"Snopes.com is the work of the husband-and-wife team of David and Barbara Mikkelson, who have taken their passion for urban myths to the Web since 1995."
Or so they would have us believe... what if Snopes is a secret CIA plot to spread deliberate disinformation (the same CIA which is run by Masonic Lizards who would love nothing better than to enslare the world's population using advanced psychic mind-control tactics)
You miss the point comletely. Any reasonably normal intelligent human being can spot and delete spam - that's never been the issue. The point is that spam is annoying and can be very time consuming for a human to deal with, which is why computerised spam filters were created.
The first generation of spam filters were crude and simplistic - they would delete an email based on the sender, or maybe one or two key words. This isn't effective because spammers rarely use their own email addresses in the "Reply to" field, and deleting all email which contains the words "marketing" or "investment opportunity" is likely to delete legitimate email. Besides, spammers can easily get around this by altering words in such a way as to delete filters (V*I*A*G*R*A is easily read by a human but a computer looking for "viagra" and "viagara" would not stop it)
The best spam filters today use Bayesian filtering to eliminate spam: you train the filter by giving it a pile of email and telling it these are genuine, and another pile and saying these are spam. The filter then looks through the mail and gives certain words a weighting - if most spam contains big red letting with words like "investment", "click here to be removed" and "penis enlargement" then it would score highly and be given a higher probability of being marked spam. Email containing words with your name in it, or words relating to your life or work, would be given a higher probability of being called spam.
And for crying out loud, "spam" is not an acronym so stop writing it in upper case!
On the other hand you could argue that by posting this on Slashdot it will receive huge worldwide attention, and as the article suggested now would be a great time to patch your web server.
It's a bit like Mischief Night in the UK - I don't like it, but I don't bury my head in the sand and pretend people will forget about it. Instead I take precautions - move the car out of the way, make sure my windows and doors are locked and keep the cats in. It doesn't hurt to have a security test now and then.
This is really great and everything, but they can only sue the spammers they can track down and identify.
AFAIK, some spammers go to great lengths to keep their identities hidden (hi-jacking other people's computer systems etc) so although the threat of legal action will be a big deterrent there's always going to be spam unless we can come up with a technological solution to stop it.
I wonder how many people who actually bother to read the licence agreement (15%?) actually understand it (5%?).
I know I don't... I just go with the sheeple principle which goes something like this:
Windows is a very popular product, sold around the world to millions of people. They all seem happy with the licence agreement therefore I'll go along with them. Safety in numbers.
It's quite humbling when a telescope, probing the deepest regions of space, produces an image showing hundreds of thousands of stars, each of which could have solar systems with the right parameters to harbour life.
Not only that but in the background through the stars are glimpses of thousands of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions more stars.
Everywhere we look in the universe the picture is the same. Billions of galaxies, countless trillions of stars. Was the universe "created" so only one planet orbiting just one of these stars would produce life? I don't think so.
If we can find life somewhere else out there it's going to be fascinating.
For example, is the life DNA based? All life on earth is DNA based, and if the life elsewhere isn't then we are going to learn a lot by studying it - it will be an using an entirely different mechanism to do essentially the same thing as DNA. How does it work? How did it evolve?
And if it *IS* DNA based then we need to find out if DNA is the logical conclusion of evolutionary biology... ie, I can imagine that intelligent life elsewhere have designed the same things we have (think "the wheel") because there are only so many ways you can do something. Therefore, is DNA (or something very similar) the only mechanism life can use to sustain itself? Or did the DNA originate from the same place as DNA on the earth? And if so, how?
You know, I think you're on to something there. I sent you an email offering you money so I can sell the idea... but I've a feeling it's been classified it as spam. Shame!
I set up Popfile a few weeks ago at work to stop the deluge of spam one of our POP3 accounts was getting. I've never used a spam filter before (other than the usual basic keyword-based ones) and I must say that bayesian filtering is very impressive!
I find in our case it stops 98-99% of spam dead in its tracks. There have been a few false positives, and you do need check from time to time just in case an genuine emails are misclassified, but it's surprising just how quickly the filter sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Don't expect miracles but they can save you a lot of time... what I find cool is that it learns so quickly, almost like a complicated neural net should, but it's such a simple idea. I wonder if there are any other uses for this kind of thing?
The thing is, ATi have always produced very feature-rich graphics cards, especially for the OEM market. This enabled vendors to sell systems with built-in TV tuners and video capture facilities. ATi cards have always had superb 2d image quality.
nVidia, on the other hand, have always gone for the gaming market - their speciality was 3d acceleration (with respectable built-in 2d capabilities)... the faster the better.
Maybe nVidia rested on their laurels, but ATi have come along and threatened the one thing which separated them from nVidia - high speed high quality 3d acceleration.
nVidia need to come up with something to separate them from ATi - and fast.
It's pretty silly paying through the nose for an expensive new graphics card when the only thing you can "play" are the tech demos.
Sure, the card is faster so you can now play your existing games with anti-aliasing on all the time (well, mostof the time...) but unfortunately your games won't look any different.
Remember the first time you installed your 3dfx card (inc pass-through cable) and played GLQuake? Amazing! High res smooth graphics on your P166, the envy of consoles everywhere. Then nVidia brough our their TNT cards which did 32-bit colour... nice. But since then, what's changed? Answer: not much. There are only a handful of games which use 50% of the features offered by a Geforce 3. I have a Ti4600 and a Ti200 and it's nigh on impossible to tell them apart.
