Internet Barf

I barf, therefore I am
 

Easy ways to spot Twitter Spam

  • You get a @reply message from someone you don't recognize
  • The message sent "xx min ago from API" (see below)
  • When you try to view the Tweet (not the link) it might be deleted
  • All of the tweets from this account say the same thing (see below)
  • All of the links go to the same place and they are all ads (or worse)

Whoever these people are I assume they are somehow creating random Twitter accounts and making them look just real enough to get by the Twitter police (profile pic, "real" name etc) and then trick you into clicking these links so that they get paid for the ads to follow.

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Filed under  //   SPAM   how to   twitter  
Posted August 6, 2009
 

Where did the term SPAM come from?

My auntie asked me this last night and I was kind of embarrassed that I didn't know.

Here is the link to the Wikipedia post about it.

And here is the Monty Python sketch mentioned on Wikipedia

Personally, I like the false etymologies from the Wikipedia post:

There are three popular false etymologies of the word "spam". The first, promulgated by early spammers Canter & Siegel, is that "spamming" is what happens when one dumps a can of SPAM luncheon meat into a fan blade. The second is the backronym "Shit Posing As Mail" The third is similar, using "Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages" Another false etymology is the Esperanto interpretation: The term spamo (with the o-ending designating nouns) makes sense as "senpete alsendita mesaĝo", which means "a message sent to someone without request.

Filed under  //   SPAM   acronym   come from   etymology   monty python   what is   where did  
Posted February 18, 2009