I was flipping through the pages of ‘The Kuwait Times’ sometime back, and my gaze fell upon something spooky&interesting. It was a report about a Chinese man, dropping dead in a cybercafe on continuously gaming for 3 days flat! I don’t know about you, but the idea of a grown man staring at his monitor, dazed and hypnotized is a tad weird, eh?

Well the story continues and the paramedics arrive, failing to revive the gamer, declare him dead right on the spot. They assume for now, it might have been due to shear exhaustion that resulted in this man meeting with an untimely death.

What could have driven him to go on for days playing a game you may ask? Well, its just a new type of addiction that has come along in this era “Internet addiction” (before you give me a smirk or decide to skip reading the rest of this post..hold on buddy) Internet/Gaming Addiction is real.

• A survey of Web users found that 52 percent would be willing to give up coffee rather than Internet access.(I know, I agree with you..coffee isn’t as enticing as the Internet , I will be among the 52% but read on)

• 20% of the people going on-line will experience clear negative impacts to their life.

• Use of the Internet is a contributing factor in nearly 50% of all family, work and relationship problems.

• 11% of the people going on-line are becoming compulsive or addicted.

These are just a few facts that have been enumerated here, regarding the effects of excessive internet use. Take a short test :: IAQ to find out if you are among the growing number of addicts. I know I am one What was your score?

* Goes back to playing frozen bubbles — If my next post doesn’t come out soon, you better call the cops! *

Spam Spam Spam and more Spam (Nooo not the kind American food companies sell you in cans, the more persistent lot that flood your inbox and pop up at the most unexpected places) <sigh> We all have had our share of it, theres plenty to go around and comes in various disguises.

I remember the first time I got one (in middle school) all wide eyed and jittery, I read through every line that was meant for my eyes only I know I know, now before you start smirking or leaving mean comments, lets walk down memory lane, acknowledge the effect spam has had on our lives and take a look at its humble beginnings.

Starting out as a commercial message ( 3 May 1978 ) sent out by ‘Gary Thuerk’ to the 393 unsuspecting users of Arpanet, it has made its way to e-mail spam(80-90%), instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions. But the reign of father of spam came to a screeching halt after he faced the music for his naughty behavior.

Spam was under the limelight yet again in 1994, when Arizona lawyers Laurence A Canter and Martha S Siegel posted a commercial spam to 6000 Usenet discussion groups advertising their services as immigration lawyers. The two lawyers went on to write books about how to spam, helping others start spamming too. (And if your curious as to what happened to that lovely couple, go here)

Enough history, now in this day and age any good spammer would know its best to hide your identity (rather than writing books on them) leading them to take refuge in large “botnets” and having found ways to fight the countermeasures taken by the ISPs to make it into yummy inboxes.

According to a recent study the cost of fighting spam is estimated to be $140 billion globally this year alone! I guess its safe for me and fellow netizens to assume spamarama is here to stay (unlike Billy) so on second thought Happy 30th Birthday too!