Paula Kadowaki - Computer Literacy Class

The subject of my blog is "What is spam?"



All of you are aware of "spam," no, not the SPAM, the "meat-related" product from Minnesota and the very popular "food substance" in Hawaii, but the thousands of copies of unwanted messages that are sent to our email accounts on a daily basis.



Step 1: Go to youtube.com:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=ITeuaqcpckc



Step 2: By going to google.com and clicking on the Wikipedia definition of "spam" the following comments pop up:

www.google.com


"E-mail spam, also known as bulk e-mail or junk e-mail is a subset of spam that involves sending nearly identical messages to numerous recipients by e-mail. A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE). Definitions of spam usually include the aspects that email is unsolicited and sent in bulk. UCE refers specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mail."



I'd like to also start my blog with a pertinent Japanese "haiku" regarding spam. What might you ask is a "haiku?"



Step 3: By going to youtube.com, you can pick any number of videos that explain what a "haiku" is:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=BsZlEODaL6I



Now that you know what a "haiku" means, here is a spam example:



"Pink tender morsel,

Glistening with salty gel,

What the hell is it?"



All joking aside, the real spam is the annoying unsolicited bulk mail from some organizations or person we don't know. Spam is the online version of junk mail. Offline, junk mailers have to pay postage. Unfortunately, online, the cost of sending out a ginormous amount of junk mail is virtually zilch.



So, you may wonder, "Well, then how did the name 'spam' become associated with junk mail?" Good question and here is what we believe is the answer.



Step 4: Again, go to youtube.com and search "Spam, Monty Python."



http://youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7YedEopp4



Spam is called "spam" from the Monty Python skit in which a group of Vikings sing the word "spam" repeatedly in a march tempo, "drowning" out any other talk. Spam, as you know, can "drown out" all other email. Sometimes because some people get so much spam, they stop using email entirely. So, that's where the term "spam" is supposed to have originated.



Why is spam so bad? Spam is not just a nuisance (and horrible tasting), but the real spam costs us money. Email recipients like us pay much more than the sender does to deliver a message. Sending email is cheap. A "spammer" can send thousands of messages an hour from a PC. After that, it costs you time to download, read (at least the subject line), and then DISPOSE of the mail, very annoying and very time-consuming. If spam volumes continue to grow at its alarming pace, pretty soon email will prove to be useless because the real email will be buried under all the junk. Another problem is that spam filters, which are supposed to discard only spam, can throw away good messages by mistake. Not only do spam recipients (us) have to bear a cost, but all of this volume of email also strains the resources of the email servers and the entire internet.



What can we do about it?


There are spam filters to help weed out most of the spam received.



Step 5: go to http://youtube.com/watch?v=55z5oV6WC7g



And that's how you get rid of spam. Once rid of computer spam, sit back and enjoy the REAL SPAM:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=yRcJge_ycY8



Happy Holiday Eatings!