I've decided to post this again, which is actually dated way back May 8, 2009. And im glad that the spam blog warning sign from my dashboard has been lifted! Read on!
How prevalent is Spam? According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (oma.org):
"Studies show unsolicited or "junk" e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages".
In 2003, President Bush signed the "Can Spam" bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail.
One major point that needs to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in greate numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.
So what do you do about this? Her are the top 5 Rules to do to be protected from spam.
Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called "spam spiders" that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on "spam spider" and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet "spambots" and "spam spiders", by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses
A couple suggestions for you:
a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also
b) use addresses like sales (at) company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem.
c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that spam spiders will find it difficult or impossible to read your email address.
Number 2: Get spam blocking software. There are many programs out there for this. (go to cloudmark.com or mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.
Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach. There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a "back-up" email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.
Number 4: Attachments from people you don't know are BAD, BAD, BAD. A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don't let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more "open country" for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.
Number 5: Email services now have "bulk-mail" baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vendor. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don't know them, put them in the bulk email pile. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.
Concept Gadgets in 2009: The See-Through Internet Tablet
There are many gadgets around to choose from at the moment, some are very useful, others are more gimmicky but from looking at the gadgets coming out, the technology that is emerging is fascinating and very impressive.
Take for example the Polaroid Pogo that has quite recently come out, this gadget allows users to connect the gadget wirelessly via Bluetooth to their mobile phone or computer for example and then to print out any photographs that they have saved. The Pogo prints the pictures onto credit card sized pieces of paper, which can also act as stickers, using laser technology. As well as this being cost effective it also means that you won’t have to be constantly refilling ink cartridges.
It is amazing to think that Polaroid came out with the first instant camera in 1947 and is still re-inventing it to this day. However, the Polaroid Pogo is out now and you could go shopping tomorrow and buy one but there are many more ideas that may not be in the shops yet but that are non-the-less still very impressive and could be more than just concepts sooner than you may think.
One such design is for a very impressive internet tablet that will have; a touch-screen, scanner, built in camera, WiFi, Google Maps, Google Search and Image Search. When using Image Search on this device, you will be able to hold up the device to a building and get an image search result straight away.
Using Image Search, you can even locate a building, touch a floor and then get a lot more information on the building and also that particular floor. However, it isn’t just buildings that you can find out more about, you can search for a variety of things, including; car models, the type of food served at a restaurant, names of insects and even information such as; who built a certain bridge.
On top of all of this, the internet tablet allows you to use the scanner to check the meaning of words in a book, magazine or newspaper article. Theses features are all very useful and would no doubt appeal to a variety of different people in different lines of work.
This device is still only a concept but if you are in search of a new internet enabled device it may be worth your while shopping online and comparing the prices of different laptops or netbooks.
The Polaroid Pogo is available to buy at the moment and you go out shopping tomorrow to buy one, unfortunately, the see-through internet tablet is still just a concept.
If you are looking for a new internet enabled device now, it may be worth shopping online for offers on laptops and netbooks.
P.S. - I would like to mention
the generousity of Mr. Gill and that im grateful for his help.
Thank You!
Take for example the Polaroid Pogo that has quite recently come out, this gadget allows users to connect the gadget wirelessly via Bluetooth to their mobile phone or computer for example and then to print out any photographs that they have saved. The Pogo prints the pictures onto credit card sized pieces of paper, which can also act as stickers, using laser technology. As well as this being cost effective it also means that you won’t have to be constantly refilling ink cartridges.
It is amazing to think that Polaroid came out with the first instant camera in 1947 and is still re-inventing it to this day. However, the Polaroid Pogo is out now and you could go shopping tomorrow and buy one but there are many more ideas that may not be in the shops yet but that are non-the-less still very impressive and could be more than just concepts sooner than you may think.
One such design is for a very impressive internet tablet that will have; a touch-screen, scanner, built in camera, WiFi, Google Maps, Google Search and Image Search. When using Image Search on this device, you will be able to hold up the device to a building and get an image search result straight away.
Using Image Search, you can even locate a building, touch a floor and then get a lot more information on the building and also that particular floor. However, it isn’t just buildings that you can find out more about, you can search for a variety of things, including; car models, the type of food served at a restaurant, names of insects and even information such as; who built a certain bridge.
On top of all of this, the internet tablet allows you to use the scanner to check the meaning of words in a book, magazine or newspaper article. Theses features are all very useful and would no doubt appeal to a variety of different people in different lines of work.
This device is still only a concept but if you are in search of a new internet enabled device it may be worth your while shopping online and comparing the prices of different laptops or netbooks.
The Polaroid Pogo is available to buy at the moment and you go out shopping tomorrow to buy one, unfortunately, the see-through internet tablet is still just a concept.
If you are looking for a new internet enabled device now, it may be worth shopping online for offers on laptops and netbooks.
P.S. - I would like to mention
the generousity of Mr. Gill and that im grateful for his help.
Thank You!
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