Spam

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Spam sucks so I made this dynamic post! Click to experience the spammers-revenge.‘ . $onderwerp1[mt_rand(0, count($onderwerp1) – 1)] . ‘, ‘ . $onderwerp2[mt_rand(0, count($onderwerp2) – 1)] . ‘, ‘ . $onderwerp3[mt_rand(0, count($onderwerp3) – 1)] . ‘, ‘ . $onderwerp4[mt_rand(0, count($onderwerp4) – 1)] . ‘, ‘ . $onderwerp5[mt_rand(0, count($onderwerp5) – 1)] . ‘ and you name it.’;
$zin5 = array(“Often in various unfamiliar languages.”,
“Usually in English, but also in French, Chinese, German or Russian.”,
“Always up to the brim with mistakes in language or style or just plain unreadable.”,
“Usually the spam comments are written in a ” . $woord1[mt_rand(0, count($woord1) – 1)] . ” bad manner.”);

$zin6 = array(“I myself am not without fault. I also had a small part in sending spam, but I have seen the light and turned my back to the darkness.”,
“I have participated with these practices from the wrong side of the fence. I was the (kind of) sender of huge amounts of spam. After a very short while I have see the light and stopped these nasty practices.”,
“I have also been guilty to spamming, because during a short while I worked for an evil spammer. They send spam to get translation related work.”,
“I once worked for a translation agency where they used spam as part as their business model. It was funny that the quality (or better the lack thereof) of the translation work could be directly related to the manners in which they secured their projects.”);

$zin7 = array(“Spammers use a range of automated systems and usually a new post on this blog is directly followed by a number of spam comments. To make the comments more difficult to identify usually the text is a combination of different ever-changing sentences. This way every comment seems to be a unique text.”,
“Of course the act of spamming comments all happens automatically. When a new post is published a big number of spam robots start trying to post comments. The comments are changed every time to make it more difficult to recognise when a comment is spam or not.”);
$zin8 = array(“The result is usually ” . $woord1[mt_rand(0, count($woord1) – 1)] . ” bad, but sometimes the spam gets through the layers of protection and then the goal is achieved. If 1 out of ” . rand(100, 180) . “00 comments is actually published the objectives of the spammer are reached.”,
‘Usually the result is some messy text, but sometimes it manages to trick all the filters set up to eradicate spam, and then the comment spammers ultimate goal is achieved. If just a few of the millions of spam comments make it through it is a good result. If then just one of the millions of published comments has a sale as a result there is a profit, and it has all been worth it.’);
$zin9 = array(“It is time for revenge, and that is why I created this fight-back post. Every time the text changes so spammers don’t know they already commented on this post and they will keep on spamming forever. All the spam comment are automatically deleted, so I will just be putting the spam bots to work and that just might cost those spammers a little bit of extra cash.”,
“Now it is the time to fight back! I have created this F.U.-post with a ever changing content, and lots of links to itself. If will be difficult for a spam bot to see it is the same story all the time, and they will just keep on spamming, which eventually will cost them just a little bit more then usual.”);
$zin10 = array(“If this dynamic post cost the spammers 1.0″ . rand(1, 9) . ” cents more my job is done.”,
“If this post results in a spammer paying a single cent more I will be happy and have achieved my goal.”);

$paragraaf1 = $zin1[mt_rand(0, count($zin1) – 1)] . ” ” . $zin2[mt_rand(0, count($zin2) – 1)] . ” ” . $zin3[mt_rand(0, count($zin3) – 1)] . ” ” . $zin4 . ” ” . $zin5[mt_rand(0, count($zin5) – 1)];
$paragraaf2 = $zin6[mt_rand(0, count($zin6) – 1)];
$paragraaf3 = $zin7[mt_rand(0, count($zin7) – 1)] . ” ” . $zin8[mt_rand(0, count($zin8) – 1)];
$paragraaf4 = $zin9[mt_rand(0, count($zin9) – 1)] . ” ” . $zin10[mt_rand(0, count($zin10) – 1)];

echo “" . $title[mt_rand(0, count($title) - 1)] . "Spam!“;
echo $paragraaf1 . “

“;
echo “

” . $paragraaf2 . “

“;
echo “

” . $paragraaf3 . “

“;
echo “

” . $paragraaf4;
?>

Revenues

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Thomas and Valentine - Revenues!The end of the year is nearing, and I was suddenly surprised by the revenues of our book that I received. I will give 99.5 percent of the revenues to a good cause, an ONCE stand near my home in Las Palmas. I’ll even double the revenues and make a donation into our son’s college fund. The revenues were not so impressive though, just a mere EUR 5.02. Just enough to buy a Spanish scratchcard.

Today I suddenly received the notification about the profit made from our book, ‘Thomas and Valentine‘. I was amazed because I did not realize it was still being sold, but apparently Amazon is managing to sell a few copies. The numbers are even improving… last month a total of 3 copies were sold. In the entire year almost 10 copies were sold!

Sinterklaas storm

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Sinterklaas storm!
When Sinterklaas was visiting our country this year he came accompanied by a big storm. When everyone was receiving their gifts we received a bit of mayhem. Either one of the peets, or the storm destroyed the (empty) rabbit home. It was smacked against the ground.

Corendon

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Corendon goldcard!Nowadays you can get cards for almost everything. Companies think that a card secures a stronger loyalty from their clients. The same goes for Corendon. A name that I had never heard before, until I found out they offer cheap tickets to Gran Canaria. I was interested and gave them my data to get the newsletter.

Corendon photo!Later I suddenly got the goldcard send to my home. I was amazed because I never travelled with Corendon and they require a minimum of 10 flights to get a discount.I was even more amazed by my special picture with gold chain. Quite a scare to see myself like this.

I do have something to hide

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In 2006 the Dutch government tried to calm the population. The message was that there was no need to worry, because there were 200.000 people working to keep us safe. Searching for strange behavior to quickly discover possible treats. In 2006 the moral of the story was: There is nothing to be afraid of. Just go on living. The website made for the government against terrorism has died and no longer exists.

Last year the Volkskrant ran a story about phone-taps in the Netherlands. We were the country with the highest numbers of phone-taps of the developed countries. No less then 22 thousand phones were monitored each year!

Last month the NSA admitted to monitoring 1.8 million phone calls in the Netherlands per month.

These messages are all smoke screens.

Edward Snowden! Hero!Now we live in 2013. Edward Snowden, an employee of the United States secret service sheds some light on the information that is being collected. The United States are embarrassed because it turns out that everything, simply everything, is being monitored and stored. Of course this is not done solely by the United States. The Dutch intelligence service also monitors everything in the Netherlands and shares this data with other agencies.

Everything you do with your computer, everything you pay for with a card, everywhere you are seen by cameras, everything related to insurance, all your medical history, all bank related data, everything you do with your phone, all the places you visit with your phone, you name it. Everything is recorded and stored. Privacy is one big illusion. Privacy is granted as long as you are not perceived as a threat. This leads to the big question. To whom should you not be perceived as a threat? And what are the consequences if you are perceived as being a threat?

The simple fact that monitoring all information is so widespread proves that there are automated systems. Monitoring 1.8 million phone calls a months is impossible without automation. If there is an automated system, then there is no reason to you limit this process to an incomplete set. The logical conclusion is that everything is being monitored. Lets hope the owner of this system is the government.

If the goal is to monitor and use all data that can possibly be monitored, than a system that cannot be monitored poses a direct threat. A source that cannot be monitored is like a big hole in the fence surrounding a jail. This implies that the government needs to know the weaknesses of all systems. If a system cannot be monitored they need to research the system as soon as possible. Every theoretical exploit must be tested for feasibility, turned into a proof-of-concept and then added to the list of monitoring tools.

“I have nothing to hide”, “They may know everything about me”. These are things we hear sometimes and make clear that people don’t realize what is going on. All the privacy we lose now is lost for the generations that will follow. Each new generation of people will be watched and controlled more closely and eventually we will end up with our backs against the wall.

We are all being watched and we accept our faith as something that is just part of life. No-one who really matters is really worried, and those that are worried really have no voice. Nothing happens and nothing changes until you decide to change your routine. What will be the consequences? Maybe now sticking your head above the cornfield will just result in a little note popping up at some desk of someone working for a secret agency, but who will guarantee us that in 5 or 10 years the same person is not send directly to jail, of suddenly disappears.

A hero has risen. Snowden, who realized things are moving towards a dangerous future and tried to make a change. Someone who has given up everything he had, for all of us. Lets hope a change will follow before it is to late.

Sint and piet

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It is still about a month before the birthday of the sint will be celebrated, but still I have the feeling I was just in time. Just in time buying a play-mobile set with a white sint and a couple of black piets. Just as the tradition prescribes.
Sint and piet!Piets!