Hmmm. Haven't done a word count update in a while. I had 4500 from April 24 to April 30, for a total of 94,935 from January 1 to April 30. That extrapolates to 284,805 for the year. Not bad, but a bit short of my goal of 300,000 for the year.

Things may pick up quite a bit in the next few months. If all the projects I'm negotiating come through, I'll probably need to up my goal to 1500 words per day. For the time being, it stays at 1000 words per day, targeting 126,000 by the end of May. I made a good start on the month today, with 1950 words. 96,885 for the year so far.

The FTC estimates that two-thirds of spam is partly false. That's actually good news, because it means most spam falls under the umbrella of existing laws on fraud and deceptive advertising. Law enforcement authorities can go after such spammers without the need for new (and questionable) legislation regulating commercial email.

Applied Materials announced that it has acquired Boxer Cross for an undisclosed amount of cash. Boxer Cross makes systems for in-line electrical characterization of junctions and interconnects. The company has recently been embroiled in patent litigation with Thermawave.

Yes, there is still money in technology. Fortune magazine thinks most of the opportunities are in software. More surprising, perhaps, the article barely mentions Microsoft.

(Link by way of TechDirt)