Parallel conversations on IM - summary  Tags: chat.
This post is a summary to Parallel conversations on IM.

Message subjects are identified by a number and a square closing bracket, like so:
"Message about subject #1"
"2] Message about subject #2"
"3] Message about subject #3"

The first subject-tag, which would be denoted as "1]", is never actually written for ease of use. A parallel conversations can be like this:
A: Message
B: 2] Message about another subject
B: Answer to A's message
A: 2] Answer to B about second subject
A: 3] Message about third subject
Etc.

Moving subjects goes as follows: "2]->1".

Parallel conversations on IM  Tags: chat.
I often find myself talking about two subjects at the same time with the same contact on MSN, which can lead to confusing situations. 'Did the "no" apply to subject #1 or #2?'
Often you want to say something about a new subject without interrupting the current conversation about the current subject. Or, also often enough, you don't know if the other person wants to say more on the first subject while you want to move on.

Together with a good friend of mine (Frédéric) I tried to solve this by adding some sort of label or tag to the start of a secondary conversation.

Determine how spammers got your address  Tags: spam, e-mail.
I saw someone use a very smart way of managing e-mail. The only requirement is having a domain exclusively to yourself.

Say I want to sign up at example.com and I need a valid e-mail address. What I do is sign up with example_com@lucb1e.com. If I some day receive spam, I can see the recipient is example_com@lucb1e.com and I know that example.com has either shared my e-mail address with 3rd parties or made it public some way.

Even better, I can block any e-mail addressed to example_com@lucb1e.com!

Scams are getting more funny every day  Tags: lol, spam.
Today I got an e-mail from the minister of finance. If I replied within two hours and paid 75USD, I would get 5.000,00USD. Sure! Of course the mininster of finance from the Federal Republic of Benin mails me about that in all red bold text with green dotted underline!

Is there anyone at all believing this nonsense?!

Touchscreens  Tags: hardware.
I hate touchscreen. It's surely good for certain uses, but in general I prefer pressing buttons instead.
Today at the gas station, they had a new touchscreen display instead of the usual display with buttons. I had to type my PIN-code on the touchscreen, what do you mean security risk?!

Usually I cover the keypad with my left hand, easily feel where the keys are with my right hand, and type the code quick & easy. Now I had to look where the keys were and touch them with my index finger (usually I type half the code with my index finger and half with my thumb, goes twice as fast and people don't see the hand/arm movement).