EdShop--Spammers in the Detroit News

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

Dear Detroit News:

I'm on an email mailing list, and we were recently disturbed to get hit
with a spam advertisement, because we thought that we had taken every
precaution to prevent it. This is a particularly pernicious invasion of our
privacy because it's going to a free, subscription-only email list, not a
usenet group.

I traced back the url in the spam and it led to a story in the Detroit News
about Global Dynamics International Inc., which is apparently the company
that sent the spam, or its affiliate. (If you go to the EdShop web page
there's a link at the bottom to Global Dynamics, and then to the Detroit
News.)

As you know, virtually everybody who uses the Internet (except the spammers
themselves) hates spam. It's usually hard to locate them, but here you have
one in your own back yard.

The New York Times recently did a story about spam, in which their reporter
Michelle Slatalla actually tracked a spammer down and interviewed him. So
it's a good story--if you can find the spammer. And I've just done that for
you.

Why don't you call Bhushan Kulkarni, the CEO, and ask him where he gets the
nerve to send unsolicted, unwanted spam to email lists? He clearly knows
what he's doing, because he concealed the headers to indicate his origin. I
know lots of people, including myself, who would tell you how pissed off we
are, for publication (although not all of our remarks would be printable).
And why don't you call his ISP and ask them why they allow this company to
send spam like that?

BTW, if you do anything with it, please send me an email about it, since I
don't read the Detroit News (not since I was working at the Society of
Automotive Engineers years ago, when as I recall you had pretty good
coverage of auto safety).

P.S. I see by my web search that the author of the article, Jenny King, is
an adjunct member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State, and actually
has a web site at
http://www.comm.wayne.edu/staff/wright/autohistory/pix00.html. So she
should understand what's going on. Maybe she'll want to look into this
herself.

Here's the spam:

Received: from ccat.sas.upenn.edu (CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU [130.91.74.102]) by
escape.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id BAA04374 for ;
Fri, 19 Nov 1999 01:45:42 -0500 (EST)
Received: from host (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by ccat.sas.upenn.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id BAA18202;
	Fri, 19 Nov 1999 01:47:58 -0500 (EST)
Received: from ic.net (ic.net [152.160.8.96])
	by ccat.sas.upenn.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id BAA18156
	for ; Fri, 19 Nov 1999 01:47:44 -0500 (EST)
Received: (qmail 29548 invoked from network); 13 Nov 1999 03:30:46 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO edshop.com) (152.160.42.1)
 by unknown with SMTP; 13 Nov 1999 03:30:46 -0000
Message-Id: <382D7D43.36257C7F@xxxxxxxx>

Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 10:01:38 -0500
Reply-To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Sender: owner-xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Precedence: bulk
From: edshop 
To: edshop@xxxxxxxx
Subject: EdShop
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; I)
X-Accept-Language: en
X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN
X-UIDL: e712bd64d28f7f0dc0cb07fc9410892c

**NOTICE** EdShop.com makes every attempt to make sure that a message is
not sent as unsolicited email. If you have not requested to receive this
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****************************************************************************
****************

EdShop Newsletter
****************************************************************************
****************

EdShop Newsletter helps IT professionals and organizations stay up to
date on the latest in IT training material. http://www.EdShop.com

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A complete list of training materials can be viewed at
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If you have any questions please contact us at: edshop@xxxxxxxx

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any inconvenience this may have caused.



And here's the Detroit News story
http://www.detnews.com/1999/careers/9907/27/07250002.htm that you get
when you follow Edshop's links.


 Saturday, July 24, 1999

A Job is Waiting: Information firm develops employee mentoring program
System helps improve morale, keeps turnover low


[photo]

John Galloway

Bhushan Kulkarni, right, president and CEO of Global Dynamics International
Inc., said, "Our turnover rate here is about 2 percent. That compares with
industry figures of as high as 50 percent." Raj Ganesh, left, heads the
company's human resources department.

