As any grizzled football coach will tell you, good defense beats a good offense but that wisdom doesn’t apply to the realm of spam, where porn peddlers and Nigerian hucksters regularly outwit the latest filtering software.
The most obvious problem is that it’s simply not possible to update filtering software frequently enough to catch all of the spammers’ assorted innovations.
Techniques like disguising unsolicited messages by replacing the “i” in Viagra with a “1” or using images in lieu of text, for example drive me crazy.
At the same time, an overly aggressive approach can be disastrous, trapping legitimate email as false positives which also sucks.
One possible route to improvement: Instead of focusing on suspicious content, consider the trustworthiness of the sources.
Oscar Boykin, a computer engineering professor at the University of Florida, suggests that filters would work better with more widespread use of authentication systems, which make it harder for spammers to forge source addresses.
Emerging standards like Sender ID and DomainKeys, for instance, verify that a message’s sender and domain are legit.
Improved computer security would also help, since many illicit messages are sent from computers infected with malware. Here’s some additional food for thought on the issue of spam.
There’s egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam; spam bacon sausage and spam; spam egg spam spam bacon and spam; spam sausage spam spam bacon spam tomato and spam;
So what do you think? Could we do the egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam then?
Urgghh! What do you mean ‘Urgghh’? I don’t like spam!
Posted in Food + Technology + Web | 
Well, you can’t say they didn’t try.
After one of the more prominent online OS/2 communities (OS2 World) delivered a politely worded petition with 11,000 signatures to IBM to make OS/2 into an open source product, the word has come back from IBM: Sorry, but no. Not happening.
To be honest, the more I thought about this issue, especially after realizing how much third-party material also was tied up in OS/2’s codebase the more I settled on the conclusion that it simply wasn’t going to happen.
The wording of the rejection letter itself hints obliquely at that: “…for a variety of business, technical, and legal reasons we have decided to not pursue any OS/2 open source projects.”
I suspect the legal issues have become all the more tangled since their licensing of OS/2 as eComStation, which is sold as a closed-source commercial product, and is currently in a round of betas to release version 2.0 of the product which, according to their site, is “available early 2008”.
In that light, OS/2 and its associated technologies are far from being “abandonware”, as some people have put it, so it’s not surprising that IBM would not exactly dive into a project like this with sleeves rolled up.
IBM’s stance has long been to encourage anyone running OS/2 to migrate away to something else, and while it may not be the friendliest stance to take, over time it’s become the most realistic.
I feel bad for the petitioners, even though at this point I’ve come to completely understand where IBM is coming from.
They don’t see the payoff as being worth the effort, and they’ve already got a partner company wringing extra life out of OS/2 with their own compatible project.
It was brave for the OS/2 fans to try, but maybe it’s just time to move on.
Posted in Open Source + Software + Technology |
Ok, I’m a fan of McDonald’s. Yes I know it’s probably not good for me but it tastes so good. Quarter Pounders with cheese and a side of fries is the best.
Anyway, for a little lunch research to see just how bad the food is for me, moments ago I went to the McDonald’s website and apparently they have a podcast.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a direct link to the McDonald’s podcast to see for yourself.
At McDonald’s, we are committed to listen to our customers and be open and direct about the facts surrounding our people, our food and our restaurants.
In order to share the real story of McDonald’s, we have created a series of podcasts.
I was hoping for something fun like a podcast about cheese burgers, shamrock shakes or even maybe the world famous McRib sandwich but I was denied, like a red headed step child.
Disclaimer: I don’t mean any ill will towards real red headed step children around the world. I’m just saying…
Anyway, basically the podcasts are about corporate stuff at McDonald’s. Maybe there are some hidden gems. I’ll have to poke around and see.
Posted in Blogging + Food + Technology |
Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at a luncheon celebrating NASA’s 50th anniversary today in Washington, and somewhat cockily gave the flailing space agency advice on how they should run their business.
No surprise to hear that Schmidt thinks NASA should be run the way he manages his search/web apps company.
Schmidt’s 40-minute speech also included a demonstration of the search giant’s use of NASA technology in Google’s products, like Google Earth.
Unmentioned (or at least unreported) was any reference to Google’s personal relationship with the space agency — Schmidt, along with Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, uses NASA’s Moffett Field to park his private planes.
Posted in Google + Technology |
Enterprise users of IBM’s email program may have reason to cheer as early as next week.
According to the Associated Press, IBM will be releasing a version of Lotus Notes email for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Hooah! Can Apple take down RIM?
If you’re a mobile professional who’s held off on purchasing an iPhone because it won’t work with your corporate email system, there may be one less reason for you to keep holding out.
The AP is reporting that IBM is set to make Lotus Notes available to the iPhone at its Lotusphere conference in Orlando next week. Of course, some terms and conditions apply.
First, your enterprise has to have a Lotus Domino server to support the application.
Existing users of Lotus Notes Web-access system will be able to use the iPhone version for free with their current license. New users will have to pay $39 per year for the Lotus license. Not a bad deal at all.
IBM is also releasing its Symphony productivity suite for Apple computers. Symphony, similar to Google Apps, includes a word processor, presentation application and spreadsheet program.
If you think these new Apple-compatible applications are indicative of a new love-fest between Big Blue and the big Mac, you might want to remember that Apple used IBM’s PowerPC chips in its computers for a long time.
It appears that Apple’s move to Intel processors didn’t sour the relationship between the two. IBM spokesperson Mike Azzi said the two companies “have a lot in common. We’re going to cross-pollinate.”
I can only imagine that this is going to make a lot of enterprise users very happy, and create more headaches for IT admins as employees drag the iPhone in and demand it be supported for email.
However, this new set of software will likely not put a dent in RIM’s enterprise dominance any time in the near future.
Posted in Apple + Software + Technology + Wireless |
This morning’s Stevenote highlighted some impressive numbers for Apple. Here’s Steve Jobs’ keynote condensed down to the cold, hard figures.
Macworld Keynote facts:
- Number of new hardware products announced: Two. The Time Capsule network backup device and the ultra-thin MacBook Air.
- Number of product upgrades announced: Four. Apple TV, iPod Touch, iPhone, iTunes.
- Number of failed product demos: One. Apple TV couldn’t load photos from Flickr’s servers.
- Number of price drops: One. The AppleTV dropped from $300 to $230.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Apple + Technology + Toys & Gadgets + Wireless |
