On January 20, 2009, I had to have my loyal and loving
companion of 17 years put to sleep. It was an agonizing decision
because we had so much history together, but he had end stage kidney
failure and I did not want him to suffer any further. Peaches has
been cremated, and
I want his ashes commingled with mine after I die.
Making History
This photo was taken on September 13, 2008 before I embarked
on a 170 mile walk from Jackson to Oxford in connection with the
presidential debate taking place on the 26th. The walk was to
take a Stand Against AIDS, and mirrored James Meredith's 1966 Walk
Against Fear from Oxford to Jackson. Meredith led us on our
way to Oxford after speaking at a rally kicking off the
walk.
Here's my new love, Grace. Of course she'll never be able to "replace"
Peaches, but she is filling some of the hole in my heart Peaches left behind.
She is 100% Burmese, Platinum variety, female. She is a wild woman and demands
constant attention. When she is ready to play, she brings her favorite toy and
drops it on my keyboard. "Time to play!" she's saying, and she's quite vocal
about it if I fail to respond in the appropriate manner!
I have been an Internet user since 1992 and active in
the Internet community since 1996. This personal history is documented below. In
addition, I have included some of the web pages I authored, as well as some of
the papers I wrote when I was pursuing an academic career.
Here is a chronology of where I've lived, worked and studied over the past five decades:
CHRONOLOGY:
1958-1959 Starkville, MS
1959-1976 Jackson, MS
1976-1978 Nashville, TN
1978-1979 Leeds, England
1979-1980 Nashville, TN
1980
Philadelphia, PA
1980-1988 New York, NY
1988-1992 Seattle, WA
1992-2002 San Francisco, CA
2002-2004 Jackson, MS
2004-2007 San Mateo,
CA 2007-? Jackson, MS
This page is not meant to be a comprehensive
autobiography, but, rather, an introduction of myself and some of my
interests.
One thread
that has run through my life, both personally and professionally, is activism
devoted to the public interest. If I see something that needs to be done, I do
not wait for someone else to do it. I step up and take the lead in finding
solutions. At Vanderbilt University, when the chair of the drama department
refused to present musicals, deeming them not to be "real theatre" I founded the
Vanderbilt University Musical Theater Troupe and produced its first show, "Hello
Dolly!"
I became a
paralegal in the formative years of that profession. I believed strongly that
paralegals had a unique opportunity to bring about an end to lawyers' monopoly
on the practice of law and in so doing benefit the public interest. In
particular, I felt that paralegals, not the American Bar Association, should
accredit paralegal training programs.
In 1996 when
I was charged with creating the abuse and security department at one of the
earliest ISPs, I saw that spam was a tremendous problem which would grow quickly
if not brought under control. For the next 11 years I was a professional
anti-spam activist. From managing the abuse department of an ISP spanning nine
states, to executive director of the leading provider of education, tools and
resources for fighting spam (an organization recognized as one of ten web sites
that will change the world at the 2000 World Economic Forum), to chief privacy
officer of an email services firm, to knowledge engineer at an email best
practices certification firm, I have seen the spam issue from a variety of
positions.
Who Says You Can't Go Home Again (and
Again)? 2008-present
Me with my two brothers, Robert and Chandler, hearing no
evil, speaking no evil, seeing no evil!
In late 2006 signs of HIV disease began
manifesting itself. My doctors and employers saw some of the signs
suggesting the development of the disease to a more advanced stage, but no
one drew the pieces together to expose a more accurate picture of what was
happening. In late 2007 the disease had developed to where the signs no
longer could be ignored. I had an advanced case of AIDS.
At that point
I had to return to my home town so my family could nurse
me back to health. I am much better now. However, in the process, I became
acutely aware of a huge need for services for those living
with HIV disease in MS. With improving health, my activist streak reasserted itself
and I began seeking ways I could bring about the changes
which were direly needed. I am the founder and co-faciliator of a support group
for those living with HIV/AIDS. I am a member of the Community Advisory Board
of the Medical Monitoring Project. In addition, I am a member of the
Mississippi State Department of Health's HIV Care & Services Council as
well as a certified HIV/STD Prevention
Instructor and Counselor.
