Hurricanes Affecting Spammers? 277
Ant writes "According to BusinessWeek Online's article, Lots of folks think the hurricane hits in Florida, the Sunshine (and Spam!) State have taken slowed the volume of spam." I've not noticed any decrease.
Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! (Score:5, Informative)
I've not noticed any decrease.
From the article:
But daily results posted by MessageLabs, Earthlink (ELNK), and Symantec (SYMC) showed little correlation.
And neither has anyone else. It was only a single institution that claimed their weekly spam traffic was down 100 million messages. The article mentions that two top 10 spammers remained in the top 10 even during the storms. They even (hopefully) jokingly claim it was a heroic effort.
Re:Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, I have noticed a slight decrease on the number of spams both me and my clients receive during the last 5 days. Something like 3-10% decrease.
On the other hand, this have happened before, even with no hurricanes looming over Florida.
This kind of assumption if very dangerous. Just because for some reason we have some decline on the number of spams, it doesn't mean any single facts from the news is responsible by it. Anything, including a heavy spammer motherboard burning can be responsible by it. This kind of thing is very hard, if not impossible, to prove.
And we can predict (*crystal ball growing*) that the number of spams will increase again soon.
Re:Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! (Score:2)
http://postini.com/stats/world-spam-2048.jpg
Re:Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! (Score:2)
The number of spam-reports sent by spamcop is surely related to the amount of spam received at various inboxes, although also affected by other variables (such as changings in the parser algorithm by spamcop).
ms
Re:Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria! (Score:2)
Hard evidence? (Score:5, Funny)
Lots of folks think there are black helicopters poisoning the citizens of our country too, but that doesn't make it the slightest bit true.
According to my Spam Stats [imagetown.net] (Coral Link [nyud.net]) the level of spam going through my server is relatively steady.
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:2)
MIB is that you?
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:3, Funny)
True. Right now they are tied up poisoning the citizens of OTHER countries.
"/Dread"
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:2)
Look in the Memory Eraser. Click.
Re:Hard evidence? (Score:2)
The solution to spam! (Score:5, Funny)
InterNet did fine in 1989 quake (Score:2)
Re:InterNet did fine in 1989 quake (Score:2)
Internet use in 1989, effects of quake (Score:4, Interesting)
Back then, if you used the Internet, it was all a text-based interface. You'd log in to other machines by telnet. File transfers were by FTP. IRC was established in 1988 but not well known until the 1990's. (I ported IRC to HP/UX, sent the patches to the author, and didn't touch it again for over a decade because it looked addictive.) HTTP (the protocol of the web) wasn't invented until 1990.
I was a Computer Science student at California State University, Chico at the time. I think it was a great time to be studying Computer Science and networking.
By 1989, the Internet was already an international network spanning the US and all its Cold War allies (western Europe, Japan, Australia, etc.), with hundreds of thousands of users. The vast majority of users at the time were at large corporations, educational institutions and government/military sites. Direct access from residences was not yet common, though there were already some at the time. A lot of e-mail at the time was still transported in batch mode via UUCP over 1200-2400 baud phone modems, using the Internet only as a backbone along a multi-hop e-mail forwarding path.
The Internet has always had some decentralization by design - it was designed by the US military to be decentralized so that there was no center of the network for an enemy to attack. Even after it went into civilian use, that was enough for it to "stay up" through the 1989 quake even though some sites went down.
In 1989, San Francisco wasn't the center of the Internet or the quake - San Jose/Silicon Valley was. The World Series at Candlestick Park, the Bay Bridge collapse and the I-880 Cypress Freeway collapse that most of you saw on TV were all 80-100 miles from the epicenter, which was in the mountains spanning a 35-mile segment of the San Andreas fault between San Jose, Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
However, many phone switches in the region crashed when SF's phone switches went off-line. Most of the phone outages were just due to too many people picking up their phones to make phone calls at the same time after the quake, which happens after every quake.
Even so, many direct-connected Internet sites took as long as a few days to get back online. So as far as disasters go, it was comparable to Florida's hurricanes.
Anyway, so that's a bit of the history. It was a well-documented quake so there's a lot of history to look up if you want to. Some of our younger readers were too young to be aware of it at the time, or not even born yet. The 15th anniversary of the quake will be next month on October 17. Those of us who were in or near the area still remember where we were at 5:04PM, or shortly thereafter when we first heard about it. I was just far enough away in Chico that I didn't feel it. (My parents lived in San Jose at the time and I had been here for both of the 5.1/5.8 pre-shocks, so I was very interested.) But others in Chico either felt it (in tall buildings), saw chandeliers sway or saw swimming pools start sloshing. Many in the US learned about it quickly because of the World Series (baseball) - it was San Francisco vs Oakland and the game was just about to begin. Live news coverage had just begun and all the satellite uplinks were already reserved and live when the quake hit so the media couldn't have been more prepared to cover a major quake. So you'll find a lot of info about it out there.
