When spam-filters attack

What's worse than spam and virii? Overzealous spam- and virii-filters:
It's always a joy to watch prissy corporate mail filters twitch their lace curtains and bounce back NTK when they spot a phrase they don't like. This week they refused to deliver NTK because we used the word "dyke". As in Greg Dyke. (Admittedly, the completely justified use of "butt" and "wanker" elsewhere might not have helped our case.)

Not as bad as one UK firm's IT department, which is currently binning any incoming email with "hello" or "Hi" in the subject line. "These are common header descriptions of the e-mails containing the [MyDoom] virus", they say. I'll go out on a limb here and suggest they're also common header descriptions of the e-mails not containing it, too.

Link

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

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