I was one of the 25% of those who
were unaware of their HIV status when I was carried off to the emergency room
in the back of an ambulance in December 2007. I intend to do
everything possible to see that others do not face the same fate. In furtherance of
that goal, I have returned to school to begin work on a bachelor's degree in
social work at Jackson State
University, and following that with a dual master's degree in
social work and in public health majoring in HIV/AIDS. The world has not
heard the last of me yet. I intend to die of old age, not AIDS, having
lived a life of public service.
Here I am with my brothers (from left to
right), me, Robert, and Chandler, hearing, speaking and seeing evil as
usual!
Professional Life
Knowledge Engineer, Habeas, Inc.
2005-2007
From 2005 to 2007 I was
the Knowledge Engineer with Habeas,
Inc. located in Mountain View, CA. My primary
responsibilities were to create, develop and manage knowledge-bases, customer-facing
as well as internal knowledge-bases for use by customer service,
technical support and account management staff. I also provided second tier support
to the front- line support staff. In addition, I was the company's
designated subject matter expert on email marketing regulations and best practices, as
well as emerging technologies such as sender authentication protocols. I was
called upon to provide consulting services to our customers in this area. I also was
involved to some extent with most other teams in the company. Some of
my work involved providing support for the sales team, and I played a small
role in the development of Habeas products and
services by working with the marketing
group and the engineering team. I wrote whitepapers and developed and
presented webinars. I also did special research projects for members of the
Habeas executive team.
Director of Deliverability, AcquireWeb Inc.
2004-2005
As AcquireWeb's
Director of Deliverability, I established and maintained key business
and technology relationships with major Internet service providers
and email providers in order to ensure delivery of customers’ email
messages. In addition, I established relationships with spam-filtering
technology providers, anti-spam organizations,
email service provider coalitions and privacy organizations. I also
created and executed processes to facilitate the reliable delivery of
email and developed processes to track, monitor, and analyze delivery
statistics in order to provide customers with key metrics for improving deliverability. I researched and documented best practices centered
around spam-related regulation and legal compliance as well as emerging
messaging standards.
The Prodigal Son Returns Home
2002-2004
Never say never, because you will always be forced to eat your words
eventually. When I graduated from Jim Hill High School in 1976, I left Jackson with
3 primary objectives: Go to interesting places, meet interesting people
and do interesting things. I vowed I would never return to Missississippi
except to visit my family.
What could be more interesting, where could I find more interesting people,
where could I find more interesting things to do than in New York City? So
I took off for one of the biggest cities of them all: New York, New York!
Through a circuitous route over the course of two decades, I ended up in San
Francisco in time to ride the wave of the dot-com boom. When the boom
turned into a bust, I was laid off like tens of thousands of others.
Unable to find work in the Bay Area, and having exhausted my savings and
unemployment benefits, I returned to my home town. While in Mississippi, I
took up a career I had abandoned two decades previously by
working as a paralegal at Forman
Perry Watkins Krutz & Tardy.
In addition to my paralegal work, I operated a small technology consulting practice on the side: In the Nick of Time IT Consulting
Services. I provided information technology consulting, implementation and training
throughout the state of Mississippi.
I also became a Sun Certified System
Administrator for the Solaris 8 Operating Environment. A recent project involved
updating the web
site of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of
Mississippi Medical Center, and my work can be reviewed here.
Chief Privacy Officer, ReturnPath Inc.
2000-2002
As Chief Privacy Officer, I
was responsible for overseeing corporate-wide compliance with policies and
procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of consumer
information, as well as reviewing and updating operations and business
practices to champion the cause of consumer privacy and fair information
practices within the company. I also ensured that Return Path's
privacy policies and practices continued to be fully compliant with all
federal and state regulations pertaining to the protection of users'
personal information.