By Jenny King

  ANN ARBOR -- Computer software programing, program analysis and project
management positions demand persons with specialized backgrounds,
problem-solving skills and some comfort with the present and future of
electronic communications.
  The problem in the industry, however, has been greater than simply
finding enough people with training and aptitude -- although that is a
growing challenge. It is holding onto them once they are on board as
employees.
  Global Dynamics International Inc., an Ann Arbor information technology
firm specializing in consulting, training and systems services for business
and government agencies, has taken the time to develop an employee
mentoring program that is proving itself with high morale and low staff
turnover.
  GDI, like its competitors, is actively searching for experienced
computer programers, program analysts and project managers. In addition, it
is working with its 150 employees to help each develop and realize a career
path within this growing company.
  "Our turnover rate here is about 2 percent," said Bhushan Kulkarni,
president and CEO. "That compares with industry figures of as high as 50
percent turnover.
  "We give our employees a chance to take their careers to any heights
through programs like our entrepreneurial encouragement, business
expansion, career enhancement opportunities and productivity bonuses."
  GDI's entrepreneurial encouragement already has yielded e-commerce,
training and medical emergency room programs. Staff members who developed
them are sharing in the profits.
  Raj Ganesh heads the company's human resources department (HRD). Late
last year Ganesh launched the HRD mentoring program. It places carefully
selected employees in leader-teacher positions with responsibility for the
individual development of 10-15 colleagues.
  "This mentor does career tracking, is familiar with the employee's
current project life cycle and helps the employee make the best use of all
of that person's skills," said Ganesh, who sees the company doubling in
size in the next six months.
  Frequent and thorough reviews, including salary updates, help prevent
disappointment and build employee loyalty and confidence, he said. Mentors
communicate by e-mail and telephone with their charges.
  Mentoring also plays a major role at Distributed Computing Consultants
Inc. (DCCI). The White Lake-based company, which is looking for Java
architects, UNIX and e-commerce professionals, has incorporated mentoring,
plus staff meetings with good food as a centerpiece, into its own business
plan.
  "Even our CEO has a mentor," said Miche Suboski, DCCI business manager
and CFO.
  This year DCCI is budgeting $4,000 in training for each technical
person on its 21-member staff. "We want to keep people happy and growing at
their own pace," said Suboski.
  "A year ago we sat down and developed a set of core values," she said.
"They include elements of integrity, openness, professionalism, care or
concern, forthright communication and added value.
  "We hold them up when we look at our performance with customers and the
performance of individual employees," Suboski said. "At DCCI, we are a
community of people on a journey together."
  Both DCCI and GDI tend to assign technical staff to work at a client's
site where they evaluate needs, suggest changes and updates and work
side-by-side with client employees until they are proficient with new
software and systems.
  "We go in and build a team with employees from different departments,"
said Kulkarni.
  "Often it's not an issue of where data is stored," said Suboski. "The
issue is how different groups within a company interact."
  Some client companies have better internal communications than others,
she said.
  Because of their need to find people who can share company goals with
colleagues, both computer consulting firms are looking for seasoned IT
professionals and less-experienced persons with the right training who are
willing to be shaped.
 
  Job information
  * Programers, program analysts and project managers interested in
opportunities with Global Dynamics International should e-mail Raj Ganesh,
vice-president of human resources development, at rajganesh@xxxxxxxx or
call him at (800) 608-7682, ext. 28.
  The company's Web site is www.gdii.com.
  * Distributed Computing Consultants can be contacted about UNIX, Java,
e-commerce and data management practice openings at (800) 651-1077 or (810)
598-5987. Its Web site is www.distcom.com.
 
 

Update

  Dave Eschner, president of Wally Kosorski and Co. Inc. in Clinton
Township, got only one faxed resume from a carpenter last week.
  It was a different story at the Detroit Carpenters Apprenticeship
School in Ferndale.
  "We normally have 15 to 20 show up on any given Wednesday to ask about
enrolling," said Ron Conrad, director of the school. "This past week it was
more like 100.
  "Many of them asked, 'What do I have to do to qualify,' and I told
them, read the (July 18) story -- it's all there."
  Conrad said he was very pleased with the response but admitted his
staff was glad to go home last Monday evening after a day of answering
telephone inquiries.
  The school interviews prospective students between 9 a.m. and noon
every Wednesday.
 
  Jenny King is a Metro Detroit free-lance writer.
 
 Copyright 1999, The Detroit News

  Comments?  



-------------------------------------------------------
Norman Bauman
411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
New York, NY 10019
(212) 977-3223
http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
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