[PLUG] Spam, bogofilter, other

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> > Complaints about spam.
>
> Registered DNS + Common name + No bounce = new victim.  While jeme
> probably gets spam, I betcha he doesn't get the 200 per day that he
> would get as james.  Unless, of course, we are being less than
> fastidious with this mail group, and it is being mined by spammers.

I would guess that most of my spam comes to me via an address harvested
from this list.  The few other lists on which I participate use different
mail addresses.  This is the only list public list to which I subscribe
with my standard address.

But you're right.  I don't get anything like 200 spams each day.  And my
name (as well as Michael's) is gender-ambiguous and I would still say
nearly all of my spam is for viagra and penis enlargement systems.

This is one of the many reasons that, if I were ever in the unfortunate
circumstance of having to name a human being, I would certainly choose
something unusual if not downright unique.  While it's a pain the patootie
to have to spell your name to people all the time and have each teacher
call you something different your entire school career (until you get old
enough for proper respect and then they only botch your last name in a
couple of different ways), it's well worth it to be able to do a google
search and know the results are for you and to not get random spam and the
like.

I mean, until we start referring to everyone by their Universal Security
Identification Number, our given names should be unique handles.

> I installed bogofilter.  It is nowhere near perfect (specificially, it
> is not tweakable to detect certain things like random title characters,
> or html attachments only, as probable spam) but it does knock out 90% of
> the stuff.  Keeps me sane.

I use spamassassin and it works just handily-dandily.

I'm using the stuff at some fella's Debian backports archive.  I'll post
the apt.sources if anyone's interested.  It works great and I get fewer
than 1% error since I started feeding my mailboxes through as ham and the
missed spam as spam.

That reminds me, is it necessary to pass the filtered mail back through
spamassassin for extra weighting or is it just read once and counted?

I guess I'm just unsure of whether the system needs reenforcing.

> and [if] countries that ignored local fraud merchants saw their
> international communication links go dead, spam would be far less
> profitable.

Of course, that's illegal by treaty.  It's a restriction of trade and the
WTO forbids such interference.

> Most of the trailer-court DSL crowd would have to find more honorable
> work, like armed robbery.

I think it's the midwestern subdivision DSL crowd.  Those crackerjack
houses have replaced the trailer park as the signifier of poor white
america's delusion of success in the past twenty years.

> Spam is the price we pay for ineffectively serving some customers, and
> treating some kinds of products with scorn, and not prosecuting crimes
> that are already on the books.

Woah.

Spam is the price we pay for insisting that the only way to improve the
human condition is by driving up consumption at a rate faster than our
increases in productivity.  This requires a constant increase in the type
and quantity of items we purchase.  It's not good enough to just buy food,
clothing, and shelter.  The economy can't survive unless you're also
buying a bunch of shit you don't need like viagra, life-like baby dolls
(made from a latex cast of a still-born baby), and USB thumb-drive
vibrating "love" toys.

If we just did the RIGHT thing and brought up employment by dropping
profits, increasing wages, and decreasing work hours (like we did seventy
years ago), people could be employed honorably (producing food, clothing,
and shelter) and not turn to such dubious lines of income.

It's time for the 30 hour work week and a $15 minimum hourly wage.

J.
-- 
   -----------------
     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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