Archive for words

The Ultimate Spam-Filter Avoidance Technique

March 25, 2008 at 10:15 am · Filed under Spam, advertising, words

I’ve finally seen it: the Ultimate Spam-Filter Avoidance Technique.  Today, I got a message in my in-box, big as life, amd it wasn’t even marked as spam.  It read:

                                                     yx
gb    dy  lz                                        onfy     je       zhmd     dw
wk    ou                                           jsiudj  ecyi      hs  kp  sqwf
 fq  qv                                            hxmu      kn          xc    wm
 jk  jl   eb   ethz    hjlgt  hwpn   hrmi          ptll      fx          lw    dk
 bk  df   rl      kh  qp  bl  xby       fg          nxye     ig         ud     mv
  gdxn    rs   rtmjm  ci  ip  rs     objfx  opzoq    yeov    oi        vh      gu
  ltmo    co  ur  by  kv  he  ch    qx  ic           hspf    fv       gi       mh
   wc     cb  ep  sw  lr  rz  cd    yl  sp         hxyjxz    hf      wd        qq
   ei     oc   mcnwk   wdziz  le     jmkpx          gjko     bx  mn  ehqupf    dd
                          df                         xb
                      emzzi

Now,  don’t get me wrong, but…if your eyes can see what I can see, you probably already understand the problem.  Spam filters are designed to search through text looking for key words – like viagra, porn and big financial deals – and shuffle the messages off into oblivion.  And, if you look real closely, there’s plenty of text there–lots of it, in fact–all random letters layed out in a nice formatted grid courtessy of “Courier New,” Microsoft’s default Monospaced font.

But what the span filter WON’T see is what your eyes tell you: that this is a sales pitch for that miracle drug that lets men function even when older, failing hardware won’t let them.  And this, of course, is just the start.  I dropped the part that encoded their website address in the same fashion, as well as the snippet from some story or blog post entry that followed it (in a normal font and text size, of course) in order to fool the filter into thinking this was real.

Now, I should tell you, I filter my own spam.  Yes, I have filters on my server(s) mark the spam, but before I get rid of the crap, I like to check it.  It wasn’t from someone I knew, but that wouldn’t have mattered.  I often get messages from people I meet online, or from friends who’ve changed internet providers and so on.  Also, I can generally tell the ones from scammers in South Africa who claim to be needing to use my American bank account(s) to transfer $50,000 to €50 Million out of some defunct corrupt official’s accaounts.  Those people just want an account number so that they can rob my US checking account.  I just forwarded three of those to SPAM@UCE.GOV, the Federal Trade Commission’s Span Reporting address.

But this … this has to go.  I mean, it’s cool and all … As a geek, I get to point and laugh about how the creative Human Mind can overcome “this Technological Terror they’ve constructed” – one more bit of proof that the computer, while logical and fast, will NEVER be crazier (or better) than us.

But why does it always have to be spammers that figure this stuff out?

 bgjy   jh      lz    rc     qs
wk  ou  js            dj    ekox
fq      hx          knthwp  smrn
 jk     ebthz   hj    lg    okbq
  jk    rl  kh  qp    bl     wf
   dx   rs  jm  ci    ip     pl
    mo  co  by  kv    he     gc
zf  wc  cb  sw  lr    rz
 sgul   bw  we  op     mzz   un

SASS has Spoken.

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Wow, I Hit the Big Time!

December 13, 2007 at 5:17 pm · Filed under You-Tube, blogging, words

I just hit the top page of GOOGLE!  I did it with a search for “Eva Cassidy Fact Fable“–which, incidently, was my way of trying to find a video that my employer, Fact & Fable Productions, made as a tribute to Eva Cassidy, using their autumn footage and Eva’s song “Autumn Leaves.”  I put the song up on YouTube, and it has since begun to circumnavigate the virtual globe.

I embedded that YouTube video of “Autumn Leaves” in one of my posts, and Google picked it up.  Now, here’s the interresting part: there are multiple places where a person could find “Autumn Leaves”.  (Our version … done by Fact & Fable Productions, I mean).  Fact & Fable Productions is one of them, in fact … we put up a post on the Fact & Fable News Blog with the same information.  However, it was this very blog that Google caught, and presented to you at the top of the search engine listing.

Now … I doubt I’m considered a popular blog.  In fact, Fact & Fable Productions has a page rank of 2, and my measly little blog doesn’t even rate on Google’s bandwidth yet.  And still it was my copy, my embedded version of Autumn Leaves that Google presented to the world when I searched for it.  Not the F&F News Blog … not even the video on YouTube itself!  Me.

I feel so honored!  Thank you, Google!

