[thelist] Data Mining - Tools, Techniques ?

[Aleem]

Thanks for all the information on the legal issues behind data mining
practices. I have been using a Java tool WebSQL
(http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~websql/) which seems to get the job done,
but I'm certain there's has to be something better. Please recommend
software to spider and extract data and organize it into DBs (or
flat-files). I would also appreciate some tried and true techniques or
links related to this issue.

Thanks,
-aleem