Don't you just hate spam?

Not the reconstituted meat variety, but the tons of unsolicited mail that carries a message of mischief, malice and downright criminality. The biggest insult is that they are hoping you will be vulnerable to their clumsy advances... The bank that I don't have an account with, and doesn't even know my name is telling me that my fictional account has been compromised... For that reason alone, I have vowed never to have a HSBC bank account, just so I don't even have to filter the emails that have HSBC in the title...

What can we do about it? Well, so far the best defence I have found is to have a gmail account - I have had a gmail account with googlemail for a couple of months now and have not had a single bit of junk mail. I do not leave the email address 'lying around' in forums and other places that might allow it to be picked up by spammers, this of course helps...

I like the way that gmail presents emails as 'threads' like in a form, and I also like that you can forward your mails (for free) and even filter mails and just have selected mails forwarded. So, in return, I am posting in favour of gmail - for free!

Tips for Bloggers

I am adding a new 'quick search' category today under the title 'Blogging Tips', clicking on this link will short-list all my posts that contain hints and tips for new bloggers. Today's useful tip is to utilise the 'blogger' facility that can send you an email when someone leaves a comment againat one of your posts - this has three-fold benefits:

1. No more trawling for comments


2. Enables quick responses to comments


3. Can let you know even if a really old post has been commented on

Now, I'm sure many bloggers are already using this facility, but I admit that I have only started using this in the last few months and I have found it to be particularly useful - so just in case you haven't enabled this feature, do it now!!