October 2007

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This day last year I said this: "Today has been one of those days when you remember winter. It isn't all that cold out, but it's too cold to wear summer clothes without adding something."

This day this year it's entirely too hot to wear anything other than summer clothes. It's definitely a summer day. I've been inside enjoying the pleasures of air conditioning while I worked, and am planning to do more of the same on the other hot days this week.

In other news, I'm not sure if I mentioned here last year that I had asked for more information from a company that advertised for Internet researchers. I got the info, and the first thing I saw convinced me I probably didn't want to work for them...they charged (at the time) $17,000.00 (yes, seventeen thousand dollars) for training and for some proprietary software. If I'd had that amount of money to throw at them, well, I wouldn't have been looking for work!

Anyway, I stayed on their mailing list after requesting information, and that paid off, at least personally, in that it affirmed my decision to skip working with them every time I learned a little more about how they work. Today's missive definitely told me plenty, because they clarified what they meant by the term, "research."

It seems that what they really mean is researchers gather all the public information they can find (name, phone number, e-mail, and job title), then sell it to companies trying to beef up their lists of people to spam. They even include ways to track the spam to see what gets opened.

It's supposed to sound high-class. I guess if I'd spent $17,000.00 to do it, I'd want to think it really was.