Re:Internet use in 1989, effects of quake (Score:2)
Re:InterNet did fine in 1989 quake (Score:2)
decrease? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:decrease? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, hurricane Javier [noaa.gov] is somewhat near Cali right now. Maybe it'll take a fortunate turn northward? :-)
Re:decrease? (Score:2)
Re:decrease? (Score:2)
Re:decrease? (Score:2)
California: Spammer running for U.S. Senate (Score:2)
Read all about it at billjonessucks.com [billjonessucks.com]
Funny, i just checked my yahoo account (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Funny, i just checked my yahoo account (Score:4, Funny)
Well, you might call it spam or whatever but atleast somebody was sending me email.
From an insider's perspective... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:From an (TRUE!) insider's perspective... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:From an (TRUE!) insider's perspective... (Score:2)
God got so ticked at getting so much spam that he decided to smite Austin, MN with a great flood. Then Noah tapped him on the should and said that SPAM != spam.
Seriously though - the had like a foot of rain up there on Tuesday night. Nothing like a hurricane, but it still causes problems.
Re:From an (TRUE!) insider's perspective... (Score:2)
I really do hope that everything is ok up in Austin. I was in Ankeny during the "floods of 93" and know how much that kind of thing sucks.
Re:From an insider's perspective... (Score:3, Interesting)
No difference for me either (Score:4, Funny)
At least I'm still get personal emails from high ranking democrats, why just today John Kerry himself sent me one.
Re:No difference for me either (Score:2)
Re:No difference for me either (Score:2)
Re:No difference for me either (Score:2)
Re:No difference for me either (Score:2)
Re:No difference for me either (Score:2)
Careful, I got one of those, but upon further inspection, it turned out to be a scam - just like all those e-mails you get from PayPal and US Bank. I reported it to Kerry's abuse team; they thanked me and said they'd investigate.
So what... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just as Microsoft learned when they had a DDoS against their DNSs and subsequently went to Akamai, the spammers will learn from this. After all, email is their livelyhood.
strike while the iron is hot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:strike while the iron is hot (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:strike while the iron is hot (Score:3, Funny)
Re:strike while the iron is hot (Score:2)
upcoming Chad Fiasco (it still amaze me that some counties are still going with punch cards this Nov.).
Re:strike while the iron is hot (Score:2)
Remember the attack on Florida at the beginnning of the last Enterprise season? The one that blasted a trench through the state of Florida? Evidently your post went through a time warp and started the whole thing.
Re:strike while the iron is hot (Score:2)
No Change? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No Change? (Score:2, Interesting)
But... (Score:2)
But seriously, why write this puff piece? Take a look at this quote form the article: "The bottom line: Nature's wrath on spammers makes for an eye-grabbing fable. But more likely, neither rain, nor snow, nor slashing winds will keep unsolicited e-mail from its appointed rounds." Sheesh!
It's an ill wind that blows nobody some good... (Score:2)
Correlation does not equal causation (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes luck is just luck. There is such a thing as coincidence, in spite of what the religious nuts may try to tell you.
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2)
Pot is the gateway drug because most people that use harder drugs have smoked pot too. By this very same logic we could say that really, oxygen is the gateway drug, since EVERYONE that uses harder drugs breaths oxygen. Maybe its some third thing causing both. But that doesn't work as well in propoganda.
The other thing I hate is all these people saying SSRIs cause people to commit suicide. How stupid c
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a really excellent Web article [csicop.org] titled Coincidences: Remarkable or Random? that I came across.
The thing that really caught my eye was where it shows mathematically that if you randomly select any twenty-three people from anywhere, there is a 50 percent probability that at least two of those people share the same birthdate. Nifty stuff.
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2)
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2)
And yes, I am a pot user.
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2)
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2)
Re:Correlation does not equal causation (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, let's have a careful analysis of what I wrote, shall we?
I believe the phrase in question is "religious nuts."
What I meant to say, specifically, was that there are certain people who are rather religious and would have people believe that there is no such thing as coincidence -- everything that happens, happens according to a plan. See, for example, the "intelligent design" school of thought.
I personally disagree with it, and I think a lot of those people are nut
PLEASE HELP MY MILLIONAIRE DOG... GOD LOVES YOU! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:PLEASE HELP MY MILLIONAIRE DOG... GOD LOVES YOU (Score:2)
Holy retribution (Score:2)
Odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
He was worried that he'd get disconnected at some point, but we played for like 6 hrs straight on a Task Force that day, and I saw him online a couple of times throughout the hurricane days.
I guess he was lucky. I was surprised he was able to be online all of that time down there. We knew he was based in Miami since before the hurricanes, so it wasn't like he was trying to get attention.
Personally, I'm glad to be living on the upper-East coast. Our weather is mild, we have no earthquakes, mudslides, or raging fires to worry about (though my state is in the top 5 for largest forest coverage).
