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old hand
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old hand
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Has anyone ever noticed how it seems wordsmiths are at work when writing the subject lines of spam nowadays. I assume it is party due to ever better mail filtering software that the spamers seem to use more and more obscure language in the e-mail headers. One I received recently reads 'unextinctness further'. Any explanations or other examples?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Spammers are trying to use language that could be by combining morphemes at random and the resulting words into phrases, the better to defeat bayesian filters that many of us use to put spam in its rightful place, the trashcan. It works to a degree.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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bayesian filters
Whuzzat?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Article on bayesian filtering.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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That is a thoroughly interesting article. It raises the spectre of allowing someone else to determine which words in my messages are most likely Spam words -- e.g. if I wrote a lot of e-mail about Viagra or about refinancing -- and that disconcerts.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've had the misfortune to have several of my daily mailings flagged as spam by ~cop or ~assassin for containing words that merely contain possibly offensive *memes. also, I once was flagged for including the word "God" in a citation from one of William F. Buckley's books.
I don't think I'd use the word assassin in a mailing, even were I to find a *really obscure term for assassin in the OED.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Father: Aren't you going to get after tsu for the tilde
dalehileman
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addict
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addict
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Quote:
Father: Aren't you going to get after tsu for the tilde
I volunteer!
Which do you think is better Re: Odd spam languageassassin or Re: Odd spam languagecop?
While we're at it what's *meme and *really about?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I guess for anyone who sets out to deliberately misunderstand, anything's possible. For the rest of us the tilde clearly acts as a stand-in for the key phrase under discussion (in this instance 'spam').
*This is a local convention used in a semi-jocular shorthand for italicisation or other vocal emphasis. Every speech community accretes its own slang and customs. What can I say? - get over it. [/shrug]
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Carpal Tunnel
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or,
*emPHAsis
*EMPHASIS*
footnote*
*see?
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Carpal Tunnel
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> For the rest of us the tilde clearly acts as a stand-in for the key phrase under discussion
yeah, but we've given dale a hard time about using it. I thought tsu's tongue was firmly planted en chic...
formerly known as etaoin...
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addict
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Quote:
*This is a local convention used in a semi-jocular shorthand for italicisation or other vocal emphasis. Every speech community accretes its own slang and customs. What can I say? - get over it. [/shrug]
_Sorry_, I've been a member of this "speech community" for quite some time now, and somehow this meme didn't get accreted on to me yet. Where I'm from _this_ is emphasis, in case you ever visit my speech community.
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Carpal Tunnel
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To be a little more specific the single leading asterisk signifies a *slight emphasis rather than the *strong* emphasis indicated by the combined leading and trailing asterisks. This is what tsuwm was getting at with his slightly cryptic *emPHAsis and *EMPHASIS*.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quite right, Myr - I would expect to learn the custom, just like visiting _any_ new territory. I perhaps assumed too much in figuring the meta-reference to the [/shrug] code would suggest no heavy hand was intended but. As to giving Dale a hard time (apart from the fact it's obviously mandatory!) I had got the impression his usage of the tilde was *singularly opaque, having often omitted to make entirely clear what the reference point was. 
Last edited by maverick; 05/26/06 10:28 PM.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
his usage of the tilde was *singularly opaque, having often omitted to make entirely clear what the reference point was.
In some contexts it's standard usage. One can hardly fault someone for using something he considers standard usage.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>In some contexts it's standard usage. One can hardly fault someone for using something he considers standard usage.
the context where I've seen tilde used in this fashion is in dictionaries (representing the headword). which this ain't.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Gosh. I thought tsuwm was making fun of Dale when he used the tilde.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> tsuwm was making fun
> I thought tsu's tongue was firmly planted en chic...
yup.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Time and tilde wait for gnomon.
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Ack. You're just a shadow of yourself!
TEd
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gnomon
"pillar that tells time by the shadow it casts, esp. on a sundial," 1546, from L. gnomon, from Gk. gnomon "indicator," lit. "one who discerns," from gignoskein "to come to know" (see gnostic).
Online Etymology Dictionary
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gnomon = A miniature hunch-backed man who lives under bridges in Jamaica.
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