E-Tales: Can opener

Finally, spam has a purpose. Here at IDG Communications we're testing a new spam filtering system. To refine the ratings given to emails to ensure all the real stuff reaches us and we ignore as much of the spam as possible, all the email we're getting at the moment is assigned a spam rating.

Finally, spam has a purpose. Here at IDG Communications we're testing a new spam filtering system. To refine the ratings given to emails to ensure all the real stuff reaches us and we ignore as much of the spam as possible, all the email we're getting at the moment is assigned a spam rating.

And so we're playing "Whose spam rates the highest?". If anything over 5 is going to be rejected, getting a spam in the teens is pretty good going. We've battled up into the mid 20s with the less savoury email suggestions (apart from internally created nonsense that triggers all the alarms), but kudos must go to editor Anthony Doesburg for scoring a massive 36.7 for one particularly spammy piece of spam.

Nowhereville, NSW

We received a press release from a telecomms equipper which either came from a small, little known town in Australia called Auckland, or else was written by someone in need of a geography lesson (or a slap round the head for laziness): "AUCKLAND, Australia -- Jan. 28, 2003 - XXX can now provide New Zealand-based multinational companies with a secure and cost effective way to bridge the gap between XXX services following today's global launch of three new innovative XXX solutions ..."

Sad but (hopefully not) true

A public swimming pool in Auckland has allegedly banned camera phones like the Sony Ericsson P800 because people have been pretending to take calls (but actually taking pics) in the changing rooms.

Product intelligence

We'll never use that phrase with innocence again. Officials at GCHQ, the electronic surveillance arm of the British intelligence service, were asked by the Americans to provide information about how UN members intended to vote, says The Observer. This was to be gathered by way of "product lines", intelligence jargon for phone taps and email interception such as that provided by Echelon, the intelligence group of which New Zealand is a member.

Dressing up

"It is a collaboration game between the T-shirts, the turtlenecks and the ties. This is very hard to do and it will almost always take the CEO saying: You will collaborate."

Forrester Research chief George Colony, speaking at the ICT World Forum before CeBIT in Germany, describes how IT staff, marketers and business people within a company have to work together to make IT investments pay off.

Where to from here?

There’s bad news for anyone who frets about New Zealand’s place in the world economic scheme of things: we’ve been downgraded to a “kiosk” economy from our former status of branch office, according to a marketer at a local systems integration company.

Microsoft spells it out

Microsoft’s been accused of many things but we believe we’re first – here and now – to allege it wants the whole world to adopt American English. Apart from a few hold-outs (like Computerworld), it’s convinced everyone that the correct spelling of licence (the noun) is with an “s”, by foisting end-user “license” agreements on the planet. The next step is to release its CRM package (last month) in an American version only, with an international English version still six to 12 months away, according to analyst Meta Group. What are Asia-Pacific branches of multinational organisations to do in the meantime? Confirming our conspiracy theory, Microsoft says the delay is part of an “internationalisation” focus. Shouldn’t that be “Americanisation”?

Email Mark Broatch

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Tags E-tales

More about CeBITEchelonEricsson AustraliaForrester ResearchGCHQIDGIDG CommunicationsIDG CommunicationsIDG CommunicationsMeta GroupMicrosoftSonySony Ericsson

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