Geek Drivel

Earlier this week, I posted a rant about three near-identical spam messages I’d received from spock.com. It turns out that they (apparently) weren’t spam at all, but that the site was contacting me on behalf of someone (as yet unknown) who had my addresses listed as part of their contacts. The messages were supposed to have that person’s name in the from-field, instead of mine.

There’s still something that smells a little fishy about this — very few of my contacts have that particular set of addresses, for instance — but I’m willing to accept that explanation until more evidence appears.

Yes, the Phoenix lander has found water ice!

With water-ice proven to exist on Mars, it becomes a lot more likely that life, of some familiar sort, could be there too. It also means that human habitation of Mars could be viable (a lack of water would make a Mars colony prohibitively expensive).

No wonder NASA “whole-heartedly used the 2007 Word of the Year — w00t.”

Here’s the proof — a Russian lady turned down an offer of compensation, saying that she’d sue “for damages and compensation for moral suffering” instead. If that isn’t a totally American thing to say, I don’t know what would be.

If you’re a true Internet geek, you probably know about RFC 1149, the “Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers.” Yes, you read that right — it’s a way to transmit information, via Internet protocols, by homing pigeons. It was released on April first, 1990.

Well, after eighteen years, it looks like it’s finally got some competition: Snail Mail. I’m sure you’ve heard the term used for the Postal Service (sometimes with good reason), but this one is using real snails. And it’s apparently not a hoax.

If you’re curious, there’s a BBC article with a little more information here.