why is the internet term spam..name after a canned meat?

Answer 1

The direct reason is that the quote comes from a Monty Python comedy skit/song.

The underlying reason is that "nobody" likes the taste of Spam, but I find this silly.

I love the taste of Spam and also the new Turkey Spam that was introduced several years ago.

While pork/ham are hardly a staple for me, turkey and chicken are foods I eat almost every day.

Spam, in both flavors, is convenient to prepare in modern households - since it quickly warms up in the microwave.

When you want a sandwich, reach for lunch meat. When you want a hot meal: Spam!

Speaking of Spam, I am getting deluged by "phone spam" this weekend.

I have received 10-15 phone calls from these "auto dialer" things, and two of the politicians have sent me their message TWICE.

That is a little over-doing it.

Spam has been linked to Terrorist & Criminal activities.

Email 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".

This CAN-SPAM act of 2003 prevents victims of spam from suing any spammers.

It only allows ISPs - such as Microsoft (MSN), Earthlink, various telcos, etc. - to sue.

The "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!

Since they get a cut, a "piece of the action", they do not have the strongest incentive to get rid of spam anymore.

Lobbiests 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.

The US Congress's CAN-SPAM also had the effect of revoking state laws against spam that actually had some teeth in them.

A 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%.

In other words, practically none complies and obviously no one is stopping the over 99.7% of illegally spam.

At 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.

I wish there was a better word than "Spam" to describe this abhorrent practice.

I hardly feel like "devouring" all these unsoclicited marketing messages I get by phone and email.

Plus, 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!

I 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.

Hopefully, 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.

For that to actually happen, depends upon how you vote

A 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.

There 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.

Answer 2

There is some debate about the source of the term, but the generally accepted version is that it comes from the Monty Python song, "Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam…" Like the song, spam is an endless repetition of worthless text. Another school of thought maintains that it comes from the computer group lab at the University of Southern California who gave it the name because it has many of the same characteristics as the lunchmeat Spam:

Nobody wants it or ever asks for it.
No one ever eats it; it is the first item to be pushed to the side when eating the entree.
Sometimes it is actually tasty, like 1% of junk mail that is really useful to some people.

Answer 3

cook dinner some macaroni, make a cheese sauce, cube up the unsolicited mail and upload combine those 3 issues. Then placed the entire factor in a casserole dish, precise it with breadcrumbs and dot the precise with some butter. Bake it at 350 levels until eventually it somewhat is bubbly, approximately 20 minutes or so (watch it because of the cheese). stable stuff! For a miles less complicated dish, only make some boxed mac & cheese and stir in some diced unsolicited mail. No baking, and it somewhat is stable besides!. P.S. i've got considered on the nutrition community that throughout Hawaii they make nori rolls with julienned unsolicited mail.

Answer 4

It was given the name after the Monty Pythons song where the whole song is the word spam and it goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and.
OK get the idea?

Answer 5

Because they are both Irritating and I don't like either one!

Answer 6

This site explains it fairly well:

http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html

plrr

Answer 7

cause theyre both so yummy

Answer 8

because nobody wants it