Random Thought Thread

I know. But does it work? I would guess not, but shady companies keep doing it because it's all they have the budget for.

 

It does. Traditionally it has worked through simple massive volume. The spambot I just killed managed to "lay" 4 spam-eggs that actually went live, but there were many more in the moderation queue that didn't manage to go live after the filter nabbed the bot. In the middle of November we will experience a massive Spam Attack. It happens every November in preparation for the holidays. This is, traditionally, also when spambotters release their newest ways to get around spam-filters and other roadblocks to entry into locations such as ours. Millions upon millions of accounts will be created and spread across the interweb.

And now spam has morphed (as many of you already know) into a different, new instar: The Fake Review™.

My own Amazon account got jacked just last week solely for the purpose of posting fake reviews.

 

Ouch! How did that happen?

 

Some little unscrupulous genius from MIT (or parallel technologies institutes of higher learning in other countries) writes a program that can hack out a password, then goes in and changes the email for the account so that they maintain control of the account until the original owner responds to the email alert concerning the email change (it goes to the prior email). I responded, but within the literal minutes it took me to get an Amazon associate on the line and fix the issue, the account had already sprayed fake reviews for all kinds of random products.

 

Spam made me remember how much I find James Vietch a riot

 

I know what spam is... never mind.

It can't be only Tuesday. I already need several naps to get through the day.

 

As funny as this is... it has a dark side. For five (5) years I worked for an over-the-phone interpreting company called Language Line Solutions (feel free to look them up). Besides the fact that it was basically a telephone slavery organization, it also gave me a window into unfiltered humanity and it wasn't pretty. It made me despondent.

Just one kind of example that happened with spectacular regularity:

*amazing tirade of Spanish curses and complaints about having received a new bill that shows a past due*

I interpret to that person: "Sir, you sent your check a little late and the check and the new bill simply crossed each other in the mail. Your account is up to date. Everything is fine."

*Person takes a deep breath and repeats the exact same tirade again, nearly word for word*

I interpret to that person: "Again, sir, the new bill and your check simply crossed each other in the mail. Your account is up to date. Everything is fine."

*Person takes a deep breath and repeats the exact same tirade again, nearly word for word*

Here's where I start to fantasize at a hallucinatory level, getting to say: "Look, dickhole. Your account is fine. You sent your fucking check late. Since we don't have magic powers, we cannot alter the print of a bill that's already in the mail. Your grace period is not part of your regular billing period. It's due on the 1st, not the 15th. Now please fuck off."​

That happened at least 5 times a day. And that's just one example amongst many examples of why it is a flipping miracle that humans are the dominant life form.

 

By comparison, this venue here is highly filtered. Humanity has been passed through three layers of ultra-fine nylon mesh to create the citizenry herein. The biggest issues - in a very broad and general sense - of a venue like ours are:

1. I Will Browbeat You Into Submitting To My Point Of View™
   • Borg™ Assimilation Package sold separately.
2. ALL VENUES ARE A SOAPBOX FOR MY PERSONAL CAUSES™
   • Derail Package comes standard.
   • Shoehorned Segue Package available upon request.
3. I'm Bored And Feel Like Fucking With People™
   • Inebriation Package sold separately.

Nearly all problems that evolve in a forum like ours can be categorized under one of those headings.

 

A while back we had a certain member from New Zealand who would get drunk and become wholly inappropriate with me in a lewd, sexual way. I'm not usually averse to bit of innocent bro-flirt, but this was well past the line.

 

Your mom clicks on those links.

A lot of moms do.

 

Even my mum can identify spam, and she is pretty much 'Grandma finds the internet' meme.

 

Going back a few pages .......
Have learned recently that my 6 times great aunt was burned at the stake for witchcraft. Apparently, it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Google: Mary Ayers Parker.

OK, you may go back to your regularly scheduled program......

 

Things I can intuit about my heritage as a Puerto Rican:

• Someone in my family was a slave, guaranteed.
• Thomeone in my family came over on a Thpanish Galleon, rank and pothition are not determinable.
• Someone in family was a Taino native looking at the coast and thinking "What the f**k are those things?"

 

This made me laugh out loud.

 

Me too Spencer

 

I am imagining the native peoples standing on shore watching these strange conveyances coming ashore and potentially having never seen anyone other than those of their own group/tribes.
A little Clan of the Cave Bearish when the neanderthal discovered the human and the horse.

 

And then, of course, their fate was sealed when a few of those Tainos had gotten fed up of the Spaniards working the "god trope" and decided to try drowning one (Diego Salcedo) and they discovered, nope, just dudes... but dudes with weapons. The story gets very unpretty from thereon.