Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Spam names Well, I've saved up 28,953 or so absolutely no-good spam messages just to "analyze" them. The saving's easy. The analyzing, like about everything else in my life beyond the involuntary functions these days, is hard. But while I'm waiting for that magic moment when synapses fire and I break free of inertia and begin spam analysis -- it could happen this year -- I see a story from last Thursday's The New York Times (already in the paid archives) on one of my favorite spam subjects: The names of senders: "Yours Not So Truly, J. Goodspam "By LISA NAPOLI  "PURPOSES L. XYLOPHONIST sounds like my kind of man. Unique. Creative. Focused, with a hint of formality. ... There is no way to be certain that Mr. Xylophonist is, in fact, a mister. Actually, it is a pretty safe bet he is not a person at all. ..." .   11:32:30 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dan Brekke.