Mr. Modem: Reducing spam and junk emails
How can I cut down on the amount of spam and other junk email I’m receiving?
Whenever you register on a website, you are asked for a valid email address so it can send you an activation code, confirmation, or similar reply.
In most cases the site doesn’t need to have your email address for more than a few minutes, but it wants it so it can send you “valuable additional information,” or as we say in my native tongue, crappola.
I usually use a free Gmail address whenever I sign up or purchase anything online, so any residual crappola will go to my Gmail account created for that purpose. There are times, however, that I don’t even want to give out that Gmail address.
Whenever I sign up for something that will send a confirmation message or activation code, and that’s all I ever want to receive from the site, I use 10 Minute Mail (http://10minutemail.com). It will instantly assign an email address that has a 10-minute lifespan.
Just go to the site, click the link displayed and you will be provided a temporary email address. Any messages sent to that address will show up automatically on the 10-Minute Web page. You can read messages, click links, and even reply to email, but the address will expire in 10 minutes. Over and out.
What is an Internet troll? I keep hearing that term on TV and radio, but I’m clueless — as usual.
“Troll” is Internet slang for someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, message board or social media.
Internet trolls are primarily interested in provoking others or creating disruption for no particular reason. Troll might be the current term, but in my book, once a moron, always a moron.
I’m not planning to use Internet Explorer in the future because of all the security problems associated with it, but is it safe to use it long enough to download the Google Chrome browser? Once I have installed Chrome, I am assuming that it’s OK to go online as long as IE is not opened, right?
There are no guarantees, of course, but what you propose should be fine. The fact that IE remains vulnerable is of no additional consequence in this instance if you have been using it all along. And realistically, how else are you going to obtain another browser other than by using Internet Explorer, if that’s the only other browser you have installed?
In short, you don’t have any choice but to use IE to download Chrome. Once Chrome is installed, simply having IE on your computer poses no additional threat.
Mr. Modem publishes “Ask Mr. Modem!” each week, featuring PC tips, tricks and plain-English answers to your questions by email. For more information, visit www.MrModem.com.
Mr. Modem's Sites of the Week
Paper-Cut Sculptures
http://oddee.com/item_89460.aspx
It doesn’t require a lot of material to make great art, just an incredible amount of imagination and skill. Check out the work of sculptor Peter Callesen, who uses single sheets of paper to create astonishingly intricate “Paper-Cut Sculptures.” (After years of intensive practice, not to mention significant blood loss, I have mastered the ‘paper cut’ part of his technique.)
Pedals for Progress
http://oddee.com/item_89460.aspx
Every year, Americans buy 22 million new bicycles and discard millions of old ones, abandoning them in basements, sheds and garages. It is unfortunate that so many of them wind up in landfills when countless people around the globe could benefit from having a bike for transportation.
Pedals for Progress has received, processed and donated more than 141,000 bicycles in addition to 2,750 used sewing machines and $10.8 million in new spare parts to charities in 32 developing countries. If you have a discarded bicycle doing time in a shed, consider donating it instead. Note, a $10 donation is required with each bike.
This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Mr. Modem: Reducing spam and junk emails."