Tim Pim Blog

Loss of hair in men affects just about 9 million in the UK, the most common type of hair loss is genetic male pattern hair loss. The hair loss will often start as very young as nineteen and develop emotional distress. Check out the latest hair loss treatments at Advanced Hair Studio.

Loss of hair is typically hereditary and could develop in gents as well as females. The baldness seems due to the hair follicles on the scalp getting smaller and the hair strands dropping out and not returning. Baldness ordinarily follows a hair loss pattern around the hair line and don’t forget at the crown of your scalp.

Baldness is not a deadly disease and does not directly affect your actual health, although your emotional health will often become affected through lack of self esteem.

There are three marvellous prime treatments for losing your hair, Minoxidil, Finasteride and Strand by Strand from Advanced Hair Studio, aka AHS. The very first primary male pattern baldness treatment is a topical lotion that goes on the head and is available from pharmacies. The hair loss treatment Minoxidil works by reducing and slowing down the rate of baldness, simply incredible. Finasteride works by stopping the conversion of the baldness hormone. The eye-opening Strand by Strand technique from Advanced Hair Studio, also known as AHS, uses the most recent hair restoration medical technology and involves new hair regrowth appearing on the head strand by strand over time. With both the Minoxidil and Finasteride treatments they need to be constantly applied and taken for the hair effects to continue working.

What do you think of this storyline? A polite couple waits patiently to buy movie tickets and concessions, and then finds empty seats in the auditorium a few rows away from others. They laugh and cry with the audience at all the right times, eat their snacks quietly, then pick up their trash at the end of the film and go home. If only real-life movie theater experiences had such happy endings!

Actually movie theaters often bring out the worst behavior in people because they falsely believe that the cloak of darkness grants them anonymity and immunity. They may talk too loudly (and too often), block your view with hats, hair, or height, or sit behind you in order to kick your chair or prop their smelly feet a few inches from your face.

The ultimate movie theater rudeness, however, is when someone sits right in front of you in an otherwise empty auditorium. Even with stadium seating that staggers seat heights, this aggressive act is clearly a power struggle, a challenge to see if they can get you to move to another seat.

To help film lovers everywhere enjoy their experiences more, here’s a list of suggestions for movie manners everyone should follow whether in the theater, at a film festival, or an outdoor event.

Entering the Theater

1. Arrive early so you won’t disturb others by interrupting the previews or main attraction.

2. When someone enters your row after you’ve been seated, either stand or swing your knees in the direction they’re heading to ease their passage.

3. If you anticipate leaving during the movie (going out for a smoke, visiting the bathroom, removing a crying child etc.), arrive early and take an aisle seat near the exit. Better yet, leave the child at home with a sitter.

4. If you arrive late, stay in the rear of the auditorium until your eyes adjust to the darkness and you can more easily find seats without blocking the view of others. Say a polite “excuse me” if you walk in front of people.

During the Movie

1. Take off your hat. Sit near the back if your hair or height may block the view of other people.

2. Leave cell phones, beepers and laser pens in the car.

3. From the moment the opening credits roll to the end of the closing credits, don’t talk. If you must say something, whisper quietly into someone’s ear.

4. Take noisy children outside the auditorium.

5. Eat quietly. This includes chewing with your mouth shut, unwrapping noisy packages quickly and refraining from jiggling soft drinks and popcorn containers.

6. Keep your feet on the floor at all times.

7. Don’t kick the seats in front of you or use them as leverage to help you get up (unless no one is seated in the entire row).

8. Quickly remove yourself or child from the theater at the onset of a coughing attack, non-stop running nose, series of sneezes or other bodily noises.

9. If you can’t resist the urge to make-out, at least do it in the back of the theater. The sights, sounds and conjoined heads are very distracting to those behind you.

10. If you’ve seen the film before, don’t tell people what’s going to happen next. Never reveal the ending.

Exiting the Theater

1. Pick up and discard your candy wrappers, empty boxes and cups.

2. Don’t stand around in the auditorium talking; some people stay to watch the credits and you may be blocking their view.

3. Don’t try to psyche out the people waiting in line by giving them a thumbs up or some other signal.

At Film Festivals

1. Pass holders go first into the theater before individual ticket holders. That’s why they bought passes.

2. Keep negative comments about the movies to yourself until you’re outside the theater. Many filmmakers attend their own screenings at festivals.

3. If you must leave early for any reason (including that you absolutely hate the movie), leave quickly and quietly so you won’t disturb others who absolutely love the movie.

