The BBC has an interesting article on the types of profit that spammers can see in the field.

I often get asked how spammers can make a profit when so many spam emails are obvious scams. The answer comes from the fact that spammers can send out millions of emails with little cost, meaning that even an incredibly small number of people responding can mean they make money.

In fact, the article states that the bad guys are “turning a profit despite only getting one response for every 12.5m e-mails they send.”

It seems like every month there’s a news story about someone getting in trouble because their GPS unit lead them the wrong way. This week, I had a chance to talk with the Fox 8 Morning News crew about updating your automobile GPS with new software and current map data.

I had a chance to talk technology with Robin Swoboda on Thursday’s Fox 8’s “That’s Life …” this week.

We all have seen what can happen when a computer crashes and valuable work is lost. Many people swear a few curses towards their PCs, but then resolve themselves to the idea that this is just “one of those things” you have to accept when it comes to dealing with computers.

What if, however, those computers are touch screen voting machines and that lost data are votes in a national election?

This is a question that faces Premier Election Solutions, the company formerly known as Diebold Election Systems, which recently admitted that a programming error in their voting equipment has been responsible for dropping votes in some of the Ohio counties that use the devices.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the company had originally claimed the issue stemmed from an incompatibility between software on the voting machines and anti-virus software installed to protect them. However, in August, the president of the company sent a letter to Ohio’s Secretary of State confirming that the problem is with a programming error that under the wrong conditions can lose votes when the system memory cards have their contents uploaded.

Because the admission comes just a few months before the November election season, it’s unlikely that the programming error can be corrected in time. This has resulted in guidelines being issued jointly by Premier Election Solutions and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to Ohio counties on how to work around the issue in the meantime.

The issues with the touch-screen voting machines raises another issue, though, which is how to handle what is a technical issue using the already understaffed polling station volunteers in Ohio. Equally important is the lack of tech-savvy volunteers willing to man those positions.

This has lead to widespread calls for technically-inclined citizens, especially in Ohio, to reach out to their local Ohio County Board of Elections to help reduce the technology problems that may negatively impact every voter’s right to have their vote count.

This story also serves as a good reminder for all of us to start the discussion in our communities about how much impact technology may play within future elections and how we can help our counties and states overcome those issues.

The 2008 Democratic National Convention has just passed and the Republican National Convention begins this week, which means there will be a fair number of speeches you may have wanted to listen to, but just couldn’t find the time.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, Apple is making most of those speeches freely available for download through iTunes. Selected speeches from the 2008 DNC convention are already up, and the RNC should soon follow.

If you’re a member of the audio book club Audible.com, the Election 2008 links on the main page will take you to the same content.

Engagdet.com is reporting that a line has formed at the 5th Avenue Apple Store for no official reason and has photos of the queue posted to prove it.

While rumors about a 3G iPhone have become rampant across the Internet, it’s likely that this is, as one of the comments posted on Engagdet suggests, a stunt put on by Improve Everywhere.

The New York Times had a Small Business section today with an article entitled You Can Call for I.T. Help Without Hiring a Whole Crew that talks about computer support options for those smaller organizations that can’t hire a full or even part time technical support person.

From the article:

Amy Wright, a collision repair consultant who works from her home in Willoughby Hills, Ohio, had Geek Squad set up her computer and digital camera and the wireless Internet connection in her home office, as well as the Sony video recorder her husband uses. When it came time to upgrade her computers, printers and monitors, she spent about $2,800 at Best Buy.

“You can call them for help, but you don’t have to have them on a full-time basis,” Ms. Wright said of Geek Squad.

It’s definitely a little weird seeing your photo in a major newspaper, but I’m glad I got the chance.