Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) currently does this with his aol email address. You have to have the word "Dilbert" in the subject line somewhere. He simply filters that in and dumps everything else. Dilbert is uncommon enough, and not likely to be seen at random.
Pretty simple, but it fails for exactly the same reason pure whitelists fail... I am expecting to receive email I definitely want (mailing list signups, purchase/order receipts, etc.) but don't know the sender and/or the subject. And there's no way to add that sort of to all the applications that are likely to be sending me legitimate email.
Interestingly, Bayes kind of does this suggestion on it's own... assuming the word is fairly uncommon. In my ham for example, the word "AutoX" appears hundreds of times in ham and never once in spam. That's almost like a magic password to get something through to me and people don't even need to know it. Bottom line with Bayes is that stuff that looks like stuff I've seen before will get through. Downside is again on those spammy looking announce lists and bulletins.
Better than a secret word, why not send me a secret "key"? That way not only do I know it's really to me, I'm the only one that can read it. Of course, that has many (several) downsides that we all know about.
I don't know if Mini paid or not, but that movie couldn't have been [re-]made without the Mini's in it. The original Mini featured prominently in the original movie, and has made it a cult movie for Mini fans the world over for decades.
It would be worse than taking the Brit cars out of James Bond... oh wait, they did that already!:)
I just signed up for eMusic last month when people were talking about it here. I feel I got a good selection of albums for my $14... but I was starting to run out of things I really wanted to download without branching out and trying new stuff.
I'm never going to pay per track, so Apple and MusicMatch are out.
I do think real-time data delivery to some sort of handheld device is a very good piece of functionality. They [maybe used to] do it at Giants games at PacBell (SBC?) park. You could get stats on the current batter and pitcher as well as scores from other games around the league on your Palm. Very nice service.
The other day I was at the ALMS race at Laguna Seca and was craving a real-time view of the leader-board and lap times since we were too far away from the screens they have there to be able to see things. Turns out ALMS does offer a product that uses the Gameboy Advance to give you that information over radio-waves. Why not just send the same data over WiFi or GPRS?
The thing they use is icardus. Sorry for the plug. Never used it, and no affiliation.
Yeah, I found that interesting and now whenever I hear a celebrity plug some product I'm instantly skeptical.
Jeff Probst (of Survivor fame) was on Howard the next day and said he does a similar gig for Purina Puppy Chow. Sounds like it's pretty good money... about $50k for a days worth of interviews?
And Kim Catrell (of Sex and the City fame) pissed off a lot of media outlets a couple months ago when she came on to plug some digital camera and printer or service combination. Apparently that was all she wanted to talk about... and in a non-subtle way.
Personally, I don't know how I feel... I'm not too stupid to realize that Coke pays for their American Idol spots... but I probably wouldn't have realized Jeff Probst was hawking Purina unless it was super-obvious... I guess that's the point though.
Surely they're using a dedicated MP3 decoding chip for playing MP3s... how are they going to add OGG support to older players with just a software update? Surely it's not some sort of reconfigurable FPGA at that price... anyone know how?
The consequences of a false
positive can range from some confusion...
... but your point is correct. However, like I said earlier, combined with other filters that flag it as legitimate mail (addressed specifically to me, valid MUA, low bayes scores) the reducing scores should even it out so that you'll still see the email. That's what I'm currently seeing with SpamAssassin with a threshold of 5 points.
--D
It's also the reason I don't like whitelist-only solutions like my dad usees. You never know who will be sending you a legitimate offer out of the blue.
I'm a big advocate for as few (i.e. none) false positives as possible. I consider them way more dangerous than a false negative.... but used in moderation, these services are quite effective in reducting a large number of spam.
Using a spamtrap that using weighted scoring, like SpamAssassin or the like, you can use the data they provide combined with your other heuristics (and whitelists and bayes) to provide a much more accurate view of the overall picture.
Easily the three best ways to collect spam are to create a hotmail account. Then register a brand new domain with that address publicly available. Then join match.com (I think they still offer a free trial of some kind) and watch the spam pour in.
My wife created a unique (with numbers) hotmail account when she joined match.com (we met on matchmaker.com) and used it only for that purpose. Today she gets hundreds and hundreds of spam on it even though it's been entirely inactive for 3.5 years!
