Separate the wheat

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve taken the bull by the horns and gotten a serious problem under control, namely my junk e-mail problem. It seems I spend half my life trying to separate false information from the real stuff.

Now, a few people might think that this editor’s note is unrelated to the issue in hand. I beg to differ. There are a couple things that set this off. First was Deidre’s “View from the Fray” column. I store half my mind on my computer (and the other half on my PDA, which is probably why I wear Superman T-shirts and walk around with a blissful gleam in my eyes), so those viruses scare me almost as much as things like early onset Alzheimer’s. The sick thing here, and only people who know me well would be aware of this, is that I’m only about half kidding.

At any rate, the thing that really launched me happen when I got home. I opened my e-mail program—Outlook for those who care about such things. Two messages went to the trash, 39 went to the junk e-mail folder and 11 went to my inbox. After I removed nine junk e-mails from my inbox, I had two left to read, one from my dad and one from myself from work. Even worse, I’d already checked my home e-mail from work and had removed at least 30 pieces of junk.

My ISP, pyramid.net, recommends an e-mail filtering program called ChoiceMail One. The program’s thrust is pretty simple; it imports all the names in my address book and anyone not on the list gets a request to register to be on my “acceptable” list—which I can then accept or refuse. It’s a beautiful thing really.

Along other possibly unrelated lines, those who missed President Bush’s State of the Union address on television can find it on the New York Times Web site, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/29/politics/29BTEX.html. Don’t forget to take the bull by the horns.