Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Disappearing E-mail and the Mpeg

I'm very happy with my subscription to spamcop.net.  The online retrieval of e-mail is very convenient whenever we are on vacation.  Very few spam messages make it past the spamcop e-mail filters.  The only inconvenience for me is that all Hotmail, Yahoo, and other free e-mail addresses are always stuck in the "held e-mail" folder until I whitelist the individual address.

Any number of e-mail addresses can be filtered.  However, only one e-mail can be used for forwarding.  I have all my various addresses checked by spamcop, and then the filtered e-mail is sent to my one e-mail address that I keep secret.

For awhile I was filtering Keith's e-mail, too.  The problem with that solution is that I end up with his e-mail on my computer.  If I forwarded it to his address, then I ended up with it again, causing a loop.  Spamcop will bounce looping e-mail, although I still get the message.  (The message being, "Pamela, you are loopy.")

So I took Keith's address off my filtering list and left him to deal with his own spam.  Unfortunately he doesn't check his e-mail often and over 300 messages were jammed in his e-mail box.  When he would check his mail, Eudora told him, "You have no new mail."

After several days of no e-mail, he asked for my help.  I set up spamcop to filter his address, and 270 messages ended up in my spamcop "held mail" folder.  Spamcop doesn't delete any e-mail.  The filtered e-mail is kept until I decide to report it as spam or delete it.  I deleted the spam because most of it was too old to report.

With the e-mail messages whittled down to 70, I began downloading them onto my computer.

When 52 messages had downloaded, a very large mpeg was tying up my computer.  Attempting to download that large file kept crashing my computer.  Being online with spamcop and downloading a 2368K movie clip with the virus checker on seems to be more than my computer can manage.  I finally had to close all browser windows.

I already had that mpeg on my computer and I didn't need to download it again.  So I got the bright idea of having spamcop checking *my* secret e-mail address so I could delete this large file.  I set up the spamcop program to do that, and those last 18 message disappeared into cyberspace somehow.

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  If your e-mail was one of the 18 messages, please send it again.

Monday, March 03, 2003

What Does the E Stand for in E-Tickets?

A new kind of peril with computers:  buying airline tickets online.  This shouldn't have been that big a deal.  I ordered my airline ticket online last year when I went to my sister's wedding.  So why does it have to be such a big deal this time?

First I have to figure out what day to go and what day to return.  As I try different dates, I notice that the lowest fare available changes.  Sometimes it is over $800 and other times it is around $600.  Then a round-trip fare to San Diego comes up for $496.00!  I begin the process of ordering the ticket.

Oh!  I need my mileage plan number.  That's in my purse, and my purse is in the trunk of the car.  I need to find the keys to open the trunk, run downstairs to the garage, get the purse, and run back up the stairs, and back to the computer.

I type in the mileage plan number into the form  Then I have to stop and change Brendon's diaper.  I type Grandma Rae's phone number into the form and click continue.  I get an error message that I didn't type the number with the right format.  I try dashes, spaces, and parens without success.

I log in to the associated chat and Wendy types, "How may I help you?"

I explain my problem, and I resend the form several times.  Finally she concludes that my form has expired.  Yes, that is exactly what has happened.  The form has expired and my $497-dollar ticket along with it.  Wendy tells me that the price is not guaranteed until I have the confirmation number in hand.

Eventually I get the form to complete the transation, but this time the ticket costs US$626.39.

Then it's onto the mileage plan award ticket.  I cannot find a ticket anywhere within a week of when we want to go... unless I want to leave the day of the doctor's appointment and arrive after a night without sleep.  So I cringe and spend 40,000 air miles to obtain a peak saver ticket.  That means that the relative cost of this ticket is equal to US$1252.78 since I should have been able to obtain two tickets for 40,000 air miles.

By the time I complete the two transactions and choose the seat selections, I've spent from 4:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. ordering our airline tickets.  My, isn't technology wonderful?  I have decided that the E in e-tickets stands for exasperation.