The future of email is bleak.



  • Gee Yahoo!, don't you think email from 20 years in the future might go better in the Bulk Mail folder?

    Future Spam



  • But then my emails from Marty McFly might get discarded.



  • What I am curious to know is how you managed to avoid spam for 12 whole years?



  • I get things like this all the time... Most mail clients order mail by their send date, so crafting a mail to have a date in the future is a good way to ensure your message will be at the top of the receiver's inbox.



  • But since it's something that should never be the case for legitimate mail, it should be cause to label the email as spam.



  • @m0ffx said:

    But since it's something that should never be the case for legitimate mail, it should be cause to label the email as spam.

    I hate to disagree, but I've recieved plenty of legitimate mail from people who have had the time on their computer set incorrectly.



  • Well, yes, but there's out by a few hours or even days, and there's out by many months or years.



  • My computer was out by a month for a while.  I still have no idea what caused it.  Luckily, I noticed quickly (when I tried to install Windows Updates), and set it back to the correct date.  BUT here comes the interesting part - I had a copy of ArcMap installed.  I'll start by saying that I was running a legally-purchased full license - the kind that never expires.  But when I started it, the software's startup routine scanned the files in my Windows folder, detected that some files had a last-modified date over a month in the future, deduced that I was circumventing the 30-day-trial version's expiry-checking system, and refused to start.  The full version wouldn't start because I was circumventing the trial version's copy protection.  After much googling and RTFMing, nobody had a solution.  So I wrote a small program to set my clock to a month in the future whenever I started ArcMap, and set it back when I was done.  And of course, ArcMap kept updating its internal "last run" date, so I had to continue using my little date-fixing program for about six months, until I did a complete reinstall.



  • @Albatross said:

    My computer was out by a month for a while.  I still have no idea what caused it.  Luckily, I noticed quickly (when I tried to install Windows Updates), and set it back to the correct date.  BUT here comes the interesting part - I had a copy of ArcMap installed.  I'll start by saying that I was running a legally-purchased full license - the kind that never expires.  But when I started it, the software's startup routine scanned the files in my Windows folder, detected that some files had a last-modified date over a month in the future, deduced that I was circumventing the 30-day-trial version's expiry-checking system, and refused to start.  The full version wouldn't start because I was circumventing the trial version's copy protection.  After much googling and RTFMing, nobody had a solution.  So I wrote a small program to set my clock to a month in the future whenever I started ArcMap, and set it back when I was done.  And of course, ArcMap kept updating its internal "last run" date, so I had to continue using my little date-fixing program for about six months, until I did a complete reinstall.

     What's wrong with the obvious solution of fixing the incorrect file access/creation times rather than changing the system clock? It's a one-liner on a unix system and probably not much harder on windows (i.e. install bash, ls and touch or use a windows scripting language)

     


     



  • @Pap said:

    But then my emails from Marty McFly might get discarded.

    Funniest reply winner.



  • @wgh said:

    @Pap said:

    But then my emails from Marty McFly might get discarded.

    Funniest reply winner.

     

    it's called *BACK* to the Future though... I don't think they ever went anywhere but the past... thus! his e-mails will be at the bottom of your Inbox, and not flagged as Spam...

     
    my question is where are my e-mails from Bill & Ted going?



  • You didn't watch the second part. Same goes for me, I always only get to watch the first and the third one :/



  • @Tweenk said:

    You didn't watch the second part. Same goes for me, I always only get to watch the first and the third one :/

     

     

    oh god you're right... how could I have forgotten hover boards...

     

    forgive me for my sins 



  • What I wonder is, why did you click on an obvious Ebay scam? (that ebay success kit) :)



  • @madjo said:

    What I wonder is, why did you click on an obvious Ebay scam? (that ebay success kit) :)

    Because it is only about a year and a half into the future, so it could possibly be a legit email... 



  • I knew someone would notice that.  I was just curious, ok?  I especially like the phising emails, someone should really make a site where you can rate how well done they are.



  • @Cap'n Steve said:

    I knew someone would notice that. I was just curious, ok? I especially like the phising emails, someone should really make a site where you can rate how well done they are.

    You aren't alone.  I also read the phishing messages.  Some are almost grammatically correct!  I have to wonder about the mental capacity of people who fall for these emails... 



  • @m0ffx said:

    Well, yes, but there's out by a few hours or even days, and there's out by many months or years.

