why is the internet term spam..name after a canned meat?
920085
The direct reason is that the quote comes from a Monty Python comedy skit/song.\n\nThe underlying reason is that "nobody" likes the taste of Spam, but I find this silly.\n\nI love the taste of Spam and also the new Turkey Spam that was introduced several years ago.\n\nWhile pork/ham are hardly a staple for me, turkey and chicken are foods I eat almost every day.\n\nSpam, in both flavors, is convenient to prepare in modern households - since it quickly warms up in the microwave.\n\nWhen you want a sandwich, reach for lunch meat.  When you want a hot meal:  Spam!\n\nSpeaking of Spam, I am getting deluged by "phone spam" this weekend.\n\nI have received 10-15 phone calls from these "auto dialer" things, and two of the politicians have sent me their message TWICE.\n\nThat is a little over-doing it.\n\nSpam has been linked to Terrorist & Criminal activities.\n\nEmail spammers are legally protected in the United States by a bill passed by the 103rd US Congress.  It was then signed into law by George Bush junior.  The bill was called "CAN-SPAM".  \n\nThis CAN-SPAM act of 2003 prevents victims of spam from suing any spammers.\n\nIt only allows ISPs - such as Microsoft (MSN), Earthlink, various telcos, etc. - to sue.\n\nThe "fees" they collect serve as a source of revenue to them when people send you spam.  They get enriched by the spam sent to their own customers!\n\nSince they get a cut, a "piece of the action", they do not have the strongest incentive to get rid of spam anymore.\n\nLobbiests helped write this law. The actual recipients cannot sue, so it is obvious that the US public did not draft the law.  It gives them no recourse and no compensation.\n\nThe US Congress's CAN-SPAM also had the effect of revoking state laws against spam that actually had some teeth in them.\n\nA very recent study found that the amount of email spam that was actually complying with the CAN-SPAM guidelines for identifying adult email and letting users actually "opt-out" of receiving it was at something like 0.27%, down from 0.3%.\n\nIn other words, practically none complies and obviously no one is stopping the over 99.7% of illegally spam.\n\nAt the time the bill was becoming law, it was thought that the term "can" meant get rid of or cancel.  Now, it seems more that the term "can" as in "package for mass distribution" is more fitting and perhaps what the drafters/sponsors of the bill meant.\n\nI wish there was a better word than "Spam" to describe this abhorrent practice.\n\nI hardly feel like "devouring" all these unsoclicited marketing messages I get by phone and email.\n\nPlus, if I start receiving any on my cell phone - and thus have to pay to listen to them - I am really going to get steamed at these guys!\n\nI have included links to:  the maker's website, the official and unofficial spam sites, the Wikipedia pages about electronic spam and about the highly inneffective CAN-SPAM law that the US Congress passed.\n\nHopefully, the next Congress will replace this disingenuous law with one that helps The People, and not select commercial interest, and actually stops spammers from spamming, which is what was claimed CAN-SPAM would do.\n\nFor that to actually happen, depends upon how you vote\n\nA Congress in the pocket of big, commercial interest lobbiests is not going to want to stop you from receiving barrages of unwanted commercial email and adware.  Not if there is money to be made by doing it, which there is.\n\nThere you have it.  That is what spam is, why it is, where the term comes from, what you can do about it, and why you get so much of it every day in your email box.
344413
The word Spam is actually a mix of "spiced" and "ham" so, I guess if the chicken is spiced, it would be called spicken.  Hey, I like that word, spicken. Cool!
