Spam Nonsense

Received a spam mail yesterday; didn't even know what they were trying to peddle because the main information was on a graphic that was blocked, but the main body text was this:

be sucked i than not but efficient of lamb at to of eat Utah the also am there person i I to is size you make and might say ever a as and it your build For in i next few mess happier have love an two cuddle that so may in people make the mean when etc have sheets dug pine in like when in am will starts if on me and will in on love to best be

I get them like this all the time and know that this gibberish is an attempt to bypass the spam filters. Bob Rankin explains it fairly well on his website:

Spam vs. Anti-spam... the war escalates. This is an attempt by spammers to defeat the content filters that the new generation of spam blockers are using. Spam filters based on Bayesian algorithms try to determine the context of words that may be possible spam triggers.

If an email contains little more than "Enlarge your body parts! Click Here to Buy!!!" then it's pretty easy for a program to score those words and zap the message as spam. But if that text is buried in an avalanche of meaningless text that has nothing to do with anything, the job of determining whether or not a message is good or bad becomes much harder.

Round 'n Round

One of the error messages I had last night. The Pink Floyd song "Brick in the Wall" came to mind: "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

Had a BUNCH of trouble over the last couple of days; I had d/l the newest ZoneAlarm upgrade and immediately noticed a slowdown in performance. Opening up Task Manager, I noticed the "vsmon" cycling on and off. Knowing that vsmon was the the ZA app., I then tried to stop the process, but because it kept flitting on and off of the list of running programs, I couldn't click on it to stop the program. While it was doing it, the CPU usage went from 0 to 100%. No wonder this computer was slowing down!

Figuring that something must have corrupted the update, I then tried to uninstall ZA, but it wouldn't let me. Being as how I had, prior to the ZA update, d/l Windows Media Player 11, I thought that might have had something to do with it. I had also just d/l the newest version of Firefox, too.

I despised the WMP "upgrade" anyway, so I tried to follow the online instructions on rolling back to WMP 10. No joy.

After rebooting, I was then faced with only a few necessary processes loading; there were no icons on my desktop, no taskbar, no nuthin'.

Long story short, I suddenly found myself without a browser that would work, neither Firefox or IE. I had internet access because my mail program worked, but couldn't get on the internet to find some info. on the problem. Thinking a reboot might work, I tried that (several times) then started getting "NT Authority" error msgs. and having my computer shut down on its own. -sigh-

Won't bore you with the details, but finally got the bright idea (duh!) to rollback to a date before I d/l the newest WMP. That should've helped, but instead it put ZA AND WMP back on this computer so I had to start all over again.

Finally got it all sussed out; am using the Windows Firewall and got my Firefox back up and running (sans my add-ons) so all is well in Mike's World.

For now.

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Maybe a Drop Kick

You Are a Two Point Conversion

You are an adept risk taker. You love to go for the glory. You do what others are scared to do, and it pays off! You have no fear, and because of this, you're able to look at the odds rationally. You've taken enough small risks to get ahead in life, even if every risk hasn't panned out.

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Wild Fires

NW of Pampa



At this time, pasture fires are raging out of control in Gray, Roberts and Carson counties. Sunset should bring some relief with reduced wind and higher humidity.

Relations/Relationships

Another love letter

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Hello, I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that I am interested in getting to know more about you. I saw your profile on dating site. I guarantee that I am a nice lady and know how to treat a men... I search a man for all my life for long relationship. Possible having found out about each other more we can join. I'm looking for a serious relationship, so please don't reply, if you aren't serious as well. I want to find kind and reliable partner in life. I with the big pleasure will answer your letter.

Please write on my personal e-mail: sfartom@gmail.com

It is better to try and fail than to give up and never know if we could have relations.



Dear whatever your name is,

Thanks for your interest. Sorry to say, even though you're very attractive, I'll have to pass on your offer.

You see, English is a tricky language and maybe you're taking advantage of that. Let's say we did get together and shortly after we're married you say "Do you want the relations?".

Of course, me being the lusty varmit I am, I say "You Betcha!"

Then, the next thing I know, we've got your mom and dad, your older sister and baby brother and maybe even an aunt or uncle or distant cousin or two coming to live with us.

So, I will have to say...so that you will understand it..."I take the pass."

Regards,
Mike

P.S. You said: "It is better to try and fail than to give up and never know if we could have relations."

Uh, that's why Viagra was invented.