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'Flick-werk zusammengestückelte Arbeit; stümperhafte Arbeit, Pfuscherei; Sy Flickschusterei
(Wahrig - Deutsches Wörterbuch)
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Tuesday, April 30, 2002
Old spam never dies - it just smells that way
Pop-quiz: How can you tell spam is spam?
Jill gives some answers. Another one certainly is: If it protests it's not spam - it usually is. - Like the mail I got today.
Spam usually brings advertising or unsolicited sexual offers. Others contain virus hoaxes (being mail-bombs themselves), ask you to donate bone marrow to a kid dying of cancer (and when you call the hospital they've disconnected to extension 'cause the call was really phone-spam against some unsuspecting doctor) or promise riches if you forward to your entire address-book (or a speedy demise if you don't).
Or they ask you to beta-test a new Microsoft mail-tracking programm. Send on the mail, Billy Gates will track you and send you money as a little thank-you for free testing ... haha
The first time I got this mail was in 94 (no lie! make it 95 if you will). Hoaxbusters has a little piece on it. I think I've seen it covered in magazines, too. And now Chris Davis sent me a copy.
How dumb can you be? I mean - you just don't *do* chain-letters. The first kid-dying-of-cancer-chain rang true - but no-one who's got a serious project would chain-mail anymore. And while I wouldn't put mail-tracking beyond some people, most companies today think twice before sending mail to people who didn't ask for it - at least in Germany, that's illegal. And also - what do you think when you read a subject-line like "Fwd: Fw: FORWARDED - URGENT = THIS IS NOT JUNK LETTER"! How dumb can you be?
And I don't even know this guy Chris Davis. It's not like a friend forwarded the laugh of the day or something. Though looking at the mail-header I can imagine where he raided for my mail-address. Come to think of it - the ancient mail, the recipients more or less copy-and-pasted from a conference-website - guess this was a deliberate SPAM. Chris Davis - get a real hobby!
1:16 PM
Sunday, April 28, 2002
The usual suspect
Friday, April 26, in Erfurt, Germany, an ex-student entered his former school and, going from room to room, shot students and teachers. 17 people died.
Today, Focus TV (private TV spin-off from the German semi-serious journal of the same name) shows a feature that tries to shed light on the event and its background: open and friendly guy, member of a shooting club ("Schützenverein"), not unusual in rural Germany, school grades deteriorated significantly in the last months. And then: not only did he like Marilyn Manson, he also played computer games. Quake and some other fps. "Such games offer the same setup XY (the student) created for his crime: you enter a building and shoot everyone in sight" - quoth a handy psychologist.
Now, that's easy: computer games are at fault. Governments'd better go and cut funding of game-studies-programs across the country: they're rasing little serial killers here. Next thing we'll see Espen Arseth open fire on his audience during a keynote. And having seen Susana Tosca play Crazy Taxi I'll think twice before I share a cab to the airport with her again.
2:20 PM
Monday, April 15, 2002
In case you wonder what I'm doing that's keeping me from blogging *at all* - this.
1:59 PM
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