Whoever is using this guy to send their advertisements needs to find themselves a new spammer, preferably (from their perspective) one who knows how to define variable values in their software:

Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 16:48:57 +0300
From: B…..t W…..n < ...@adelphia.net>
Reply-To: B…..t W…..n < ...@adelphia.net>
To: Apayne
Subject: No complicated formalities of any kind,
just order 3PhorZUcTwpjd9FUqK78

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We created an online medical consultation to get you the medications you need without the hassle, embarrassment, and cost of the doctor’s office and pharmacy. %RND_AD_2 Plus: %RND_ALL_OTHER_MEDS No complicated formalities of any kind. No waiting rooms. Here.. Use Microsoft Internet Explorer to view the following website: www.%RND_HOST. Please copy and paste the URL on your browser’s address field. %RND_PHRASE %RND_PHRASE %RND_PHRASE %RND_PHRASE

I spent most of today sorting out and documenting changes we;re planning to make to our mail handling at the hospital. We’ve been upgrading some of the edge servers recently, and have had a fair number of requests for us to do something about spam. We’ll be inserting a machine running Spam Assassin between the edge mail hosts and our MS Exchange server.

One of the decisions I had to make was was whether or not to use RBLs. I’ve personally been opposed to the idea since I first heard of them, because I don’t like the idea of innocent individual sites and users getting caught in the battle against spam. I understand the reasoning behind the RBL operators wanting to put pressure on ISPs, but don’t agree with the principle of applying that pressure by preventing innocent users from sending email to sites using RBLs. To support my decision, I linked a copy of The SPAM Problem: Moving Beyond RBLs, which I recalled reading 18 months ago into our document. Philip presents a thorough case for not using RBLs in the fight against spam.

This site has existed in various forms for several years, starting with static pages edited in vi, and then moving through my own perl scripts to end up as a PHP-Nuke site. In January 2003 I merged the Al-manac into Globecord, a goofy site that I run with some friends. Last fall I setup Geeklog to start playing around with another application. Globecord has been customized a fair amount, but I wanted a stand-alone place to post thoughts on technical issues.

A couple of recent stories (1, 2) on Slashdot piqued my curiousity in open-source CMSes again. Today I installed WordPress, and start yet another incarnation of my online presence.