Executive Director, Mail Abuse Prevention
System LLC
1999-2000
I joined Mail
Abuse Prevention System LLC (MAPS) in February 1999 as its
Executive Director. MAPS is the leading provider of
education, tools and resources for controlling electronic
mail abuse, and was named as one of Ten Web
Sites That Will Change the World (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_621000/621850.stm)
during my tenure. Prior to joining MAPS,
I created and developed the network abuse and
security department at Pacific
Bell Internet Services in late 1996, and then developed
and managed the network abuse department at SBC Internet Services in mid-1997 when the two parent
corporations merged. I also developed and managed
the company's Safety 'Net program, and
have spoken and
written on the topics of electronic commerce, network and
e-mail abuse, privacy, parenting and the Internet, and
consumer fraud and protection on the Internet.
I have previously
held senior management positions at not-for-profit
organizations. From 1990 to 1991 I was chief executive
officer of the committee charged with administrative and
financial oversight of student publications at the University
of Washington,
which included a daily newspaper, the yearbook, and the
annual campus directory. From 1984 to 1987 I was
the president of a not-for-profit
organization representing the professional interests of
paralegals and legal assistants in the New York City metropolitan area.
Regional Policy Manager,
SBC Internet Services
(The Men in Black)
1996-1999
The image to the left is a digital composite from three originals, in
which the same hat and glasses were passed from one of us
to the other. Digital magic courtesy of Mister 3D, Pan
Dimensional Telecom God. Don't miss his hilarious story about his
adventure with the Men in Black and the Mind's Eye Man..
Second most famous ISP abuse team (following
Afterburner and His Evil Minions at RCN). L-R: Jason
Barr (now an attorney in private practice), Nick Nicholas (the original
Network Fascist Bully Boy), and Dennis Dayman (now Director of
Deliverability with StrongMail Systems, Inc.).
Technical Analyst, Pacific Bell Internet Services
1996
For nine months prior to being selected to create the Pacific Bell
Internet Services Policy Department, I worked in the Technical Support
Center. Due to the high stress that comes with such work,
technical support personnel typically burn out after eight months.
Listen to this recording of a Customer From Hell and you'll understand what technical support staff must deal with on a daily basis.
News
Clips
Following eleven years as an anti-spam activist,
I became an HIV/AIDS activist when my health improved. Already I've
begun making a public impact as demonstrated in this clip from the local
news station in
Greenwood, MS during the walk from Jackson to Oxford:
Links to my press mentions are below. I even have a hate page devoted to MAPS
which features a doctored photo of me: http://www.dotcomeon.com.
This site is not to be missed. I never knew I was part of an
international
conspiracy! Unfortunately, some of the links below are either no
longer valid or have been moved to archives which require a fee
for viewing. DMNews graciously allowed
me to reprint two articles in text format.
Conferences where I have spoken are listed below. The FTC conference
was especially fun because the proceedings were broadcast on C-SPAN. I
have now officially had my fifteen minutes of fame and I am relieved that it was
comparatively banal. Another highlight was the time I was on a panel
moderated by Professor Lawrence Lessig, even
though there was one moment during the session when I felt like a hapless
student paralyzed by the glare of Professor Kingsfield from The Paper Chase. This was not
Professor Lessig's intent; I simply did not understand a question he posed to me.
FTC SpamForum http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/spam/agenda.htm
April 30, 2003
Washington, DC
Panel Session: Open Relays/Open Proxies/FormMail Scripts
Moderator: Renard Francois. Panelists: Dr. Bill Hancock, Michael Rathbun, Matt Sergeant, Brad Patton, Adam Brower, Nick Nicholas
CPSR Activists Roundtable
March 4, 2001
Waltham, Massachusetts
Presentation: Latest Developments in Email Marketing "Self" Regulation
Summary report in CPSR PING! 1:4, p. 12. May, 2001.