Match customer service claims they don't sell addresses and that it's hotmail's fault. Either way, the two together seem to be a quite effective spam trap
Of course, if you're just looking for a corpus of spam to test against, there's plenty out there. Google for +"spam corpus" to find several good sites.
Hybrid vehicles fit a very specific market. If you can live with the car that's built around the hybrid powerplant then you should be fine. There are definitely better cars out there for other specific markets. Example, the Honda insight is really small. The Toyota Prius is really ugly. The new Mazda Rx-8 is pretty much a pure sports car but has 4 seats and decent room (an no hybrid powerplant, pure rotary baby!) What appeals to you?
If you're OK with being an early adopter in general, then you should have no problem with the hybrid powerplants. There's been no major recalls, no major fires or explosions, no major maintenance costs, etc. etc.
Yes, you can... they're standard Mpeg 4 encoded AVI streams........ BUT....... they may or may not be ideal resolution and settings for watching on a computer screen and/or saving to VCD.
People buy them because they fulfill a need... quite well too! They're like those portable DVD players with a 5" screen. Perfect for use on a BART train or on an airplane. My Multimedia Jukebox even with the 2.1" screen is watchable for times when I need it... and it's portable, so I can bring all my MP3s along with me... like when I went camping last weekend!
Yes, if I'm sitting at home, and I want to watch a DVD action movie I'll put it on my high-definition projector and blast it about 100" on my homemade screen.... but when I'm commuting on a bus??????????
--D
p.s. And it's a hard drive and camera!!! For way less than a portable HD and MP3 player on it's own.
p.p.s. I've heard the video recording options both on this moel and mine suck... but that would be a cool feature!
I have been in the market for a car replacement for my work commute:
Surface streets for about 12 miles, primarily 40 mph speed limit, lots of stop lights and two stop signs on the way, no lunch places within easy walking distance but several within a quick car hops distance, etc. etc. It's too hot during the summer (Sacramento, 100+) to ride a bike, especially carrying my laptop bag... and too cold during the winter. That and I do carpool with a coworker to save gas and costs every day.
The GEM is (was?) the closest solution for me. They got the price about right (considerably less than a car, cheap enough to avoid having to finance it) and it has enough range and practical storage and passenger handling (two or four). However, they're not legal on 40mph roads, even though most of the time we're travelling around the GEMs 25mph top speed.
The Segway isn't the right solution either, but it would allow me to use the bike lane at any speed. 12 miles is pushing its range though, right? Biggest problem for me is that it's still $5000 for a scooter. Love the technology, love the idea, hate the price. I'll wait for the Henry Ford mass-produced Model-T version.
So yeah, you're absolutely right.... the problem has not been solved yet!
--Darren
Think how many devices
on
Replacing SMTP?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
SMTP is so deep-rooted and pervasive already it will be a long, hard change to implement. Every little cellphone that comes with a mail-client. Every router that has smtp alerting. Every application that uses it for various tasks... they would all have to be updated!
Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, but don't be fooled into thinking it's just a "propose a new spec, step 2?, profit" type of deal....
Complaining that it doesn't work well with Windows is like... oh, say, evaluating an early automobile and complaining that there's no place to hitch up a horse
Actually a better comparison would be evaluating a car and saying it doesn't fit on the existing roads. That is a legitimate complaint when you have years and dollars tied up into your existing highway infrastructure. New technology won't be adapted unless there's no significant barrier.
Nobody is going to design a new road just to be able to run Linux... especially not in the beginning stages.
I definitely wouldn't miss Yosemite, the Grand Canyon (hell of a hole), Yellowstone, Grand Titons, etc. etc. all on the west coast.
Other places I've been that are interesting:
Sedona, Arizona: very new-age hippyish. Be sure to check out the "vortexes". I'm the biggest skeptic in the world, but there was something odd going on there.
New Orleans, Louisiana: The week before Mardi Gras. Leave on the Monday before Fat Tuesday
Thermopolis, Wyoming: Whole town is built on a hot spring.
Jackson Hole, Wyoming: The central park is neat, and there's sit-on bobsled type things during the summer.
Alberqurque, New Mexico: But only for the ballon festival!
Las Vegas, Nevada: Cheap (free) hotel rooms during the week, and TONS of activities! More expensive, but quite fun during convention season.
Lake Havasu, Arizona: For spring break!!!!!!!! Hell of a bridge too!
