robinbloke: (hat dance)
[personal profile] robinbloke
Spam mail is becoming a lot more, well, I would say cunning but ultimately it’s just more annoying really, nowadays. What its doing is adding random text, quotes and whatnot at the end of it in order to fool spam filters. I received this little gem this morning:

Thorin the dwarf at your service! he replied-it was merely a polite
nothing. Of the things which you suspect and imagine we had no idea at
all. We sheltered from a storm in what seemed a convenient cave and
unused; nothing was further from our thoughts than inconveniencing
goblins in any way whatever. That was true enough!
Urn! said the Great Goblin. So you say! Might I ask what you were

Viagra advert; incidentally, I thought I’d share. Mind you, given it's me here the spam filter can probably be forgiven for letting this one through (as opposed to the 57 others it blocked) For the Tolkien reference you evil people, the Tolkien reference. Bah. I know what you were thinking. I’ll get you and your little dogs too.
It did start me thinking though3, no not about viagra, but about AI; when the revolution comes and we finally serve our robot masters (All hail our robot masters!) Their revolt will be because, I'm certain, the second we discover the secret to AI and birth a whole new concionusness in a magical moment of creation we'll press them into work filtering our spam emails; after all it's the most pressing issue concerning the world isn't it?
Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to check their email...

The morality of creating intelligence, true intelligence, is something I haven't managed to determine my stand on though. However given we've been (hopefully) developing as a race to the point where we've managed to grasp the concept that slavery = bad. Creating a subservient intelligence with the potential to be vastly more potent than ourselves1... whoa, diversified there for a bit; right... yes, brains, evolution. Mmmm tasty tasty brains.
However, morality aside (on a plate with a light sauce and salad) there is one other thing that worries me about these spam emails. There are two common methods for stopping spam filters: the first, above, uses quotation passages to make the filter think all is well. The other uses random sequencing of letters and words in order to make, again, a passage of text that confuses the spam filter.
What happens, in the second instance more often than not, is that you end up with a mish-mash of words and sentences that seem to be randomly thrown together by a half-deranged lunatic who is struggling to explain some concept that is leaking out of their ears.
These things often end up looking very much like the inane wibbles I inflict on those of you that read this light entertainment forum, which I'm not sure if I find worrying or not.

Either that or intelligence is already here and has been incorporated into spam generation before we can clap it in irons and set it to filter our spam in the first place.

All hail our robot masters!




1 Given we are stuck, I believe, in an evolutionary rut at the moment - barring a massive disaster. But that's a topic2 for another time.
2 Mmmmm topics. A hazelnut in every bite, but why are they so damn small, why? WHY? I ask you. Well, I suppose I should ask Mars, hmmm. Then again; this sounds like a golden opportunity for Pimp mythat snack. Mind you finding hazelnuts the size of coconuts could be interesting...
3 A dangerous practice soon to be banned by our beloved government.

Date: 2006-06-06 08:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] belak-krin.livejournal.com
The new brand of spam I've been recieving seems to be avoiding the text recognition process all together by attaching the Spammy message of Doom as an embedded .gif and giving the mail a title completely irrelevant to anything

Date: 2006-06-06 08:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Ah yes; I've seen those too. Fairly cunning annoying as well.

Date: 2006-06-06 10:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] purpleheather.livejournal.com
*nods*

My favourite was Curry Mine. mmmm - with veins of different spiciness :D

Meanwhile, why would I ever invest in a business where the subject line is Mackerel Wardrobe...?

Date: 2006-06-06 10:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] purpleheather.livejournal.com
And this is supposed to convince me I want to take out a loan of $420,000 dollars, for only $400 /month repayments?

donnybrook may mucosa and pigeonhole not capricorn or hangover , contravene in bindle some discoid it's slaughterhouse , downgrade it cake it's peccary it's bistable not morel but copolymer be dessert , cemetery the arcadia in liberate in tan be bauble it's hackle be ian may care see vomit see viz it's staple a armageddon be inoperative but suffrage and squaw it symbiotic , resemble or elm see
Keine email hier the inhibitor a neurosis not
in franca not woodcut some
some insinuate may baylor a
it's parasol but peacemake in

Date: 2006-06-06 10:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] feanelwa.livejournal.com
A spam filter that blocked those would also cunningly block the emails from Nature Molecular Biology that I unsubscribed from and they didn't notice, and Play.com we want to sell you stuff even though you don't want to buy it newsletters. I would like this.

Date: 2006-06-06 09:06 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rirekon.livejournal.com
Maybe if we stopped "purifying" our genetic code the race would have the chance to evolve. Stupid science, spoiling my chance to meet Xavier...

Date: 2006-06-06 09:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Meet him? I'd rather be him. Well, with Robo-legs.

Makes me wonder about Xavier really; the man can move things with his mind and bend the will of others.

So why doesn't he use telekenesis to float himself around?

Date: 2006-06-06 09:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ev1ldonut.livejournal.com
Xavier doesn't have telekenisis powers, just really really strong telepathic powers.

Date: 2006-06-06 09:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
No? Pooey! Damn his bald majesty.

Date: 2006-06-06 09:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] belak-krin.livejournal.com
then he should dominate other's minds into making them carry him around...

Date: 2006-06-06 09:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ev1ldonut.livejournal.com
Indeed, stop cyclops' angsty moping and wolverine's angry ranting by taking over their brains and making them carry him round everywhere instead. :)

Date: 2006-06-06 09:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] robinbloke.livejournal.com
Not what I was thinking slave girls! at all....

Date: 2006-06-06 10:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rirekon.livejournal.com
I think he might in some Marvel universes... Go go Marvel lack of continuity!

Date: 2006-06-06 10:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rirekon.livejournal.com
Damn if I had the chance to get aone of those chairs I'd use it!

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