Danny Angus

Why we don't need a definition of spam

2009-06-30T13:28:00.003+01:00

In my last, rather facetious, post I poked fun at John Levine for trying to prevent the ASRG from falling out, once again, over the definition of spam.

The catalyst for the current attempt was a post on the list that took issue with a paper I drew up (draft-irtf-asrg-criteria-00.html) a couple of years ago. At the time I attempted to define spam, but the whole review process became quickly tar-pitted in a debate in which despite the general agreement of the group the detailed differences were irreconcilable.
As one correspondent put it yesterday:

attempting to define "spam" is the very best way to ensure that a document is never finished.

So I plumped for this:

Any Message or Messages of the class of Messages which the Recipient wishes to prevent from ever being presented with. It is implicit in this definition that it is unnecessary to ever transport Spam. Spam in this context can also be defined as Messages which it is never necessary to transport. It is not in the scope of this document to attempt to distinguish or justify any more detailed definition of this term. Nor is it in the scope of this document to analyse the reasons why the Recipient wishes not to be presented with the Message or Messages.

My intention was to encapsulate some of the critieria which the ASRG applies to the ideas with which it is presented, some well reasoned but flawed, many bordering on the insane, a very few containing ideas of real merit. I set out to highlight common pitfalls, and ensure that proposals have a net benefit. Some don't. Go figure! Some would be more expensive to operate than transporting and filtering the spam would be, others appear to benefit someone, but only by passing on the real work to an innocent 3rd party.

So it occurred to me yesterday that the document is also addressing the problem of defining spam.The problem being not that a definition cannot be drafted, rather that no definition is universally agreed, and unfortunately each reason for disagreeing with any definition that I've heard has some genuine merit.

So my approach is this, if we cannot agree an academic definition of the problem, but we agree that the problem exists because we can recognise it when we see it, then perhaps we should apply the same standard to any proposed solution.

If we can agree that it smells like a solution, we don't need to agree about what the problem actually is.

Of course the risk with that approach is that by avoiding defining the detail of the problem we're never going to arrive at a solution that successfully addresses the detail , and not just the big picture, because we don't agree what the detail is.

Then again, anything which improves the big picture is beneficial, hence the success of DKIM and SPF, so this may not be a real concern.

Quote of the [specify period]

2009-06-30T09:17:00.004+01:00

This [specify period] sees two quotes, both of them from John R. Levine erstwhile chairman of the ASRG of the IRTF.

The first is redolent of Lewis Caroll:

I think that as soon as you start quoting the dictionary, you've lost
the argument.

The second is priceless given the context:

No, we're not going to define spam

Well done John, you do a great job, keep it up.
Have *two* awards!!

Blog Design

2009-06-27T17:43:00.003+01:00

Well I've finally got round to creating my own skin for this blog. Its a blogger blog by the way.

It was the new head of creative at work, Dino, who showed us www.gridsystemgenerator.com which I used to lay the whole think out by doing little more than setting the class of the blogger "sections" to one of the grid's generated classes.

Marvin the martian

2009-06-02T16:40:00.003+01:00

I was accused at Apachecon EU a year or two ago by Steve of relying on "architect tools" i.e. visio, powerpoint etc., instead of programmer tools, (like what? emacs!) For which he proposed a test framework here.

Well today I was discussing some of the finer points of separation of concerns with the guys and had cause to exhume (and re-label for php) a diagram I drew a couple of years ago for a former employer to illustrate the layering in our java systems to an interested, but unenlightened group of Oracle developers.

It would be a good test case for Steve's framework, because it has to be a particular shape, no matter what information it has to convey.

I could plead that I drew it first then recognised the shape, but I won't bother because life's too short.

Colleague Ed suggested it should be recorded for posterity so here is the original Java version...

"write to: Danny Angus, c/o Google, "

2009-05-27T13:54:00.002+01:00

Blimey folks,

I use the incomparable feedburner for this blog, and if you subscribe by email you get the posts in your inbox.
Imagine my surprise when I read this at the foot of the mail..

