Slashdot Mirror
Beat Spam By Not Using Email
judgecorp writes "We had a press release - by post of course - about a scheme that eradicates spam and viruses. It's not email, oh no. It's digital mail or dmail, a private system that no one else can send messages to. Assuming it's genuine (and the PR person is called Mike Hardware) it uses XML and SQL to build a 1980s bulletin board, to sell to niche markets (such as very close-knit families). Our story is here, and if you don't hear from us again, it's because we are busy emailing ourselves with our two free dmail addresses. Peter Judge, Techworld"
Back some time ago... I knew of a horrid little web based email proggy.
It was of course, dmail's web front end and then there was of course dmail's own mailer.
I wasn't much of a fan of either application.
In any event, the point is, someone already has that name. It is entirely possible the company is now defunct or sold and then molested into oblivion.
I wonder if it is the same company?
So many questions and so little names...
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=74 &e=4&u=/cmp/47102042
According to E-mail security vendor MX Logic Inc., spammers are trying to make their messages appear more legitimate by adopting the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which recently became part of Microsoft's Sender ID proposal.
Congratulations, they invented the BBS !
Interestingly, I've been trying to find time to start an IBM Domino based BBS for my neighborhood. Yes, I started an i-neighbors thingy, but it would still be cool to have our own local site. (rembering the good 'ol days of 300 baud dialup
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
I know what you are saying (and I apologize for the accusation - you know how things are here) but if you read their press release they even mention being similar to gmail and that is pretty much an admission of prior art.
Disclaimer: I've only read a little bit of their web site.
From what I've read and can guess, this sounds like a private version of an online service. Think 1990's AOL, only on a micro-scale: to access the private network, you must have the correct network addresses and be an approved member. The network doesn't allow messages originating from outside the network, nor I imagine, can you send messages to external addresses. (Anyone with more specifics, feel free to correct me.)
Sounds like they have some encryption and allow direct downloads within the private circle of members
Eh? This sounds extremely fishy. I'm sure the technologies being implemented here are nothing new.
Sounds like you are in a private country club and are only playing with other people who can enter the club. Nobody gets in and nobody leaves... including telephone calls or anything else... it's like the outside world no longer exists once you enter, and for those in the outside world, it's as though the private country club doesn't exist... and ne'er the two shall meet.
Seems to me that this is analogous to Closed Circuit TV but just running over the existing broadcast spectrum in encrypted form (or something along those lines).
But practically speaking, isn't this like operating your own version of Jabber, but crippling it with a "feature" that prevents you from contacting (receiving from and sending to) anyone who's not listed in your buddies list and also using the exact same version of Jabber client?
------- "One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new people." -- G. KHAN
Not likely. There is prior art: DOD Communications System, the DCS.
When I was in the navy, as a Radioman, we had a PLAD, or Plain Language Addressing System and it was/is a list of valid ship, shore, base, activity, and approved contractors. There were/are many other lists and layers of communications, but what I liked about it, and don't see a pervasive civilian parallel on a global scale, is that if you weren't on the list, you didn't get sent any messages, nor could you participate with the traffic flow (assuming you didn't crack the system or spoof an address, which would mean getting access to equipment, cyphers, codes, addresses, and pass off well enough to not arouse immediate suspicion...) Everything from operational to supply, administrative to medical, intelligence to routine reports, virtuall all of it was on an internal net.
Corporate/civilian e-mail systems can also do the same: Only Approved Vendors List contacts should be able to send or receive message traffic to one another. Traffice trying to come in is summarily logged, filed, and dealt with legally (spammers, etc.) or administratively (abusive employees, contractors).
When I temped at Bay Networks back around 1994 we were using SoftArc's (from Canada) First Class mailing system. It was e-mail, browsing, BBS, archives, discussion groups, forums and more. It was not POP, so we had to log on to see messages. Metaphorically, what I liked was that messages "hung from a tree" and all concerned could log in and see the ONE COPY. If you deleted it, you only realy deleted you "pointer" to it. This eliminated the abusive or brain-dead approach of emailing a copy to EVERY employee. To me, that's DUMB. Only remote, off-line users need a hard/duplicate copy. The rest can read the single, original or updated version.
Every case of prior art should be exhaustively dug up to prevent asinine patents from being sought, considered or awarded.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
His post is funnier because we all know there's no serious stuff.
You're assuming that the "From" field can be trusted. This is false and can be easily demonstrated with the recent generetation of worms, wich spoof the header with the address of a friend of you !
-------------------------------------------- Se você consegue ler aqui então fala português. Óbvio