortune in emails such as this, and you'd think that, given the amount of spam we all receive these days, the gullible are falling for the lies they contain as well. But apparently not. And the spammers don't care.

Wired did some research into the subject recently by replying to several dozen unsolicited emails to see what would happen. The results were really rather interesting.

It turns out that most spammers make money selling email addresses to other spammers who then sell those same addresses to other spammers. As the article says: "It's like the legendary snake eating its own tail."

The test proved that in most cases, replying to spam simply results in more spam. Fifty-six per cent of the spammers in the test never replied to requests for more information on their product or service. Instead, the customer's email address was forwarded to other spammers, around half of whom also failed to reply to requests for more info and resold the lists to yet more spammers.

But perhaps more surprisingly, 17 per cent of the replies to requests for more information actually turned out to be offering genuine products and services. But most of the people who sent those replies weren't aware that the recipient hadn't requested their lovely email. Whoever had sold them the data had told them the lists were kosher.

So next time you feel the urge to reply to some spam saying 'get me off your list you !£$%*?', don't. All you're doing is verifying your email address to the unscrupulous or possibly upsetting some innocent soul who thought you actually did want to save pounds on your mortgage/buy natural Viagra (or whatever).

You may remember our story from a couple of weeks ago about Desktop Arsene, a downloadable Arsene Wenger avatar who can sit on your desktop all day offering fascinating insights into Arsenal FC. He followed a year or so after cricket fans were able to enjoy the company of desktop Richie, a virtual version of Aussie commentator Richie Benaud.

Well, Skinkers Communications has added to its armoury by releasing Desktop Ozzie into the wild, a cartoon version of the already pretty cartoonish Ozzie Osbourne, the legendary Brummie hard rocker and star of MTV's fly-on-the-wall series. Skinkers' sales pitch is fairly simple. Its press release reads: "Fans simply download the animated character to receive the latest gossip, swearing and video news from the Osbournes."

Who said TV was dumbing down? It's teaching us to swear more creatively, for !%£$'s sake.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is moving house. Why? Because he's in the middle of a wireless dead spot. As Woz himself said, "[The house] is in weird little nook. There's no GSM coverage. I need it, so I'm moving."

Fair enough. After all, the man is now a wireless entrepreneur (which doesn't mean most entrepreneurs come with wires, of course). But what a house he's leaving behind. It has a plethora of passageways, secret doors, peep holes and fire poles.

It also contains (yes, contains) a miniature castle, and has a cave in the garden not far from the volcano (presumably not real).

He told Wired (yes, them again): "It's great for kids."

Are you sure you're not just a big kid yourself Woz? The estate agent's blurb on his happy homestead would make interesting reading.

If you were wondering what the great man's up to these days, you may like to know that he's founder and CEO of a company called Wheels of Zeus (see what he's done there, acrostic lovers?), a wireless gadget start-up which promises to "help everyday people find everyday things". Ah yes, but can it help us find all the gadgets we keep losing?

On Tuesday, we covered a story about one company claiming that London's congestion charge/car tax (depending on your point of view) had led to a rise in demand for audio conferencing technology. Given that this research nugget came from an audio conferencing technology supplier, you could forgive us for taking this with a pinch of salt.

So we asked you what you think. While no one could substantiate the original claims, we did receive some interesting feedback. And ever the democracy, here are three of the best...

From Andrew Mills, managing director, IronicThought ltd "I totally think this [research] is nothing more than opportunistic publicity. It is extremely doubtful that any company would go to the expense of arranging a video conference to avoid paying the congestion charge or transport woes. I totally believe that demand has increased in 2002 compared to 2001. However this would be down to people's fear of travel post September 11 and companies stopping business travel, etc as they look for ways to cut costs due to the recession. Arranging a video conference with somebody who lives in Surrey to save them the cost of travel into London is hardly an example of cutting costs."

From Mireia Fontbernat, marketing manager EMEA, PlaceWare UK ltd "As a player in the web conferencing industry, we have seen an increased interest - and growth - in [demand] over the past few years indicating a change in attitude from companies and workers.

Many companies have, in the past, overlooked opportunity costs, such as the time spent waiting for a train or in a traffic jam. These alone could easily justify changing working practices. There are many other 'costs' that could also be considered: pollution, stress of employees, quality of life...

Providing the infrastructure while saving costs is part of the process to enhance productivity and quality of life (why spend three hours on the road for a one hour meeting?) but also a change in attitude; particularly regarding our views on "presenteeism": flexible working and teleworking were perceived by some as skiving.

We feel a change in attitude is taking place now - certainly somehow forced (congestion charge or upcoming EU regulations on flexible working) but also, based on our experience, industries and professions reacting differently to these challenges. Teleworking is growing substantially but with substantial variations across the board."

Simon Hobson, technical services engineer, Colony Gift Corporation ltd "Well, speaking as someone who lives and works in a rural part of the North West (my four mile commute has to be REALLY bad to take ten minutes) I find the whole London/South East thing rather amusing. As Crocodile Dundee said of New York: 'It must be the friendliest place on earth if seven million people want to live together.'

It's been known for many, many years that living and working in and around London is a pain, yet companies still insist on having their office/factory/whatever there - it's like sitting in front of a roaring fire and complaining that it's hot.

Perhaps what's needed are policies that encourage 'not needing to commute'. Perhaps tax incentives to encourage people to live closer to the workplace (though once again that would instantly penalise us rural folk for other people's issues).

On the other hand, let's keep things as they are, then us country yokels can enjoy that 'shadenfreuder' feeling as we sit looking out of the office window across green fields and thinking (not for too long!) about all those daft poor southerners with their traffic jams and crowds ;-) We don't want them bringing all that lot up here thank you very much!"

We're always delighted to hear your feedback, so keep your emails coming. The Round-Up will return next Friday. Until then, happy Valentine's Day. But if you're lonely, why not enjoy the company of these headlines...

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