The Ugly Instant Messenger

I’m a big fan of Trillian, the IM aggregator, but I had to download and install AIM, AOL’s Instant Messenger last night for an abortive video conference. Sheesh, what a monster it is (AIM, not the conference). Do AOL and the other biggies still not get it? For sure, Trillian is something of a parasite. … Read more

The Perils Of AutoResponse

Be careful what you put in your email auto response when you head off on holiday/maternity leave/business trip. Anyone can read it. One of the the things that came out of Daniel McNamara’s travails at Code Fish was that, by having phishers put his name in the from field of one of their attacks he … Read more

ZoEmail – The End Of Spam?

ZoEmail has just been launched [ZDNet article], and could change the way we send email. But is that a good thing? ZoEmail uses a special system to authenticate email. It works like this: When I, a ZoEmail user, wants to send you an e-mail, the system selects a unique “key” – a special word and number combination — … Read more

MyDoom Is Smart, The Internet Is Dumb

The MyDoom virus appears to be bigger than SoBig. But for me the problem has not been MyDoom, but the dumb traffic it has created. MyDoom spoofs the From field in the emails it creates to spread, so that anyone receiving a virus-laden email will not know, in most cases, who it comes from. This … Read more

No Sign Of Letup On Spam So Far

Unsurprisingly, the new U.S. anti-spam law has had no effect whatsoever. Commtouch, a provider of anti-spam solutions, said it saw no significant change in the number of spam attacks in the first week of 2004, and that less than 1% of all bulk email complied with the new CAN-SPAM regulations. Although Commtouch notes it is … Read more