4. Treat festival workers nicely; most of them are volunteers.

Outdoor Movie Events

1. Even though you can smoke outside, try to be considerate of others. The wind might be blowing smoke directly into the face of someone who is allergic to smoke. Move away from others when you need a cigarette.

2. Don’t bring radios or other noisy distractions to an outdoor movie.

3. Leave your pets at home. Dogs bark and leave messes for others to step in.

Watching a great movie with a considerate, respectful audience is a wonderful experience. A good audience provides a sense of community that can add to the overall enjoyment of a movie, especially with a comedy or horror film. But all it takes is one chair-kicking, scene-spoiling, chain-smoking movie-goer to ruin it for everyone.

May I suggest (in the nicest way possible, of course) that if these suggestions seem too restrictive for you, then you might want to consider an alternative to going out to the movie theater. Your best option may be to watch movies in the comfort of your own home where the cloak of darkness really does provide anonymity and immunity.

Copyright 2006 Leslie Halpern

Leslie Halpern is the author of “Reel Romance. The Lovers’ Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies” (Taylor Trade Publishing), a book that reviews date movies for couples and suggests romantic ideas inspired by these films. A Central Florida-based entertainment writer, Leslie also wrote “Dreams on Film. The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science” (McFarland & Company) and more than a thousand articles in trade and consumer magazines. Visit her website at http://home.cfl.rr.com/lesliehalpern/leslie_halpern.htm.

Based on the best-selling book of the same name, Primary Colors is a beyond belief film about a smooth-operating candidate who runs for President of the United States. When the book first hit shelves in 1996, Primary Colors drew immediate parallels between its chief character and the then sitting president, Bill Clinton. Written by “Anonymous” (which probably fueled the book’s mass appeal and rise to the top of the best-seller lists), the book has since been attributed to journalist Joe Klein. Amazingly, Bill Clinton never denied that Primary Colors bore an astounding resemblance to his own life and campaign. Instead, he joked around with the White House Press Corps, saying “I too would like to know - who wrote this book!” …Startling, considering that the book paints a less than flattering picture of the candidate and the man.

Primary Colors begins when campaign operative Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) is introduced to a potential candidate for the presidency. Burton notes the deft with which the man handles his craft - the way he shakes hands, maintains eye contact, and tells compelling stories to his audience. The infatuating man is Southern Governor Jack Stanton (John Travolta), and he wants Burton to join his campaign as a top aide. (Travolta does an amazing job in the performance of this role).

After much thought, Burton throws his support behind the seemingly idealistic governor, but he soon learns that Stanton is less than what he first appears to be. Stanton is an incessant womanizer, to the point that he can barely control himself. He stretches the truth, and outright lies, if it means a good sound-bite for the cameras or convincing a group of illiterate inner-city adults that he “feels their pain” and understands the obstacles they face.

Flanked by an aggressive, power-hungry wife, Governor Stanton is kept in line by Susan (Emma Thompson) who makes certain her husband maintains a tight focus on the goals ahead. Bombastic and arrogant, Primary Colors paints a picture of the woman (i.e. Hillary Clinton) that is anything but complimentary. As the campaign picks up a number of seedy characters from Stanton’s past, such as Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob Thornton) and Libby Holden (Kathy Bates), Burton struggles with his own inner demons. Is it right to support a man of flawed character in order to carry out what he believes are good policy measures that will help millions of people? Do the ends justify the means?

When the campaign is forced to dig up dirt on opposition candidate Governor Fred Picker (Larry Hagman), the entire campaign including Governor Stanton must struggle with a bruised conscience obtained from wallowing in the mud…

One of the more interesting films of the decade, Primary Colors draws its appeal from a sort of gossipy voyeurism. Audiences want to see what happens “on the inside” of the president’s inner circle and on a campaign trail. What they see is not pretty. If Primary Colors really does portray a semi-accurate picture of the 1992 Clinton campaign as some people portend, then it’s a testament to the strength and durability of the American republic that we survived those years with relative peace and stability. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, Primary Colors is a true eye-opening experience, and it’s close correlation to the Clinton campaign, and the history thereof, is what makes Primary Colors a must-see film…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Primary Colors (DVD).

Lets face it, we look at stuff on the internet, in the privacy of our own homes that we would never look at in public. How often do you walk into your local bookstore and proudly by the latest Penthouse or Juggs? Most of us would even be a bit embarrased to subscribe to one of these magazines.

