Milestones in the Annals of Junkmail

fdc writes: "Web pages are a great source of postal addresses for direct mailers. Judging by some of the addresses we've seen recently, it's evident that the data is harvested not by humans, but by computer programs that scan web pages for names and addresses. Several weeks ago we (the Kermit Project at Columbia University) announced a new release of our Kermit 95 communication software for Windows -- SSH, secure FTP, etc; cousin of C-Kermit for Unix (search Freshmeat). Since this was a major release, we chose a new icon for it: the Columbia crown. A web page explained that this is the emblem of Columbia University: the crown of King George the II of England (1727-1760), who founded Columbia in 1754. JUST ONE WEEK LATER guess who received a postcard from Dell."

Comments

Re:Looks like a prank by someone at Dell

[banky]

actually the address is on
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html
most of the way down, under the "buy now" stuff

Re:Looks like a prank by someone at Dell

[Mike Schiraldi]

In fact, on that page, King George is not refered to as King George, but rather as "George, King of England."

Actually, it said, "George II, King of England". The harvester program ignored the "of England" part, and decided that "George II, King" looked a lot like "Smith, John". Just like it turns that into "John Smith", it got "King George II"