Problem (Partially) Figured Out

A couple wrong emails I received recently:

<<<

From: Hermann Strohlos <<snip>@online.de>
To: me
Date: Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:06 PM
Subject: XDA Facebook version Beta 4.5.2 Alpha Data Refresh

Hey,

try to use XDA Facebook in the above mentioned version on HTC HD2, windows mobile 6.5, Kaspersky for windows mobile installed. when opening the functions “profile”, “friends” with their specific sub-features, the application always closes with the added error log. Don’t know why and what to do???

Regards from Germany!

Hermann

>>>

And,

<<<

From: Michelle Espinoza <<snip>@gmail.com>
To: me
Date: Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 11:23 AM
Subject: HTC HD2

Hello Joe,
How can I install the XDA Facebook 4.5 to my htc hd2? The Facebook app that is already on the phone is not that great and I would like to check in on FB and of course I can't on the htc hd2. Your help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you,
Michelle Espinoza

>>>



After a few weeks of periodically receiving emails similar to this, I began to wonder what was up. What's XDA? Did I accidentally code and distribute a mobile Facebook app in my sleep? Is a mobile developer really so clueless as to give the wrong email address on his web page? I mean, is "support(at)XDAFacebookApp" really that close to "joecool(at)gmail?"

I decided to investigate.

Googling "XDA Facebook" came up with this page: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=630992.

Ah, so XDA, I learn, is a language for Windows Mobile-based phones. Not only that, but one of the developers goes by the handle "joe_coolish"! Coincidence? I think not!

I scour the page, but can't find any place where he's given the wrong email. I check his forum profile, but  can't see it without logging into the forum first, and I don't have a forum account. I could create one, but that seems like a lot of work just to see if he's given the wrong email address on his profile. I suppose I could try and log in as him and hit the "I forgot my password" to see if it gets emailed to me.

(True fact: I routinely get emailed other people's password recovery info, because they listed my Gmail address when creating an account on another page. Periodically, I'll receive (unprompted) emails from Google's account recovery that lists all the Gmail accounts associated with my own. There are currently seventeen, only one of which is my alternate account. If you ever need a fake email address, hit me up.)

Going back to the XDA developers' forum, I follow the link to the Google code project site: http://code.google.com/p/xda-winmo-facebook/.

Aha! Now we're on to something! Take a look at the project information:

Hmmm....

Of course, that isn't the project lead's actual email address. Google, in their infinite wisdom, will abbreviate the email address to hide the real address from bots that scour the net looking for email addresses. Clicking his name takes you to his Google projects profile, where, after answering a CAPTCHA question to prove that you're human (yes, I felt sad), you can see his real Gmail address: joe.coolish.

Of course, we all know how Gmail, in its infinite wisdom, treats dots in email addresses, right? Basically, it ignores them. Which means that, in an attempt to hide the XDA Facebook app's lead developer's email address from the prying scripts of bots, they give my address instead. W2G, Google. Of course, they've not only fooled the bots, but also stupid humans who don't know how to fill out CAPTCHA, but instead will just copy and paste the first email address they see.

So there we go, the cause of some of my many Wrong Emails has been discovered. Now, if only there were a solution....

Oh, and Michael Vondra, your order from naked.com has been accepted. You can log in with your username "mogadz" and password "123456". And you might want to change your password. It's only one digit more secure than the code on my luggage.