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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihlpf!rjvaughn
From: rjvaughn@ihlpf.UUCP (r. vaughn)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: interesting news article - (nf)
Message-ID: <292@ihlpf.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Jul-84 19:00:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpf.292
Posted: Wed Jul 25 19:00:54 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jul-84 06:22:00 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 110

#N:ihlpf:17600024:000:4818
ihlpf!rjvaughn    Jul 25 13:09:00 1984

.

UPI - Holmdale, NJ

AT&T has just announced  their  latest  in  a  long  line  of  AI
projects  intended  to  generate  more  phone business.  this pet
project,  called  "decwrl!murf"  was  recently  unleashed  on   a
computer network.  "decwrl!murf's" purpose was to try to generate
as much  computer  phone  traffic  as  possible.  it  did  so  by
pretending  VMS  was  a  real operating system, and informing the
rest of the net this "fact".  Jim Halloway,  the  project's  head
engineer at Holmdale said the results were 'very promising'.  "we
let the program [written in lisp] choose it's own topic, and  the
overall  tone  of the letter.  all we had to do was set up a fake
address for it to originate from, and BOOM, we were  off  to  the
races!"  the  project called 'murf' at the Bell labs facility, is
one of many AI projects AT&T started work on  last  January,  the
same  time  as  the  break  up  of  the monopoly.  numerous other
projects have been tested so  far.   Halloway  commented  on  the
following:

        'the rich rosen 24hour a day letter generator',
                "still in use"

        'fictitous news groups'
                "...such as net.nlang.celts.  an AI flop, generating
                almost NO phone traffic"

        'murf'
                [mentioned above] "which pretended VMS was a real
                operating system. the most successful of all the
                AT&T AI projects"

        'put the letter in the wrong news group'
                "generates a LOT of phone traffic.  especially when
                something from net.motss goes in net.sport.foot[ball] "

        '27-line signatures on news letters'
                "this project appends stupid sayings and salutations
                to computer users letters.  still in use"

        'the line eater bug'
                "considered by many a stroke of genius.  net people will
                generate thousands of extra letters discussing the bug and
                re-submitting letters"
Fred Wilson, head of all AI research at Holmdale says  these  are
just  a  few of the existing AI projects.  "We are hopeing to add
many more projects to the net before  the  close  of  the  year."
This would include

        '4.2BSD bug'
                "random letters on machines using 4.2BSD will be 'lost.'
                this should generate a lot of phone traffic, and maybe help
                with System V sales."

        'newsletter regurgitation'
                "AT&T has archived every net letter ever.  certain letters
                deemed "phone usage generators" will be re-submitted at
                random intervals from fake computer id's.  this technique
                has had a limited test with the famous
                        'light bulb joke/it's a hardware problem'
                in net.jokes.  results were 'outstanding'"

        'random name calling'
                "a fake id, such as rich rosen, will randomly come on the
                net and personally attack a user who is at LEAST 8 machines
                away."

        'machine path de-optimization'
                "self explanatory."

        'big names on the net'
                "make net people believe big names, such as ritchie,
                aho, ullman etc. actually read stuff on the net
                and pay attention.  rumors about 'big names' have already
                been started."

        'computer dating'
                "a fake FEMALE id (rose richen) will send seductive,
                teasing letters to males reading net.singles.  this
                has enormous potential.  the rose richen AI project will
                be very complicated, our best people are working on it.
                the old AI project rich rosen will be sending seductive,
                teasing letters to females reading net.singles and males
                reading net.motss"

        'welcome freshman!'
                "each fall freshman at all campuses on the net will be given
                a handout showing them how to access the net.  AT&T is
                worried this project might be TOO successful, and flood
                the net."

        'random file encryption'
                "the famous ROT13 from from net.jokes is scheduled to move
                to ALL the news groups this fall.  the confusion following
                should cause an 8% increase in net traffic.  'how do i
                unrotate my files??' "

        'hate groups'
                "groups such as net.hate.newjersey, net.hate.newnetpeople,
                net.hate.democrats(republicans), net.hate.olympic_hype
                etc. will be added"

        B-) B-) B-) B-) B-) B-),

                ron
ihnp4!ihlpf!rjvaughn     (  <-- note, NEW address, used to be ...ctb)