NYTimes: Tangled Up in Spam

ezekieldas writes "Congratulations to the SpamAssassin developers and community! There's a mention of SA in the NYTMag as "one of the best tools for network administrators..." in an extensive article entitled Tangled Up in Spam. The article is quite substantial and the author, James Gleick, is more technically educated than what we've come to expect from the big press. Central to the story is the complexity in dealing with spam effectively in both technical and legal terms and the confusion it brings upon the neophyte. The conclusion drawn may be oversimplified but nonetheless pragmatic: 1) forged headers should be illegal 2) a specific header entry should identify the email as unsolicited."

Comments

I prefer looking in the archives...

[Jugalator]

... since archived material is considered so old that it doesn't require a registration. ;-)

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/magazine/09S PAM.html

You don't have to.

[Erpo]

Copy and paste this into a bookmarklet:

javascript:letters="abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"; nu mbers="0123456789";document.forms[1].login.value=" ";document.forms[1].passwd1.value="";document.form s[1].passwd2.value="";document.forms[1].email.valu e="";document.forms[1].birth_year.value="";documen t.forms[1].zip.value="";while(document.forms[1].lo gin.value.length1)document.forms[1].gender_check[1 ].checked=true;document.forms[1].birth_year.value+ =numbers.substring(strindex=Math.round(Math.random ()*9),strindex+1);document.forms[1].birth_year.val ue+=numbers.substring(strindex=Math.round(Math.ran dom()*9),strindex+1);document.forms[1].zip.value+= numbers.substring(strindex=Math.round(Math.random( )*9),strindex+1);document.forms[1].zip.value+=numb ers.substring(strindex=Math.round(Math.random()*9) ,strindex+1);document.forms[1].zip.value+=numbers. substring(strindex=Math.round(Math.random()*9),str index+1);document.forms[1].zip.value+=numbers.subs tring(strindex=Math.round(Math.random()*9),strinde x+1);document.forms[1].zip.value+=numbers.substrin g(strindex=Math.round(Math.random()*9),strindex+1) ;document.forms[1].country.selectedIndex=Math.roun d(Math.random()*236);document.forms[1].income_sele ct.value=Math.round(Math.random()*10)+1;document.f orms[1].industry_select.value=Math.round(Math.rand om()*36)+1;document.forms[1].title_select.value=Ma th.round(Math.random()*36)+1;document.forms[1].fun ction_select.value=Math.round(Math.random()*16)+1; document.forms[1].paper_select.value=Math.round(Ma th.random()*3)+1;document.forms[1].submit();

There shouldn't be any spaces in there, so cut them out if slashdot inserts them. When you get to the NYTimes "you must register" page, click the bookmarklet. It's not the most beautiful solution, but it does the job.