Drawing the Blinds: Reconstructing Privacy in the Information Age
October 12, 2000
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Panel Session: Constructing Privacy -- From Protocols to Interface
Moderator: Nathan Borenstein. Panelists: Ashok Khosla, David Marvit, Peter Neumann, Nick Nicholas http://www.cpsr.org/publications/newsletters/issues/2000/Fall2000/panel3.html
Spam Summit 2000
May 4-5, 2000
Washington, DC
Panel Session: Using Technology to Solve the Spam Problem
Moderator: Paul Hoffman. Panelists: Eric Allman, Julian Haight, Tim Pozar, Nick Nicholas
Panel Session: Spam Showdown: East Code versus West Code
Moderator: Lawrence Lessig. Panelists: Rick White, Deidre Mulligan, Ray Everett-Church, Jason Catlett, Nick Nicholas
Presentation: RBL Use and Practices
ISP/F IV
November 13, 1999
New Orleans, Louisiana
Tutorial: Abuse Boot Camp
Instructors: John Levine, JD Falk, Nick Nicholas
Spam Roundtable III
November 11, 1999
Santa Barbara, California
Panel Session: Latest Technology Countermeasures in the Ongoing War
Moderator: John Levine. Panelists: Simson Garfinkel, Afterburner, Nick Nicholas
Fall ISPCON 1999
October 26, 1999
San Jose, California
Panel Session: Three Approaches to the Spam Problem
Moderator: Brad Templeton. Panelists: Ray Everett-Church, Tim Pozar, Nick Nicholas
Email Abuse Roundtable 3
October 6, 1999
Falls Church, Virginia
Presentation: MAPS Update
Email Abuse Roundtable 2
March 13, 1999
San Diego, California
Presentation: Recent Developments at MAPS
I have been fascinated with computers since my first encounter with them in 1971.
Mississippi College sponsored a
program which introduced Jackson junior high and high school students
to computer science, and I took full advantage of the opportunities
provided through this program. At the same time, however, I also had a
very strong interest in creative writing which I pursued with equal
zeal.
I managed to merge these interests with my professional life as a
paralegal from 1980 to 1988. I recognized very early that computers
could be extremely effective as a tool for managing the practice of law
more efficiently, and I became one of the earliest evangelists and
practitioners of law office automation. I continued working in law firm
help desks until I became part of the technical support staff at
Pacific Bell Internet Services in 1996.
I now administer a small home network consisting of a Pentium II running Ubuntu which operates as a DNS server, a
Sun Ultra 10 running
Solaris 10 which operates as an email server, a custom-built Intel Quad Core system running Debian Linux which operates as a web server, a custom-built dual processor Pentium III system on which I run OpenSolaris, and a Dell XPS 210 running Windows XP which I use as my general all-purpose system.
I especially enjoy traveling and wilderness camping, and I am also
an avid photographer. Some time in the near future I hope to make my
photography available in online galleries, but these three will have to
do for now. The photo on the top left was taken in
Death Valley National Park, the photo on the bottom left was taken in the
eastern Sierra Mountains, and the photo on the right was taken in Yosemite National
Park.
Here are two additional photos of me at "work" as a photographer:
I am also very interested in personal fitness, and I go to the gym at least
three days per week.
However, nothing is more important to me than my family and friends, so I spend as much time with them as possible.
I also have a weakness for opera (not the browser), and Puccini is my favorite composer. One of my favorite arias is for tenors and comes from Turandot. I've had the good fortune to see all three of the famous touring tenors -- Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras. Of the three, I think Domingo is the best, but I'll let you decide for yourself as each one has a go at Nessun Dorma below. First, here's Placido Domingo:
And here's Luciano Pavarroti:
Then here's Jose Carerras:
Now all three tenors take a shot:
Some folks think Andrea Bocelli is the best tenor around, but I thought his rendition of Nessun Dorma was a bit weak in comparison with the others:
Now listen to this incredible amateur named Paul Potts who won "Britain's Got Talent" in 2007:
Not bad for a cell phone salesman, eh? Potts did a rendition of another favorite of mine, Con Te Partiro:
Now listen to Andrea Bocelli:
Much as I like Potts, there's no arguing that Bocelli does a better job with this piece.
HOT LINKS
Here are links to causes I support or resources for additional information about AIDS:
They say laughter is the best medicine, and Randy Cassingham always can be counted on to provide a good laugh with a little twist. Here's a snippit from Randy's weekly publication, "This Is True," plus information on how you can subscribe. I don't promote anything else on my web site, and I don't get paid anything to promote this. But Randy's stuff is just too good to miss!
This snippit changes daily, so check back often.
For you more visually-oriented folks, Randy produces a weekly video of a story from "This Is True!" Here's a particularly hilarious sample. Be sure to watch all of it because at the end Randy tells you how to get out of hell FREE!
