Windmills of My Mind: Keep out of my mailbox, please ...

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Keep out of my mailbox, please ...

I am angered by spamming, in general, and usually write almost instantly back, in as rude terms as I can, demanding to be taken off the offending list and often suggesting where they can stick their products, if the size is right. Sometimes it works (I am referring to being taken off the list, not to the suggested action), though more often it doesn't ... there are too many persistently annoying bastards in this world. But it does help me get rid of my anger.

Some spammers send me unsolicited religious messages, occasionally asking me to repent. To them I am politer, limiting myself to expressing the view that spamming is the cyber equivalent of entering a house without knocking - a practice, I believe, that is un-Islamic.

More often I get religion-oriented spam to understand why the sender's rival is a fraud (the recent spate of anti-Ghamdi emails is an example). To them, when possible, I send back their emailed .doc attachment after carefully replacing all occurrences of their names with their rival's and vice versa. Not too surprisingly every charge one brings upon the other holds equally valid after this switch.

Today, some ass whom I do not know - and certainly do not wish to know - has sent me 'warm regards' (I wonder what he sends real friends, if he has any) and says he is looking forward to welcoming me "at 5th International Defence Exhibition & Seminar – IDEAS 2008!" As a pacifist I am even further offended at this particular spam, not just because it represents all that I detest but for promoting an event that has the loony tagline: Arms for Peace!

What are we going to see next? Dicks for Virginity?

Labels: Activism, Events, Media, Pakistan, People, Personal, Politics, Rant, Religion, Technology

6 Comments:

Maleeha said...

ah spam.
i had Brands 2008 incessantly send me spam invites, even when i wrote back to point out how spamming was perhaps not such a good promotion strategy for a wannabe-credible branding expo. that didn't work, though, so i sent them a final email suggesting they brand their collective ass, and filtered them to my trashcan.

arms for peace is unparalleled though. i really haven't had an equivalent in my inbox in the past 12 years, unless it was a typo and they meant arms for pieces, in which case i've had plenty.

07 October, 2008 20:18

Vic said...

@maleeha: perhaps they meant 'alms for piece', spurred on by their annual begging bowl exercise, and the innovative applications to which they put the millions they collect.

@zak: sadly, I think they actually 'borrowed' the aphorism from the Green Berets circa Vietnam, whose secret death squads used to tattoo themselves "We Kill for Peace". How anyone could consider that a motto worth emulating...

08 October, 2008 01:08

Sidhusaaheb said...

I simply 'select' the message and hit the 'Mark as Spam' button, in case such a message is delivered to the Inbox instead of the Spam folder.

:D

09 October, 2008 14:25

rahmat masih said...

@sidhusaaheb

My. How clever. (By the way, are you a Consultant by any chance?)

10 October, 2008 05:57

Sidhusaaheb said...

@Rahmat Masih:

Thanks for the compliment!

I am so flattered by the fact that when you read my comment, you forgot completely about the blog-post.

:D

06 November, 2008 02:22

Zakintosh said...

Just adding an example of this continuing war:

  On 29 Nov 08, at 9:18 AM, I received an email (supposedly) from Ali Asad:  

A Christmas greeting to cheer you, my dear friend !  As you know, we are reliable wholesaler , and we can offer you the top quality item , they are very usefull , such as laptops, phones , TVs , and you can send them as gift for your family or friends , it's so perfect ,right ? welcome to visit our website : www.e-tradehub.com  MSN/EMAIL:e-tradehub@hotmail.com  well, if you are interested in our products , please feel free to contact us for more ! Best whishes !  sincerely yours

My auto response wwent to Ali Asad (abd was bcc'd to a couple of ppl):

Stop this fucking SPAM ... particularly using religious occasions of any community for CRASS COMMERCIALISM. And take me off your BLOODY ILLEGAL MAIL LIST!!!  

On 29 Nov 08, at 10:28 AM, Sabeen Mahmud wrote:

Poor Ali Asad. His account has been hacked. He would never send this shit. Have received 4 such messages since the morning.

SORRY, ASAD! I have, since, sent my response to (probably) the rightful originator (e-tradehub@hotmail.com) as indicated in the body of the email ... and hope that you and others will take this up with him/hotmail/whoever.

Screw spammers!

29 November, 2008 13:45

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: Name: Zakintosh; Location: Karachi, Pakistan

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Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

Bertrand Russell

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

Noam Chomsky

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Albert Einstein

Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.

John S. Spong

DESIDERATA

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann

Windmills of My Mind

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Keep out of my mailbox, please ...

6 Comments:

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