By Graham K. Rogers

There are some who just do not know when to move on. For the last couple of years, I have been sent emails, sometimes on a daily basis, from an Australian who will not stop, despite being asked: "Serial pest" he writes - like a toothless old dog gnawing at a meatless bone - as if his old age allows him to behave as only he sees fit.

He is Gary Duncan. He apparently lives near Melbourne. Feel free to write to him as often as he does me. The email is gary@gmduncan.com. Please, share your opinions with him as he insists he can with me.

Apart from sometimes-daily attempts to belittle me or highlight errors I may have made, my site is also criticised. I suggest he is on shaky ground here as his own website - gmduncan dot com - complete with waving flag, cuddly animals and synchronised walking dinosaurs, could be - with its mix of colours and broken links - a lesson (of sorts) to many. Perhaps at my age I still have this to look forward to. It purports to have been last updated in 2008. Here is a partial screenshot in case it magically disappears:

I try not to look at this for too long; nor do I look for long at the incessant emails: just long enough to make the blue "unread" dot go away usually, although there are on occasion some insensitive gems that must be worth sharing with the wider community.

I think he is funnier than he realises, in a warped sense of the word: by way of an academic case-study. I have a collection of his thoughts that I will share selectively. But why not start with the present, as today we had two examples that may be a guide to the full life that is being led down there.

To show that I am not editing the words, I am using screenshots of these unsolicited emails. In that way the erratic spellings and grammar - another area for which I am criticised - are also quite apparent. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones:

This first example comes from a brief comment and a link I provided on Microsoft honesty in advertising:

How can one be ethically blind by birth defect? . . .

This second example today arrived about an hour later commenting on a rail trip I made to Ban Laem a few days ago. As ever, there is an unasked for suggestion on changes he thinks should be made:

As to helping with a companion, this follows a theme he has invented himself.

Please feel free to write to him as often as he does me at gary@gmduncan.com. I will be sharing selectively some more of these emails as the opportunity arises: being past retirement age does not allow carte blanche or freedom from responsibility.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.