But millions of us, including myself occasionally like to look at adult material. We might even buy a couple adult toys or DVDs to spice up our marriage. But my point is, we do on the internet things we would never do in public.

However, our internet connection is an open door to what goes on in the privacy of our home. Everything we do on the internet can be seen and monitored. There are hundreds of people on the internet right now that would like nothing more to expose your web surfing habits, maybe even blackmail you.

It is no ones business what we do on the internet. Some of us wouldn’t even want others in our own home to know what we are looking at on the web. Imagine if one of your children ran across that picture of the hot blonde blond with huge tits that you were looking at. Or what if your wife found out that your were having cyber-sex with some chick she didn’t know about.

Ladies, how would you like it if someone, your husband, mom, or coworkers, found out that you were innocently looking at vibrators online? Or checking out an all male revue. How embarrassed would you be?

Sure, you could just become an overly paranoid freak that constantly looks over their shoulder and suspects that everyone is out to get them. But that would probably drive you insane.

-Did you know that records are kept of every website you go to?

-Did you know that files that you “delete” are never actully deleted at all? And it doesn’t take very much skill or expertise to “undelete” something that you did not want someone else to see. In fact, using the traditional delete button or recyling bid is actually the worse thing that you can do if you really want to get rid of a file.

-Did you know that identity theives can upload SPYWARE onto your computer without you ever knowing? They can then see not just everything you do on the internet, but everything you do on your computer. Even if you are not connected to the web.

-Did you know that if your spouse, parents or anyone else wants to monitor what you are doing on a computer that all they have to do is download a “hidden” program that will watch your every move and record every keyboard stroke that you make?

Protecting your privacy is an individual responsibility.

In August of 1998 I had my identity stolen by someone in Nigeria. At the time, I was working and attending college full time and barely making ends meet.

The person who stole my identity somehow got a hold of a credit card transaction that I had made and used that credit card and personal information to get other credit cards in my name.

I was scheduled to graduate from college in May 1999. I began applying for jobs early in the fall semester when one of my prospective employers called me to enquire about the credit check they had performed on me. The said that I had over $3,000 in unpaid bills.

I was shocked. But after I did a credit check on myself, sure enough, it showed that I owed $3278.22 to a collection agency.

To make a long story short, my identity had been stolen. And, it over three years to clean up the mess. I still get calls from rouge collection agencies attempting to make me pay.

That began my journey to research and find the best in privacy protection. Which led me into other software applications that help me monitor the “health” of my computer and have “situational awareness” of what is going on on my computer.

My biggest shocker after doing some research was that files that I thought were deleted from my harddrive could so easily be recovered. That led me on a quest to find a true delete program.

There are many good products on the market, however there is no silver bullet that does it all. And it doesn’t seem to an improvement in the future. http://www.delete4good.com

J. Barbour is a consultant for Weinman-Skaggs Consulting in Miami, FL. http://www.delete4good.com

Preventing identity theft is never foolproof but here are some good tips that will make it more difficult for anyone to steal your personal information.

The first and most important step for preventing identity theft is keeping a close watch on all of your personal information and your credit report.

Check your credit reports from all three bureaus at least once a year. Once you get your credit report check carefully to see that everything is accurate.

If you find an error, dispute it immediately so you can protect yourself from fraud.

Quite often similar names and similar social security numbers get mixed up, or worse, someone could have stolen your identity.

Another good way of preventing identity theft is don’t carry your Social Security card or anything with your Social Security number on it in your wallet.

Keeping your social security number private is a critical part of preventing identity theft.

Also, don’t keep your bank card pin number in your wallet because it helps a thief who has stolen your wallet help themselves to your cash at an A.T.M.

In this age of computer hacking, preventing identity theft also applies to the Internet.

If you use the Internet, make sure all your security software is up to date and be careful of Internet scams.

Remember, no legitimate business will ever send you an e-mail asking you to confirm your personal identifying information.

Preventing identity theft means you never give out personal information unless you initiated the contact or you’re absolutely sure who you’re dealing with.

Another good way of preventing identity theft is be especially careful about divulging your credit card number over the phone to telemarketers.

Often the only goal is to obtain your name, address and credit card number.

If you have to give your credit card number over the phone for a hotel or airline reservation, use a regular corded phone as opposed to a cordless or cell phone.

Make sure you report any lost or stolen credit cards immediately for preventing identity theft.

The bottom line is be careful about divulging any personal information about you.

If you use these tips you’ll have a much better chance at preventing identity theft before it happens.

