BBC Technology show Click demonstrates how a botnet is used to innundate our mailboxes with spam.

Finally! Verizon – after years of being the single largest source of spam from zombified Windows PC’s on the Internet – is finally going to take steps to eliminate this huge source of spam emails affecting everyone on the planet with a mailbox.

According to a new report from PandaLabs, less than 10% of all e-mail delivered in 2008 was legitimate. If that number seems low to you, go hug your mail administrator. Most Internet users do not really understand how e-mail works behind the scenes. Many people I deal with don’t fully grasp how difficult it is to walk the fine line between protecting e-mail users from unwanted mail while at the same time making sure legitimate messages arrive in their inboxes.

John McCain thinks George W. Bush did the right thing in invading Iraq and lifting the executive order on offshore drilling put in place by Bush’s clearly smarter father. As a result, when I’m not surprised the GOP’s favorite “Maverick” is willing to buck common sense on the issue of spamming. And his generous nature has kicked in and made it possible to open up spamming to all his supporters.

I wish I could articulate better why this whole idea disturbs me. I feel like the Internet has always been a kind of funky global neighborhood where a fetish shop might be ‘next door’ to an evangelical church. This kind of parceling off of the common Internet namespace feels like that neighborhood is at risk of being put in the shadow of huge custom condos that will block out the sun.