Pilot's Log

Got a piece of junk e-mail tonight with some nebulous claims about some personage named Mack Michaels and the prospect of getting work or making money through his methods.

When I get something like this, it usually helps to check out at least the underlying facts.

The only facts that I could see from a cursory search, are that this Michaels character exploits the diverse structure of the Internet so as to stuff the ballot box of public opinion and inflate his reputation. Which, on the surface, isn't fraud--but just the same, is a Red Flag the size of the Empire State Building.

The "drawback about the internet" here is that anybody willing to make the effort, writing up boilerplate press releases and "fact sheets" and posting them every which way on the web, can do this. A nobody can pretend to respectability and at first glance, fool the world. But there might not be a cowboy under that hat.

As for me, honesty is the best policy. Painful as it is.