Comments on: The Spam Therapist http://winpdb.org/2009/05/the-spam-therapist/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:15:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: nir http://winpdb.org/2009/05/the-spam-therapist/comment-page-1/#comment-77603 nir Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:45:04 +0000 http://winpdb.org/?p=310#comment-77603 I suggested Eliza as a symbol. I do not believe Eliza should be used as is, rather a custom chat machine specialized for this purpose. Nevertheless, chatting with such a robot could be fun if it has a personality, such as Eliza's, Marvin the paranoid android or HAL 9000. I suggested Eliza as a symbol.

I do not believe Eliza should be used as is, rather a custom chat machine specialized for this purpose.

Nevertheless, chatting with such a robot could be fun if it has a personality, such as Eliza’s, Marvin the paranoid android or HAL 9000.

]]> By: solrize http://winpdb.org/2009/05/the-spam-therapist/comment-page-1/#comment-77592 solrize Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:48:29 +0000 http://winpdb.org/?p=310#comment-77592 Yes, you can use akismet behind the scenes (we use it on our servers) but I think they are possessive about the incoming multi-source data streams that they see, so you couldn't really implement a similar function that worked as well, without independently building up a user base of comparable size. Anyway, the traditional Turing test is administered by a human. The interesting and novel thing about captchas is they can be administered by computers. Eliza doesn't make any attempt to tell whether it is talking to a computer. Emacs used to have a "zippy" function which output random Zippy the Pinhead quotes from a list, and a "psychoanalyze-pinhead" function that made Zippy talk to Eliza. The results were amusing. Yes, you can use akismet behind the scenes (we use it on our servers) but I think they are possessive about the incoming multi-source data streams that they see, so you couldn’t really implement a similar function that worked as well, without independently building up a user base of comparable size.

Anyway, the traditional Turing test is administered by a human. The interesting and novel thing about captchas is they can be administered by computers. Eliza doesn’t make any attempt to tell whether it is talking to a computer. Emacs used to have a “zippy” function which output random Zippy the Pinhead quotes from a list, and a “psychoanalyze-pinhead” function that made Zippy talk to Eliza. The results were amusing.

]]> By: nir http://winpdb.org/2009/05/the-spam-therapist/comment-page-1/#comment-77590 nir Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:36:17 +0000 http://winpdb.org/?p=310#comment-77590 Sure, The idea is to use similar techniques to those of Akismet and Google, including the use of consolidation of information from many sites. In fact, it may be possible to use Akismet directly behind the scenes. Sure,

The idea is to use similar techniques to those of Akismet and Google, including the use of consolidation of information from many sites.

In fact, it may be possible to use Akismet directly behind the scenes.

]]> By: solrize http://winpdb.org/2009/05/the-spam-therapist/comment-page-1/#comment-77589 solrize Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:27:10 +0000 http://winpdb.org/?p=310#comment-77589 I think gmail and akismet work by spotting similarity between arriving spam posts directed at many different users and sites. It's hard for a single site, given a single input from an apparent user, to tell whether the input is valid or spam. But when gmail or akismet sees similar messages being posts simultaneously to 1000's of users or sites, it's easier to tell what's happening. Glad to see this site is still up! I haven't looked here in a while. I think gmail and akismet work by spotting similarity between arriving spam posts directed at many different users and sites. It’s hard for a single site, given a single input from an apparent user, to tell whether the input is valid or spam. But when gmail or akismet sees similar messages being posts simultaneously to 1000’s of users or sites, it’s easier to tell what’s happening.

Glad to see this site is still up! I haven’t looked here in a while.

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