Winston Smith, the protagonist of Orwell’s 1984, worked in the Ministry of Truth. His job there was to clip out pictures of those who had fallen from political grace from the archives, sometimes replacing them with pictures of new heroes in the world of Big Brother.
Obviously he was an inspiration for Yahoo’s e-mail security. In an effort to stave off illicit JavaScript attacks, Yahoo actually replaces words in messages.
This goes beyond what other web-based mail systems do, which modify or delete actual Java tags. This affects the actual words of messages.
So, for example, mentioning that yummy mocha you had on the way in to work will be received on the other end as a yummy espresso. Talk about the funny expression on your boss’ face, and it becomes the funny statement. Mention that you’re doing a thorough evaluation of something, and the result will be a thorough reviewuation.
Not that Yahoo lets anyone know this is happening, or will comment on what else it changes. That’s a security secret which, of course, trumps all other considerations.
Goofballs.
oh, that’s weird.