Milestones in the Annals of Junkmail
Web pages are a great source of postal
addresses for direct mailers. Judging by some of the
addresses we’ve seen recently, it’s evident that the data is
harvested not by humans, but by computer programs that scan web
pages for names and addresses. Several weeks ago we (the
Project at
announced a new release of our Kermit 95
communication software for Windows — SSH, secure FTP, etc; cousin
of C-Kermit
for Unix (search Freshmeat). Since this was a major release, we
chose a new icon for it: the Columbia
crown. A web page
explained that this is the emblem of Columbia University: the
crown of King George the II of England (1727-1760), who founded
Columbia in 1754. JUST ONE WEEK LATER guess who received a
postcard from Dell.