Copyright © 2005 Credit Repair Facts.com

————————————————————-

This article may be re-published “as is” (unedited) as long as the author’s bio paragraph (resource box) and copyright information is included.
Any editing will be considered copyright infringement. The URLs in the resource box should be set as hyperlinks if used on a web page.

————————————————————-

Gary Gresham is the webmaster for http://www.credit-repair-facts.com where you’ll find credit information, debt elimination programs and informative facts that gives you the knowledge to correct your own credit and credit report.

Having used VoIP problem free for for ages I was perplexed as to why recently I had been having so many problems. Sound quality has gone right down and latency issues have increased significantly. Users on VoIP online forums in the US and other countries, such as France and Mexico, having issues since last year. For a while Voice over IP might seem like a good deal for the average person, entrenched interests in the telecoms industry view it differently - and are taking action against it.

Consultation

Well aware of what has happened elsewhere the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom took the unusual action in January of announcing that it will look at the burgeoning Voice over IP industry and report next month on whether new laws are necessary to shield it. The consultation document says: “VoIP service providers have expressed concern that their ability to provide a reliable service may be impacted by internet access providers (ISPs) selectively degrading or blocking their VoIP traffic.”

Ofcom says it has no proof this is happening in the UK; only about half a million customers use it. But the prediction is for that to increase by 2.5m in the next six months.

And VoIP barring occurs in other countries, more often than not those where there is still only a single incumbent telecoms company. In Saudi Arabia, for instance national carrier Saudi Telecom is using software from US supplier Narus to bar all Voice over IP phone calls.

Telcos in the US and other countries are hesitant to have their bandwidth used by traffic from which they earn no revenue and have been challenged over similar alleged incidents of internet telephony barring. Blocking internet telephony traffic is a challenge but not illegal and barring specific kinds of internet traffic is on the increase.

Luxembourg-based VoIP provider Skype who are now owned by the pre-eminent auction site eBay has been particularly controversial. Skype is used by over 75m people. But not everyone wants Skype on their network.

Skype is seen by many to pose a potential security risk as it opens an encrypted channel out of the network and forms supernodes that sit on it and connect VoIP calls. There is considerable debate about how much bandwidth such supernodes eat up. There have been claims that in supernode mode, Skype may even saturate a 100 Mbps line.

What are RSS newsfeeds?

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or for Really Simple Syndication. Both mean the same thing, so don’t let it confuse you. An RSS is something a website (or a blog) offers to readers provide a “news feed” of their information. It’s available for everyone to add to their own “news reader” for free and gets displayed on your desktop or in your web browser.

It works almost like a stock ticker, delivering exactly the information that you have anonymously “subscribed” to, eliminating the need to go out and check your favorite outlets for new information, because they’re already delivered to your computer.

Who needs RSS?

Well, everyone need it. It’s so much more efficient than going to get it, or getting endless email newsletters. Having the paper delivered to your home makes more sense than driving to the store every day, doesn’t it? In the same vein, let’s say that you want only the latest news about only certain subjects, and routinely go out and check several websites to see what’s new. Using RSS, those individual websites will deliver that news right to your desktop, suitable for reading, clicking, printing, or ignoring.

How can you use RSS?

There seems to be no single definitive answer, because there are so many ways to use it. I’ll tell you about the easiest way to get RSS feeds that I know of, but by no means is that the only way. That is; on your homepage of your web browser.

First, you need an RSS newsreader, (a.k.a. “aggregator”). The good news though is that you may already have one. Since millions of people have Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail or Google accounts, I’ll walk you through adding a news feed to your MSN home page. Go to http://www.my.msn.com and sign in. If you don’t already have a hotmail account, go ahead and create one. If you’d prefer, you can go to http://my.yahoo.com and do the same) It only takes a minute go get a new account.

After signing in to My MSN, you’ll see quite an array of news, weather, sports, ads, stock quotes, local information etc. Think of this as your canvas, and you’re free to arrange or remove the information how you see fit. Each of these sections you see can me easily moved or deleted. To move them, just click and drag from the top right of each subject area. To remove them, click the minus (-) sign in the top left of the subject area. Feel free to delete them all, since you can always add them back later.

Now go to top left of the screen, right above the “Welcome” area you’ll see “Add content” below your name. When you go there, you get four choices (Tabs) for adding content. The default tab that comes up is “Search”. and from here you have four options and each is clearly defined. If you know the exact web address (URL) for a company’s newsfeed, you can enter it right here. The other three tabs might be worth exploring too, since they let you browse by company names and subjects. Then you just click a box for all you want.