Reno, Nevada: For the air races!
Baja, California: For whale migration or the Baja 500
Indianapolis, Indiana: In September for the US Grand Prix (will be going myself for the first time this year). That and all the auto racing museums and the parties.
There's so much of this country to see... take your time doing it, and keep us updated! Fortunately as I kid, we travelled a lot and got to see everything on that list!
You people saying "why would you want to bring your laptop to a game" aren't getting the point.
What about WiFi PDAs? Great for sending that quick email or text message. What about WiFi cellphones? In order to replace the evil telecommunications giants, we need an IP connection _everywhere_. That's more important than being able to surf porn on your laptop.
Actually, I've used my Palm Pilot at Pac Bell Park for Giants games. They [used to?] let you download a little applet that had todays roster and some basic stats.
For a baseball fan that usually hates buying a [paper] program for that information, it was kind of cool.
Can also be used to get real-time updated scores from other games relevant to the penant chase, etc.
Not to mention a lot of times I was at the game with business clients (expensing the whole time), and may have needed to follow up on an email or something. Sometimes making a business phonecall at a ballgame isn't quite appropriate.
It's interesting, but not quite good enough. It's really really focused on parents and their children, and they make it really difficult to get signed up and get a card. I believe they charge pretty rediculous monthly or yearly fees too.
I was hoping they would be more like giftcards or phonecards: easy to pick up, no additional fees, instantly activated, totally anonymous, rechargable or disposable.
Visa Buxx is really just a regular debit (not even credit really) card backed by kids parents and with a preset spending limit. That and some additional reports online and in your bill.
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Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) currently does this with his aol email address. You have to have the word "Dilbert" in the subject line somewhere. He simply filters that in and dumps everything else. Dilbert is uncommon enough, and not likely to be seen at random.
Pretty simple, but it fails for exactly the same reason pure whitelists fail... I am expecting to receive email I definitely want (mailing list signups, purchase/order receipts, etc.) but don't know the sender and/or the subject. And there's no way to add that sort of to all the applications that are likely to be sending me legitimate email.
Interestingly, Bayes kind of does this suggestion on it's own... assuming the word is fairly uncommon. In my ham for example, the word "AutoX" appears hundreds of times in ham and never once in spam. That's almost like a magic password to get something through to me and people don't even need to know it. Bottom line with Bayes is that stuff that looks like stuff I've seen before will get through. Downside is again on those spammy looking announce lists and bulletins.
Better than a secret word, why not send me a secret "key"? That way not only do I know it's really to me, I'm the only one that can read it. Of course, that has many (several) downsides that we all know about.
--D
I don't know if Mini paid or not, but that movie couldn't have been [re-]made without the Mini's in it. The original Mini featured prominently in the original movie, and has made it a cult movie for Mini fans the world over for decades.
:)
It would be worse than taking the Brit cars out of James Bond... oh wait, they did that already!
--D
I just signed up for eMusic last month when people were talking about it here. I feel I got a good selection of albums for my $14... but I was starting to run out of things I really wanted to download without branching out and trying new stuff.
I'm never going to pay per track, so Apple and MusicMatch are out.
Who are the alternatives now?
--Darren
I do think real-time data delivery to some sort of handheld device is a very good piece of functionality. They [maybe used to] do it at Giants games at PacBell (SBC?) park. You could get stats on the current batter and pitcher as well as scores from other games around the league on your Palm. Very nice service.
The other day I was at the ALMS race at Laguna Seca and was craving a real-time view of the leader-board and lap times since we were too far away from the screens they have there to be able to see things. Turns out ALMS does offer a product that uses the Gameboy Advance to give you that information over radio-waves. Why not just send the same data over WiFi or GPRS?
The thing they use is icardus. Sorry for the plug. Never used it, and no affiliation.
--D
I'd be curious to know what it is you claim you can't find online...
I've had a long-standing bet with my friends and coworkers that there is nothing you can't find on the Internet.
Even inventing random fetishes is pretty futile... there's normally at least a mention of it somewhere, if not an entire Yahoo! group dedicated to it.
The toughest ones are "what was the name of the guy that quoted some book in that movie that starred John Malkovich"
--D
Yeah, I found that interesting and now whenever I hear a celebrity plug some product I'm instantly skeptical.
