> Firefox does not ship with AdBlock Pro installed.  People download it,
> install it, and use it successfully.  I happen to be one of those people.
>
> You, instead, have assumed "it can't possibly work" and so haven't even
> tried it.

Before we get too far into this, I would like to re-emphasize what I 
actually said:

I said I had never bothered trying such software under the /assumption/ 
that it won't work properly. I said that it looks intractably difficult. 
Then again, so does writing non-trivial software using something as 
primitive as C, and apparently people manage to do that.

In short, I would be surprised if ad-blocking technology can work. Not 
astonished, but definitely surprised.

> Spam filters work to a significant extent.  Again, empirical evidence.
> 100% isn't necessary to declare success or failure.
>
> You're declaring failure because 1 message in "n" (for sufficiently large
> values of 'n') gets through.  Fact is, spam filters aren't supposed to
> block all spam.  They're supposed to reduce it, and for most people, they
> do the job properly.

In my book, if I use a spam filter and still receive unacceptable 
quantities of spam, or have unacceptable quantities of genuine mail 
filtered, then the filter is "not working". I agree that 100% filtration 
would be almost impossible, but (for example) 3% filtration is useless.

> Have you tried something like Spamassassin?

Nope. If fact, I've never actually installed spam filtering technology 
myself. I've only had it forced upon me by whoever is operating the mail 
server.

> And yes, you do work in an industry where the normal triggers for spam
> might actually be legitimate business communications.

Quite. This has no bearing on the spam filter at home being similarly 
useless, however.

> That doesn't mean spam filters are useless.
>
> You'll note that I didn't say *all* spam filters were wonderful and
> flawless.  I said that spam filtering generally works well.

Even I didn't say that *all* spam filters are useless. I merely said 
that I've yet to see one that isn't. (I even qualified it by saying I 
haven't seen all that many.)

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