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

Dude...

[InterruptDescriptorT]

Thou art getting a Dell!

---
I'm tired of waltzing for pancakes. -- Gwen Mezzrow

Looks like a prank by someone at Dell

[Gorobei]

There are no clear King George + address on the web-page. This just looks like a prank database addition by someone at Dell on a slow day (probably a Kermit user, tho.)

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"

Ask Dell about it...

[FurryFeet]

Really, contact Dell and ask for an explanation. I think we'd all love to hear what kind of lame excuse they try to come up with in order to avoid admitting that they harvest spammable addreses from the net :)

Nope... that would be "Your Majesty".

[TDScott]

"Your Highness" denotes royalty other than a King or Queen. "Your Majesty" denotes a King or a Queen. (Source)

Just nitpicking...

Time to seed some pages

[SeanTobin]

I would just love to throw out a page with addresses like:

Zephram Cochrane
c/o Phoenix Research Institute
186000 Miles Avenue
Central, Montana 01701

Seven Nine
2349 Tendara Street
Unimatrix, CA 79301

John Kelly
2032 Gravaton Ave.
Mars, NC 02376

Tobin Dax
2135 Bajor Parkway
Symbiant, UT 02230

Re:Mod Parent Up

[binner1]

The person responsible for this spam has just been sacked...

The person repsonsible for the person responsible for this spam has just be sacked...

Or something thereabouts! Sorry MP.

-Ben

Occams Razor

[KFury]

It seems much more likely that someone on the team was registering for something somewhere and, wanding to avoid stupid spam, put in the clever King persona instead.

Promptly forgotten, it was a surprise when Dell, seemingly unrelated to the registration account, sends email to that profile.

More than likely someone on your team remembers it now, but finds the alternative 'harvesting' explanation so funny he's keeping quiet.

Re:Dell doesn't harvest addresses

[jelle]

"Companies like Dell don't harvest addressess. They deal with direct marketing companies"

Hiring a marketing company to do some work in your name makes you liable for whatever they do in your name.

Let's use the system

[Bouncings]

Here we go:

The Devil
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052


Jack Fuck-me-in-the-ass Valenti
MPAA
15503 Ventura Boulevard
Encino, CA 91436

Just to start off with a few.