Junk Mail: I …

Junk Mail: I have a need to find out who a specific toll-free 800 number belongs to. Is there any kind of directory online that provides this kind of information? Email me with your research tips. The number is 1-800-943-3195. If you call you just get a lame work-from-home sales pitch. I want to find out who is behind it.

As you might have guessed, I am combatting junk mail. I find it ridiculous that it took less than 2 months (I moved in early June) before I started receiving junk mail at my new address. I’m trying to track down who is selling my name and address to the work-from-home marketers. Unfortunately, I suspect that it is the U.S. Post Office, since I recently renewed my U.S. Passport. I also received my very first jury summons to my new mailing address. I know all these things might be related, I just haven’t found the connection yet.

For kicks and giggles, I am going to mail the marketing weenie company (I’m pretty sure it is a clueless Herbalife rep) an invoice for the time it took me to retrieve the mail from my mailbox, carry it up to my apartment, open it, read it, and call the number advertised. I figure it’s at least a half hour of time. For freelance work I currently bill between $100 and $150/hour and since I invoice in a minimum of half-hour increments, my minimum invoice to them will be $75. I don’t expect a response from them, but I certainly would like to see how they respond.

  SAMPLE INVOICE:
  Transportation of documents to residence................03 minutes
  Opening of documents....................................02 minutes
  Reading and Analysis of documents.......................15 minutes
  Calling number in documents, as instructed..............10 minutes
                                                Total.....30 minutes

An independent computer consultant in Texas wants to bill the court $100 an hour for his jury duty service. The problem here is that as an American citizen, he is required by law to serve jury duty. There are exceptions and most courts are pretty good about letting you postpone your service. I am scheduled for September 5. I called and postponed it because I will be halfway around the world on that day.

The USPS has its own division called Netpost Mailing that sells and rents its database of names/addresses to direct marketers. I have registered a formal complaint with them. It will be interesting to see how they respond.

Postal Spam: A reader sent in a link to this old Salon article about the USPS and junk mail.

Godzilla v. DaveZilla: I’ve been watching the DaveZilla vs. Godzilla case. Interesting, because it’s so completely wrong. The lawyers for Godzilla say that Dave is infringing upon the lizard-like image. But they are so wrong, because Godzilla is not lizard-like. He is a derivative of a gorilla. This story (even though it is labeled as humor) says the initial name for Godzilla was God-rilla, but since it was hard to say in Japanese, it was modified. Also check out this paragraph from a 1998 article in Time Magazine:

And while the snub-nosed, micro-eared Godzilla of the ’60s and ’70s had a vaguely mammalian mien–appropriate for a creature whose Japanese name, Gojira, is an amalgam of kujira (whale) and gorira (gorilla)–the fin-de-siecle Godzilla has a crocodilian brow, iguana affectations, a T. Rex crouch and a noble if dragonish chin instead of an avuncular Adam’s apple. As for the radioactive breath, well, it was hard for Tatopoulos to justify, so don’t expect it. No lizard does that in nature, he argues. “We were creating an animal. We weren’t creating a monster.”

Review of Danger’s new PDA-thingamabob-dealy. Hmmm….

Screenshots for the new MSN 8. Interesting how the icons are large and picturesque, in many ways similar to the icon style Apple pioneered with Mac OS X.

Die Spammers Die! Can weblogs reach Ronald Scelson?

Posted by Cameron Barrett at August 14, 2002 05:09 PM

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