Re: DCSB: The Internet Consumer -- 1996 in Review & Predictionsfor 1997

[Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>]

At 3:40 am -0500 1/15/97, Toto emetted onto the livingroom carpet:

>  As in "Make $$$Money$$$ fast?
>  Does putting on a suit and writing 'executive-oriented' postings in a
>pompous, pretentious manner raise this type of posting above the level
>of ordinary UCE/Spam?
>  I don't think so.
>
>  Does moderation mean that UCE postings that promise 'champagne and
>caviar' are acceptable, while 'crackers and cheese' post-conference
>promises are 'spam'?
>  Will 'Subject: Consumer Platform / Make $$$Money Fast' be an
>'acceptable' heading, whereas 'Subject: Make $$$Money Fast / Consumer
>Platform' is 'not acceptable'?

I fished this out of my killfile. Ironically, I had just plonked Toto
yesterday because I saw no compelling merit in anything he has posted to
cypherpunks since he got here, and given the quantity of his posts, he was
starting to waste my attention. However, this morning, as my mail was
coming down in Eudora, I saw that he had replied to this month's DCSB
announcement, and, frankly, I knew that it had to be something like this.

However, I couldn't, heh, let sleeping dogs lie...

When I sent the posting in question to the cryptography groups, I figured
that this month's DCSB meeting would not not be especially on topic, even
for cypherpunks :-). However, there are lots of cypherpunks who come to
DCSB meetings, and I expect that some cypherpunks will come to this one,
too. Suits, champaigne, caviar, and all. ;-). More like suits, iced tea,
and chicken-of-the-month, but, hey, the view's nice, anyway.

By the way, Find/SVP is a well known market research company, and since a
lot of us on cypherpunks sell our stuff on the net, if not directly to
consumers, I figured the topic might be at least tenuously useful to those
here. There's even a (very!) shaky privacy/crypto connection both in the
methods for collecting these kinds of data, and, of course, in the data's
use in building crypto applications and policy. In addition, most companies
pay for this kind of information. David will be presenting it free, almost
immediately after it's collation.

Anyway, I apologize to anyone this has offended. Except, of course, for
certain, um, dogs.

<Now, where's Toto? It looks like he needs a physic... Toto!!! Here, Boy!
Waaalkies!!!!>

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
Moderator,
The Digital Commerce Society of Boston


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox,
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/rah/
FC97: Anguilla, anyone? http://offshore.com.ai/fc97/