A certain member of my extended family (most likely no one reading this) has a habit of forwarding emails.  And not even good or funny stuff.  Just total crap.  The stuff from 1998 about the children and the puppies and the angels and all that garbage.  Not to be a cynic ... ok, since I'm a cynic, I don't want to read that stuff any more.  I don't want to receive it in my inbox.  I don't want to hear about it.  Email was invented as a means of communication.  It spent many years in the crapper as simply a way to spread misinformation and stupid jokes, but it has since made a comeback and continues to serve as a viable alternative to phone calls and face-to-face meetings. 

I thought about simply emailing the person and kindly asking them to only email me personal correspondence, but I've read that there's no way to actually do this without hurting the person's feelings.  Some people actually send out a form letter every year to remind people that their inbox is a precious resource that must not be wasted.  And there's even a website that "politely and anonymously" asks people to stop sending forwards -- the epitome of passive aggressiveness.  But hey, what other kind of aggressive is there? 

For the less-than-moral, I came up with two options, both of which involve lying.  You can either tell the person that your email address is only for business or professional use, so personal emails really shouldn't be sent there.  Or you can reply with one of those error messages from "Mail Delivery Subsystem" that says something like "Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender".  You could even include a little computer-generated-sounding imperative like, "Please remove this email address from all personal address books." 

The thing is, not all forwards are evil.  I receive some forwards that I'm genuinely thankful for.  They're usually addressed solely to me, or to a small group of people that have previously expressed interest in a certain topic (e.g. "To all cat people").  Sometimes I'll receive something I've already seen, but I'll appreciate the sender thinking the message would fall under my unusual brand of humor. 

In the end, the solution I'm going with is actually quite simple.  I'm blocking the sender.  I can either mark the message as spam, or set up a rule that automatically deletes anything from the sender.  That way, I'll never be able to receive actual communication from that person in the future, which I think is a fitting punishment for abusing the system.  Hopefully people will start to learn that the more garbage you spew, the less people will want to listen.  Perhaps kind of like this website. #technology

I just made a few changes to my website's design, mostly to make things look better on mobile devices.  Previous design announced here.  This would probably be version 3.5 for future reference. 

Update (2008-12-10 1:20 pm):  I also meant to include this for future reference:  Every time I try to make a new or updated theme for my site, it starts off well and goes south very quickly.  I'll think about it for a little while and convince myself that it should be an easy thing to do.  But as soon as I start doing things, I'll realize how difficult it can be at times, and how different things look in my mind compared to real life.  I inevitably hit a wall where I think about giving up, but I'll usually tough it out and sort of "settle" on something that works but isn't great. #technology

Most cell phones that send email append a little line to the end that says something like, "Sent from my Blackberry," or "Sent from my iPhone."  Personally I hate this little "feature" and wish people would stop telling me where their emails are coming from.  (Although I'll admit it's sometimes useful to know whether a person is at their desk or not.) 

But just a few minutes ago, I saw a good one in response to an iPhone email:  "Sent from my Desktop Computer.  While sitting in a chair.  In a cubicle.  At work." #technology

Two new rules I propose to be added to the Universal Unwritten Code of Common Courtesy: 

1. Don't answer your phone during a meal with other people.  If you're by yourself, go for it.  But if you're eating a meal with other people, eat the meal and enjoy the people.
2. Don't call a person on their personal cell phone for work reasons.  It's one thing if you're traveling together and you need to coordinate when you're eating dinner.  It's another thing to call a person on their cell phone while they're on vacation or somehow otherwise absent from work.  Nothing is ever important enough to disrupt a vacation.

You'd think these would go without saying, but you'd be wrong. #technology

The term "high definition" is overused.  It makes sense for HDTVs because they're literally higher quality and resolution than their standard counterparts.  But for things like HD radio and HD camera lens filters (one of which I just bought recently), it's a misnomer.  HD radio is simply digital radio, and the HD camera lens filter is simply better than its previous version.  The inclusion of HD is both products' names is simply a sales tactic.  (Naysayers may point out that the sales tactic worked in the case of the camera lens filter, but I will say, "Wrong!  That was the only one in the store.") #technology

I don't understand why people CC themselves when they send email.  Pretty much every email system since the creation of the universe has automatically saved all sent messages by default.  Maybe it's to see if the message was actually sent.  Again, if it's sent, it'll show up in the sent messages folder.  (And if there's an error in transit, you won't find out about it until the recipient's email server spits back an error message, which will happen independently of you receiving your CC.)  Maybe it's to see how the email looks for the person reading it.  Again, the sent message resides in the sent messages folder, exactly as it will look for the recipient.  Please, someone explain to me the practice of the self-CC. #technology

Here's an email I got last week: 

From:  Mark
To:  Everyone
Subject:  Skull

Does anyone have a human skull I can borrow?  (an extra one, preferably not in use)

I would like to scan it in with our new 3D scanner.

It's almost as good as the fecal contamination incident. #technology

The cell phone that currently resides in my pocket can send and receive email and access the internet, essentially giving me the entire world's collective information and knowledge.  YET, we still use fax machines.  I only use one around once a month, but each time it's like a lesson in the history of technology.  "So I have to print out this piece of paper?  Then I have to put it in this machine?  Then I have to dial a phone number?"  Sooooo much of what I work on is already digital (i.e. not on paper) that it's a huge disruption to have to print something out and fax it.  Why don't people just use email?  It's trivially easy to use a scanner (if you absolutely need to use paper) and email a PDF.  Why won't fax machines just die already? #technology

Best new website of the week:  Totally Looks Like, where people upload pictures of famous people or things that totally look like someone or something else.  There's the infamous Wilford Brimley and the lookalike cat, but other notables include John Kerry / Herman Munster, Bill Gates / Janet Reno, Pope Benedict / Darth Sidious, and Ron Paul / Magneto.  Ok, heck, they're all good.  Just look at all of them. #technology

One of the funnier things about working with all engineers is the drawings.  Of everything.  Instead of just explaining the work being done on his house, my co-worker used his marker board to draw a picture of it, likely to scale, complete with slope markings (since it was 2D) and before/after comparisons. #technology