From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-06-06T20:45:06+09:00
Subject: Re: SPAM from Usenet

On 06.06.2009 08:23, Bill Kelly wrote:

> This is starting to sound partly like a gmail problem.

I think rather not.

> I've used the same email address for 22 years, and I've 
> never made much attempt to shroud the address in any
> online posting.  As one might expect, I receive a TON
> of spam.

Hehe, sounds as if someone is paying you as a honeypot provider. :-)

> The ruby-talk spam is a drop in the bucket.  I suggest
> it's partly a gmail problem, because (apparently) 
> gmail doesn't allow any kind of local filtering (being
> web-based.)

Actually, IMHO this is wrong for two reasons: first, you can read GMail 
via POP or IMAP.  Second, GMail's spam filtering is pretty good and I 
believe your spam marks train the filter.  I believe at least in theory 
a spam filter of a mail provider with web access can be much better than 
a local filter because there is more training input.

> As an aside, here's an idea for a ruby quiz.  Start
> with a pre-existing Bayesian spam classifier and a
> huge corpus of spam messages, and have quiz participants
> augment the existing classifier by inventing new methods
> of analyzing the kinds of messages that slip through
> (such as ones that play HTML/CSS tricks to hide verbiage
> intended to fool Bayesian filters, etc.)

That sounds more like a competition than a quiz, doesn't it?  The winner 
will be the software with least false positives and most identified ham. :-)

Cheers

	robert

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