Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gates 'World's Most-Spammed Man'

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-you-thought-you-had-it-rought dept.

acehole writes "Bill Gates receives up to four million emails a day, and is probably the most spammed person in the world. But unlike ordinary users, he has an entire department to filter unsolicited " At least now I know why he never replies to my requests for an interview ;)

23 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. Why not release it? by FortKnox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since he DOES have an entire department creating software to filter out spam, why doesn't he RELEASE said filters and help the rest of the world out? Hell, its MS... why not at least sell it and try to make that department profitable??

    --
    Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
    1. Re:Why not release it? by RazzleFrog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Probably because it is based on something open-source like SpamAssassin.

    2. Re:Why not release it? by daves · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Since he DOES have an entire department creating software to filter out spam, why doesn't he RELEASE said filters and help the rest of the world out?

      In his case, I suspect the filters are human.

      --
      People who disagree with you are not automatically evil, greedy, or stupid.
    3. Re:Why not release it? by frugle · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of over 30 billion e-mails being sent daily, some experts estimate that over 40% is Spam.

      Google informs me that 40% of 30 billion = 12 000 000 000

      and (4 000 000 / 12 000 000 000) * 100 = 0.0333333333

      That gives Bill Gates a measly 0.03% Market share of Spam. I think we should help Microsoft grow by forwarding all our unwanted spam to Bill.

      --
      http://www.frugle.co.uk/
    4. Re:Why not release it? by Otter · · Score: 5, Insightful
      More likely, this was an off-the-cuff semi-joke from Ballmer that everyone here is reading way too closely. I very much doubt that there is in actuality either a "department" or "special technology" handling Gates' email. Ballmer is saying "Yes, we know this is a problem. Given the mail we get, we could hardly not know."

      By the way, note that the top three stories in the Australian news are "Wallaby escapes police action", "Bat swoops to bite woman" and "Passengers save bus from plunge". Gotta love Australia!

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    5. Re:Why not release it? by Singletoned · · Score: 5, Funny

      He should get a GMail account and scrap the department.

    6. Re:Why not release it? by joto · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Well, in a manner of speaking the human species is open-source.

      Yeah, in the same manner of speaking that Microsoft Word is open source. Let's face it, raw DNA is not the preferred way to modify the human genome. Neither is a binary executable the preferred way to modify a word-processor.

      It's just that reading the source (i.e. the DNA) is something we haven't quite mastered yet.

      Ok, that's a possibility too. But I can't really see any plausible reason for nature to make it easy for us to decode DNA. It's meant for execution by cells, not for easy comprehension (or modification) by genetic engineers.

      And just like open-source software the human being is constantly being developed upon, albeit so very slowly that we cannot see it for ourselves. But each new baby that's born (the nightlies, hahaha) is a little different than the previous generation. Sometimes this backfires on the whole community *cough*georgewbush*cough* but in general there's improvement.

      Actually, there's no good reason to believe human evolution is for the better. Ever since humans discovered farming, we no longer need to be intelligent enough to outwit our prey, or strong enough to kill it, or fast enough to catch it, or having a good enough immune system to eat rotten food, or being able to care for our children in this environment for umpteen years, etc...

      In fact, in modern society it's even worse. Due to the fact that the state will take care of you and your children even if you can't do it yourself, the only skill you need to create surviving offspring is to have low enough demands to get laid by someone (no matter how stupid, annoying, ugly, etc), and to be stupid enough not to wear condoms.

      Humans have probably "devolved" ever since the neanderthals, and as the society gets "better", the individuals detoriate at an ever increasing rate.

      An interesting side-note (just to be politically correct), is that those who advocate racial purity (e.g. nazis), seems to prefer those who have lived in modern society for the longest period of time. They probably should prefer bushmen instead.

  2. I think I see the problem by MoxCamel · · Score: 5, Funny
    At least now I know why he never replies to my requests for an interview ;)

    Here's a tip:

    When asking for an interview, do not also offer to enlarge his penis. Mox

    1. Re:I think I see the problem by peterprior · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tip? Penis? Reminds me of the good old leper joke.

      What did the leper say to the prostitute?
      You can keep the tip..

  3. Email Required by kb0pin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm comforted to know that when I use billgates@microsoft.com when signing up for something stupid, or for those sites that require an email for download, he actually gets those emails.

    1. Re:Email Required by emc · · Score: 5, Informative

      it's billg@microsoft.com

    2. Re:Email Required by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Funny

      anyone know Ballmer's?

      developersdevelopersdevelopersdevelopers@microsoft .com

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Email Required by mattbelcher · · Score: 5, Funny

      Back when I was still in school, a MS recruiter came and gave a talk to our ACM. His name was also Bill Gates. His email address was bgates@microsoft.com, which caused all sorts of confusion. Apparently, he would get invitations to dinners and speaking engagements.

      --

      Shockwave Flash movies are the greatest thing to happen to non-sequitur humor since Japan.

  4. Only 4 million per day? by lukateake · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmmm, I would have thought more considering all the unpatched Windows boxes out there.

  5. XP OEM CH33p!\@ by RyanP · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder if he gets spam about discounted copies of XP?

  6. Thank you spammers by digitalgimpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    For *once* I have to thank spammers for a job well done.

    Now any chance on taking on SCO?

  7. Exchange by peterprior · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hmm.. 4,000,000 / 86400 (seconds in a day) = ~ 46 emails a second.

    I didn't even know exchange could handle that amount of traffic. And thats just for him..

  8. most spammed man by Washizu · · Score: 5, Funny

    What does he expect when he keeps sending out those email tracking programs?

    --
    OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
  9. News for Nerds indeed. by lottameez · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know I was wondering just this morning, just after breakfast, how much spam Bill Gates was getting. "Self", I said, "How many unsolicited emails does Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, get, do you think? Two hundred fifty thousand? A million? What DO you think?"

    I had no answer.
    Until now.

    Thank you slashdot.

    --
    Yeah? Well I think you're overrated too.
  10. 640 emails.... by underworld · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....ought to be about enough for anyone. ;-)

  11. Unfiltered by Flamesplash · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's rumoured that if you email billg from inside MS it goes directly to him, the idea being if you're stupid enough to send him a stupid email directly then maybe you should be fired for wasting his time.

    That said, after going to an intern dinner at his house I wrote him afterwards asking a question I was sure no one else care about if I acked it at the dinner, I got a relatively quick if not short response.

    Another intern friend of mine emailed him asking if he wanted to go to lunch sometime and never got a response.

    I've also had some other funny run ins with Bill Gates while interning at MS that I wrote up a while ago in my journal

    --
    "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
    1. Re:Unfiltered by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I used to work for Oracle. I once sent Larry a rather critical email. I didn;t get sacked or a reply, either, so I don't know if he got it.

      Oracle internal email system used to be so crap that it got confused if people had the same first name and sent them each others email. I shared the same first name with the VP of Consulting for EMEA (I was working in Hamburg at the time). I once received an email from Big Man's secretary to him asking if he wanted to confirm his meeting with some IBM execs. I replied to her saying that she should tell IBM to Bugger Off and to get on the phone to the head of consulting in Hamburg and to give that Phil guy a large pay rise.

      A couple of days later my boss called me into his office and told me "Please don't do that again"

  12. Re:Test suite... by worst_name_ever · · Score: 5, Interesting
    he could try to forward his daily mail to a gmail account to really test spam/virus protection

    Right, and he could also forward his daily mail to the DOJ, so there aren't any more losses of that pesky incriminating evidence...

    --

    In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.