---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SpamMaster! (CoPilot edition) written by Slixter, 3/25/97 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is SpamMaster? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One fine day, after not logging into Genie for a week or so, I decided to pay Genie a visit. Lo and behold, I had 19 letters waiting for me! Unfortunately, eighteen of them were spam. So, when I got around to it, I created SpamMaster. SpamMaster is a NDA that works with CoPilot, and lets you get back at mass mailers that send unsolicited internet e-mail to your Genie account. What does it let me do? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamMaster will automatically send out e-mail replies to the offender, asking either politely or not-so-politely to be taken off of the person's mailing list. You can also send the person a picture of a can of Spam or a brief history of Spam, and you can automatically notify the postmaster at the person's internet service provider as well. How do I install SpamMaster? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First copy the five text files (the files that end with ".TXT") into the GEFILES folder inside your CoPilot folder. Then you can either copy the SpamMaster NDA file into your System/Desk.Accs folder, or launch it from IR. How do I weild the awe-inspiring power of SpamMaster? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Say you receive an e-mail from someone, telling you about an incredible business opportunity or something. In CoPilot, use the mouse to hilight or select the e-mail address of the sender. Then press OpenApple-C to Copy the selection to the clipboard. Note that SpamMaster is smart enough to allow you to be a little sloppy in selecting the name -- things like whether there are leading spaces or whether you select INET# or not don't matter. Once you've copied the name to the clipboard, choose SpamMaster! from the apple menu. You'll get a list of various letters you can reply with. Feel free to check whatever you want. Note that each thing you check off is sent as a separate letter. Also, the REMOVE letter is always sent last, so in case sending the other letters put you onto a mailing list, the REMOVE letter will (maybe) take you off of it. If you choose to send the letter to the site administators, it will be sent to: postmaster@sitename.xxx, root@sitename.xxx, and sysadmin@sitename.xxx. Once you've chosen which letters you want to send, click on the Send button, and the letters will be sent on the next CoPilot pass. Be aware that sometimes the address of the sender is not a "real" e-mail address, or perhaps the sender dropped their e-mail account after sending out the spam. If this is the case, then your letters will get bounced back to you, and there's not much you can do about it. Also, if you send e-mail to the site administrators, usually only one or two of the three names SpamMaster sends to are valid, so you will get some bouncing back there as well. I wanna customize my letters! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No problem. The five files that you copied to the GEFILES folder are simple text files which you can edit in any text editor. The first line of each file is the subject header, and the rest is the message body. Feel free to change them however you like, adding your name to the end or whatever. However, be aware that when you send the letter to the site administrators, the address of the offender is always appended to the very end of the letter. So the last line of SPAMADMIN.TXT should always be something like "The name of the account is: ", with no carriage return afterward. How does SpamMaster work? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It messes with the MAIL.TRT file. I love SpamMaster, and want to send the author millions of dollars! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay. You can send me less, too. In fact, I'll settle for a standard shareware fee of $5. Or if you haven't already, you can buy the incredible new logic/action game Operation Lambda for $25, or the equally incredible GS/OS splash screen enhancer Opening Line for $12. (Both prices include all shipping and handling.) Or, if you want to send me absolutely nothing at all, then so be it, but a pox on you and your family, and may the scuttling of the demonic cockroaches keep you awake far into the night. Address to send money to: Bret Victor 19253 Parkview Rd. Castro Valley, CA 94546 Address to send words to: Internet: bret@cco.caltech.edu Genie: B.VICTOR1 I want to know more about the author. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No you don't, you're just being polite. Anyway, I'm 19 years old, I'm a sophomore at Caltech, and I do a lot of IIgs programming. My programming credits include: TextFighter, CoolEd (co-author), Opening Line, ShadyBar, Bender, Boinger, GravityMouse, Horoscope, SlixLaunch, MagicMouse, AutoInfo, PuyoPuyo, BarNone II, DisChord, Periodic Table, Operation Lambda, MightyScroll, World Time Zones, SlixTop, Jam Break, WhatchaPress, MightyQuotes, PickQuick, SurfBurgers, MightyPrefix, AAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!, MightyUnits, Tell Me, CrossHatch, Bunnies & Carrots, SpamMaster The first two are 8-bit programs, and the rest are IIgs programs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (c) 1997 Bret Victor and his feet... finally on the ground...