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MIKE WENDLAND: Internet spammer can't take what he dishes out
December 6, 2002
BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
West Bloomfield bulk e-mailer Alan Ralsky, who just may be the world's biggest sender of Internet spam, is getting a taste of his own medicine.
Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago (www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend22_20021122.htm), he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new $740,000 home.
It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny.
"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."
That they are. Gleefully. Almost 300 anti-Ralsky posts were made on the Slashdot.org Web site, where the plan was hatched after spam haters posted his address, even an aerial view of his neighborhood.
"Several tons of snail mail spam every day might just annoy him as much as his spam annoys me," wrote one of the anti-spammers.
Ralsky is indeed annoyed. He says he's asked Bloomfield Hills attorney Robert Harrison to sue the anti-spammers.
Apple is doing something right
I don't know whether it's because of the multimillion-dollar "I switched" ad campaign or their sleek and elegant new iMacs, iBooks and G4 desktops, but Apple Computer sure has one heck of a buzz factor going.
Last Friday night, 200 people stood in line just to get in to the Apple store at the Somerset Collection in Troy. People were talking in line about how hot the new products were, exchanging Apple Web sites and gushing about the machines running Apple's hot new Jaguar OS X operating system.
One buyer I spoke to bought herself a new iBook and said she talked to three switchers, PC users who were buying their first Macs.
The 6 p.m. lineup in Troy was repeated at the Apple Store in Novi's Twelve Oaks Mall and many other Apple stores around the country. It was brought about by a promotion that offered a chance to win a new 17-inch flat screen monitor and shop until midnight.
Those Friday-after-Thanksgiving crowds aren't a fluke. At 9 a.m. every Saturday, the Troy store sponsors a free "Getting started on a Mac" seminar. It's so popular you need a reservation.
Tracking a package to Santa
South Haven photojournalist David McCreery uses Federal Express a lot and is fascinated with the tracking feature on the FedEx Web site (www.federalexpress.com) that lets you watch as your package makes its way to its destination.
"I send FedEx packages every few weeks," he says. "Once, I sent a package to Bowling Green and watched it leave Michigan via Flint for Memphis, come back to Flint and then drive to Ohio."
So, this being the holiday season, he decided to FedEx a letter to Santa, wondering: "How far would a package to the North Pole go? How would it get there? Where would it end up? Who would sign for it?"
You can follow the progress of his letter on his personal Web site (www.davidm.net), where he posted his letter and the FedEx tracking number.
Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or [email protected].
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