Talk Story
Killing weeds
that choke the
information highwayBEFORE I answer one of those e-mails from Nigeria, I'm holding out for the best offer.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency's online World Factbook, the Nigerian economy used to be based on oil, mining and agriculture. Lately, however, it's become diversified.
Nigeria's primary industry today, apparently, is to scam everyone smart enough to own a computer but dumb enough to hand over a bank account. As they say, it only takes one.
Mrs. Sese-Seko would cut me in on a piece of $12 million, but that's peanuts. (Peanuts are another former Nigerian export, by the way.) In the same morning's e-mail, Senator Mr. Amman Richard offered 30 percent of the $23 million he's salted away and Chief Ademola Williams, who says he oversees the oil industry, would hand over 20 percent of $38.2 million.
Nearby Togo has joined the fun. Dr. Mrs. Gabriella S. of the capital city, Lome, dropped me a note confidentially offering me a hefty share of $14 million if I'd just let her slide it into my bank account.
It's not difficult to walk away from $15 or $20 million dollars every time I check my e-mail, but what a waste of time.
LIKE anyone whose e-mail address is posted someplace online, I suppose I get more than my share of unsolicited junk. Spam comprises about 50 percent of my email or about 70 slices a day.
This rubbish is aggravating enough at the office, but it becomes especially tedious on vacation where I find myself downloading several days' worth of mail over slow, dial-up connections. The alternative is to deal with the backlog when I get home.
This morning's harvest included stock tips, mortgage loans, insurance, Internet marketing schemes, real estate, wonderful news about herpes, pre-qualified VISA cards, tooth whitener, the Web's hottest singles community, satellite TV systems, adult passwords, a pitch from a Taiwanese manufacturer of folding hospital beds and sporting goods and -- my favorite -- an offer for anti-spam computer software ("Tired of spam e-mail? Of course you are!").
So, the story in Tuesday's Star-Bulletin about a San Francisco company called Cloudmark caught my eye. Cloudmark has developed a program called SpamNet that filters out spam e-mail using network technology similar to that developed by Napster to share music.
Like Napster's, SpamNet's price is right. The beta version is free. Unfortunately, for now it only works with Microsoft Outlook. Fortunately, Outlook comes with Microsoft Office, the ubiquitous word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation software package, which many computer users happen to have.
After reading about SpamNet, I downloaded it from Cloudmark's Web site and installed it on my PC.
BULK e-mail goes to millions of addresses repeatedly, which is its weakness. Instead of deleting spam messages, SpamNet users click a button on their Outlook screen labeled "Block." This both moves the message to a folder called Spam and reports it to the SpamNet server. After several reports, the message is added to a black list.
After that, whenever SpamNet users download their e-mail, all black-listed messages are automatically moved to the Spam folder. Unfortunately, they are still downloaded to your computer. Fortunately, you no longer have to see them.
The first time I used SpamNet, 32 messages were waiting in my account and 11 went directly to the Spam folder. One from "SexyMichelle@msn.com" slipped through.
With a single click, I ratted on SexyMichelle and sent her come-on to the Spam folder. Helping to save thousands of e-mail users -- someday maybe millions -- from having to deal SexyMichelle was far more satisfying, I discovered, than just deleting one obnoxious message.
Just as spam e-mails are the weeds choking the information highway, SpamNet has the potential to become the Roundup.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.