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I also invite readers to review the postings made to the discussion forums this weekend as well.

But now back to the coalface...

Damn it -- one of the most relevant bits of news on the wires this morning is also linked to politics. Yes, Maurice Williamson, the National Government's IT Minister wants to make a "comeback". Perhaps someone ought to tell Maurice that to come back, first you must have already been somewhere.

Yes, it's true that he once wore the title of IT Minister, but if you think the current Minister has his deficiencies, please cast your mind back to Maurice's performance.

I recall that when Scott Mathias and myself interviewed Maurice on the weekly streaming video program NZ Net-News -- way back in the days when the Net was really beginning to explode -- he had no answers to any of our questions.

His main response was to say that because most of the other MPs in parliament lacked his degree of computer literacy, things could not be changed.

While the industry was crying out to government to try and get ensure that broadband was more readily available, Maurice just lamented the fact that even he didn't have broadband -- despite the fact that a fibre-optic cable ran past his gate.

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You'll probably also recall that Maurice was touted as Parliament's "whiz-kid", an MP who actually did his own web-pages (gasp!).

However, Maurice's performance can perhaps best be summed up by the fact that he won "Lemon of the Year" in the 1998 Aardvark Awards.

Don't let your possible disenchantment with the current government's tardy approach to such things as unbundling the local loop allow you to forget that Maurice's performance was actually far worse than Swain's. He repeatedly backed away from any move that involved calling Telecom to account for their monopolistic practices -- such as the introduction of the local internet-call dialing prefix. Remember also that it was while Williamson was minister that the Government decided to sell ad-space on government websites

Yahoo and Spam
Another interesting and topical story is the move by Yahoo to try and deal a stingy smack on the leg to spam by making changes to the way its mailservers work.

This is somewhat along the line of tactics I suggested in a column wherein the existing protocols are replaced -- or in this case, slightly modified by the addition of an authentication key.

It's good to see that a player as large as Yahoo are promoting this idea, since that gives it a much better chance of becoming widely adopted.

In the meantime, I notice that my mail-providers filters are filling my spam folder at an ever-increasing rate as Christmas draws near.

Hmmm.. come to think of it, perhaps I've given Swain too much credit today -- after all, he's the guy who, not so long ago, said the government couldn't pass anti-spam laws because the problem was "too hard."

Perhaps Maurice Williamson would like to submit his perspective on the problem of spam and how to deal with it from a political perspective. I'm sure Aardvark's readers would all like to hear what he has to say. Who knows, maybe his time out in the cold has changed him into a dynamo of enthusiasm and action who really can sort out the woes facing the IT community.

If any Aardvark readers want to share an opinion on today's column or add something, you're invited to chip in and have your say in The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer, you can contact me directly.

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