Monday, December 31, 2012

Note to E-Friends: That Spam Filter

Yahoo has a wonderful, tough spam filter. So why, when I checked the spam box for a possible update from Compuworld (about a floppy disk drive to improve the usefulness of the laptop), did I find about a dozen e-mails from people whose mail I normally read first, and often reply to? Including an e-mail from retiring Senator Webb?! Since when are U.S. Senators spammers?!

I don't know for sure what went wrong with my spam filter, but I found one clue when I opened one of Patricia Evans' lovely, long, linky articles, several of which have been posted here. Some of the links were installed by that sometimes obnoxious "Text Enhance" system, and others had, apparently, been permanently disabled...perhaps by same; I checked one and found it legitimate, and know two others to be legitimate, so maybe "Text Enhance" disables links below the ones it adds?

Weird things happen on the Internet. Things people type in with good intentions can pick up nasty stuff while travelling through cyberspace. This web site will not knowingly expose you to any nasty stuff, but I am--and I suspect numerous correspondents, including some in Congress, also are--too unsophisticated about computer coding systems to know how to protect you from all the possible nasty stuff in the'Net. It's a big bad world, and McAfee's finest is still only one step ahead of the spammers and hackers and lousy creeps out there.

To all e-friends and acquaintances whose mail I've requested, then apparently ignored: Please double-check all links, graphics, or any rude words you may have used for shock effect (some issues of friends' zines got into the spam filter for this reason too).

To all elected officials whose e-mail I've requested and not received: This web site in no way blames elected officials for spending their time actually reading and researching legislation and helping constituents, instead of playing with computers. We elect you to be legislators, not geeks. If your web sites go down, your e-newsletters don't come through, and you don't reply to your e-mail, while state legislatures or Congress are in session, this web site officially pronounces this a good thing.

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