This is a long look at the history of spam, in all its forms. Spam has a long history, from email to Usenet to social media to everything in between.
The book has a nice general definition of spam: an abuse of someone’s attention. So, if someone is paying attention to something else, and you take advantage of that attention by muscling in on it, that’s spam.
Thebook will really only be interesting to people with a long history with the Internet. It goes really deep into the early days, which I personally find fascinating, but I know it’s not for everyone.
It’s well-written. Almost lyrical.
Honestly, I don’t know that I got much out of it. It doesn’t have any advice or policy ideas or solutions or anything else. It’s just a nice history lesson (or reminder, depending on how old you are, I suppose).
Book Info
Author
Finn Brunton
Year
Pages
270
Acquired
I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.
Thomas Bayes was a 17th century English polymath. He documented a method for statistical analysis and probability which has become core to those disciplines. In its simplest form, Bayes Theorem allows us to find the probability of an event occurring them we know the probability of multiple related...
This is a when a wrongdoer is humiliated by being “paraded through the streets.” From Wikipedia : A European and North American folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade Occasionally, the actual wrongdoer is not used, but rather...
The word literally means “between reigns.” If a ruler died, the interregnum was the period of time until a new ruler was crowned. It can be used in general to refer to a gap in something otherwise continuous.
It comes from a Latin word meaning “to conceal.” When I read the definition, I thought to myself, “That sounds like ‘esoteric.'” Then I checked a synonym guide, and the first synonym suggested was “esoteric.”
“ur-” is German for “original” or “primitive.” The urtext is the original document, without any changes. It’s often used to discuss printed music, as these tend to change over time to accommodate new notation or musical styles.
