SC - Re: verjuice

[rcmann4@earthlink.net]

In lists.sca.sca-cooks, you wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>Does anyone know why certain websites and mail servers
>change the word "medieval" to "medireview" without any
>warning?  Have I missed something?  Did they change
>the spelling of the word, and not mail me the notice?

It's a misguided attempt to prevent viruses such as "Melissa" and
"ILOVEYOU" which propagate via scripts embedded in email messages.

The term "eval" is used in some programming languages to mean "evaluate"
and can be used to run arbitrary code.  Hence some mail hosting
providers (such as Yahoo, I believe) do a search-and-replace to turn
"eval" into "review".  This is fairly dumb to start with, but what's
even dumber is that they seem to be doing it even when "eval" appears
within another word such as "medieval".

This topic was covered by the RISKS digest the other week... Here's the
URL:

http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/21.27.html#subj9

K.

- -- 
Kirrily 'Skud' Robert - skud at infotrope.net - http://infotrope.net/
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."  -- Albert Einstein