Mozilla 1.6.b

[Leo J Mauler]

On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:06:54 -0600 Jason Clinton <me at jasonclinton.com>
writes:
> Leo J Mauler wrote:
> | I've been reading a bit about the challenge-response 
> | anti-spam system.
> 
> Bad idea unless in the worst of situations; you are 
> effectively doubling the amount of traffic generated 
> by spam.

My E-mail box fills up so fast with SPAM from random 
URLs from spammers who have learned that spelling 
"penis" as "p-e-n-i-s" or "p-e+n=i-s" (and other words 
similarly spelled) get past a lot of SPAM blockers.

This is why *I'm* considering SPAM blockers.  And I 
suspect that government agencies (such as the ones I 
was referring to in this message) need to reduce SPAM 
drastically to cut their costs so Dubya can afford to...but 
I'll leave politics out of this for now.

> | Basically, when someone sends you an E-mail, 
> | and they are not on the "allowed" list, an 
> | autoresponder sends an E-mail back requesting 
> | a response, only using a picture of a number to 
> | verify that the original sender is not a 
> | spam-generating marketing computer.  If  the
> | live person reads the picture and sends back 
> | the number in it, the live person gets added to 
> | your list of "people who are allowed to send 
> | me E-mail".
> 
> Even the simplest challenge-response would defeat 
> 99% of spam because 99% is sent from bogus 
> email addresses or machines that are coopted 
> for spam sending for a short period of time. I see 
> no need to send hundreds pictures or audio per 
> day out from your account for a challenge 
> response when only a tiny fraction of those will 
> every actually be seen by anyone. A simple "reply 
> to this message to be added to my whitelist"
> should work.
> 
> | system of challenge-response which does 
> | not have an audio alternative is in violation 
> | of the A.D.A. or a similar law I don't know 
> | about.
> 
> This is a popular myth. Despite what you may 
> have heard, the A.D.A. doesn't affect anything 
> but government agencies.

I *knew* that, and the context of the sentence I posted made my knowledge
*very clear*.  The *entire* sentence you replied to was (and note
highlighted portion):

> I'm asking because I know of a number of 
> *government agencies* which are trying to 
> limit their own SPAM by using challenge-
> response systems, and it seems to me that 
> any system of challenge-response which 
> does not have an audio alternative is
> in violation of the A.D.A. or a similar law 
> I don't know about.

*Government agencies* choosing to use challenge-response systems which
use pictures of numbers.  Not for-profit corporations, not independent
non-profits, *government agencies*.

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On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:08:52 -0600 brad <brad at bradandkim.net> writes:
> I am running Mozilla 1.4a and I can Deny All/Allow Some.

Cool.  I'll download the newest version and check it out.

(with any luck the features didn't change from 1.4 to 1.6 like I noticed,
from *personal experience*, the change from 1.2 to 1.3).

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