Tag: Email

  • E-mushiness: Ham or Spam?

    I have posted here interesting things I’ve received as spam, but nothing seems to get close to appear ham like this one. It was nevertheless caught by my spam filter, but its idea is so unusual, I just can’t let it pass. It even has a companion Web site that looks legitimate.

    Quoting the full message (it’s quite long, by the way):

    A man is trying a very unusual way to propose to his girlfriend. He wants people to forward an email to as many people as possible and he hopes that it will eventually get to his girlfriend. Details here: http://www.proposal-to-mary.com

    Here is what he wants people to send by email:

    You could help me a lot to spread my proposal to Mary – it is important that it is distributed as widely as possible so that it eventually reaches Mary. If you would like to support my proposal to Mary, please send the following text by email to a lot of people 🙂

    ————- SNIP (email text follows) —————

    WHEN YOU RECEIVE THIS, PLEASE HELP TO DISTRIBUTE IT TO OTHER PEOPLE!

    For a long time I have tried to find a special way to propose marriage to my girlfriend Mary, whom I know for five years now. I wanted it very special, romantic and memorable, something our grandchildren would still remember.

    And here is my idea: I will send out the proposal to Mary to 50 complete strangers, people I don’t know – hoping, that they will forward my proposal to many people, which in turn forward it again etc. And some day, I hope, it will reach Mary, after it has travelled a very long way. I know, it will take a long time and I am quite nervous…

    From the poem MY Mary will know immediately that the proposal is for her.

    I have created a homepage (http://www.proposal-to-mary.com) where you can find the current status of my quest. You can use the homepage to check if the proposal has already reached Mary (in that case it is not necessary anymore to forward the mail).

    Once the proposal has reached Mary, I will put a note on these pages. Also I will publish there how many people have read the proposal so that everybody can see how far it has spread and that it is getting closer to Mary.

    And of course you will find there what I am waiting for most: Mary’s answer! I can’t tell you, how nervous I am… Will she accept my proposal? Will she like the unusual way how she got it, through the hands of thousands of messengers all over the world?

    Please cross your fingers for me! And please – help me by sending the mail to your friends to help it spread, so that it eventually reaches Mary.

    And here is my proposal:

    Mary, please forgive me, as you know English is not my native language. And I am not a poet. But I mean it from my heart.

    My angel,

    Five years ago, I will always remember the day
    When fate made us meet, blissful Alaskan moments in May
    Earth spun around us and a journey began
    Love, warmth, happiness, enough the years to span.

    The longer it lasts the more grows our bond
    And with 80 still – of you I will be fond
    Whatever happens, I will stay at your side
    Through good and bad, together let us stride

    No second with you was ever wasted
    You are the sweetest I have ever tasted
    We have spent so many years – why not a life?
    Mary, will you marry me – and become my wife?

    Mary, if you have received that and have recognized me, then give me a sign so that I can continue with the romantic part of my proposal…

    ————- SNIP (email text end) —————

    I do have one friend named Mary, though I can’t see any connections she may have with this German from the United States … or is there, Maple? Heh.

    Anyway, the site claims it makes no money from this, and I could agree—it doesn’t direct emails to a central address, which may then be a harvester, nor does it serve ads on the site.

    So … what do you think? Is this proposal to Mary a real case of e-mushiness, or just a publicity stunt? Or maybe just a new way of creating chain mail that people are (probably) more likely to send? Would you help this seemingly romantic man, if you think other than skepticism? Tell me on the comments below. 🙂

  • Musing #0011

    A lot of us hate spam, but how do you think human spammers or the people behind robot spammers react to their actions? Do spammers hate receiving spam comments, messages and mails they didn’t send themselves as much as we do?

  • Gmail for My Domain

    Ever since I’ve received my first invite to beta test Gmail, I’ve been using it as my primary email as if it is already a release version of the Webmail client—no major bugs and excellent features. I am glad nothing from it disappoints me.

    I then came across a random blog entry that told me Gmail is offered for domain owners as a Webmail client. I’ve signed up to beta test Gmail for your domain on my domain, and now I’m using it instead of forwarding all email to ajalapus.com to my original Gmail account.

    Gmail for your domain inbox screenshot Here is a screenshot of my Gmail for your domain Inbox.

    Management seems easy, creating users and aliases for those users—I currently have two, one as a main user and the other as the catch-all (i.e., catch everything else) user. I haven’t encountered any bugs as of now. And, comparing Gmail for your domain to Gmail, I could only find two differences listed below:

    1. Gmail for your domain doesn’t have the ability to view and display avatars of Gmail contacts—no biggie.
    2. Gmail for your domain only has 2048 MB of storage compared to Gmail’s 2749 MB and growing—2 GB is still enough.

    Oh, and you could look at my sign in page—it’s so cool! 😛

  • Musing #0002

    Why do some people believe in the power of spam chain mails or messages?

  • Fighting the inevitable

    People encounter problems no matter how much we try to prevent them — they are inevitable. But we shouldn’t avoid them; we should face them. It is with fear and anxiety that many people try to run away from their problems.

    Just remember, there is something we all have but we usually ignore …

    A quotation I received through email said:

    Stop telling God you’ve got big problems.
    Tell your problems you’ve got a big God!

    … Yes, a big God!