It would take A LOT for me to want to move down to Florida (though Spring Breaks are tempting).
Re:Odd... (Score:3, Funny)
"Stupid hurricane....always taking me away from my Everquest time!"
Re:Odd... (Score:2)
you still have the remote possibility of being hit by a tsunami from the Canary Islands... [bbc.co.uk]
Re: (Score:2)
my email is drastically reduced (Score:5, Funny)
A divine warning to spammers (Score:5, Funny)
To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: (Score:5, Funny)
Just Kill Them (Score:2)
If Bush really wants to get re-elected... (Score:2)
Re:Just Kill Them (Score:2)
And here I thought.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And here I thought.... (Score:2)
By the way, I have the sum of $45,000,000 (FOURTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS) in petro-money stuck in Nigeria....
Re:And here I thought.... (Score:3, Funny)
Insurance companies (Score:3, Interesting)
If insurance companies have noticed that the cost of their spam filtering in their IT department is affected by Florida, then they should divert the costs of the filtering to premium rises in Florida alone, rather than dumping it across the board. Maybe then something would be done about it, when Florida insurance holders would notice raised premiums when they deal with their insurance to cover hurricane damage. And maybe it would actually affect their voting.
I would see this as no different from any of the other excuses that insurance companies use to raise premiums, like what kind of car you drive or the crime rate of where you live. Any company that has expenditures to cover spam filtering in their IT departments should charge florida a little extra.
Re: (Score:2)
Redundancy (Score:2)
M
Increase (Score:5, Funny)
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To: ezeanimadu@yahoo.com
Subject: ASSISTANCE NEEDED
From: Madu Nominees Carbez.
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Mother Nature, not wrath of God (Score:4, Interesting)
To take the position that God should somehow clear Florida by sending hurricanes is absurd. Literally millions of people with no connections to spam were affected.
Four people died in Blountstown, an 8 year old girl in Milton, and several others in Panama City Beach, and so far, no connection between the deceased and spamming.
If Mr. Helm wanted to write a piece regarding spam and Florida, he should of posted all the comments flaming the moron that had written the original post.
Re:Mother Nature, not wrath of God (Score:2)
http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=040710 [sluggy.com]
Re:Mother Nature, not wrath of God (Score:2)
From Florida with Love (Score:2)
No spam for me (Score:3, Funny)
Eureka! (Score:2)
More hurricanes!
Even if it's not true... (Score:2)
It's not just spam. I've seen bogus sweepstakes from Clearwater, but most importantly, a vast majority of those "minimum investment required" "business opportunities" (the usual fodder of late-night cable TV ads) all come from south Florida...note all the addresses of the defendants in this comprehensive list [crimes-of-persuasion.com].
The state, to me, seems to produce
I'm not sure (Score:2)
http://www.spamcop.net/spamgraph.shtml?spammont
What the hell? (Score:2)
Re:What the hell? (Score:2)
At least it's a bit more creative than GNAA application forms...
Businessweek is on crack (Score:2)
Sep 6 19190
Sep 7 19202
Sep 8 20092
Sep 9 23417
Sep 10 23229
Sep 11 17529
Sep 12 19330
Sep 13 27464
Sep 14 24520
Sep 15 20670
Hey spam decreased on Sept 11 - that's surely evidence that the spammers were taking a moment of pause to honor our nation's "sacrifice".
I've notices a decrease in quality.... (Score:2)
Why would it change? (Score:2, Insightful)
While this is a reasonable idea on the surface, the reality is that spammers aren't necessarily spamming from their own computers. So if they aren't spamming from them, it doesn't matter if their power is out due to a hurricane.
Florida houses the people that are responsible for the most spam, but that is a legal thing (especially Boca Raton which has the most favorable bankruptcy laws for spammers - they get to keep physical assets such as their Porsches) - it
I didn't notice a decrease ... (Score:2)
CNN's two permanent headlines. (Score:2)
"New Microsoft patch to fix security flaw"
From The Trenches (Score:2)
Re:Maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Maybe (Score:2, Funny)
I hear there are people on the east coast saying the same thing, that the damage to Fla is to rectify the theft of votes.
But, if Ivan the Terrible hit/s Louisiana and turned it to LOOuisiana, would that mean this is to wipe out voodoo or something?
Might be interesting if Louisiana and Florida were adjacents states. Imagine combining Voodoo and Spam...
VooDam
When that shit hits your inbox...
'VOODAMN!"
David Syes
Re:Maybe (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solution (Score:2)
"Economical" ???
My thought was, "That's right up there with "analyzation," "resignate," and "foreign-handed policy."
But maybe you were being subliminable and I just didn't get the ironical parts.
Re:Solution (Score:2)
I hope you aren't suggesting that Economical [reference.com] isn't a real word.
Re:Pretty interesting stuff (Score:2)