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By: Da Sissop
Date: 12/15/99 12:47:15 PM
# Replies: 36
Okay, so I may have mentioned that I'm stuck in Dallas, right? Well I've been *forced* into these business trips for the last couple of weeks. And in preparation for this potentially neverending travel schedule, I decided it would be nice to have an internet account with one of the biggie ISP's for the sake of having a local dialup access number wherever I happened to be.
So, since AOL and MSN are clearly evil, I picked Mindspring.
Now, the only email I've sent out from that account has been to sooz in reply to her sending me the new improved Jesus photo. And in my limited web-travels, I've not filled in any forms, and even so, I certainly wouldn't give out my mindspring email address because I never actually intend to use it.
So, today I received my first piece of *Spam* at my Mindspring mailbox.
_HOW_ _DID_ _THIS_ _HAPPEN_?
Did Mindspring sell me out? They tout their super-seekrit proprietary tool called the "spaminator" as a big selling point... no, it's not a user-definable filter, it's simply an On-Or-OFF option that's supposed to reduce your spam email clutter (it's OFF by default, but you can turn it ON or off whenever you want)... of course, now it seems like it's probably nothing more than their feeble attempt at atonement for some other sin.
In 6-months-plus with my beinfang@wt.net account, I've *never* gotten any spam that didn't obviously come from some web site where I voluntarily registered my email address.
2 weeks I've had this mindspring account, with NO publication of that email address, and I've got my first multi-level-marketing solicitation from Zaire.
Response #1
By: Roxanne
Date: 12/15/99 4:10:04 PM
I have been with Earthlink for just over two years and have not received any spam spam spam spam.
MLM in Zaire, huh? That's just too creepy a thought.
Response #2
By: sooz
Date: 12/15/99 10:51:37 PM
Wow. And I swear, I just nodded at your mail, sympathized about your Dallas plight, and hit "delete".
Response #3
By: Ralf
Date: 12/16/99 7:51:00 AM
Mindspring recently merged with Earthlink. While Mindspring is Good, EarthLink is Evil, and has a reputation (ala AOL) for selling email addresses to spammers.
Thus, MS's Spaminator may be doing its thing, but because Earthlink got its claws on your eddress, there's no TELLING what you've been signed up for.
Be afraid.
Response #4
By: Roxanne
Date: 12/16/99 5:21:01 PM
Earthlink sells to spammers? Weird; I have never had any spam. Guess I'm not popular. *sniff sniff*
Response #5
By: ian807
Date: 12/16/99 5:29:31 PM
Does Mindspring merged with Earthlink make it Mindlink?
Troubling. Very troubling...
Response #6
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 12/16/99 6:31:16 PM
Mindspring also bought up Netcom, so I'm a Netmindlink customer.
Welcome to the monopoly, Fang.
I get spam all the time, but then again I post to usenet with my real email address. Also, I get emails addressed not only to me, but to all combinations of characters @my.domain.com. EEEvil spammers!
Response #7
By: Ralf
Date: 12/17/99 10:56:07 AM
I get between 10 and 50 spams a day, thanks to my msn + mindspring accounts.
Thank GOD for Outlook's junkmail filters...
Response #8
By: sooz
Date: 12/17/99 2:44:29 PM
WHAT? Outlook has junk mail filters?
Response #9
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 12/17/99 7:21:06 PM
Not Express, I don't think.
Just regular Microsoft Outlook.
Response #10
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 12/17/99 8:49:43 PM
I think you can do the same in Netscape Communicator or Eudora if you don't have Outlook.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #11
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 12/18/99 3:00:02 AM
I've been compiling a list of source addresses for spam emails, and when I have a few thousand of them together, I'm going to burn them to CD and sell them.
Response #12
By: Ralf
Date: 12/18/99 10:10:40 AM
Tasty. Include a buncha spam-retalitory freeware and you're destined for sainthood.
Response #13
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 12/18/99 3:20:52 PM
As soon as I can find a domain name I want that someone hasn't already squatted on I'm setting up my own mail server so I can move all my filtering to the post office. I've heard about some "spam-retalitory" software available for Linux sendmail servers. I've just got to find out how they actually retaliate and whether they would violate my terms of access from my provider.
All of this is of course moot, since all of the damn domain names that I like has a squatter. Not someone who is actually USING it mind you, just someone who is sitting on it.
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #14
By: Da Sissop
Date: 12/19/99 8:12:09 AM
Which domain names are ya wanting?
Response #15
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 12/19/99 2:26:01 PM
I'm a bit partial to www.microsoft.com. Damn squatters.
Response #16
By: Roxanne
Date: 12/19/99 11:41:31 PM
Eeeuuuww, I can see why you wouldn't want a domain name that someone has squatted on.
Response #17
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 12/30/99 9:12:44 PM
Not meaning to change the subject.. but Ralf are you a father yet?
