Re: Subject: Email Service (off-topic)

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Patricia M. Godfrey"  on Fri, 28
Oct 2005 11:55:56 -0400


> wouldn't it make more sense--and perhaps let [ISPs] make more
> money--to realize that one size does not fit all and to have tiered
> plans: one for the clueless dweebs... [and] one for reasonably competent
> users

Not unless they want to administer two entirely separate networks. Either its
secure, or it isn't. The choice, today, is different ISPs. I belong to one
that is "insecure", and one that is so tight I can't breathe (used for
connectivity only). And because my insecure ISP is blacklisted by some other
ISPs, I have external Email accounts too, e.g. Gmail (cf. Tom Hawley's recent
post about outsourced Email services). Plus an international account, for
dial-up access from 150 countries -- this is, for now anyway, somewhat
obsoleted by the widespread ability to tap into unencrypted wireless networks:
from my bedroom in New York City, I can "see" about 150 different wireless
networks with varying signal strengths, of which about 120 are unencrypted. If
I plug an external antenna into my Proxim Orinoco 11b/g PC Card (the best card,
BTW), I see an additional 50 networks. Simply amazing. My assumption is, that
these users are so stupid that the risk to me (i.e. of them hacking me) is
infinitesimal. You can tell right away whether they've configured their access
points or not, i.e. their level of competence. Even in rural U.S. motels, you
can usually see a couple of networks. (I noted, in Amsterdam, that *everybody*
was encrypted. Not sure if this says something about the Dutch, or about
government regulation...)

Re: Bayesian filtering. It was a great idea, but it is easily defeated by the
current spate of multi-part junk mails with nonsense Text versions using big
intelligent words, and HTML versions that convey their real message. On to the
next idea...

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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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