On 3/12/2011 7:31 PM, Wietse Venema wrote:
[snip]
The problem is that the larger alphabet and longer queue IDs increase
the possibility that existing words will appear inside queue IDs
(consider that the letters C, F, K and U are in the base 32 alphabet
and that a queue ID can be 12 characters long). Even non-profane
words may cause distraction. Real words can also appear with base64
encoding of message body parts, but most people aren't directly
exposed to such information, so it is less of a problem.
One solution is to eliminate the vowels (AEIOU) from the encoding,
and to add one other character (or keep the A which was already
used in old queue IDs) so I can keep packing 5 bits into each queue
ID character. Another option is to use some encoding that is not
a nice power of 2.
[snip]
But this precludes the possibility of having the $100 FACEDEADBEEF Mail ID
generation contest.
-Daniel
