Re: Season's Greetings from UNICRI

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

I have, over the years, reviewed books from different UN (and OECD) offices.  I 
don't go out of my way to find them, because, so far, they have been universally 
bland, basic, minimal, and generally of low utility.  The authors usually seem to 
have more political science than actual science (or technology) backgrounds.  
Sometimes you wonder if these people know how to use computers at all.  Still as a 
matter of completeness, I will review them when I find them.

Probably as a result of reviewing one such, I've been added to a mailing list for 
UNICRI, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.  
I've received occasional postings, although nothing of any particular interest.  So 
far the postings have been few enough that I haven't bothered to find out what 
mailing list I've been put on, or how to get off it.

Until this week.  A couple of days ago, somebody sent out "Season's Greetings  
from UNICRI."  Well, lots of the members of the list seemed to think that was a 
fine idea.

I'm not saying that all members of UNICRI are totally ignorant about how email 
works.  I'm just saying that a) some bright spark at UNICRI thought it would be a 
good idea for every member of the list to have the ability to post, without 
moderation, b) some bright spark at UNICRI thought it would be a good idea to set 
up a mailing list without an identifying list tag in the subject line, c) lots of people 
don't know the difference between replying to the list, or replying to sender, and 
d) lots of people are doing a "reply all."  The resulting flurry of greetings, plus the 
angry demands that a) people stop replying all, and b) undefined "you"s have no 
right to send out spam and should stop it, have created a mailstorm the likes of 
which I've not seen in some years.

With a clientele primarily in the law enforcement and legal fields, many of the 
messages are, of course, accompanied by the usual useless disclaimers such as:
> "This e-mail and any attachments thereto may contain information which is
> confidential and/or protected by intellectual property rights and are intended
> for the sole use of the recipient(s) named above. Any use of the information
> contained herein (including, but not limited to, total or partial reproduction,
> communication or distribution in any form) by persons other than the designated
> recipient(s) is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please
> notify the sender either by telephone or by e-mail and delete the material from
> any computer. Thank you for your cooperation."

Two lists seem to be mentioned in most messages, unicri () unicri it and f3-
contacts () unicri it.  I don't know which I'm on, but, from the fact that I get two 
or three copies of every message, I suspect I'm on both.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

====================== 
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
"If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on."     - Richards' 2nd Law
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