435396
Very informative question please read definitions below::\n\nSPAM\n\nTo indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities. Noun: electronic "junk mail".\n\nSpam refers to electronic junk mail or junk newsgroup postings. Some people define spam even more generally as any unsolicited e-mail. In addition to being a nuisance, spam also eats up a lot of network bandwidth. Because the Internet is a public network, little can be done to prevent spam, just as it is impossible to prevent junk mail. However, the use of software filters in e-mail programs can be used to remove most spam sent through e-mail.\n\n"SPAM" mail is the practice of sending massive amounts of e-mail promotions or advertisements (and scams) to people that have not asked for it. Spam mail is controversial and there are many levels of definitions for it. Many times, spam e-mail lists are created by "harvesting" e-mail addresses from discussion boards and groups, chat rooms, IRC, and web pages. Pugmarks strictly prohibits sending spam from accounts on our servers.\n\n\nA spam message is an unsolicited, usually commercial e-mail message. It is also referred to as UCE, or unsolicited commercial e-mail.\n\nAs a noun, an irrelevant message (frequently commercial advertising) cross-posted to many public fora (eg.: Usenet groups) simultaneously. As a verb, the act of posting such spam. The term is derived, obscurely, from a popular Monty Python comedy sketch that celebrates the pleasures of consuming a certain tinned meat product.\n\nSpam by e-mail is a type of spam that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. Addresses of recipients are often harvested from Usenet postings or web pages, obtained from databases, or simply guessed by using common names and domains. By definition, spam is sent without the permission of the recipients. \n\nSpam is repeated use of more than one grenade in one part of a map in the quake mod Team Fortress. It also broadly incorporates overuse of the in-game messaging system and excessive setting of detpacks (large-scale explosions). \n\nSpam is a popular Monty Python sketch, first broadcast in 1970. In the sketch, two customers are trying to order a breakfast without SPAM from a menu which includes the processed meat product in every entree. The term spam (in electronic communication) is derived from this sketch. \n\nhttp://360.yahoo.com/jcbroogley
915562
It's called SEO spam or blog spam.  \n\nBasically it's computer-generated randomness but the purpose is to show up in the search engines so people click, then (hopefully) they click again on one of the Google AdSense ads that are on the spam page.  You can buy software that churns out these pages automatically by the thousands. It's a typical case of "scam of the week" because all the money is made by the guys selling the software to suckers who believe that spamming people is a legitimate business.\n\nGood luck,\nScott
350915
Probably 'spammer' doesn't mean what you think it means. Can you clarify your question?
486939
Spam is bulk mail you have identified as somethingyou don't want to receive. In other words, you might receive bulk mail that is of interest to you (never know). But if you decide it isn't and you don't want it, then it becomes spam and you can categorize it as such.
848071
What in God's name has this spam go to do with hunting?
509482
It may be a spam-blocker setting.
621918
cook it with some wine and spices hold your noise and eat it or feed it to the dog.\nNote feeding spam to dogs can make them thirsty and give them very bad gas.\n\nNo but seriously just raise the filtre levels on your email.\nWe are all plagued.\nAside from that join the anti technology sector.\nI get sometimes 200 spams a day 99% go to junk mail.
706742
Bulk\n\nBulk mails is the Mail where the Mail send by the group of people in large quantity which occupies more space than a normal Mail. It is called Bulk Mail Normally The Picture containing Mails will be of Bulk Mails as it was the type of huge in size.\n\nThrash\n\nThrash is nothing but the dustbin as we through the Waste and Unwanted things into the dustbin its for through the waste and Unwanted mails Normally it will be in the thrash bin for 30 days \n\nSpam\n\nSpam is the mail which was sent by the person who have the aim to affect our Mail box by dumping there mail and some time virus mail come only the spam mail its also risky to open a spam mail spam mail must to be treated as the risky one and it should not be opened as it may contain the virus
78718
I think you mean spam.\nIt is there in the page usually on the top of the message, as Report Spam or Report Junk like this.
697309
Spam is illegal, friend.\n\nE-mail spam is a subset of spam that involves sending nearly identical messages to a few or thousands (or millions) of recipients by E-mail. Perpetrators of such spam ("spammers") often harvest addresses of prospective recipients from Usenet postings or from web pages, obtain them from databases, or simply guess them by using common names and domains. By popular definition, a spam message is an unwanted email that is sent without the permission of the recipient.\n\nSending spam violates the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) of almost all Internet Service Providers, and can lead to the termination of the sender's account. Many jurisdictions, such as the United States of America, which regulates via the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, regard spamming as a crime or as an actionable tort.\n\nArticle 13 of the European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC) provides that the EU member states shall take appropriate measures to ensure that unsolicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing are not allowed either without the consent of the subscribers concerned or in respect of subscribers who do not wish to receive these communications, the choice between these options to be determined by national legislation.\n\nIn Australia, the relevant legislation is the Spam Act 2003 which covers some types of e-mail and phone spam.\n\nAccessing privately owned computer resources without the owner's permission counts as illegal under computer crime statutes in most nations. Deliberate spreading of computer viruses is also illegal in the United States and elsewhere.\n\nThus, some of spammers most common behaviors are criminal quite independently of the legal status of spamming per se. Even before the advent of laws specifically banning or regulating spamming, spammers have been successfully prosecuted under computer fraud and abuse laws for wrongfully using others' computers.
761928
I don't like spam! spam spam spam spam spammity spam
435262
Spam is a processed ham in a tin made popular in the UK during WW2
847914
ILLEGAL SPAM / SCAM\nREPEATED POSTINGS\nNOT A QUESTION OR ANSWER, JUST SPAM\nREPORTED
98461
Spam is a classification for junk mail. You find it in your e-mail, if you're a Yahoo user, it should be direccted to your BULK mail.
572601
It's no acronym...it just means crap...like the meat in a can stuff is crap.