SASS has Spoken.

p.s., Incidently, I’ve revisited this post, and my page still turns up at the second entry for the search.  However, now the YouTube page for it is at number one.  That makes alittle more sense now.  I still feel honored to be among such company.

 SASS has Spoken.  Again.

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How big is a Blog?

October 24, 2007 at 9:35 am · Filed under Politics, blogging, words ·Tagged , , , , ,

As a unit of measure, words can often be considered the smallest units of reason. Sure, in the hands of a master orator, a good speech, or a brilliant bit of prose or a poem can change the course of history. A well-crafted song at a critical juncture can mean victory in battle, or start a movement of people that changes everything.

But then, they’re just words … right?

Well, in a 2002 speech by Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Bidden Jr., I was reminded that our founding fathers knew how words could reshape history. Thomas Payne wrote “The Crisis”, a series of pamphlets that supported the Revolutionary War, and legitimized the founding of this nation. And when they wrote the Declaration of Independence … well, I probably don’t have to go into how important that was, seeing as how none of you in America are the future subjects of King Charles, nor pay your taxes to Elizabeth II … at up to 80% of your income, I might add….

This was done with words. Oh, sure, those words were backed up by muskets and cannon, but without the words, who would have raised a pistol or an arrow? And who … without the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … would have stood up to the national guard in Alabama? Who would have fought for – and changed – the laws that held one segment of our society hostage to the will of another?

Yes, this is the power of words: words make people think. When they think, they change their minds … they take action, and they start talking, and the words change other peoples’ minds. More people acting, and talking, and thinking means the words spread and grow. Soon the words of one or a few people become the ideals of thousands, then tens of thousands, then countless masses. And when the words spread so far that they become the common thought of the people, then, for better, or for worse, history IS changed. When Adolph Hitler said, “It is not truth that matters, but victory,” a nation followed him and led the world into Hell. When John F. Kennedy challenged us “Before this decade is out to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth” we followed him into the modern world.

Indeed, we measure our success by the power – and longevity of our words. How powerful, then, are the works of William Shakesphere? The Gettysburg Address? The Constitution? What is the power of the common Blog? Will it not be a Blog that sparks the next Cultural Revolution, or Civil War, or Human Rights Movement? Is it not the Blogs which have propelled Environmental Awareness into the mainstream? Who among you is the next Martin Luther, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, or Thomas Payne?

What is the Measure of The Common Blog?

I tell you, it is immeasurable.

SASS has Spoken.

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The SASS is Here…

October 4, 2007 at 3:31 am · Filed under blogging, words ·Tagged , , ,

A new day has dawned.

I know that statement is cliche and overused, but every morning it happens again … a brand new day.  And on this particular day, I’ve started my own Web-Log.

This actually comes as a surprise to me, as, while I’ve posted responses to many blogs, I’ve never seen the necessity of starting my own.  That is, until my collegue advised me that I should start a blog for my employer, and I wound up creating one of my own.  A forum, if you will, for the many words of wisdom I’ve gathered, and a few words of ignorance, I’m certain, to be displayed for all of the world to see.  In the words of an ancient “tagline” from the pre-Internet days of dial-up bulletin boards and WWIVnet, “Open mouth, insert foot … echo internationally.”  Well, in this case, there is no echo … you’ll hear it all directly from ol’ SASS himself.  Unless you read some quote out there on somebody else’s blog.

I have alot of quotes.  Some of them are downright funny.  Take, for instance, the immortal words of one Samuel Clements.  You might know him better as the legendary Mark Twain.  Back in his day, they weren’t all complaining about how stupid the President’s foreign policy was.  Nope.  Their scapegoat was Congress.  For instance, Twain once said, “There is no distinctly American criminal class.  Except Congress.”  Of course, in his day, many of them were in the pockets of major corporations and trade groups (read: monopolies) like US Steel and Standard Oil.  (Any correlations to Haliburton here?)

Also, few lawmakers in the 1800s had the education we now take for granted.  We once even had an illiterate president!  Said Twain: “Let’s say you were an idiot, and lets say you were a member of Congress … but I repeat myself….”  And then there’s Bush.  So … we have us in 2007, and we have Twain in 1887.  Has anything really changed?  Why, YES!  NOW we can blog about it internationally!  In his day, Twain had to wait for his comments to appear in the Saturday Evening Post (Anyone remember that one?  My grandmother had a subscription….)

And, so I blog.  You will learn my politics (I consider myself a cultural Anarchist with a touch of Avant-Garde), my professional life (I do computer stuff … duh), and my inner self (there’s something deeply religious in there, if I can sift through the insanity to find it … you have to be a little mad these days to see the world objectively).  I am SASS.  I am THE Sass.  Observer.  Corresponder.  Correlator.  And I blog.

Hello, world.

SASS has Spoken.

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