Message-ID: <3B09337E.B27906D5@eton.powernet.co.uk> Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 16:25:50 +0100 From: Richard Heathfield Organization: Eton Computer Systems Ltd X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en-gb]C-CCK-MCD NetscapeOnline.co.uk (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en-GB,en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.basic.visual.misc,comp.lang.beta,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: RACIST RADIO HOST PIG - Off Topic References: <9e8cnc$mv14475@news.qualitynet.net> <3B0803BB.9D17B87E@eton.powernet.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.60.20.60 X-Trace: news.power.net.uk 990458603 195.60.20.60 (21 May 2001 16:23:23 +0100) Lines: 31 Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!newsfeeds.net.uni-c.dk!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!btnet-peer1!btnet-feed5!btnet!news.power.net.uk Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.lang.basic.visual.misc:478854 comp.lang.beta:12887 comp.lang.c:526205 comp.lang.c++:593096 Zy Baxos wrote: > > I've always wondered what the random-looking garbage at > the end of stupid spam posts was - I always assumed it > was rot13 or a variant thereof. How does that work as a > counter-counter-spam measure? Some newsfeeds will filter out duplicate articles. The pseudo-random gibberish inhibits this process. > > Ob on topic question: > > How would one program a counter^3-spam measure against > this in VB? Given the number of newsgroups to which this is cross-posted, I cannot imagine an answer which is both comprehensive and topical. As a minor observation, however, one possible avenue to explore would be to look up all words longer than, say, N characters, and check them against an English dictionary. If fewer than P percent are found, then reject the article, or at least pass it on for human inspection. The discovery of appropriate values of N and P is left as an exercise for the discerning ISP's anti-spam team. :-) -- Richard Heathfield : binary@eton.powernet.co.uk "Usenet is a strange place." - Dennis M Ritchie, 29 July 1999. C FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html K&R answers, C books, etc: http://users.powernet.co.uk/eton