After signing in to My Yahoo, you’ll notice that there are already several news feeds from Reuters listed there, with “Top stories”, “world News”, “Politics” and “Business”. Above those stories, you’ll see a big yellow box in the center explaining how you can “Add Content”. Click the link to “add content” and you’ll come up with a search box allowing you to “find content” about a given subject. Type in a search phrase, and you’ll be presented with search results that all have an “Add” button next to them. Hit the “Add” button by the ones you want, and then hit the “Finished” button at the top right, and you’re done. You just added that RSS news feed to your My Yahoo page. Scroll down at the My Yahoo main page, and you’ll see those news headlines you added at the bottom of your list. To rearrange the order of your news feeds, just hit the small “edit” button at the top right of each news section. To remove a news feed, just hit the X like you would to close any window.

Customizing your own news feeds

Now suppose you don’t need to “find” a news feed on a subject, because you already know you want to add a particular one. Well that’s easy too. Al you have to do is identify what the “RSS feed URL” is for the information you want to add. Most blogs or news organizations show you these now on their websites.

Look for a small orange box on the website that says XML or the words “RSS Feed” or “News feed” and click on it. In the case of large organizations, like CNN for example, you’ll be taken to a page with a nice set of instructions, and a whole list of RSS news feed URL’s that you can manually copy and paste into your news reader.

Sometimes though, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like gibberish code. Don’t let that scare you like it did me the first time I saw it! When that happens, you are actually looking right at the feed itself, and all you have to do is copy and paste what’s in the address bar of your web browser, right into your news reader. That’s called “knowing the specific URL of the feed” on MSN, and “”Add RSS by URL” in Yahoo.

In My Yahoo, to manually add a news feed, go to the “add content” area, and choose the link to the right of the Find button that says “Add RSS by URL”. Once you paste your URL in that window and hit “add” the news headlines should show up there. If they don’t, then you may have copied the URL wrong, or added a space at the end. Then just hit the “Add to My Yahoo” button and you’re done! In MSN, you’ll paste the URL of the news feed right into the search box, then check the box when it shows the result.

Delivering exactly what you want and only when you want is how the internet is supposed to work. Things are only getting better.

In researching this article, I notice that My Yahoo seems to be having problems adding certain manual URL’s. Oh well. Nothings perfect.

Scott Hendison is an internet and technology consultant,
based in Portland Oregon, but working with companies in five countries. He specializes in search engine placement and E-commerce POS solutions. For over 100 other articles he’s written please visit his website at http://www.pdxtc.com.

RSS is a many-in-one marketing & publishing tool, although unfortunatelly most marketers still fail to understand this powerful concept.

While RSS does provide a number of benefits when used for each individual marketing function, best results are achieved when it is fully integrated in your internet marketing strategy. In more simpler terms — when you use it to power most of your marketing online.

The key point is that RSS makes various marketing functions work together, in order to generate the best possible end result.

It’s now the time to tie it all together and see the whole picture …

1]
RSS as a content delivery channel for communicating with subscribers, customers, prospects and partners gets your content delivered and provides you with multiple new content delivery & business development opportunities. Yes, RSS gets your content to your subscribers without fail, enabling you to communicate with them and sell to them.

2]
RSS as a promotional/visibility tool increases your traffic by improving your search engine rankings, generating traffic from new RSS specific sites and getting your content published on other sites. Each of these activities brings new visitors to your site, which are now ready to be converted in to new subscribers with which you can communicate (via RSS and/or e-mail) on the long-term. In addition, the improved visibility enforces your brand and generates more credibility for your company.

3]
Content delivery to end-users and content syndication together form the basis of RSS conversations, which further spread your reach throughout the internet and serve as a strong PR platform.

4]
Once you have access to more prospective subscribers, to which you want to deliver content via RSS, you can provide them with your own branded RSS aggregator to make the switch to RSS easier for them, as well as to establish a constant connection with them, enforce your brand and develop brand experience. Your branded aggregator also serves as a sales platform for your own products and an advertising platform to generate advertising income.

5]
As a publisher, your goal is to better satisfy the needs of your visitors, establish yourself as a key content source in your industry and make your visitors come back more often. Providing access to additional information is one of the elements to make this possible. Use RSS to syndicate content from other websites and, as an upgrade to target their most focused content needs, create RSS radars for your key phrases.

6]
RSS radars will in turn also generate additional visibility, especially through improved search engine rankings, and generate new subscribers for your RSS feeds.