Jeff Probst (of Survivor fame) was on Howard the next day and said he does a similar gig for Purina Puppy Chow. Sounds like it's pretty good money... about $50k for a days worth of interviews?
And Kim Catrell (of Sex and the City fame) pissed off a lot of media outlets a couple months ago when she came on to plug some digital camera and printer or service combination. Apparently that was all she wanted to talk about... and in a non-subtle way.
Personally, I don't know how I feel... I'm not too stupid to realize that Coke pays for their American Idol spots... but I probably wouldn't have realized Jeff Probst was hawking Purina unless it was super-obvious... I guess that's the point though.
--D
Surely they're using a dedicated MP3 decoding chip for playing MP3s... how are they going to add OGG support to older players with just a software update? Surely it's not some sort of reconfigurable FPGA at that price... anyone know how?
--D
--D
It's also the reason I don't like whitelist-only solutions like my dad usees. You never know who will be sending you a legitimate offer out of the blue.
I'm a big advocate for as few (i.e. none) false positives as possible. I consider them way more dangerous than a false negative.... but used in moderation, these services are quite effective in reducting a large number of spam.
Using a spamtrap that using weighted scoring, like SpamAssassin or the like, you can use the data they provide combined with your other heuristics (and whitelists and bayes) to provide a much more accurate view of the overall picture.
--D
Easily the three best ways to collect spam are to create a hotmail account. Then register a brand new domain with that address publicly available. Then join match.com (I think they still offer a free trial of some kind) and watch the spam pour in.
My wife created a unique (with numbers) hotmail account when she joined match.com (we met on matchmaker.com) and used it only for that purpose. Today she gets hundreds and hundreds of spam on it even though it's been entirely inactive for 3.5 years!
Match customer service claims they don't sell addresses and that it's hotmail's fault. Either way, the two together seem to be a quite effective spam trap
Of course, if you're just looking for a corpus of spam to test against, there's plenty out there. Google for +"spam corpus" to find several good sites.
Hope that helps....
--D
Hybrid vehicles fit a very specific market. If you can live with the car that's built around the hybrid powerplant then you should be fine. There are definitely better cars out there for other specific markets. Example, the Honda insight is really small. The Toyota Prius is really ugly. The new Mazda Rx-8 is pretty much a pure sports car but has 4 seats and decent room (an no hybrid powerplant, pure rotary baby!) What appeals to you?
If you're OK with being an early adopter in general, then you should have no problem with the hybrid powerplants. There's been no major recalls, no major fires or explosions, no major maintenance costs, etc. etc.
--Darren
You never received it... call and complain about the nag when you get it, they'll fedex you a new card right away.
Don't throw out the old card when you're done either. Not that you'll use it for anything, but you never know...
--D
I'm glad somebody is taking them to task and filing lawsuits to at least slow them down a little..... but realistically it's not a bad deal.
You can get the equipment to watch all the TV (read: porn) you want for a mere $3500....
The RIAA wants $15,000 for one measly song. Although you can theoretically listen to it indefinitely.
Although for around 700 bucks you can pick up a Linux license... fun for hours (and that's just the install process)
--D
p.s. I pay my DirecTV bill. It ain't that bad and I'm happy to be off cable!!!
To reboot the phone, hold in over your head and shake it back and forth???
--D
Yes, you can... they're standard Mpeg 4 encoded AVI streams........ BUT....... they may or may not be ideal resolution and settings for watching on a computer screen and/or saving to VCD.
--D
People buy them because they fulfill a need... quite well too! They're like those portable DVD players with a 5" screen. Perfect for use on a BART train or on an airplane. My Multimedia Jukebox even with the 2.1" screen is watchable for times when I need it... and it's portable, so I can bring all my MP3s along with me... like when I went camping last weekend!
Yes, if I'm sitting at home, and I want to watch a DVD action movie I'll put it on my high-definition projector and blast it about 100" on my homemade screen.... but when I'm commuting on a bus??????????
--D
p.s. And it's a hard drive and camera!!! For way less than a portable HD and MP3 player on it's own.
p.p.s. I've heard the video recording options both on this moel and mine suck... but that would be a cool feature!
Marijuana, my opinion on the subject is irrelevant, is not a priority in this country.
Absolutely incorrect... check out the costs of marijuana enforcement combined with the costs of imprisoning said "offenders"... a scary number!
Erase even a small portion of that, and we can have back the California Arts Council!