    Off by exactly one year is common, and after testing Y2K compliance of my home computer, I accidentally spent most of a day sending out emails from two and a half years in the future.



  • @Nandurius said:

    @Albatross said:

    My computer was out by a month for a while.  I still have no idea what caused it.  Luckily, I noticed quickly (when I tried to install Windows Updates), and set it back to the correct date.  BUT here comes the interesting part - I had a copy of ArcMap installed.  I'll start by saying that I was running a legally-purchased full license - the kind that never expires.  But when I started it, the software's startup routine scanned the files in my Windows folder, detected that some files had a last-modified date over a month in the future, deduced that I was circumventing the 30-day-trial version's expiry-checking system, and refused to start.  The full version wouldn't start because I was circumventing the trial version's copy protection.  After much googling and RTFMing, nobody had a solution.  So I wrote a small program to set my clock to a month in the future whenever I started ArcMap, and set it back when I was done.  And of course, ArcMap kept updating its internal "last run" date, so I had to continue using my little date-fixing program for about six months, until I did a complete reinstall.

     What's wrong with the obvious solution of fixing the incorrect file access/creation times rather than changing the system clock? It's a one-liner on a unix system and probably not much harder on windows (i.e. install bash, ls and touch or use a windows scripting language)


    It's too obvious.  Most anti-circumvention systems are guarded against that, and store the last time seen in some obfusicated location.



  • @Grimoire said:

    @Cap'n Steve said:

    I knew someone would notice that. I was just curious, ok? I especially like the phising emails, someone should really make a site where you can rate how well done they are.

    You aren't alone.  I also read the phishing messages.  Some are almost grammatically correct!  I have to wonder about the mental capacity of people who fall for these emails... 


    I click on them regularly.  Sometimes I'm even fast enough to get to the website before it's shut down/hammered into oblivion, and I can start poisoning their results with false information.



  • @Tweenk said:

    I get things like this all the time... Most mail clients order mail by their send date, so crafting a mail to have a date in the future is a good way to ensure your message will be at the top of the receiver's inbox.

    New trend: STICKY MAIL

     

    And the spam servers or some other server could have goofed up on their clocks, either that or the servers are stuck in some temporal distortion - tis my guess 



  • I thought it took the time for the 'sent' from the server? Not from the home user.



  • @Albatross said:

    My computer was out by a month for a while.  I still have no idea what caused it.  Luckily, I noticed quickly (when I tried to install Windows Updates), and set it back to the correct date.  BUT here comes the interesting part - I had a copy of ArcMap installed.  I'll start by saying that I was running a legally-purchased full license - the kind that never expires.  But when I started it, the software's startup routine scanned the files in my Windows folder, detected that some files had a last-modified date over a month in the future, deduced that I was circumventing the 30-day-trial version's expiry-checking system, and refused to start.  The full version wouldn't start because I was circumventing the trial version's copy protection.  After much googling and RTFMing, nobody had a solution.  So I wrote a small program to set my clock to a month in the future whenever I started ArcMap, and set it back when I was done.  And of course, ArcMap kept updating its internal "last run" date, so I had to continue using my little date-fixing program for about six months, until I did a complete reinstall.

     

    You couldn't just not use it for a month and let the time catch up? 



  • Those darstadly spammers are pretty quick to catch on to the latest filtering rules.  I just got one dated 1/11/2001

    So we have to add unfeasibly-old emails to the filter?  Then what about week-old emails?  I've seen a few spams pop up "below the fold" of my inbox in between emails that I've read.



  • @sycro said:

    You couldn't just not use it for a month and let the time catch up?


    Or the script could be clever, and note at the end of the run when it had got to. Next time, it'd set the time to 'just after we previously finished'. It shouldn't take too long to catch up that month:
    time < savedtime
    arcmap.exe
    time /t > savedtime
    That looks like it should do it.



  • @Carnildo said:

    @Grimoire said:

    @Cap'n Steve said:

    I knew someone would notice that. I was just curious, ok? I especially like the phising emails, someone should really make a site where you can rate how well done they are.

    You aren't alone. I also read the phishing messages. Some are almost grammatically correct! I have to wonder about the mental capacity of people who fall for these emails...


    I click on them regularly. Sometimes I'm even fast enough to get to the website before it's shut down/hammered into oblivion, and I can start poisoning their results with false information.

     

    My favorite part of gmail is view original. Then doing a who-is on the ip address that is usually contained in the "paypal" web address. 


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