7]
All of the above will create advertising venue and create a new source of income.

8]
In addition, using RSS advertising as an advertiser yourself you can increase the reach of all of the above activities.

The system comes full-circle, establishing RSS as the tool that powers an important share of all of your internet marketing and publishing activities.

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Rok Hrastnik is the author of Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa9

Let’s talk for a minute on one of the most philosophical but important questions in the online poker world. ‘Can a game be too loose?”

One poker pundit in Switzerland gives the answer of a resounding “NO!”

The reasoning is simple. The mathematics behind sound poker should still hold up over time.

Let’s say you have the BigSlick under the Gun. 1-2 blind game. You bet out 30. But you still get four callers. Surely they don’t all have high pairs. And, let’s face it, it is a loose game.

You still have the odds in your favor. Now there’s a lot of theory about subprime fish bets colluding against the strong hand (i.e. you flopping a high pair, top kicker vs. a junk hand catching two pair), but the odds are still ridiculously small. About 4 percent.

The problem comes with the multiplier, the four percent by four players. Now we’re looking at about a 20 percent chance that at least one of the junk hands will flop above your top pair.

So here’s a few tips for these games. Expect to buy in quite a few times. The swings in these types of games are very much a roller coaster ride. And you’ll probably find yourself buying in once, getting sucked out on, and buying in again. But all it takes is one of those big hands, to put you back in the black.

And, if you’re really that uncomfortable with the big swings, try playing these games short stacked. One, it’ll make your play more conservative. Two, it will offset the concern you have and the fear you may feel when you’re playing deep stacked.

These loose games can be a challenge when one is used to playing with good, sound players. But just as anything else in poker, online or brick and mortar, they can be beat, it just takes some evolution and take some adaptation.

I’ll semi-quote Darwin. To survive these fish school games, we have to become the fittest. And who better to survive than the fisherman when dealing with fish?

Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), or spam has reached epidemic proportions, and continues to grow. According to American Online, of the estimated 30 million email messages each day, about 30% on average was unsolicited commercial email. As a result of its very low marginal costs, spam has become extremely prolific. Regardless of how many emails are sent out, the spammers’ costs are low, and constant. With numbers like these, there is a tremendous burden shifted to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) to process and store that amount of data. Huge volumes of this junk may undoubtedly contribute to many of the access, speed, and reliability problems suffered by many ISPs. Further, many large ISPs have experienced major system outages as the result of massive junk email campaigns. Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Regardless of whether the UCE message is an advertisement, porn, or a winning lottery notice, the content is irrelevant. If the message was sent unsolicited, and in bulk then the message is spam.

This junk e-mail is more than just annoying; it costs Internet users, and Internet-based businesses millions, even billions, per year. When a spammer sends an email message to a million people, it is carried by numerous electronic systems on route to its destination. The systems in between are bearing the burden of carrying advertisements, and other unsolicited junk for the spammer. The number of spams sent out each day is truly overwhelming, and each one must be handled efficiently, and expeditiously by many systems. There is no justification for forcing third parties to bear the load of unsolicited advertising. Ultimately, these costs are passed on to YOU, the consumer.

Spam originates in one of two ways, it is sent directly by the spammer from and under their control, or via illegal third party exploitation such as open proxies or open relays. Spammers get your address in a variety of ways. If you sign up for, and provide your email address, these seemingly friendly sites can turn around and sell your email to advertisers. Additionally, if you have your email address on a Web page, it is easy for unscrupulous advertisers to “harvest” it, and add you to their lists.

There are ways to reduce the number of spam messages, however it is presently impossible to stop them all. Spam filters, are software applications that redirect emails based on the presence of certain common phrases, or words. These automated measures are prone to being defeated by clever spammers. Additionally, there is a risk of important emails being deleted as spam. In 2003, Congress passed a sweeping law, CAN-SPAM act of 2003, which basically prohibits the use of deceptive subject lines and false headers in all emails. Additionally, the FTC is authorized (but not required) to establish a do-not-email registry. The CAN-SPAM Act took effect on January 1, 2004.

Spam is based on theft of service; it wastes time, money, and other resources. Spam can and will overwhelm your electronic mail box if it isn’t fought. Over time, unless the growth of spam isn’t stopped, it will destroy the usefulness and effectiveness of email as a communication tool.

Jay B Stockman is a contributing editor for Spam Blocker Software Solutions Visit http://spam-blockeronline.com/ for more information.