If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: Danny Angus, c/o Google, 20 W Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

I wonder what would happen if I did...

Dunkirk spirit

2009-05-27T07:51:00.002+01:00

According to this we brits are going to fight the credit crunch by watching football and going to the pub a little more.

The British economy is also expected to get a massive injection tonight from Brits going out to local pubs and clubs to watch the match on TV.
"Some people may choose not to travel to Rome, but they will generate economic activity at home," Chadwick said."

xml co-processor

2009-05-03T20:02:00.002+01:00

so much of what we do nowadays involves parsing XML isn't it about time we delegated it to the hardware?
Or has someone already done it, or more likely it this a dumb idea?

There are gypsies on the helipad

2009-04-30T14:12:00.002+01:00

I love it when life throws up odd surprises, this morning when we arrived for work we found our helipad (in the centre of this satellite photo) had been colonised by travellers because it give me the once in a lifetime opportunity to use the title of this post!

I believe that the helipad was originally car parking, when this site was a nylon factory, and it has a wide range of interesting uses, not only does the occasional helicopter land on it but also a motorbike stunt guy practices there and the police teach each other how to drive on it.

The gypsies would have got more than they'd bargained for if a helipcopter had come in, but we're more dissapointed that it was the police driving yesterday, I'd've loved to see the faces all round if the travellers had woken to find themselves surrounded by the police driving school .

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against travelling people, I'm just a fan of serendipity.

Swings and roundabouts in IT skills demand

2009-04-28T10:09:00.003+01:00

I was looking at this while reviewing salaries and found some interesting trends, reproduced here for your entertainment.

A) Oracle DBA's, polish up those Mysql Skills..

Fig 1 Mysql demand last 3 mths

Fig 2 Oracle demand last 3 mths

B) No one wants your java skills, go learn PHP...

Fig 3 Php demand last 3 mths

fig 4 Java demand last 3 mths

Print to a network printer from Ant task on Windows..

2009-04-23T11:06:00.006+01:00

I wanted to print a checklist as the final task in a release management Ant job.
We have a predominantly windows environment on the desktop, so I thought I'd try using the DOS print command, but was initially foiled when trying to use a network printer.
I was then mislead slightly by this: NET USE LPT1: \\MY_SERVER\PRINTER which I found here.
In the end the obvious solution (to use the share name for the device) was the right one.
Reproduced below, it works a dream, now you too can spam your office printers!

<exec executable="print">
<arg value="/D:\\dundonald01\panasoni"/>
<arg value="${doc.dir}\checklist.txt"/>
</exec>

Reviewer of the week

2009-04-15T22:54:00.003+01:00

Is it just me, or would this book review put you off too?

I loved this book. When I read it again someday, I will do it with an erasable crayon in my hand, marking it up like I do my Bible.

Have an award reviewer!

Imperial War Museum

2009-04-14T17:39:00.004+01:00

Coo, we just got back from the imperial war museum where we not only saw a WW1 tank, which was smaller than I expected, a massive and excellent display of all things WW1 & WW2, and an enigma machine,

but also Lawrence of Arabia's Brough Superior. What more could you ask for from an afternoon at a museum?

the innovations of yesterday today!

2009-04-03T14:29:00.002+01:00

Go take a look, you'll waste a lot of your friday afternoon..
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/

prog eComm

2009-04-03T13:30:00.003+01:00

Ecommerce is the new Prog Rock!
Yes that's right, since I added the mini-note to my desk @work I now have three keyboards, one on the xps m1330, one on the mini-note and a full size one, elderly colleague X likened it to Rick Wakeman.

(if I owe you credit for the picture pls let me know!)

April Fools

2009-04-01T11:49:00.002+01:00

Updated!

