Mailman 3 May 2005 - spambayes-dev

Paid programmer needed :)
by Dreas van Donselaar May 31, 2005

May 31, 2005

Hi all, We are building a commercial antispam application (free for personal use though) based on SpamBayes. We are currently looking for a Python programmer with SpamBayes experience, to assist us in developing our software further. We are definately not just a copy, and have a different model. So far however people without too much SpamBayes experience managed to either break the cleanliness of the code or rewrite functionality that was already there. We are trying to avoid this :) Please contact me on an IM when interested! MSN: <mailto:dreas@emailaccount.nl> dreas(a)emailaccount.nl AIM: dreas1983 Y!: dreasvandonselaar Skype: dreasvandonselaar ICQ: 108756 Regards, ___ Dreas van Donselaar CIO & co-founder SpamExperts Postbus 309 6200 AH Maastricht The Netherlands T: +31 (0)626202808 F: +31 (0)842203930 E: aj.vandonselaar(a)spamexperts.com W: http://www.spamexperts.com/

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Re: [spambayes-dev] Been trying out 1.1a for a while - toolbar'funny' ?
by Tony Meyer May 24, 2005

May 24, 2005

[Andy Holt] >> If so, there's a minor issue. I've been running 1.1a for weeks, but my >> toolbar buttons have had the same, longer text as they always had, until >> just today when I was trying to track down an Outlook problem. I disabled >> all my add-ins, and when I came to re-enable Spambayes, that's when I >> noticed the new button labels. So, it seems you have to actually disable >> and re-enable Spambayes for the new labels to show. When I installed 1.1a >> originally, I just closed Outlook, installed 1.1a over the previous >> version (1.0.4 I think), and restarted Outlook. [Kenny Pitt] > SpamBayes first tries to use the existing toolbar so that any > customizations you have made to it will be preserved. If, > for any reason, it can't access the existing toolbar then it > will recreate it from scratch. This is probably what > happened after you disabled and then re-enabled SpamBayes. I had wondered about this a few times, but figured it wasn't that important. I didn't realise that there was anyone that managed to keep the toolbar alive (i.e. doesn't have the "recreating the toolbar" log entries) between sessions <0.5 wink>. This is tied up with removing the toolbar on uninstall, too (which I would like to get done for 1.1). For now, I've added a note about it in the release notes (which people probably don't read, but it's a start, at least). I guess we could add a check for the old buttons and if they are found recreate the toolbar (since we have all the recreation code there already). Anyone want to open a feature request? =Tony.Meyer

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Re: [spambayes-dev] Been trying out 1.1a for a while - toolbar'funny' ?
by Tony Meyer May 24, 2005

May 24, 2005

> Actually this FAQ > (http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/faq.html#the-recover-from-sp > am-button-no-longer-appears - URL wrap alert!) may need tweaking > because some people will have the 'Not Spam' button and some will > still have the old 'Recover from Spam' button (I remember the old > wording now) even if they've upgraded to 1.1. I wondered about this. What I'm doing for the moment with the FAQ is using 1.0.x wording everywhere. Once 1.1 is final, I'll update the various places in the FAQ that refer to 1.0.x specific things. If someone has a better plan (that doesn't involve more work!) I'd be happy to hear it. =Tony.Meyer

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ham goes not left to the original folder - Outlook 2003
by Erwin Tschirk May 24, 2005

May 24, 2005

ham goes not left to the original folder - Outlook 2003.... My original folder is (IMAP) inbox Then after spam-filtering it goes to folder "SPAM" Bu then i go to folder "SPAM" -> take one of this mails and click an NOT SPAM"-icon Then the programm move it to thew lokal INBOX - and not to the IMAP-inbox folder. Do somebody know a solution for it ? Cu erwin

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Been trying out 1.1a for a while - toolbar 'funny' ?
by Andy Holt May 23, 2005

May 23, 2005

Hi, I've been trying out 1.1a - the Outlook plug-in. All's going well. A question: has the text of the button labels changed from, er, whatever it was, to just 'Spam' and 'Not Spam'? If so, there's a minor issue. I've been running 1.1a for weeks, but my toolbar buttons have had the same, longer text as they always had, until just today when I was trying to track down an Outlook problem. I disabled all my add-ins, and when I came to re-enable Spambayes, that's when I noticed the new button labels. So, it seems you have to actually disable and re-enable Spambayes for the new labels to show. When I installed 1.1a originally, I just closed Outlook, installed 1.1a over the previous version (1.0.4 I think), and restarted Outlook. This is minor, but might it actually be showing up the fact that some other things that have changed between 1.0.x and 1.1 do not work (or something) until you disable and then re-enable the add-in? cheers Andy Holt

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Re: [spambayes-dev] [Spambayes-checkins] website related.ht, 1.15, 1.16
by Skip Montanaro May 23, 2005

May 23, 2005

Anthony> Log Message: Anthony> wecanstopspam is a spam site now (ironically) ... Anthony> - <li>Gary Robinson has a well-organized Anthony> - <a href="http://wecanstopspam.org/jsp/Wiki?StartingPoints">Spam Wiki</a>. Anthony> - </li> Any idea what happened? Skip

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Suggestion for feature: If user is in CONTACTS, do not categorize as SPAM
by tomj＠id-company.net May 21, 2005

May 21, 2005

This would make the filter more accurate. Perhaps combined with a %confidence level if there is a match. Just a though. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 266.11.12 - Release Date: 5/17/2005

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Re: [spambayes-dev] chi2 technique
by Tony Meyer May 19, 2005

