More and more intrusive direct marketing ideas involving email and tele-marketing are being developed, allowing those who use them to spend a maximum amount of time actually bothering people, instead of waiting around for people who could not be bothered. The techniques - and means to fight them, are discussed in the November issue of Wired.
I guess it is not really surprising, but one of the techniques is automated dialing so that tele-marketers do not spend time reaching people who aren't at home, but rather talk all day to potential customers. The upshot of this is that you actually have to wait for a an annoying telemarketer to become available once you answer the phone.