/me slaps forehead

[spank]

So I'm surfing the web, looking for drivers for my modem because I lost the CD that comes with it. Then I find a site that had exactly what I wanted.

It asked me to register so I could download the driver, and I thought, "OK, what the hell." I would have to supply my real e-mail address, because they'd send my own account details there. Then I went through like 10 pages of YES-I-want-to-sign-up-for-your-spam-which-isn't-actually-spam-coz-you-asked-for-it bullshit, which I categorically denied. Eventually I received the e-mail:

USER NAME is: driver
PASSWORD is: all

'Nuff said. And they're trying to assure me I won't receive any spam just because I clicked those 'reject' checkboxes.

[Arioch]

I signed up for that ages ago back when I was clueless.

The e-mail address I used is still around, too.

It contributes to this number.

[Fredrik]

Use a separate mail account (Yahoo/Hotmail etc) for crap like that.

[Ultraviolet]

I suppose they only have that registration process to keep people from setting up automated downloads of all their drivers... or something... but anyway, I've used that site a time or two, even registered, but I didn't really get all that much spam as a result.

[david_a]

Mailinator

Automatic, temporary email addresses created for this very purpose.

[Bucket]

For any sites that don't require email for registration, I usually enter the following information:

Bob McYoursitesucks
YourSiteSucks@aol.com

Unless there's someone actually using that name on AOL, you get the added bonus of knowing that 1,000 spam sites have to deal with returned mail!

[david_a]

Yes, but as you said, it's worthless for times when you they send you something to that address. Mailinator is not. Just use your_mom@mailinator.com or any other name you can think of. No registration, passwords, etc required!

[Bloodshedder]

Thanks for the Mailinator tip.

[SyntherAugustus]

Mailinator eh?

/me sets bookmark.

[Bucket]

david_a: Spreading the Good Word.

[david_a]

Heh, thanks. I learned about this very useful site through a class I took recently about web-related... stuff. The class was fairly depressingly worthless except for the quick presentations everyone had to do on some "cool" website they found.