Spam - named after a Monty Python skit involving a diner menu of "Spam, Spam, Spam, bacon, eggs and Spam" - accounts for an estimated 10% of all e-mail worldwide, clogging recipients' in boxes and slowing routing computers.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 1998

Answers

Can we use pictures of Spam in our presentation? The following web sites have pictures of Spam and related products.

http://www.spam.com http://www.bozosoft.com/mike/meat/index.html http://www.hormel.com

The last page has pictures of meals made with SPAM, e.g. "Pueblo Spam" and "Spam Frittatas." I think it might be funny for Ben and Enoch's section to start of with a picture of a normal can of Spam for Example #1 (regular email). As the examples get progressively more obnoxious (email with animation, malicious hacking, etc.), the slides show pictures of fancier and fancier Spam dishes. The conclusion is that "no matter how you slice it or how you dress it up, it's still Spam."

By the way, how did the meeting with Lessig and Abelson go? What did they say?

- Michelle.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 1998

I just read the Hotmail responses to WebTracker. Absolutely hilarious. Is there a way to compile all the responses onto one page for the presentation?

Also, it might be funny (and interesting) to group the various definitions of Spam from the Hotmail responses ("This is Spam if I do not request nor want your service," "Spam is in the eye of the beholder," etc.). Perhaps this slide could include the pictures of tasty Spam meals. Or perhaps we could show a picture of that famous Magritte painting of a pipe and the words "n'est ce un pipe" or whatever ("This is not a pipe"), to illustrate that even though the WebTracker emails claimed that "This is not a Spam!," it still was -- or perhaps that, like the Magritte painting, it was not really what it represented to be, since it was sent by Team 6 and not really by a web tracking company . . . . The existential burn is starting to make me dizzy!!!

I really think that using graphics and making jokes will keep things interesting.

- Michelle.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 1998