] In Microsoft's research and development labs, Smith has
] spent the past several years slicing and dicing data
] about messages and message authors in an ambitious effort
] to help people make sense of the newsgroup manifold--the
] hordes of know-it-alls, flame warriors, spammers and
] neophytes who, by Smith's estimate, last year numbered
] more than 100 million in the Usenet network of e-mail
] threads, or newsgroups.