Internet Items
Spam 10 Years Old - On 12 April 1994, a pair of US attorneys launched a homemade marketing software program that forever changed the Internet. Hoping to drum up some business, the attorneys (a husband and wife team who subsequently divorced) flooded online message boards with an advertisement pitching the legal services of their legal firm. One of the thousands of outraged responses to the original message was "Send coconuts and cans of spam to Cantor & Co. Be sure to drop the can of spam on its seam first". The name spam stuck, as did the problem of unsolicited messages.
Despite unceasing efforts to rein in junk e-mailers, spam is big business. This business also costs. One estimate has it that the cost of spam is something like US$20 billion per year. That costs comes because of factors like:
- the time it takes people to weed through in-boxes for spam and spam boxes for legitimate email;
- filters notoriously mix up spam and non-spam;
- managing spam cuts into a company's IT budget, sucking up time and money that would have otherwise gone into product development and upgrades; and
- the tight restrictions marketing departments have to observe in order to avoid the dreaded "spammer" label.
Astonishingly, some people actually respond to spam messages, keeping the whole system afloat. Even outrageous (and by now well known) frauds such as the Nigerian e-mail scam have duped some victims. Since spam is so cheap, criminals are more than willing to annoy hundreds of millions of users for the chance of duping one poor sucker.
Complementary and Alternative Medicines Website - www.cam.org.nz - A new website has been set up to provide consumers with evidence-based information about complementary and alternative medicines. Funded by the Ministry of Health, the website is being run by a research unit based in the Department of Public Health and General Practice at the Christchurch School of Medicine. It features easy to read summaries of the international evidence on various treatments and evaluations of the quality of that evidence. Initial topics include the use of Echinacea to treat colds, and spinal manipulation for lower back pain.
Treaty Of Waitangi Website Launched - www.treatyofwaitangi.govt.nz - This website is designed to give easy access to information on the Treaty of Waitangi. It has sections on the Treaty history, different Treaty texts, key people, a Treaty timeline, settlement of Treaty claims, quotations on the Treaty, a resource list including links to relevant sites, and a Frequently Asked Questions section.
Contact for Enquiries
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Pastoral House
25 The Terrace
PO Box 2526, Wellington
Tel: 0800 00 83 33
Fax: +64 4 894 0720
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