--D
I agree almost entirely!
I have been in the market for a car replacement for my work commute:
Surface streets for about 12 miles, primarily 40 mph speed limit, lots of stop lights and two stop signs on the way, no lunch places within easy walking distance but several within a quick car hops distance, etc. etc. It's too hot during the summer (Sacramento, 100+) to ride a bike, especially carrying my laptop bag... and too cold during the winter. That and I do carpool with a coworker to save gas and costs every day.
The GEM is (was?) the closest solution for me. They got the price about right (considerably less than a car, cheap enough to avoid having to finance it) and it has enough range and practical storage and passenger handling (two or four). However, they're not legal on 40mph roads, even though most of the time we're travelling around the GEMs 25mph top speed.
The Segway isn't the right solution either, but it would allow me to use the bike lane at any speed. 12 miles is pushing its range though, right? Biggest problem for me is that it's still $5000 for a scooter. Love the technology, love the idea, hate the price. I'll wait for the Henry Ford mass-produced Model-T version.
So yeah, you're absolutely right.... the problem has not been solved yet!
--Darren
SMTP is so deep-rooted and pervasive already it will be a long, hard change to implement. Every little cellphone that comes with a mail-client. Every router that has smtp alerting. Every application that uses it for various tasks... they would all have to be updated!
Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, but don't be fooled into thinking it's just a "propose a new spec, step 2?, profit" type of deal....
--D
Complaining that it doesn't work well with Windows is like ... oh, say, evaluating an early automobile and complaining that there's no place to hitch up a horse
Actually a better comparison would be evaluating a car and saying it doesn't fit on the existing roads. That is a legitimate complaint when you have years and dollars tied up into your existing highway infrastructure. New technology won't be adapted unless there's no significant barrier.
Nobody is going to design a new road just to be able to run Linux... especially not in the beginning stages.
--D
Other places I've been that are interesting:
- Sedona, Arizona: very new-age hippyish. Be sure to check out the "vortexes". I'm the biggest skeptic in the world, but there was something odd going on there.
- New Orleans, Louisiana: The week before Mardi Gras. Leave on the Monday before Fat Tuesday
- Thermopolis, Wyoming: Whole town is built on a hot spring.
- Jackson Hole, Wyoming: The central park is neat, and there's sit-on bobsled type things during the summer.
- Alberqurque, New Mexico: But only for the ballon festival!
- Las Vegas, Nevada: Cheap (free) hotel rooms during the week, and TONS of activities! More expensive, but quite fun during convention season.
- Lake Havasu, Arizona: For spring break!!!!!!!! Hell of a bridge too!
- Reno, Nevada: For the air races!
- Baja, California: For whale migration or the Baja 500
- Indianapolis, Indiana: In September for the US Grand Prix (will be going myself for the first time this year). That and all the auto racing museums and the parties.
There's so much of this country to see... take your time doing it, and keep us updated! Fortunately as I kid, we travelled a lot and got to see everything on that list!--D
Again, for now....
Think in the future, when power sources are plentiful, small and powerful.
--D
You people saying "why would you want to bring your laptop to a game" aren't getting the point.
What about WiFi PDAs? Great for sending that quick email or text message. What about WiFi cellphones? In order to replace the evil telecommunications giants, we need an IP connection _everywhere_. That's more important than being able to surf porn on your laptop.
Think future technologies, people!
--D
Actually, I've used my Palm Pilot at Pac Bell Park for Giants games. They [used to?] let you download a little applet that had todays roster and some basic stats.
For a baseball fan that usually hates buying a [paper] program for that information, it was kind of cool.
Can also be used to get real-time updated scores from other games relevant to the penant chase, etc.
Not to mention a lot of times I was at the game with business clients (expensing the whole time), and may have needed to follow up on an email or something. Sometimes making a business phonecall at a ballgame isn't quite appropriate.
--D
It's interesting, but not quite good enough. It's really really focused on parents and their children, and they make it really difficult to get signed up and get a card. I believe they charge pretty rediculous monthly or yearly fees too.
I was hoping they would be more like giftcards or phonecards: easy to pick up, no additional fees, instantly activated, totally anonymous, rechargable or disposable.
Visa Buxx is really just a regular debit (not even credit really) card backed by kids parents and with a preset spending limit. That and some additional reports online and in your bill.
--D