prillalar: (dogbert)
prillalar ([personal profile] prillalar) wrote2004-03-08 02:39 pm
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Hal smash!

So, I get a lot of spam. I have a lot of repressed rage about spam. But today I came close to un-repressing it.

I got a spam message with this subject line:

Reply to your comment...

Damn those spamming fuckers to hell! Must they fuck with *every* damn thing? (I'm sure my filters at home would have caught it -- but I was using webmail at the time.)

In related news, I realised the other day that I've been online for more than ten years now. Sadly, the reason I realised that is because Friday was the 10 year anniversary of the infamous Cantor & Siegel Green Card Usenet spam. Well I remember that day.

Good thing my lunch hour is over or you'd be subjected to ramblings about MUDs, Gopher, and the first time I made a PPP connection and used Mosaic.
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[identity profile] destina.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
and the first time I made a PPP connection and used Mosaic.

Mmmm. Memories of Winsock just popped into my mind. Luckily, they popped right the hell back out again. *g* I've been online 8 years, and I'm feelin' every one of them these days.
prillalar: (guinness)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I have Winsock memories too, though they are much more recent. I did tech support for an ISP a few years ago and they still supported Windows 3.1!

For some reason, people would get themselves a new computer and then give their old crap computer to their grandma and then we had to spend an hour getting Grandma up and running with Winsock and ooooold copies of Eudora and IE.

Buy your Grandma an iMac, folks.

[identity profile] minitrog.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
So, I've not been online for anything like as long as you, but I still am prepared to un-repress on the spam issue. Aaagh!

Actually, the last time I ate spam I threw up, I think it was the gin, not the spam itself, but it tasted a lot worse on the way out! [/total aside]

I now get 6 times as much spam as regular mail, and that includes all my lists - (um... as mail, not as spam! *g*)

The nightmare of changing mail addy is the only thing stopping me doing just that. Imagine if I missed some rare goodfic, or heaven forfend, some f/b. I stick with the spam, but the dispair levels are high.

Thanks for allowing me to co-vent! *g*

X
prillalar: (wes)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Vent any time, baby, any time.

And Happy, Happy Birthday to you! (Well, it must be Belated Birthday by now.) *smooch*

[identity profile] minitrog.livejournal.com 2004-03-09 11:00 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks hon. It's actually 'happy hangover' right now... *g*

Ow.

I've had that one.

[identity profile] laurashapiro.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
That "Reply to your comment" one, I mean. E. Vil.

Someday I want to hear about the Cantor & Siegel thing.
prillalar: (bob+dave)

Re: I've had that one.

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The Cantor and Siegel thing isn't all that interesting, but here goes. :) It was not the first spam by any means. There was already some email spam, I believe, and some Usenet spam. But the big deal here was that instead of crossposting, they used a bot to post individual (but identical) messages to a huge number of newsgroups. And that made it pretty much impossible to get rid of since there would have to be a cancel message for each individual post.

It was the beginning of the end. *g* It wasn't long after that that AOL let their users loose on the net and things got even weirder.

Re: I've had that one.

[identity profile] laurashapiro.livejournal.com 2004-03-10 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for explaining.

Stupid spam.

[identity profile] pinkfinity.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Gah, I was in law school when that happened, and took a computer law class the following fall where we discussed it extensively. Oh, internet law, your infancy is so long past!
prillalar: (darling)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
God, can you believe we have spam nostalgia? How fucked up is that?

[identity profile] iamrosalita.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Next year will be my 10 year anniversary online. Time really does fly when you're having fun.
prillalar: (mulder)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, yes it does. :)

[identity profile] dejla.livejournal.com 2004-03-08 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooohhh... if only I could write virii... I would write one that would loop back to that spammers' mail and completely wipe his hard disk!!!!!!!!!!!!
prillalar: (bellatrix)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-08 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Don't we all wish!

[identity profile] xsmoonshine.livejournal.com 2004-03-09 12:32 am (UTC)(link)
Spam is one of the greatest mysteries of the world to me. Does anybody actually respond to spam, or is there just a small handful of nuts who think it's fun to bug 346783956834 people with one click of the 'Send' button?

'Reply to your comment' is indeed eeevil... Next, they'll pretend to be your mother.
prillalar: (8-ball)

[personal profile] prillalar 2004-03-10 07:01 am (UTC)(link)
People do respond to spam. A tiny percentage, but enough that it continues to be lucrative for the spammers. *sigh*
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