Tag Archives: e-mail

Checking my messages sure has changed

It really wasn’t that long ago that people didn’t have e-mail. Twenty years ago* Dephi was the first commercial on-line service to offer internet e-mail to it’s customers. I’m not saying some people didn’t have internet e-mail before that, I’m just stating this was a turning point even though it was still a while before other providers offered the same service. A few of you may have had e-mail before then, but if it was a commercial service, it was likely an island (people could only e-mail other subscribers of your service) and some larger universities started rolling it out for students around the same time.

emailAt the time, it was where can I go to check my mail when I’m out of touch. On-line access from other places was an issue. Laptops were expensive and if you had one to take with you, you needed to tie up the phone line to use it. Dial-up was generally the only way to access the internet and if you went somewhere else where you didn’t have access, you couldn’t check your mail. Even if someone had a computer, it didn’t mean they had a modem and even if you brought your own, it didn’t mean they had a phone line near the computer.

Checking your e-mail and other messages is easy these days. You can do it on your phone, your computer, your tablet, our iPod and you can even check it on devices like your Kindle. You can probably do it on the whatever device you’re using to this…

E-Mail for Dummies, Second Edition John R. Levine, Carol Baroudi, Margaret Levine Young, Arnold ReinholdThese days, it’s an issue of how many places do I need to check my messages. E-mail (work, home, old accounts), text messages (home and/or work), Skype messages, Facebook and any other countless services you may have. Plus, every time you buy a device or get a new service someone gives you a new e-mail account (cable company, eBay, cell phone company, iPhone, iPad, smart phone, etc.). Your charge cards, banks, health insurance and more all have their own private messaging system that send you an e-mail to tell you that you have a message on their site, “your fill in the blank company has sent you a message, please log into your account to read it”. Those were just the practical sites, you’ve still got social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Google+, Twitter, FourSquare, etc.), photo sharing sites, YouTube, travel sites, dating sites, technical support sites or some sites related to some hobby you may have; odds are you don’t have all of those, but you probably have some.

Back to e-mail: Finding old e-mail is confusing sometimes. I know someone mentioned a book to me, but where?!? Did they e-mail me? Did they send me a Twitter message? Did they write it as a comment on that Facebook post when I was talking about books a few months ago? Did they mention the book when we were confirming plans for something else unrelated? It’s definitely the information overload ageā€¦

We’re more connected. But are we better connected?

This isn’t really the post I started to write, but where I was trying to go is such a big subject, I think it’s going to take multiple posts.

Dewayne Pittman Spam

Spam isn’t anything I generally talk a lot about but this spam showed up a little differently. It’s a old internet scam but with some graphics and updated to try and get you to help them smuggle some money out of Iraq. It’s crazy that people still fall for these…

I am SSG Dewayne Pittman,an active American soldier serving in Iraq.I am serving in the military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq.We managed to secure funds from the war zone. The total amount is US$ 9 Million dollars in cash.We want to move this money out of this place.

It’s rare I get these kind of scam e-mails but the graphical nature of this one caught my eye so for some reason I’m sharing it with you. And what language are those characters at the top?!?

The next day: I got a much longer more generic version of this too, turns out I only get 30% and him and his buddy get 70%, that’s not even $3 million for me! What a rip off!

Hormel Tries to Stop Use of Spam

Spam Arrest will be featured on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson tonight (Monday, March 5th, 2007). World News will be discussing the ongoing trademark dispute between Hormel and Spam Arrest over the use of the word “spam”.

Spam Arrest has been defending itself against Hormel for the last 4 years while Hormel has been attempting to cancel the Spam Arrest trademark granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. (more info)

Definitely overstepping their trademark, no confusion between spam “food” and junk mail (IMHO). They should have to shoulder the blame for spam if they want exclusive rights to the name…

Spam Arrest is my favorite way of blocking e-mail spam from home. It’s practially impossible for spammers to get automated junk mail past their filter!

Mail’s making me cRaZy…

sad mac iconIt makes me crazy that the OS X Mail application doesn’t let you see who you Blind Carbon Copied (BCC) a message to! I sent it, shouldn’t I be able to go back and check?!? Argh!

MailBlocks Service is discontinued tomorrow (don’t forget your refund)

Don’t forget the Mailblocks service is discontinued tomorrow, November 16th, at Noon. So copy/migrate your mail and don’t forget to get your refund.

The more I play with it, the more I like SpamArrest and a substitute. I’ve mentioned it before and been playing around with it the past few days.

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I need a new e-mail spam blocking service…

So I’m looking for a new service to replace a service that I’ve loved, Mailblocks, they’re shutting their doors today (or tomorrow). I want a spam blocking service that uses captchas (I do understand the pros and cons but most importantly I’m aware that it does work and I do check my pending box for real messages). I see there are two other companies out there that look similar, SpamArrest.com and iPermitMail.com. I’d really like to use IMAP for my mail.

Can anyone tell me if they support IMAP? Or can anyone recommend these companies in particular? Or some other companies with similar service? It’s looking like SpamArrest will be my choice but I am looking for options.

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The Pope’s E-mail Account

In the first 48 hours the new Pope received 56,191 e-mails! Almost half of those were in English. His address is benedictxvi@vatican.va (don’t send spam or you’ll go to hell!).

E-mail Broke Better

Something has had been up with my e-mail the last few (Friday, Aug 6th-Tuesday, Aug 10th) days. If you sent anything important the last few days (or even not important) please resend it if you haven’t gotten a response (or at least don’t complain).

Technical support makes me crazy sometimes… If they read the problem the first time it’d really help solve the issue. I list the ten things I know they’ll ask, I bold the bizzaro answers that should point them in the right direction and I feel like they turn around and ask me to try the ten things I already told them the results.