Response #18
By: Ralf
Date: 12/31/99 8:55:53 AM
Why yes! I've been a dad since November 27th. Audrey arrived in a blaze of glory, wrapped in golden gowns and shimmering with angelic light, handed to us from on high by beings with grey skin and slanty eyes.
SAID they were angels. Hmph.
Anyway, I can spam you with pictures if you like. What's your current email address?
Response #19
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/1/00 9:06:14 AM
Ooooo! Congrats to you and Mary!! Address..ok,ok...Oh! It's knjwenke@freewwweb.com I think.
Pictures would be wonderful! A little girl! Ralf you needed a little girl. You are going to be a fantastic father!
Response #20
By: sooz
Date: 1/1/00 3:57:10 PM
I love, love, love the picture of Ralf, in a seat by the window, holding baby Audrey and reading a book. I dunno, something about that picture is just fabulous.
But what was the book, Ralf?
Response #21
By: Ralf
Date: 1/1/00 8:45:43 PM
The Cobweb by Neal Stephenson, writing as Stephen Bury.
It's a political thriller about a small-town sheriff who, during the 1990 Gulf War, fights a group of Iraqi terrorists who set up a biowar lab at the local agricultural school. He is also a new father, taking care of his 5-month-old daughter while his wife goes off to Kuwait to fight in the army (she's a reservist).
It's AMAZING what you can accomplish with a baby carrier strapped to your back.
Response #22
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 1/4/00 4:45:32 PM
wow ralf! congratulations!
Response #23
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/5/00 4:50:25 AM
Ralf! She is beautiful!! She has soooo much hair! Give Mary a big hug and tell her congrats!
Enjoy every moment for as everyone always says, and as experience is teaching me, they grow up so fast. Twenty years goes by in a blink and when you look back on those years, only what you did for/with your family really counts. Remember that and keep your family first and everything else will work itself out. Smooooch!
Response #24
By: Ralf
Date: 1/5/00 8:08:38 AM
Good advice! Thanks.
Babyupdate: at 5 weeks old, Audrey's able to turn herself over from her back to her tummy and vice-versa. She spends most of her time assuming innovative new positions in her bassinet, sometimes turning herself 90 degrees and then squawking for help when she gets stuck. When she's awake, she emits a neverending stream of burbles, buzzes and clicks.
She has the most awesome smile.
Response #25
By: sooz
Date: 1/5/00 2:40:02 PM
This is wonderful.
Response #26
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/5/00 8:32:06 PM
Dammit, now *I* want a baby.
Response #27
By: Roxanne
Date: 1/5/00 9:58:15 PM
Keep saving those cereal box tops, Fang!
Response #28
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/9/00 7:47:11 AM
Court has an engagement ring from her steady of two years. She told me they are going to wait until they both graduate college. (He is taking classes at HCC currently, trying to get to aggie land next fall.)
She told him if he does not graduate college..she will not marry him. Stipulations..I taught her well...
Response #29
By: Ralf
Date: 1/9/00 9:37:35 AM
Just make sure she doesn't fall for the old fake internet diploma gag.
"Wow! Your doctorate in advanced particle physics! We'll hang this up next to your masters in psychology..."
Response #30
By: sooz
Date: 1/9/00 11:58:47 AM
And then what happens if Cort's hubby becomes unable to work one day? (I'm SO argumentative lately... what's my deal?)
Response #31
By: Roxanne
Date: 1/9/00 10:49:18 PM
Court...engaged? Wow! I have been out of touch!
Well good for her for making him get an education first! She's such a credit to you both, Tess!
Response #32
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/12/00 5:30:45 AM
Don't worry Sooz, since she still wants to be a surgeon I told her he will make a great house husband..
I don't think she has given herself the opportunity to experience living yet. I just hope over the next four years they don't get overly eager and decide to do something foolish sooner.
Life has a way of working these things out..
Response #33
By: sooz
Date: 1/12/00 11:35:04 AM
One can still "live" while being married. I'm doing more living and other various fun stuff while married than I ever did single... I just wish I'd met him about 12 years earlier.
Response #34
By: Roxanne
Date: 1/12/00 1:48:18 PM
I am with Tess on this one. Of course, each person is different. But I think it's wiser to wait to get married until you have seen some of life, the world, other peoples. Some people can get married young and it works out wonderfully. But with the divorce rate at 50% and probably rising, I think any step toward marriage at *any* age should be taken only after a long time of serious thinking.
Response #35
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/13/00 8:00:28 AM
Or serious drinking.
Response #36
By: sooz
Date: 1/13/00 8:31:36 AM
Aw, y'all are right, of course. I've just had this irresistible urge to want to present the opposite side of everything lately... even more than usual. I don't know what my deal is.
Honestly, if I'd met my husband 12 years ago, I wouldn't have known what to do with him, or how to appreciate him, probably. We got married when I was 32 and he was 33, which probably has contributed to our success. Maybe.