Freemail

Email is fantastic, of that I have no doubt.  Alas, though, its users are not always fantastic.

It is said that the best things in life are free, but email, which often is free, well, setting up an account generally is, is showing some humans for what they really are: dumb animals, because they are ruining something which should be of great benefit to humanity.  And yes, I’m about to go on about one of my pet hates, spam, which, more often than not seems to originate from addresses which are linked to free email providers: read hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail et al.  It really is, alas, far too easy to set up a freemail account, and, again, alas, this means that these accounts are abused to hell and back, and then some.

This aspect of the Internet should be known as the ‘World Wild Web’, for that is what it has become.

What’s to be done about this spamful situation?  Now, that is a very good question, but something does need to be done and everybody needs to be involved.  Web junk mail is just getting out of hand.  So, how about registered email addresses?  These addresses could only be had only after subjecting applicants to a detailed proof of identity process, something which spammers just would not have the time or the will to go through.  Or perhaps we could all be issued with 3 or 4 personalised digital signatures which can be related to our tax numbers or birth certificate numbers.  Or maybe the number of email addresses that any one person or company can hold could be tied to a database of passport or tax numbers.  You would be able to extend the number of addresses, but only by following a validation process, which should in itself put off abusers.   The number of emails that can be sent from any one address needs to be strictly limited, unless the sender has a legitimately registered address which is linked to a real organisation.

As an example of just how ‘unregistered’ email addresses are, I know that two of my main email addresses are already ‘in the wild’ and I’ve been getting tons of reverse fee fraud mails recently.  I’m pretty sure I’m not alone, and I’m doubly sure that everyone is getting pretty annoyed about this ridiculous situation, so people must be open to ways of ‘securing’ email addresses.  It really is too easy to set up an email account, and it is frighteningly easy to set up an email address that looks as though it has come from someone else.  This, again, is just plain daft.

Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done soon.

Italian food

To round off the weekend, we ended up at a local restaurant this Sunday evening. The place, called Il Quadrifoglio (four-leaf clover), is located merely a stone’s throw away from our place and it does do some nice stuff. This time round we had a rather scrumptious plate of salmon with tagliatelle, scamorza cheese and weeny tiny octopuses. We washed this down with a nice white wine and followed it up, well, my son and I, with a very good fruits of the forest cream dessert. And coffee, of course. Then we came back home and I finished off yet another translation I’d been doing.

Yep, once again, I found myself working on a Sunday. Tough, isn’t it? Well, sort of. When you work for yourself, you never really work ‘regular’ hours. I guess that is just one of the prices you pay for ‘freedom’.

Oh, and it’s baking hot here in Milan. No wonder most of the city’s inhabitants have fled for their summer breaks.

Blair’s other legacy

Many would have you believe that post-Blair Britain is a fabulous place. Many people have more money than they know what to do with and everything is hunky dory. Only, this is not necessarily true for 100% of the population, at least not according to the story which one of my students told me after a recent visit to London.

I was a little surprised to learn from him that there is an apparently sizeable group of people who are really struggling to make ends meet, or at least that was what he was told by a Londoner he met. Soaring property prices and low salary levels seem are probably the culprit, I suspect.

I decided to check this out, so I hunted around a UK job search website and looked at a couple of estate agents sites.

With regard to jobs, I discovered from taking a look at the some admin jobs advertised in Bristol, a moderately wealthy southern UK city, that salaries of around £13,000 and £14,000 are still quite commonplace. This means that a couple earning around £28,000 would just about be able to afford a mortgage on a one bed property costing £98,000 – which is just about the lowest price you will find on the market in that area.

Such low salary levels mean that what my Italian friend told me is quite possibly true – there are plenty of people who are struggling to make ends meet. How many, I don’t know, but probably more than I would expect.

Did Blair benefit everyone in the UK? Good question. Answers on a postcard, or comment please.

A small update: This article in on the Guardian website seems to indicate that even graduates are finding living in the UK something of a struggle.

Some stats

The number of views since I switched to WordPress last year is now over 20,000. Total spam blocked now over 11,000 and growing.  My most popular post concerns traffic fines in Italy, with over 1,700 views.

I know I write about a range of subjects, but really I just waffle on about things that catch my eye.  Blogging is quite a good way of getting things off your chest too, I reckon.   I think my writing is getting slightly better as a result of all my scribblings, which pleases me.

And to all of you out there that read the posts here: Thanks.

This blog will shortly be going into a summer recess, but normalish service will be resumed in September.

In you need to use Italian, you might find this site useful.

My written Italian is not that wonderful, (it is getting better, but it is not yet perfect…) and I tend to have problems remembering certain Italian verb conjugations. This means that I find this site is very handy indeed: http://italianverbs.googlepages.com/index.htm

It has become one of my permanent bookmarks.  You know, one of those that live in the Firefox bar which sits directly above the web pages you are looking at.   So, if you find yourself needing to write in Italian, check it out.  The site is totally in Italian, but if you are writing in the language you presumably already know more than a few basics.  Alternatively, if you are learning the language of the Living Museum, you may find it to be a very useful reference.  Enjoy.

Gold fever.

Nope, sorry, gold has not been found in Milan, so please don’t rush here.  However, gold is certainly on the streets.  Gold seems to be the in-colour for  quite a few Milanese women at the moment.  There are gold coloured handbags, shoes, belts, and tops.  Should you wish to demonstrate the Midas touch, you will be able to find gold coloured everything in Milan’s shops.  And it’s sale time, so you can go for gold, without spending a fortune.  You can even dress your little ones in gold too, if that takes your fancy.

I’ve yet to see a gold family, but sooner or later, I will, well, mother and daughter.  If I happen to have my camera with me at the time, I’ll post the photos here.