All our text and speech contains idiosyncrasies that identify us, give us away. I've done pattern analysis 'by hand' as it were, but now see there is plenty of good pattern matching software that works online. It can be used in plagiarism ( http://plagiarism.bloomfieldmedia.com/z-wordpress/ see also http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/writing/Examining%20Anti.htm ) and it can be use to track offenders. The interface between offenders and the net has grown into a major interest of mine, as I've hinted before, and I'm hoping to set up a full time academic research project this year. You will be the one of the first to know Michael if my labours are not fruitless!

The hand cranked pattern matching using a grep tool would essentially be boolean searches of saved material for standard phrases, misspellings and so on. I don't want to give any more away if you don't mind.