May 19, 2005

> 1) Has anyone tried classifing, or keeping track of unknown > HTML tag names? Say for instance, some spam has the following > html V<asdfsdf> I<asdfsdf> G<asdfsdf> R<asdfsdf> A > What if a token was added named "Unknown:Html" or something > like that (because of the <asdfsdf> tags ? At the moment we basically throw all HTML tags away - the above would result in a "VIGRA" tag, which would probably be pretty spammy (those with legitimate mail about viagra would probably spell it correctly). You could try doing this if you liked. You'd have to have a list of all 'valid' or 'known' HTML tags, of course. I suspect that spammers that break up text like this use valid tags anyway (e.g. 'cat'), so it wouldn't have much effect. The only way to know is to test, though! > also, I ran across this link today: > > 2) http://mmmservices.web.cern.ch/mmmservices/AntiSpam/ > Basically they filter out the really small fonts between > individual characters (look at evolution 3) > Would a technique like this be benneficial? Test it, and you'll know <0.5 wink>. Once you start going down this road, though (converting to 'eye space'), it'll be hard to stop, and you'll be essentially writing a mail client. It's possible that these techniques result in more spammy clues, anyway (who gets munged text like that in legitimate mail?) - or at least if the exact token hasn't been seen before, the word will be ignored, which tends towards more unsure mail than more ham. > Also, if I want to test some type of technique, what levels > of spam filtering/fp/fn are people getting? What percentage > points should I shoot for? What you should be aiming for is to decrease whatever fp/fn/unsures you get without the patch. It doesn't really matter what you were getting before, just that things improve. If you find something that does improve results, then post the patch & your results here, and try and convince other people to try it out on their corpora - you'll probably get at least one taker. If results improve (from whatever to whatever) for several people, then there's a good chance that we'll add it in (probably as an experimental option) for the next release. If it really seems like it works for most people, then it can become a 'real' option, and possibly one day be on by default. =Tony.Meyer

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Re: [spambayes-dev] chi2 technique
by Sam Nage May 19, 2005

May 19, 2005

Hi Tony, Thanks a bunch for the reply. I'll come up with more specific questions about the classifier. If they are too generic, don't worry about hurting my feeling about smart remarks. I know what it is like when you have a noob at the other end of the list. ;-) btw, I've got 2 suggestions about trying out, to see how they work (hopefully i'm not overstepping my bounds here) 1) Has anyone tried classifing, or keeping track of unknown HTML tag names? Say for instance, some spam has the following html V<asdfsdf> I<asdfsdf> G<asdfsdf> R<asdfsdf> A What if a token was added named "Unknown:Html" or something like that (because of the <asdfsdf> tags ? also, I ran across this link today: 2) http://mmmservices.web.cern.ch/mmmservices/AntiSpam/ Basically they filter out the really small fonts between individual characters (look at evolution 3) Would a technique like this be benneficial? Also, if I want to test some type of technique, what levels of spam filtering/fp/fn are people getting? What percentage points should I shoot for? TIA! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Meyer" <tameyer(a)ihug.co.nz> To: "'Sam Nage'" <seionage(a)lycos.com>, spambayes-dev(a)python.org Subject: RE: [spambayes-dev] chi2 technique Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 10:51:04 +1200 > > > I'm trying to understand how you implemented the Chi2 technique. > > Do you mean the whole classifier, or just the inverse-chi-squared function > (chi2.chi2Q())? > > > Can someone tell me how chi2 method is implemented in spambayes? > > What exactly do you mean by how it's implemented? Do you want an > explanation of how the math works (Gary Robinson's Linux Journal paper is > probably best for that), or how the math was turned into Python? > > If the latter, then reading classifier.py is probably the best thing to do. > Concentrate on the Classifier class, particularly the chi2_spamprob() and > probability() methods. If you understand how they work (and the comments do > a pretty good job of explaining how they relate to the math), then that's > mostly it. > > If there's something you don't understand, then asking about the specific > part of the code would probably make it easier to answer. > > > Has this been discussed before? I've tried searching the archives. > > Well, I'm sure people discussed it at the time it was written (when it > replaced the earlier combining methods). That's long before this > spambayes-dev list started, though. It might be at the start of the > spambayes(a)python.org list, but I suspect you'll have to go back to when > spambayes was discussed on python-dev. I wouldn't really recommend the > archives as a place to find these answers. > > =Tony.Meyer -- _______________________________________________ NEW! Lycos Dating Search. The only place to search multiple dating sites at once. http://datingsearch.lycos.com

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Re: [spambayes-dev] chi2 technique
by Tony Meyer May 18, 2005

May 18, 2005

> I'm trying to understand how you implemented the Chi2 > technique. Do you mean the whole classifier, or just the inverse-chi-squared function (chi2.chi2Q())? > Can someone tell me how chi2 method is implemented in spambayes? What exactly do you mean by how it's implemented? Do you want an explanation of how the math works (Gary Robinson's Linux Journal paper is probably best for that), or how the math was turned into Python? If the latter, then reading classifier.py is probably the best thing to do. Concentrate on the Classifier class, particularly the chi2_spamprob() and probability() methods. If you understand how they work (and the comments do a pretty good job of explaining how they relate to the math), then that's mostly it. If there's something you don't understand, then asking about the specific part of the code would probably make it easier to answer. > Has this been discussed before? I've tried searching the archives. Well, I'm sure people discussed it at the time it was written (when it replaced the earlier combining methods). That's long before this spambayes-dev list started, though. It might be at the start of the spambayes(a)python.org list, but I suspect you'll have to go back to when spambayes was discussed on python-dev. I wouldn't really recommend the archives as a place to find these answers. =Tony.Meyer

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