April 23rd, 2009
No spam filter is perfect; I still have to wade through a few emails every day that spamassassin doesn’t catch.
Some of the most successful ones are those that insert chunks of text from freely available sources. (One spammer frequently samples works from Project Gutenberg.)
Usually these will get run through some primitive form of Markov Chainer, which will munge the contents up enough so they’re not easily matched to existing sources, but language-like; …enough to fool the heuristics on most spam filters, anyway.
Since I still browse most of these emails using PINE, I am thankfully spared the graphic ad (usually for male enhancement supplements) and instead only see [IMAGE].
But I usually glance over them, just to double-check. And today I found myself reading the whole message body from one of them. It’s a somewhat jumbled, but otherwise touching, glimpse into another person’s life. My guess is that someone got some spyware on their computer that ransacked their inbox or their sent-mail, and it stole their email.
Here’s the content of the email, formatting preserved and all:
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April 11th, 2009
If you’ve ever seen the movie The Sixth Sense, then you will understand what I’m about to tell you. There is a whole… other group of people walking around out there, and you need to be on the lookout for them. But if you know what signs to look for, you’ll be okay. Here’s a handy field guide.
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April 6th, 2009
Update: changed to reflect new iPhone 3G S.
In light of Apple’s recent announcement of what will be coming this summer in the iPhone 3.0 OS, I thought I’d revisit some of my wish lists / complaints from previous posts and recap what’s “solved”, what I’m hoping to see, and what still appears to be broken / missing.
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April 6th, 2009
Well, I made it through volunteering for my first SXSW. I was on the conference tech crew for the interactive festival. What this really means: I sat in the room for the panels and made sure that the presenters could hook their laptops up to the projector (when it’s a mac, we sometimes need to call in the Dongle Squad), and that the levels were good on the sound board. It was nice to get to sit in on the talks; I saw some cool new concepts and heard a few thought-provoking arguments.
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February 25th, 2009
The past week or so has been pretty nice. We’ve been out walking early in the morning, and just went bouldering at Sunken Gardens. Earlier this week, my neighbor and I went to Seismic to do some climbing in the greenbelt, and a week ago I joined some folks from Christina’s climbing group at Reimers Ranch. This past weekend, the Jugglefest was taking place at UT-A, and I met a lot of fellow unicyclists and went on a few nice long rides.
We’ve also been eating healthier. The main staple is brown rice, either chicken or fish as a main entree, and a vegetable. This isn’t always how it goes, but it’s becoming more common. Eating earlier is also important, as is going to bed earlier.
Living in a place with nicer weather helps (it’s supposed to hit 86 F today, and it’s the end of February); not just because it’s warmer, but also because there are longer days and more days with sun. This is better for staying positive and in a good mood.
Posted in Austin, TX, Rock Climbing, Sports | No Comments »
January 27th, 2009
iPhoto ‘09
iPhoto ‘09 became available in stores today. I was excited about it because it has two new features that I think we can use at our camp, Places and Faces. It also makes it easy to publish photos to Facebook or Flickr. I tested out the new version by opening our Wedding iPhoto album… lots of people and a few locations to identify.
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December 7th, 2008
My typical issue with being asked what I’d like for a gift: I usually just get something, if I need it or really want it, or I’m saving up for it and it’s too pricey to be a gift.
So, this is more of a list for myself, to remind myself that there are things out there that I’m saving up for.
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December 5th, 2008
I saw the review of the Pulse Smartpen and LiveScribe software (now Mac OS X compatible!) and left a comment on their blog, hoping to win one:
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November 13th, 2008
We went to look for apartments in mid-November. On the plane to Austin, the flight was pretty full. The guy in front of me reclined his seat right into my knees. I’m 6′2″ and all leg; if I pull my pants all the way up I look like Steve Urkel.
Anyway, the guy also kept putting his hand backwards and holding the back of his seat, which I also found a bit creepy. And I think he was also passing gas.
Otherwise, it was a thoroughly enjoyable flight.
Tags: austin, texas, travel
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September 27th, 2008
For the next few days I’m at the Austin City Limits music festival 2008, enjoying a lot of great music from a lot of very talented bands.
But they’re not all bound to hit me where I live… and there are 130 bands to check out. This translates into a lot of reading or listening ahead of time.
This morning, while looking over a schedule where I’ve only heard of six of the bands and actually only listened to four (out of forty-six!) I had a thought. What about music recommendation websites?
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