POLL: Web mail services?

Happy birthday, Jodi! Don't forget to drop by and visit Allison's and Jodi's Virtual Birthday Party.

My sister's sick, so I'm going to be helping out with Sara and Annie the next few days: picking them up from school, doing homework with them, taking them to piano lessons, etc. A micro-mini-dose of motherhood. :-)

Does anyone know Barb Riedel's e-mail address? She and I have been playing phone tag for a while (she left a message asking me to call her with my snailmail address), and she doesn't have an answering machine on her phone. Or if you do have regular contact with Barb, could you please give my e-mail address to her (or snailmail, if you know it)? I don't tend to answer the phone during the day while I'm working, and I'm not going to be home much in the evenings over the next while. Thanks for any assistance.

Yay, my two new Chris Conway CDs arrived! I ordered My Mind's Island on his Web site, and Chris sent Alien Salad Abduction gratis since Allison, Jodi and helped out on vocals and instrumentals in his "Alien Jellyfish Song".

I'm thoroughly enjoying both CDs and was especially amused to see one of Andrea Dale's phone messages turned into a very cool-sounding track called "Deep Space Phone". :-D

For more information about Chris and his recording projects, please see Chris's Web site.





When I'm travelling or am having trouble with my own server mail, I use Yahoo mail as an alternative. I've liked Yahoo because I can set the Reply-To: field to my regular e-mail address, I can pick up my POP mail if I want to, it has an address book, folder organization, lets me use nicknames, has a spam-filtering option. I also use the Yahoo!Calendar feature to share an online calendar with Jeff.

However, I've noticed that my Yahoo mail account has started to accumulate more and more spam despite the filtering option (though maybe recently launched anti-spam lawsuits will help stem the growing tide). I also suspect that Yahoo is going to start charging for its services eventually. While I don't mind paying for a good, alternate e-mail method, I don't want the payment part sneaking up on me after I've come to rely on the address.

So this brings us to today's poll question...

POLL: What Web mail service do you use, if any?

Yahoo? Hotmail? PObox? Bigfoot? I've been considering Mac.com, which is a paid service, mainly because of the nice interface, lack of Yahoo-type ads, and other service offerings (15 MB e-mail storage instead of Yahoo's 6 MB, 100 MB hard disk online storage). No mention of a spam filter, though, plus I'm ticked off that the cool-looking desktop calendar feature is available only to those who use OS X. Plus the $49.50 annual fee (U.S.) seems pretty hefty to me.

Does anyone know of any good Web mail services out there? I'm willing to pay a fee, but I want good spam filtering, no obnoxious pop-ads, at least 10 MB e-mail storage, address book, .signature, reliable service. Bonus features: reply-to options, POP account access, autoreply/vacation message options.

Answer in Blatherchat

Links/News:

Please consider sponsoring me for the CIBC Run For The Cure (event to support cancer research).

I updated Waiting For Frodo after seeing the new trailer. If dying for a frame by frame detailed analysis of the trailer, see TheOneRing.net (warning: many spoilers).

I'm re-reading Chapter 13 of "Fellowship of the Ring".

One year ago, Jodi was highlighted in Billboard magazine.

Three years ago, I was having trouble to find someone to insure Inkspot.

Four years ago and five years ago, I invited people to join Jodi's and Allison's virtual birthday party.

Roberto Benigni as Pinocchio? Scary thought.