Mixed Bag Special
¦¦ Spam seems to be getting worse by the day. This morning my work e-mail Inbox had at least two XXX-rated messages waiting for me, along with the daily e-mail from Nigeria asking for money, offers of mortgage and loan assistance, and a note to help me get my Bachelor’s degree from home. In the 9 feb 2003 edition of the New York Times Magazine, James Gleick, author of Chaos, Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, and most recently, What Just Happened, examines the worsening spam epidemic, and what’s being done to (attempt to) deal with it. Mentioned in his article are SpamAssassin, and SpamSieve, two programs that attack spam on your computer.
¦¦ Sometimes you discover a site on the ‘net, and you start singing the line, “I’ve got…too much…time on my hands“. (Not that I admit to having ever been a fan of Styx.) Anyway, here is such a website that put the song in my head: ticketstubs.com. The deal here is that you upload an image of a ticket stub from an event you attended – could be a movie, live theatre, music, standup, what-evah. Together with the pic of the stub, you tell a story surrounding the event. The site is new, so there is but one story from Canada to date. Now that I think of it, this may be a cool idea. Still, the creator must’ve had, well, too much time on his hands…
February 14th, 2003 at 05:34
exactly. spam is just horrible now.
I dont even read the subject lines anymore. I just scan my junk mail folder for names/emails i know, and just empty the entire thing.
February 14th, 2003 at 05:35
this is totally random, but could you tell me what kind of certification one needs to be a librarian? I have a bachelors’ already and im working towards a masters’.
Please let me know.
Thanks.
🙂
February 14th, 2003 at 07:23
Sharon: In North America, one needs the equivalent of a four-year undergraduate degree in any discipline, followed by a Masters degree in library studies. Here are the requirements for the program at my campus, the University of Alberta. So, you thinking of doing this?
February 14th, 2003 at 09:42
thanks for letting me know!
yes. i am interested just so that i will be in the library all the time.
thanks again! 🙂
/geek
February 14th, 2003 at 11:57
Check out http://www.thespamavenger.com
February 14th, 2003 at 15:07
I get no spam. I don’t get it on my ISP account or my hotmail account. I have no filters going, as far as I know. And I don’t have any idea why this is????
February 15th, 2003 at 01:55
I envy you not getting spam. I have two e-mail addresses, one I have had since about 1993, and one I have had since 1999?(when sympatico became telus). One I get 4 spams a day, and the older one gets 30 spams a day (min.). It drives me nuts to get all this crap, I sure hope these idiots are dealt with some how.
February 15th, 2003 at 10:06
I have to post something on a newsgroup, which I haven’t done for 3 years. This has got me worried enough about getting on spam lists that I may not do it now. I think I’ve avoided spam by not fully participating in the online world. I lurk, therefore I’m not exposed. Am I right?
February 15th, 2003 at 17:35
Mike: Post w/o using your e-mail address, or use a fake one. – Randy
February 18th, 2003 at 11:58
Mike, yes, the best way to avoid spam is to never post your email address anywhere. It’s an ironic thing to do in such a highly connected environment as the internet, but necessary unless you want to know how to “Reduce your debt!” or “Grow 10 inches overnight!”.
Some of my spamblock faves are me[at]me[dot]com and me@nospam.me.com
February 18th, 2003 at 12:00
I found the ticket stubs thing interesting. I didn’t think anyone else was strange enough to scan their ticket stubs. Apparently I was wrong.
February 19th, 2003 at 13:02
Well, Anne, it’s not like I haven’t scanned a ticket stub before…