Spamma Karenina

Poststructural Pub
1

…the latest phase in the evolution of spam.

You can tell when they invent some new-ish twist in the stupid game, because the adaptive spam filters are bamboozled by the new ones for a little while. Not much makes it through my filter any more, thank goodness, so I tend to notice them sometimes. Yesterday I got one whose subject line was “From deep within our secret souls, do demons lie and take their toll.” That was a refreshing change from the usual Viagrology or touting of cheap mortgage rates, so I couldn’t resist taking a look at the message source before chucking it in the Junk bin. The message contained a great chunk of text copied and pasted from Anna Karenina.

Today I got another one. This subject line was “Dehydrated H2O: Just Add Water.” I love it when they have a puckish sense of humor, don’t you? A different source altogether, but there was another big ol’ piece of Tolstoy.

I know why they do this (to fool the filters)… but still, I find it pretty funny. I begin to suspect I’m just easily amused.

:wink:

2

Is it possible to dehydrate water? :confused:

3

That’s a - I say, that’s a joke, son!

4

:smiley:

I thought so, but then, then…I got to thinking “Hmm…what would dehydrated water look like?” :stuck_out_tongue:

I thought it might be like instant mash potatoes (also called dehydrated potatoes) but clear instead of white.

5

It would be a small pile of salts. Pure water is highly reactive, and seldom stays pure for very long. It is known as the universal solvent because just about everything and anything will disolve into it to some extent. So if you dehydrated water, you would end up with a little pile of dried impurities.

djm

6

'Round here, you’d end up with green and brown chunks, and the occasional frog.

7

I’m shocked at some of the spam you folks open.

8

I have some kind of window that shows the contents of my email before I open it. So if I’m even clicking on it to delete it I can’t help but see some of it. I know it isn’t safe to open it. Maybe the others have that too.

9

You should be able to turn that off. Finding out how to is left as a exercise for the user.

10

Here is a hint: it’s called a “preview pane”.

The preview pane actually opens the email, regardless of whether you asked it to. It is a serious security risk in an email program. Most security-conscious agencies will recommend that the preview pane be disabled.

11

Or a “reading pane.”

Where and how you turn it off varies by software. In Outlook, look under the View menu. Outlook web access has a buttton in its toolbar.

I turn it on if I’m looking for a specific email that has already been opened or is in the sent folder, but other than that, it stays turned off, for the reason In. Byst. gave.

12

I have two mail accounts, yahoo and freesurf.ch. For the freesurf.ch mail account I use this: http://www.spamihilator.com/index.php?lang=en
works fine. :slight_smile:

13

Umm…well, I’ll convert this into a geek-oracle invocation, then.

I had thought that viewing the message source (as distinct from preview) did not “open” a message in any way. Am I wrong? If so, kindly reform me, O oracle, for I am sore afraid. (I use Thunderbird, if that makes any difference).

:wink:

14

Yes…wrong :smiley:

only 'cause of the way you wrote it.
It is opened in a text viewer. It is safe.

15

Well, I didn’t know that about that stupid preview pane! What the heck is it for then? Oh, to look at your old email. Yeah, I will turn it off. I just HATE HATE HATE all this foolishness. I might not have to turn it off, I can just throw this stupid computer out the window. :swear: Thanks for the tip! I’m sure I can make it stop. Oh, a sledge hammer, that would work too.

16
  • Places frantic phone call to Mr. Cynth, begs him to quickly hide all sledgehammers and board up all windows, sit her down, give her a nice hot cup of tea and a soothing neck-rub *

:smiley:

17

Too right Cynth. Bloody computers. I swear to you, they will never, ever catch on. :wink: