1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:09,040 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everybody, 4 00:00:17,880 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 5 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,160 Speaker 1: and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: With me, as always, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. I 7 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:32,560 Speaker 1: had Mexican for lunch. Okay, I think we should send 8 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: emails about that to everybody in the world. Yeah, well, 9 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: before we before we get into the whole sending emails 10 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: to everybody, let's talk about why we're about to talk 11 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: about sending emails to everybody. Because you see this. This 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: discussion was prompted by yes listener me. This was from Jason. 13 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 1: Jason says, Hi, Tech Stuff, I love your podcast. I 14 00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:04,600 Speaker 1: was wondering what is the most spam free online email site? Jason. 15 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:07,119 Speaker 1: We decided we were gonna kind of expand that into 16 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: a discussion about spam in general. I hope you don't mind, 17 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: but we will address your question. Um, if you absolutely 18 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:16,360 Speaker 1: have to know right now and you can't wait to 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: the end, it's Gmail. So let's move on and talk 20 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 1: about spam. Okay, so spam, of course, is unwanted junk 21 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: email that you know, everyone knows. They they get every 22 00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: now and then. Sometimes if if you're using an email 23 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: client that does not have a very good spam filter, 24 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: you may get quite a lot of it. Uh, if 25 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:37,400 Speaker 1: you do have a very good spam filter, you may 26 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,000 Speaker 1: not even notice that you get it. You want to 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: talk about the origin of the name, Um, well we could. 28 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:49,120 Speaker 1: Let's see. Uh, we've got spam, spam and baked beans, sausage, eggs, 29 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: spam and baked beans, baked beans, eggs, sausage, spam, spam, 30 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:56,960 Speaker 1: spam and spam. Um, yeah, it's Monty Python. Yeah, there's 31 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: a for those who do not know, there is a 32 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: Monty Pie Thawn Skit and Monny Python of course. The 33 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:06,680 Speaker 1: famous British comedy troupe Um where a couple are in 34 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: a diner and everything in the diner comes with some 35 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: form of spam and it eventually falls into a chaotic, 36 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: rumbling mess of just people singing the words spam over 37 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: and over and over again. It makes no sense. It's 38 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,920 Speaker 1: just a big jumble, And that's sort of the genesis 39 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,560 Speaker 1: for the term as it applies to junk email. YEP, 40 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: because you get, you know, a bunch of annoying messages 41 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:32,640 Speaker 1: that come over and over and over and fill up 42 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: your inbox and you might you might have one gym 43 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,239 Speaker 1: and then tons of spam. So that's essentially where the 44 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:41,880 Speaker 1: name came from. And uh, I think Hormel is actually 45 00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: okay with it now. They weren't for a while there. 46 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,079 Speaker 1: They seem to be resigned to it. And hey, it 47 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:48,480 Speaker 1: is free marketing, right, it's it's one of those things 48 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: where you know, once the name stuck, that was it. 49 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 1: There was no going back. Um. But anyway, so spam, 50 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: how much of email out there is spam? Yeah? Effect 51 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,399 Speaker 1: In fact, the vast majority of email is spam. That's 52 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: not hyperbole, it's not kidding. It's absolutely true that the 53 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:11,679 Speaker 1: majority of email going across the Internet is junk. In fact, 54 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: according to Suffuss, I assume that's how you pronounced the name. 55 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: The research firm um they found that two point three 56 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,079 Speaker 1: percent of all email during the first cent during the 57 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: first quarter of two thousand eight was spam. Uh. Over 58 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:30,960 Speaker 1: at Yale University, they they looked at the email that 59 00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: was going across their mail servers um in August two 60 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: thousand eight, nine point five of all email was spam, 61 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 1: So less than six percent of the email going across 62 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: Yale's servers in August two was an actual legitimate email. 63 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: That's just it blows my mind. I mean, you think 64 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,800 Speaker 1: these are messages that number in the billions really of 65 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,840 Speaker 1: of just junk email coming from lord knows where, a 66 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: lot of it from Florida actually um uh from individuals 67 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: who have created various uh email accounts to send out 68 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: tons and tons of unwanted messages. And you might ask yourself, well, 69 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,600 Speaker 1: why why is there so much spam? Well, it's because 70 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:21,720 Speaker 1: do you know, even if you only get a one 71 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,479 Speaker 1: or two percent return rate on people clicking the spam links, 72 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,680 Speaker 1: that's still a huge number. Unfortunately, it's a very very 73 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: cost effective way to market UM because people can buy 74 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: discs with thousands and thousands and thousands of email addresses 75 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: on them and it's you know, giant lists mailing list 76 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: and you may have even signed up to be on 77 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 1: one of those CDs. It is possible that by opting 78 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,000 Speaker 1: in to select mail from other of of related partners. 79 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: You know, when you sign up for a legitimate email 80 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: mailing list UM, that your name could have been sold 81 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:00,720 Speaker 1: to be on one of those CDs and you can look. 82 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:03,520 Speaker 1: Um Marshall brain our sites founder wrote an article about 83 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 1: spam that's on how Stuff Works dot com and um, 84 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: you know he talks about the fact that there are 85 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:11,480 Speaker 1: you can just you can go on to uh to 86 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 1: Google right now and find these discs and buy them 87 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:17,240 Speaker 1: up there cheap and get tons and tons of email 88 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 1: addresses to market people too. And you might have actually 89 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,520 Speaker 1: signed up for it yourself, right. I mean, you're just 90 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,320 Speaker 1: really annoying. If you think about this, you you know, 91 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: your your expenses really are pretty minimal. I mean they're 92 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:33,680 Speaker 1: essentially your power bill, um an internet account, Internet account, 93 00:05:33,760 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: And if you are a truly nefarious spammer, you may 94 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: be creating a botanet army, you know, getting people to 95 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,160 Speaker 1: click on a link which installs a zombie trojan onto 96 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,159 Speaker 1: their computer, which gives you access to their computer. You 97 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:51,920 Speaker 1: can use their computer to send out spam. You don't 98 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:55,039 Speaker 1: even have to worry about broadband charges then, because you're 99 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: you send a command to that person's computer. There's there's 100 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,479 Speaker 1: the computer that actually sends out all the emails, so 101 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about running up broadband charges 102 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,680 Speaker 1: because you're just sending a simple command to all the 103 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: computers in your button neet, as opposed to sending up 104 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: millions and millions and millions of emails and um. Like 105 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:15,039 Speaker 1: we said, you know, if if only one or two 106 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: percent of the people who get these emails click on something, 107 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,000 Speaker 1: that's gonna be a big enough return to justify the 108 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:24,200 Speaker 1: expense of setting up the spam operation in the first place, 109 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: which is why it's so freaking evil. Yeah. Yeah. The 110 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,160 Speaker 1: unfortunate thing is it's also very hard to get rid of, 111 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: um because you know they're there are things called white 112 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 1: lists and blacklists. You may actually have exposed yourself to 113 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 1: them if you've gone to the trouble of trying to 114 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:44,359 Speaker 1: set up an anti spam filter. Um, and there are 115 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:46,560 Speaker 1: tons of different ways to do that, but a white 116 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:51,039 Speaker 1: lister blacklist. Um. If somebody send you email, like say 117 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: you've opted in for a particular company because they send 118 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: you coupons or something, you say, I absolutely want the 119 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:58,039 Speaker 1: coupons from this company because I like them and I 120 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: want to buy their stuff. Well they might say, hey, 121 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:03,200 Speaker 1: make sure to add this email address to your address book. 122 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:06,280 Speaker 1: Well that's called white listing. Basically, you're saying I absolutely 123 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:08,279 Speaker 1: think this is not spam, this is something I want 124 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: to come into my inbox. Blacklisting, on the other hand, 125 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: is putting a list on there and said I absolutely 126 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: do not want this to come to my inbox. And 127 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 1: the thing is if you get if you have something 128 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: from say, you know, Yahoo's email account, and one person, 129 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: you have a friend who has a Yahoo Mail account, 130 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:29,040 Speaker 1: they're sending you stuff. But a spammer uses a Yahoo 131 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,680 Speaker 1: Mail account, you can't very well go, well, don't ever 132 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,240 Speaker 1: send me stuff from Yahoo dot com because well, that 133 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: would mean you'd be blocking your friend exactly. So that's 134 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:39,960 Speaker 1: when it starts to get a little trickier because then 135 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,720 Speaker 1: you can't just say, oh, well, I don't want, you know, 136 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: q R seven M one dot com to ever send 137 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: me email addresses, because spammers sometimes do that. They'll send 138 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,600 Speaker 1: they'll sign up for a domain name that nobody really wants, 139 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: just as a front, and that makes them easy to 140 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: block because you can say, I don't want anything from 141 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: these guys. So if they even if they created another 142 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: count using that domain name, you still wouldn't get that email. 143 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: But as Plett points out, if they go with a 144 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: free email service service like hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail something 145 00:08:09,880 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 1: like that. Um, it's a lot harder to block it 146 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: without blocking you know, people that you legitimately want to 147 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: hear from. And not only that, but spammers are really 148 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: clever about how to create these fake accounts to uh. 149 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: We we've talked a little bit in the past. I 150 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: wrote an article about capture and captures. Uh, it's a 151 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,400 Speaker 1: it's a test. It's supposed to be a test that 152 00:08:31,520 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: humans find easy to complete, but machines find it very 153 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: difficult to complete. Spammers are really good at finding ways 154 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: around capture tests, which most free email services require you 155 00:08:45,440 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: complete one of these in order to create an account. 156 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:51,400 Speaker 1: So that way it tries to prevent spammers from creating 157 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:57,040 Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of faults essentially fake accounts. So, um, 158 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: there are different ways of doing this. You can either 159 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: design soft where that can recognize the caption. Capture are 160 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: those things where you know, you usually you see a 161 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: box with some letters in it, and they're the letters 162 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: are distorted, their wavy, there's maybe some some noise on 163 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: top of them, like it looks like static, right, might 164 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:17,800 Speaker 1: even require you to do something like a simple math 165 00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:21,440 Speaker 1: problem or you know, yeah, there's there that's that's one 166 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: of the ways of trying to outsmart the machines, because 167 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:29,479 Speaker 1: what spammers are doing is they're either creating UM applications 168 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,959 Speaker 1: that can recognize the same sort of visual cues that 169 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: we recognize when we look at captures, or they simply 170 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: hire people to physically type in the answer. And what 171 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: they do is they hire people overseas um in very 172 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: impoverished nations and pay them an incredibly small amount by 173 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: the hour to just go in and just solve captures 174 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: all day long. That's all those they're they're doing. Um, 175 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: I mean it, and it works. It's again it's it's 176 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,280 Speaker 1: cost effective. But as again, if you just get that 177 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: small percentage of responses, it makes it all worth it. 178 00:10:04,679 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: So that's a problem that these free email services are 179 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: going to continue to struggle with for probably the foreseeable future. 180 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:17,240 Speaker 1: Until they can find a way to to really cut 181 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 1: back on spammers creating thousands and thousands of accounts, it's 182 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: just gonna keep happening. So that kind of brings us 183 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:26,560 Speaker 1: to what do you do you know, which which email 184 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:29,320 Speaker 1: service should you use to try and cut back on spam, 185 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 1: and what kind of things can you do as a 186 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,520 Speaker 1: user to prevent yourself from getting on these spam lists. 187 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:37,600 Speaker 1: Um well, I guess we should take the second one 188 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,520 Speaker 1: first because it's it's generic across all email, right, yeah, 189 00:10:41,760 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: so simple rules. I want to point out that the 190 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: bad news If you have an email address, there's a 191 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: very good chance you're going to get spam, right yeah. 192 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: And the question is how much and how often? Um? 193 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,320 Speaker 1: Because the thing is, once you've created an email address, 194 00:10:59,040 --> 00:11:00,679 Speaker 1: it depends on who you can eat it with. I mean, 195 00:11:00,800 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 1: depending on your internet service provider, they might actually sell 196 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:08,599 Speaker 1: your email address. Um, so it is very possible. But 197 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,800 Speaker 1: say you signed up for you know, an email address 198 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:14,840 Speaker 1: with Google or Yaho, are somebody you know reputable if 199 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,120 Speaker 1: you don't ever send that email address to anybody. And 200 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:18,839 Speaker 1: I could say this from personal experience because I have 201 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:20,960 Speaker 1: a couple that I was going to use and just 202 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:22,920 Speaker 1: never haven't went. You know what, I'm gonna go check 203 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: the spam box. They're empty, They're free of spam. If 204 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: you don't ever share it with anybody, and you sign 205 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,080 Speaker 1: up with a reputable provider, you don't have to worry 206 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: about it. As soon as you start telling people that 207 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:34,959 Speaker 1: you have an email address and what it is. Yes, 208 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,520 Speaker 1: so you're opening yourself up because you never know what 209 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:38,840 Speaker 1: they're going to do with it. If you want an 210 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:42,880 Speaker 1: email address but you don't actually want email, wait, why 211 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,080 Speaker 1: would you do that? So if you're not Pullet, if 212 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,280 Speaker 1: you're not Pullet, and you actually want to have contact 213 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:52,160 Speaker 1: to the outside world, UM stop it. But let's say 214 00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: that you want an email address for you know the 215 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:58,760 Speaker 1: same reason, which is to exchange letters with people to 216 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: whom you are connected. Otherwise, Um, well, then certain rules 217 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,120 Speaker 1: that you should follow. Don't put your email address in 218 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 1: a in a publicly viewable place on the Internet. So 219 00:12:11,160 --> 00:12:13,760 Speaker 1: if you have a message board, a message board, a 220 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: blog account, Facebook, I mean, these are just very simple, 221 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,880 Speaker 1: uh rules, you know, if you put your address up there. 222 00:12:21,920 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: There are plenty of programs out there that all they 223 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:28,080 Speaker 1: do is crawl the Internet searching for the format of 224 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 1: an email address. So they're looking for a name, they're 225 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 1: looking for the AT symbol, they're looking for the domain, 226 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: and then it adds it to the list. They're called spiders. 227 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:39,200 Speaker 1: And if you've every sort of thing that works for 228 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,800 Speaker 1: search engines, as a matter of facted it does basically 229 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:45,400 Speaker 1: the exact same thing is it's going onto a web 230 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 1: page looking for information. Um that's why if you've gone 231 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,000 Speaker 1: to a web page and you've been confused because it says, 232 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:55,320 Speaker 1: you know, you know Chris and then it has parentheses 233 00:12:55,679 --> 00:12:58,480 Speaker 1: at the words spelled out and then you know whatever 234 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: dot com you're going way man, And why did they 235 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:02,320 Speaker 1: spell that out? And I didn't just put the AD symbol. 236 00:13:02,360 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: That's why, because the spider is looking for the AD symbol. 237 00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: Exactly is it is trying to pick up any uh 238 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:10,679 Speaker 1: any email address it confined, and it will do it 239 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:14,160 Speaker 1: on other forums to um use net. You know, they're 240 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:16,680 Speaker 1: all kinds of crawlers out there looking for these email addresses. 241 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:19,800 Speaker 1: So if you don't post it where it's visible, you know, 242 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,880 Speaker 1: that will help. Same thing if you're if you're you know, 243 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:25,880 Speaker 1: if you're filling out a lot of online forums for 244 00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,160 Speaker 1: various services, that's another good way of having your email 245 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: address passed around. Look at the terms of service for 246 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 1: any service that you're going to sign up for. Yeah, exactly, 247 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:39,240 Speaker 1: it is annoying. But if you if you're really concerned 248 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 1: about spam, Like, if you're not concerned about spam, go ahead, 249 00:13:42,040 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 1: but if you're concerned about spam, you you probably want 250 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:46,200 Speaker 1: to take a look at that see if they, you know, 251 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:49,120 Speaker 1: what their policy is on sharing your email address with 252 00:13:49,200 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: other parties, because sometimes they make partnerships with other companies 253 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,080 Speaker 1: and they get money for the email addresses they provide 254 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 1: to these other companies. Um. And just as an note, 255 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:03,000 Speaker 1: you know, you may sign up with a company that says, oh, 256 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 1: we will never ever sell your name to people, and 257 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:08,320 Speaker 1: it will be in their terms of service, and then 258 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:09,439 Speaker 1: there will be a clause at the end of the 259 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: terms of services say we reserve the right to change 260 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 1: our terms of service. So just keep it in mind. 261 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: Even the most reputable companies you know, there, they may 262 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: decide that they don't want to abide by that policy 263 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: anymore and change and hopefully they won't, but you know, 264 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,920 Speaker 1: you can't control that. Yeah. So if you like doing 265 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:28,320 Speaker 1: things like let's say, online sweepstakes, okay, there there are 266 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: sites out there that just aggregate online sweepstakes and you 267 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: can go and just you know, either sign up for 268 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:36,760 Speaker 1: a service so that they automatically fill out your information 269 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:38,920 Speaker 1: on pretty much any sweep stakes you want, or you 270 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: can physically go in and fill out that information yourself. 271 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: Sweep stakes. That's one of those things where people like 272 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: companies do tend to to share the information around and 273 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:49,880 Speaker 1: and put you on lists. So, um, if you like 274 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: doing that sort of thing, what I recommend you do 275 00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:56,120 Speaker 1: is create an email address specifically for that purpose that's 276 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: not your personal email address, so you don't really care 277 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:01,760 Speaker 1: if you get tons of spam um. And then you 278 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,360 Speaker 1: use that one for anything, anything where you're gonna have 279 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:06,280 Speaker 1: to fill out a form or you're gonna you know, 280 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:10,000 Speaker 1: send information into a sweep steaks or whatever, um, And 281 00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:11,800 Speaker 1: then you don't have to worry about that coming up 282 00:15:11,920 --> 00:15:14,480 Speaker 1: your your personal information when you're looking, you know, for 283 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:17,440 Speaker 1: your email from you know, your buddy Bob. Um. You 284 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: don't have to worry about filtering through eight D viagra 285 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:24,480 Speaker 1: emails first, you know. Uh. I could say from personal 286 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: experience that that does work. However, it's still annoying because 287 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: then you go into your sweep Snakes box and go, crud, 288 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: there's a lot of spam in here. Yeah. Oh yeah, 289 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 1: that's why I signed up. So at the beginning, I 290 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: mentioned Gmail being one of the best free email services 291 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: when it comes to blocking spam, and uh, and I 292 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,360 Speaker 1: really do think that's true. Um. I've seen claims saying 293 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:50,240 Speaker 1: that as much as spam is blocked before it gets 294 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,840 Speaker 1: to you, and that many people have stopped checking their 295 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: spam folder because that's usually if Gmail identify something as spam, 296 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 1: it will put it in your spam folder. Um, because 297 00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:02,880 Speaker 1: people were going to their spam folder just to make 298 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 1: sure that nothing legitimate had accidentally fallen in there. And 299 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,800 Speaker 1: if you read the reports, everyone says, I've never found 300 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: a real email stuck in the spam folder? Have you 301 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 1: in Gmail? We'll see this is the things that I 302 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:21,360 Speaker 1: haven't either. But again I didn't suspect. I suspected that 303 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:25,840 Speaker 1: that was not across the board. Um, well, g Google 304 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,000 Speaker 1: is having to do the same thing that everyone else is, 305 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:31,160 Speaker 1: and they're relying on algorithms that tell them what is 306 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: and what isn't spam. But you know, the spammers are 307 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 1: so clever. Of course, I'd rather err on the side 308 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,680 Speaker 1: of caution. No. Wait, now, have you seen spam mail 309 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:41,800 Speaker 1: in your inbox or have you seen something that should 310 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,720 Speaker 1: have been your inbox in the spam folder or both both? Okay, 311 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: it doesn't happen very often either way. Yeah, and that's 312 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,800 Speaker 1: actually part of what helps them fight spam and one 313 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:54,360 Speaker 1: of the things that Gmail does and several other free 314 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:59,360 Speaker 1: email services does do does do a similar thing. Ah Man, 315 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: next good food, I tell you. So they do a 316 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:06,240 Speaker 1: similar thing, which is where they allow users to identify 317 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:10,800 Speaker 1: messages as spam. And once you do that, uh Gmail. 318 00:17:10,880 --> 00:17:13,240 Speaker 1: In the case of Gmail, they flag it and then 319 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:17,800 Speaker 1: essentially they prevent that message from going into anyone's inbox. 320 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: They look for the identical messages that are going to 321 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:24,080 Speaker 1: other Gmail users and block it. So the nice thing 322 00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 1: about that is as soon as someone flags it, it 323 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,640 Speaker 1: affects the system pretty much. I mean it's we're kind 324 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: of oversimplifying here, but it means that it reacts very 325 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:36,480 Speaker 1: very quickly because as soon as someone and it doesn't 326 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:39,160 Speaker 1: matter who it is, but anyone who's using Gmail does that, 327 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 1: the whole group gets to benefit. Yeah, and there there 328 00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,080 Speaker 1: are other solutions to UM. On the corporate side. You 329 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:50,680 Speaker 1: can see UM spam prevention UH actual hardware that you 330 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,000 Speaker 1: can plug into your network that will do some of 331 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,520 Speaker 1: the filtering. And of course there's enterprise software and consumer 332 00:17:56,520 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: software that you can use. UM. You know, I have 333 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: an I s P that actually relies on a technology 334 00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,840 Speaker 1: that Semantech picked up a few years ago UM called 335 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,479 Speaker 1: bright Mail, and bright Mail works very well. But UM, 336 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:14,880 Speaker 1: you know, the thing is, the spammers are clever enough, 337 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,199 Speaker 1: and the software is only so good so that you know, 338 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,320 Speaker 1: you check in the suspect mail folder and there's always 339 00:18:21,320 --> 00:18:23,760 Speaker 1: something that's that slips through. I think a lot of 340 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: these solutions are really good. It's just, um, the spammers 341 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:30,640 Speaker 1: are just clever enough where they can work their way 342 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,479 Speaker 1: around it. They usually do with a trick of social 343 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: engineering or yeah, you know, I can definitely say that. Um, 344 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:42,720 Speaker 1: between my Gmail account and my Hotmail account, I get 345 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:46,439 Speaker 1: far fewer spam messages in my inbox and Gmail than 346 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: I do in Hotmail. And both of them have spam 347 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,920 Speaker 1: folders and both of them have filters, but Gmail seems 348 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:58,120 Speaker 1: to be the more effective one for me, right right? Well? Um, Oh, 349 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: one one thing I thought was really cool about the 350 00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,840 Speaker 1: Gmail solution that I didn't know before, Um, is there 351 00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:07,800 Speaker 1: actually if you're familiar with the controversial Google book search, um, 352 00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: which is Google's attempt to digitize a lot of paper everything. 353 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:17,000 Speaker 1: There's their mission is to organize the world's information that 354 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,840 Speaker 1: includes everything that's already been printed. Yes, um, and there 355 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 1: are some copyright issues that government looking into, but we'll 356 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,160 Speaker 1: gloss over that. But one thing that that I didn't 357 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:29,719 Speaker 1: even realize and I wouldn't have even thought possible, actually, 358 00:19:29,760 --> 00:19:32,840 Speaker 1: is they're using the optical character recognition that they used 359 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,160 Speaker 1: for Google book Search and putting it UH in there 360 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:39,600 Speaker 1: to help identify image spam. Yeah. Actually, image spam was 361 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,400 Speaker 1: on the rise for a very long time because UH 362 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:46,879 Speaker 1: spam filters had a lot harder time identifying messages that 363 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:49,960 Speaker 1: used images as opposed to text and saying oh, well, 364 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 1: that's obviously spam. So you would get a message and 365 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:56,600 Speaker 1: you'd open it up and there'd be a blue pill 366 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:59,879 Speaker 1: or you know whatever, and uh, and again it was 367 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,160 Speaker 1: just a spam message trying to get you to click 368 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,520 Speaker 1: on some sort of ad deal or possibly even malware, 369 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:10,160 Speaker 1: because that a lot of viruses do travel through email, um, 370 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:12,600 Speaker 1: and a lot of these were coming through and getting 371 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:15,919 Speaker 1: into people's inboxes and and Gmail. The Gmail solution is 372 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:18,719 Speaker 1: to compare it back against this database that they've created, 373 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,399 Speaker 1: and if it matches, then um they block it. No, 374 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,720 Speaker 1: those images can also be tracked, and if you open 375 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:31,159 Speaker 1: an email and your email loads that image and they say, oh, 376 00:20:31,280 --> 00:20:34,440 Speaker 1: well look at that, Bob opened his email, that's a 377 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,600 Speaker 1: confirmed email. Actually, that's another really good point pilette. If 378 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:40,160 Speaker 1: you've ever received a message where one of you didn't 379 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:42,080 Speaker 1: want to get any email from that address anymore, and 380 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:44,399 Speaker 1: you see down there at below it says, you know, 381 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,760 Speaker 1: if you no longer want, wished to receive these emails, 382 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:50,320 Speaker 1: click here to take yourself off this list, especially spam. 383 00:20:50,480 --> 00:20:54,760 Speaker 1: Don't do that, especially with spam, because what that does 384 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,600 Speaker 1: is it tells the spammer that that is a legitimate 385 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:01,040 Speaker 1: email address, and rather than necessarily taking you off that list, 386 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:03,920 Speaker 1: which the spammer may even do. The spammer might take 387 00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 1: you off that list, but the spammer will immediately add 388 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,800 Speaker 1: you to every other list you can imagine. Yeah, and 389 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:15,480 Speaker 1: that whole can spam legislation thing not so effective. Yeah, 390 00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,000 Speaker 1: So yeah, do not fall for the Oh, let me 391 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:19,520 Speaker 1: just click this link and then I'll never have to 392 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:21,440 Speaker 1: worry about this email ever again, because you'll have to 393 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:25,080 Speaker 1: worry about lots and lots of other emails. Um. Something 394 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:30,159 Speaker 1: else that I thought about just now, Um dictionary attacks. Um. 395 00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: You know, sometimes spammers don't even go online to find 396 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: your email address. If you're Bob at domain dot com, 397 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,640 Speaker 1: you and Alan at domain dot com and Susan at 398 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,160 Speaker 1: domain dot com and anything else it's an actual word, 399 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: might end up with spam because especially if it's someplace 400 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,520 Speaker 1: like an I s P because there they figure that 401 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,160 Speaker 1: everybody is going to have, you know, and an email 402 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,960 Speaker 1: dress and then you have the Bob one at domain 403 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: dot com and Bob too. You know, they're just kinda 404 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: keep adding those addresses in the hopes that they hit 405 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 1: pay dirt, and in most cases they're going to you know, 406 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:08,520 Speaker 1: attain point. It will trail off. But but you know, 407 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:11,840 Speaker 1: if you use an easily picked name, you know, it's 408 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 1: it's an easy target for spammers. Yeah, yeah, they'll they'll 409 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: just they'll just do a carpet bombing and they'll send 410 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: out millions of messages, and those millions of messages maybe 411 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: a million actually hit targets. And then now those million, 412 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 1: maybe a hundred thousand click on it. But that's still 413 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,440 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand positive hits. So again, I mean, think 414 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:32,840 Speaker 1: of it like as opposed to think of the work 415 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,399 Speaker 1: you would have to do to identify the hundred thousand 416 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:38,639 Speaker 1: people who would actually respond and then send them messages 417 00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,640 Speaker 1: and then hope they responded. I mean, it obviously makes 418 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,399 Speaker 1: more sense to do this carpet bombing approach from the 419 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 1: spammers point of view. From our point of view, it's 420 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: really obnoxious and it's downright malicious in some cases. And 421 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:53,880 Speaker 1: I really wish you'd cut it out, you darned spammers. 422 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:58,920 Speaker 1: I think you told them, Yeah, that'll show them. I'll 423 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:03,720 Speaker 1: show them up. I'm I'm spammed out. Yeah, I'm sorry 424 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 1: to say that there's not an easy solution to the 425 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: spam problem. Uh, you know, short of not using email, 426 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,439 Speaker 1: or at least sharing your email address with people. Uh, 427 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: you know, because it's it's a very cool invention. But um, yeah, unfortunately, 428 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: the spammers kind of get the best of just about 429 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: every spam filter one way or the other. Yeah. Yeah, 430 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,399 Speaker 1: Like I said, stick with something like Gmail. Use the 431 00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: spam filters, you know, identify stuff with spam if it 432 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,800 Speaker 1: does come through. Occasionally check your spam folder. Make sure 433 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 1: that you know you didn't accidentally miss a message from someone. Um. 434 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:35,240 Speaker 1: I think out of all of them, it's probably the 435 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,639 Speaker 1: most reliable. Uh, I mean, but any of them really 436 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 1: work pretty well. You just have to You just have 437 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:45,200 Speaker 1: to use them to the full extent. Yep, yep. So well, 438 00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: I guess that just about wraps it up and brings 439 00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:56,680 Speaker 1: us back round again to listener maim have a really 440 00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:59,880 Speaker 1: bad feeling about this. You should this one's form more. 441 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: I know you guys aren't the high ku type, but 442 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:08,120 Speaker 1: stuff you should know isn't taking them anymore. Space pen 443 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,240 Speaker 1: is bullpoo more objects work just as well. These are 444 00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,520 Speaker 1: called pencils. Have a good day, watch out for zombies, 445 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,840 Speaker 1: and remember that when life stinks, use their freshener. Your 446 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,840 Speaker 1: dedicated listener, Mori uh Plett. Would you like to address 447 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 1: more and explain why pencils may not be as good 448 00:24:26,560 --> 00:24:31,200 Speaker 1: as a space pen if you are in a space environment. Uh? Yeah, 449 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: I know this comes if you weren't listening at the time. 450 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,800 Speaker 1: This comes from an episode of our podcast in which 451 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:39,439 Speaker 1: we talk about inventions that we see every day that 452 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,119 Speaker 1: came from NASA's need to make stuff work when not 453 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,359 Speaker 1: in the Earth atmosphere. And one of them that I 454 00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,119 Speaker 1: think is cool is the space pen, which is a 455 00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: pressurized pen. It doesn't work exactly like your ballpoint because 456 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:55,600 Speaker 1: you can actually use it in an a non oxygen 457 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: aated environment like space. Um and uh what more you 458 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: say ing is well, sure it's not a pen, but 459 00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:04,800 Speaker 1: you can accomplish the same thing with a pencil, which 460 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,160 Speaker 1: uh more, if you're listening, I have two things. Yeah, okay, 461 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: so if you're in the Earth's atmosphere, you can use 462 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,159 Speaker 1: a regular ballpoint pen or a pencil. I'll give you that. 463 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:16,439 Speaker 1: But in space, if you are on a NASA mission 464 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,680 Speaker 1: and you need to write in space, a pencil would 465 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,320 Speaker 1: work until you break the point off and it floats 466 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,360 Speaker 1: around the capsule and hopefully not into your eye or 467 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,880 Speaker 1: some other very system piece of equipment, right, and uh 468 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,880 Speaker 1: you know, say it doesn't, it's still gonna wear down eventually. Yeah, 469 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: Heaven help you if you have to sharpen it, because 470 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:34,639 Speaker 1: where do the shaving is gonna go? Yeah? There you go. 471 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,360 Speaker 1: So so, yeah, you've got a point. You've got a point. 472 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 1: I see your point. And no, it's not the sexiest 473 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,440 Speaker 1: piece of technology ever, but the space pen in this 474 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,359 Speaker 1: case is kind of a cool invention. Don't don't let 475 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,960 Speaker 1: them fool you. Pult is like panting at the mention 476 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,720 Speaker 1: of the space pen. I don't even own one, No, 477 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,359 Speaker 1: but he covets them. I can see it in his eyes. 478 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,200 Speaker 1: So if you have anything you would like to write 479 00:25:58,240 --> 00:26:00,920 Speaker 1: to us, you can do so. Text stuff at how 480 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,120 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. We're happy to receive your emails 481 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,640 Speaker 1: in haiku form or otherwise. And uh, you're still looking 482 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,480 Speaker 1: for the sonnets, aren't you. Yes, I didn't level a 483 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,159 Speaker 1: challenge of a Spencerian sonnet, and that no one has 484 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: picked picked up on that, not even a shake experience. 485 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: You know what stuff you should know? They got a 486 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: shakespeareance on it, so clearly, I mean, guys, come on, 487 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,040 Speaker 1: I know you guys are sharp, and I know you're 488 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 1: sharper than the stuff you should know podcast audience. So 489 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,280 Speaker 1: Spincian Sonnet, I'm throwing down the gun like We're gonna 490 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,000 Speaker 1: have a lot of nasty email for that. Yeah, from 491 00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,679 Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck so um, who sit right down the 492 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,360 Speaker 1: hall from us, So that'll be fun. Actually, you sit 493 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,320 Speaker 1: right next to Josh, so prepare for some abuse at 494 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,359 Speaker 1: any rate. If you would like to learn more about 495 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 1: spam and email, we have plenty of articles at how 496 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com and we will talk to you 497 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:55,399 Speaker 1: again really soon for more on this and thousands of 498 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:59,199 Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com and 499 00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,560 Speaker 1: be sure to check the new tech stuff blog now 500 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:08,280 Speaker 1: on the House stuff Works homepage, brought to you by 501 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:11,679 Speaker 1: the Reinvented two thousand, twelve camera. It's ready. Are you