Keeping the Good; Throwing Out the Bad

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". . . they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, and threw the bad away." (Matthew 13:48).

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The ongoing competition between spammers and spam busters is reaching greater heights. A host of dot coms market various kinds of spam filtering software aimed at markets of disgruntled internet and email users. The cat-and-mouse game involves spammers finding new ways to circumvent the sophisticated filtering technologies now employed by ISPs and end-users to keep unwanted broadcast emails from filling their inboxes. World class mathematicians and researchers have joined in the battle to invent the perfect filter.

Why spam? Actually, the millions and millions of spam emails are produced by relatively few persons. Some spammers are trying to make a buck from the minute responses they receive to their gadzillion emails. Debt relief, pornography, credit card merchant accounts, and plain old scams account for most of the emails unscrupulously spread abroad via the internet. And, of course, there are the hackers behind the technology who just want to win the game.

If you've ever tried to create rules or filter definitions for your email program to filter unwanted emails, you may have a sense of how difficult it is to come up with a workable solution. I have dozens of word filters set up, which catch the worst of the lot, but so far, I've not found the silver bullet for spam.

The most noble--and innovative--of the anti-spam crusades is led by Napster co-founder Jordan Ritter and programmer Vipul Ved Prakash with the SpamNet project. SpamNet identifies Spam with the best possible recognition system on planet earth: human beings. With a mixture of approaches reminiscent of eBay and Napster, SpamNet is a community of members (now 43,000 strong) who each contribute to recognizing and reporting spam. SpamNet's algorithm gives the reported email a unique code which is entered into the service's database. Subscribers' email programs are then equiped to utilize this vast list of known spam to keep the junk from being delivered. As part of the community, members gain vouching clout by correctly identifying spam emails over a period of time: the more spam one identifies, the more weight one's report carries in the program. When one member identifies a spam email, all the other members are immediately protected from receiving it.

So, what's the catch? Only one that I've found: SpamNet only works with Microsoft Outlook. A version for Outlook Express has been promised for months, but is yet to be released.

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The Art of Discernment
Mark Sibley Jones

Browsing through a close-out list of books, I came across an assortment of dating and relationship manuals. The titles spoke of learning to spot a loser on your first date, knowing when to end a sour relationship, and detecting when your man is about to leave. Good stuff to know, I suppose.

I wish I had a nickel for every book purchased by someone wanting to learn how to protect themselves from some kind of pain or misfortune. Marketers would probably agree with my guess that the all time best seller of the lot is the Holy Bible. The Bible is full of stories about--and the teachings of--the wisest of the wise. King Solomon's wisdom is reknown in Western culture. Esther's courage and wit saved the day for Judaism. Jesus Christ displayed an uncanny ability to see into the hearts of persons, detecting their true intentions.

One of my favorite Scripture verses about discernment--if not the most arcane--is from 1 John 4:1 "test the spirits." And so it is that even the best advice about discernment . . . requires some discernment to figure out and implement effectively.

I'll leave it to you and your Bible to sort through the wealth of wisdom in Scripture. The point I want to press is that discernment is more of an art than a science. Art is something one learns only in relationship to others; it is a skill that does not exist in isolation. As such, it is no surprise that the best spam filters require a collaboration of people. Discernment is like that.

Some pithy sayings for you to ponder regarding discernment:

• listen to your heart in a still moment
• listen to your heart in a stressed moment
• listen to the voice of others: friends and foes
• remember the best of sacred writings
• factor in courage and faith