Lol.. CADIE http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html
CADIE gets nomintated :-)

But This one from opera gets the award, it had me laughing quietly to myself (the nearest I dare get to ROTFLMAO in a busy office!) http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/04/01/ I was particularly taken with the "Known Issues" which includes this:

Users visiting Web sites that contain adult content sometimes make unconscious facial expressions.

php ws-*

2009-03-27T12:04:00.003Z

We're looking around for a good means of implementing ws-* services (& clients) in php.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the guys at WS02, weel kent in Apache circles thanks to Paul Freemantle, have a PHP Web Services Framework.

Not only is it reassuring that folks who are instrumental in pushing Java implementations of these standards forward are re-purposing their expertise into php, but also it appears to be well documented too. Here's hoping it live up to its promise.

thrift is the new black

2009-03-27T11:57:00.002Z

Save money at home. Don't buy expensive whiteboards, write on your fridge.

New map == Older map

2009-03-25T15:09:00.002Z

Google maps have replaced a fairly recent but poor quality satellite image of my home with one four or five (or more?) years older.
Its like looking back in time to my (comparative) youth!

Happy Birthday Apache!

2009-03-25T15:01:00.003Z

The Apache Software Foundation celebrates its 10th birthday today!

Since I became a commiter (on Wed. 26th Sepember 2001) we have weathered a few storms, and there have been more than a few changes, but today the ASF seems to be well set up to face the future, and a future that encourages participation by more people than ever.

Happy birthday ASF, have an award.

Eclipse Oracle 11g

2009-03-24T21:02:00.003Z

Oracle have released a plugin for eclipse

This certified set of Eclipse plug-ins is designed to help develop, deploy and debug applications for Oracle WebLogic Server. It installs as a plug-in to your existing Eclipse, or will install Eclipse for you, and enhances Eclipse's capabilities for Java, Java EE, Spring, ORM and WebServices.

Make use of the tools we like to use, sounds like the Right Thing Oracle. Though I'm surprised and intrigued that they claim it will enhance "Eclipse's capablities for Java", frankly I find it hard to imagine what else Eclipse could offer for JSE development, unless its UI stuff. I must investigate.

Anyhow, nice to see Oracle following through on their promises and joining in with the rest of java-world.

This sucks...

2009-03-24T12:03:00.001Z

Google Mail voice and video chat is not yet available for Linux.

What more need I say... :-(

In the event of a crisis Strike Fear into the hearts of your users

2009-03-24T09:44:00.004Z

I quite like this simple statement from the WASP framework docs;

Every framework needs an error screen. Pink is used in WASP because it is especially frightening

I don't think it's very wise to make your error screen frightening, but boy is it ever tempting, and because they have had the balls to do it they get an award.

I wonder what ever happened to the project? Their latest release was in 2006.

Perhaps the idea of making PHP more like Java didn't catch on! No award for that I'm afraid.

New Online Store

2009-03-20T14:11:00.003Z

Today's big news is that REISS UK online store has gone live with little or no unnecessary fuss.
Sadly for my foreign friends it uses geo ip to filter out non-UK folks.
However if you do appear to be in the UK, go mad, buy yourself a cardi http://www.reiss.co.uk

Most amusing task description ever to cross my desk

2009-03-17T13:34:00.003Z

In our task management system today, under the excellent heading:

Photoshop Thongs - URGENT

We find the even more excellent description:

Please remove the "camel toe" (sorry I don't know how else to describe it) from all womens thongs appearing on the site as a matter of urgency

Colleague X, Have an award :-)

Quote of the [specify period]

2009-03-06T11:05:00.007Z

As you can see from the photo I have now got Ubuntu 8.1 and Compiz running on my HP Mini Note. You may also recogise Eclipse as the window on the front left face of the cube.
Awesome.
Whilst getting all this stuff in place I came across this quote (Found here)

This is due to a bug in the "workaround" plugin

Fantastic, you couldn't make it up, and I'm sure you'll agree its a worthy winner.