[Beowulf] Semi-OT: emailing your HPC software suppliers ...
Joe Landman
landman at scalableinformatics.com
Mon Dec 19 09:16:12 PST 2005
Hi folks:
We purchased a license to the Intel C/C++ compiler suite over the
weekend for a project, and have been waiting for our license. I emailed
them this morning to see where it was in the process. I received a note
back from my mailer like this (email addresses/server names/ips removed
to protect the possibly innocent):
<----- at intel.com>: host ---.intel.com[---.---.---.---] said: 554 5.7.1
Message seems to be spam, rejected. Your message was not received
by Intel.
For more information, see
http://www.intel.com/intel/sss/en/whitelist.htm .
Japanese page: Intel SPAM error click here:
http://www.intel.com/intel/sss/jp/whitelist.htm (in reply to end of
DATA
command)
All I did was follow their instructions to reply to the email to ask a
question. Running over to that link, it turns out that they use a spam
detector.
Now, all we did is hit the reply button and type a little text so that
they would have context. Their spam filter said:
"The message Intel received had features about it (a
strangely-punctuated subject line, for instance, or lots of HTML code)
that known unwanted mail also has. In other words, it "looks" a lot
like unwanted e-mail to our automated anti-spam program."
which may be read as "we can dish it out to you, but we ain't gonna take
it back"
That isn't the bad part. If you read the link, you will see after you
fill out the request to be white listed, that it will take 1-2 weeks to
review this.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
So why am I posting this here? In part it is because someone from Intel
may be reading this list (though possibly not with their spam filter),
and might be able to communicate to their IT folks about a seriously
broken spam filter.... Don't emit what you are unwilling to accept
email-wise.
We strive to make sure our filters don't bounce messages inadvertantly.
We do get lots of spam, and it helps to improve our filters. But we
also want to make sure we don't miss customer emails. Our customers are
very important to us. Missed emails are bugs, whether we bounce them
or our filters filter them.
That said, their phone support folks are very helpful. I am looking
forward to playing with the compiler.
--
Joseph Landman, Ph.D
Founder and CEO
Scalable Informatics LLC,
email: landman at scalableinformatics.com
web : http://www.scalableinformatics.com
phone: +1 734 786 8423
fax : +1 734 786 8452
cell : +1 734 612 4615
More information about the Beowulf
mailing list