2) If you go to a hotspot, you can probably spoof your mac address and still be let onto the net (the hotspot vendor won't care, because they are providing the service for "free") and you will probably get a unique IP address (if you don't always go to the same hotspot).
3) If you want to send anonymous emails and postings (such as alt.personals), then you probably should use the appropriate anonymizing services and/or "free email accounts". Note that there are sites that convert emails into postings, so you can email from such free accounts and still post into newsgroups. If you want to be paranoid about that, use such accounts only from hotspots.However, seriously consider your motivations for being hurtful. It's really poor behavior. Are you really proud that you insulted some woman who is now overweight that used to call you Twiggy? Personally, I would find such behavior worse than the people who send me spam. So, yes, you are abusing the system when you use anonymity to do that.
4) Don't worry so much about your privacy at home. "We wouldn't care what others thought about us, if we realized how seldom they do." Your kids probably aren't that interested in your internet habits. Moreover, the stuff which you should be embarrassed about, they probably already know, since most of the important things about us are things we can't hide at all. You just told the world that you were willing to spite someone because they insulted you long ago--I suspect that people who know you already knew that about you.Hope this helps,
-Chris
***************************************************************************** Chris Clark Internet : snipped-for-privacy@world.std.com Compiler Resources, Inc. Web Site :
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