Why the Sam Hill should I buy ANOTHER new card when there's simply no compelling reason to upgrade?
Slashdot Mirror
Or so they would have us believe... what if Snopes is a secret CIA plot to spread deliberate disinformation (the same CIA which is run by Masonic Lizards who would love nothing better than to enslare the world's population using advanced psychic mind-control tactics)
Yep! (I was being sarcastic)
K00lDude: God this is boring. Anyone wanna cyber? I'm sitting on the end of row 24
Wikkid84: asl?
37337: Dudes, my warez server is up, some and get some pr0n!
Ok, I need a proof-reader (either that or an audited-edit feature, you listening Taco?). I meant to say
"Email containing words with your name in it, or words relating to your life or work, would be given a higher probability of being marked genuine."
"Stupid People Abusing Mail"
The first generation of spam filters were crude and simplistic - they would delete an email based on the sender, or maybe one or two key words. This isn't effective because spammers rarely use their own email addresses in the "Reply to" field, and deleting all email which contains the words "marketing" or "investment opportunity" is likely to delete legitimate email. Besides, spammers can easily get around this by altering words in such a way as to delete filters (V*I*A*G*R*A is easily read by a human but a computer looking for "viagra" and "viagara" would not stop it)
The best spam filters today use Bayesian filtering to eliminate spam: you train the filter by giving it a pile of email and telling it these are genuine, and another pile and saying these are spam. The filter then looks through the mail and gives certain words a weighting - if most spam contains big red letting with words like "investment", "click here to be removed" and "penis enlargement" then it would score highly and be given a higher probability of being marked spam. Email containing words with your name in it, or words relating to your life or work, would be given a higher probability of being called spam.
And for crying out loud, "spam" is not an acronym so stop writing it in upper case!
If it's in Japan, wouldn't they pronounce it "Rinux"?
Well *I* now know about it, and I haven't noticed in on the BBC yet. Maybe now it's been on Slashdot it WILL be reported by the BBC.
It's a bit like Mischief Night in the UK - I don't like it, but I don't bury my head in the sand and pretend people will forget about it. Instead I take precautions - move the car out of the way, make sure my windows and doors are locked and keep the cats in. It doesn't hurt to have a security test now and then.
[Drum roll]
1984.
I doubt you'd have been willing to PAY for the experience (like you do with the real one).
Check this out!
Step 1) Get rid of Hotmail Step 2) Er, that's it.
AFAIK, some spammers go to great lengths to keep their identities hidden (hi-jacking other people's computer systems etc) so although the threat of legal action will be a big deterrent there's always going to be spam unless we can come up with a technological solution to stop it.
I know I don't... I just go with the sheeple principle which goes something like this:
Windows is a very popular product, sold around the world to millions of people. They all seem happy with the licence agreement therefore I'll go along with them. Safety in numbers.
That is all.
So what should you use for printing? MPG123 of course!
Because created implies a creator. Nobody knows how it came to be.
Not only that but in the background through the stars are glimpses of thousands of galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions more stars.
Everywhere we look in the universe the picture is the same. Billions of galaxies, countless trillions of stars. Was the universe "created" so only one planet orbiting just one of these stars would produce life? I don't think so.
If we can find life somewhere else out there it's going to be fascinating.
For example, is the life DNA based? All life on earth is DNA based, and if the life elsewhere isn't then we are going to learn a lot by studying it - it will be an using an entirely different mechanism to do essentially the same thing as DNA. How does it work? How did it evolve?
And if it *IS* DNA based then we need to find out if DNA is the logical conclusion of evolutionary biology... ie, I can imagine that intelligent life elsewhere have designed the same things we have (think "the wheel") because there are only so many ways you can do something. Therefore, is DNA (or something very similar) the only mechanism life can use to sustain itself? Or did the DNA originate from the same place as DNA on the earth? And if so, how?
I very much doubt that they'll route calls over the public internet.
"Sorry, but your call could not be connected at this time due to a 404 error. Please reconfigure your phone line and try again."
You know, I think you're on to something there. I sent you an email offering you money so I can sell the idea... but I've a feeling it's been classified it as spam. Shame!
I find in our case it stops 98-99% of spam dead in its tracks. There have been a few false positives, and you do need check from time to time just in case an genuine emails are misclassified, but it's surprising just how quickly the filter sorts the wheat from the chaff.
Don't expect miracles but they can save you a lot of time... what I find cool is that it learns so quickly, almost like a complicated neural net should, but it's such a simple idea. I wonder if there are any other uses for this kind of thing?
nVidia, on the other hand, have always gone for the gaming market - their speciality was 3d acceleration (with respectable built-in 2d capabilities)... the faster the better.
Maybe nVidia rested on their laurels, but ATi have come along and threatened the one thing which separated them from nVidia - high speed high quality 3d acceleration.
nVidia need to come up with something to separate them from ATi - and fast.
Sure, the card is faster so you can now play your existing games with anti-aliasing on all the time (well, mostof the time...) but unfortunately your games won't look any different.
Remember the first time you installed your 3dfx card (inc pass-through cable) and played GLQuake? Amazing! High res smooth graphics on your P166, the envy of consoles everywhere. Then nVidia brough our their TNT cards which did 32-bit colour... nice. But since then, what's changed? Answer: not much. There are only a handful of games which use 50% of the features offered by a Geforce 3. I have a Ti4600 and a Ti200 and it's nigh on impossible to tell them apart.
Why the Sam Hill should I buy ANOTHER new card when there's simply no compelling reason to upgrade?