Easy Email Security

Have just learned soemthing today from the very helpful guys at http://www.theregister.co.uk/ - it seems that a lot of web based email services allow you to use custom email addresses and this can be a very good way of filtering out spam, and even detecting who is selling/losing your email address in the first place.

I currently use two main email addresses, both of which are web based (though I use a combination of POP3 and IMAP to actually access them) and they are bryan.anderson@hotmail.co.uk and brykins@gmail.com. Now, both of these services (and others by the sound of it) allow you to add extra bits to your email address just before the "@" symbol.

All you need to do is to tag on a "+" and some text. For example, I can give out an email address of brykins+blog@gmail.com and the email will still come to my normal gmail.com mailbox, but I can filter out everythings with "+blog" into a seperate folder. I could use brykins+tesco@gmail.com for my grocery shopping and should I start to get spammed by unknown companies, then I will know who let my address out into the wild.

Just thought I'd pass the tip along.

iPhone 4

Just waiting till the 4th July.....Mrs B's mobile upgrade is due then and she's already (a) told me she doesn't want a replacement for her Blackberry Pearl and (b) spent the money that *could* be raised by selling her upgrade on eBay.

So I wonder how much T-Mobile will want for an iPhone 4 on upgrade?

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned....

...it's been two months since my last blog post.

Amazing quite how time flies - of course, most would say that it does when you're "having fun" but it seems to fly past when you're not having fun as well. And not having fun has been the reason for the lack of posts here. This last few months have been a struggle but it looks like things *might* just be turning a corner.

On the job front, I had four and a half jobs at the last count. That's gone down a little now, as I am still teaching IT one day per week and have take a four-days-per-week sales job for a company based near Cambridge. I did have an offer of four months work for HMRC (the Tax Office!) but simply couldn't bring myself to work for those money grabbing buggers.

The half a job is the most interesting one. Six years ago I was self-employed and my largest single client was a training/coaching provider - I looked after their IT, marketing, sales info, etc, and wrote all their course material for them. With me going back to work, we lost touch but just recently I saw an advert for an admin position at a (different) training/coaching company. Have been along and seen them for both a first and a second interview and the role seems to be 100% what I am looking for, with the right size company. They are local and looking to move even closer to me, so it all *fits*. Problem is, that was three weeks ago and they are still interviewing. I am resisting the urge to ring them and shout at them to stop as they have found the right person.

I ought to know by the end of this week. You'll know the answer - if I stop updating again then it's cos I have crawled under a stone to lick my wounds. If I make more updates, expect them to be more up-beat due to having a job that actually makes use of my few talents.