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"A team of computer scientists at two University of California campuses has been looking deeply into the nature of spam, and they think found a 'choke point' [PDF] that could greatly reduce the flow of spam. It turned out that 95 percent of the credit card transactions for the spam-advertised drugs and herbal remedies they bought were handled by just three financial companies — one based in Azerbaijan, one in Denmark and one in Nevis, in the West Indies. If a handful of companies like these refused to authorize online credit card payments to the merchants, 'you'd cut off the money that supports the entire spam enterprise,' said one of the scientists." Frequent Slashdot contributor (and author of a book on Digital Cash) Peter Wayner wonders if "the way to get a business shut down is to send out a couple billion spam messages in its name."

URL-shortening sites are often criticized as an easy way to snare unsuspecting users into clicking malicious links - but a new report says it's not that common

wrote about their dangers in 3 Ways Twitter Security Falls Short), Zscaler's Julien Sobrier found otherwise.

The experiment only looked for malicious sites such as phishing sites, malware, etc., and did not include spam.

The problem with conversations is that they are more important than not reading that great article... Conversations are with people that I work with, that I meet at conferences and events, potential business partners, friends, family, readers, supporters, and more. I want these conversations because I respect these people. But I don't want it to seem that I'm ignoring people or that I'm arrogant in some way, but I have to admit this -- I can't keep up! And I bet many others can't keep up too.

Now they have to do this across a fragmented landscape of social networks and messaging platforms.

I'm hoping that people understand that it's not personal.

Mobile advertising revenue reached $700 million in the U.S. in 2011, according to Gartner research group. That’s a drop in the ocean compared to Internet ad revenue, which hit $7.3 billion in just the first quarter of 2011, according to figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Concerns about privacy, tracking and the disclosure of personal information could limit the number of people opting in to targeted or local ad mobile campaigns, said Jason Koslofsky, an attorney who specializes in consumer privacy and telecommunications at Arent Fox. Businesses have also been hesitant for these same reasons. “It hurts brands if it looks as though they are generating spam,” Koslofsky said, adding,“companies shouldn’t want to be seen as though they are tracking their users’ every move.”

While 9% of adults in the U.S. said they would use their phones to learn about in-store promotions or event, interest in location-based offers was low, according to a report in February by Forrester Research. Only 6% of adults in the U.S. said that they are interested in receiving location-based retail offers on their mobile phones and only 4% are interested in receiving time-sensitive promotions such as daily specials.