Looking through my mailbox this morning, it has become clear to me why the internet is slower than it should be…
- Dear Bank of America Customer…. (I’m not, now, nor have I ever been a Bank of America customer)
- A big Dick is no longer a dream (Well, I’ve never had a problem, there)
- Number # Canadian pills (Don’t need any, thanks)
- Are You Confident in Bed? (I dunno, I’m not sure…ask my wife)
- Slots, Roulette, Poker, Blackjack...(Hmmm… maybe I can win enough to pay for better spam filters?)
- Buy this stock! (Can’t afford it, my money’s being spent on spam filters)
- Interested Products! (What are they interested IN, past my wallet?)
- Confirm your online banking information. (Do people still fall for that one?)
- Longer, harder….(What, my work day?)
- Wells Fargo Security Measures! (With an address of course that comes up on a server in Hong Kong.)
- Right Behind you! (Selling Viagara… I’m not going to ask what they were thinking tying that phrase to this subject)
- Please, do it for the children…(No, thanks… doing it was how we GOT the children)
- My name is Edward Moore QC.Principal partner Edward Moore & AssociatesLondon UK and i was compelled by my late client’s request to contact you on a matter of great financial reward.My client late Hassan zahrul(Malaysian by Birth) ,an Industrialist and Real Estate Guru died recentlyleaving a vast wealth in your name as his “Next of Kin”. (Ya know, it’s good when people value the classics [1])
Now, personally, I’m using Thunderbird, behind my mail servers, each of which has spam control running… and these are just a small sample of the 200 or so mail notes I get from obvious spammers each day. (One of the drawbacks to running a website, I suppose). Thunderbird, it should be noted, has some of the best and most adaptable spam filtering in the business.
[2]Just for laughs, let’s assume that I’m only getting half of the spam that is sent me, because of the filtering and running both the server level, and at my client level. That would mean, that just the addresses within the two domains that I receive mail from, are pulling something on the order of 400 mail messages per day, which are Spam related. Since I receive perhaps four or five mail messages a day that I really care about, including feedback from BitsBlog readers, that puts the signal/noise ratio at about 1/100.
Forget that I have the expense of running a seperate box that is specifically designed to eliminate all of this nonsense, and for what it is, it does a fair job. Can you imagine the poor buzzards who are not running such utils?
Obviously, I’m not the only one receiving that kind of ratio. Some have a better signal to noise ratio, some do not. But regardless of whether or not the spam filters at the receiving end are picking up the problems and deleting them, the Internet backbone is carrying all that crap. I can’t imagine, but that’s not become a serious problem in terms of overall Internet performance.
Look at it this way; to achieve a set level of performance, Internet designers have to over design by a certain level, to accommodate the spam noise level on the net. Can you imagine how that isn’t costing us money?
[3]The legalities involved, are long, and complex, and in the end, inconsequential. So too are the many commercial attempts to stop spammers by way of software, and whatnot. Despite many laws, we are still stuck with it. The reasons are simple enough; I am often enough said in this venue that actually solving a problem it is counterproductive for a politician. Once the problem is actually solved, they don’t have that problem to run on as a platform anymore. The problem with the commercial concerns is of a kind; they can’t make a buck off a problem that no longer exists.
And so it goes.
Some interesting reading.
Bloody vikings.