Microsoft is garbage

IP blocking of various non English speaking countries together with rspamd reduces spam to almost non-existent levels for me.

I get *no* spam and do nothing to do so!

I only want to provide services where I can add value. (E.g., my telephone attendant does things that can't be bought -- short of hiring a flesh-and-blood entity.) For everything else, let other people worry about those mundane details.

What distinguishes spam from that which is not spam? Without a perfect way of making that distinction, it is not possible get no spam at all.

Both live.com and outlook.com report that the site has been down forever.

"Down Forever? The site has been unreachable for more than 400 days. If the site is live or if you have further information about the site status, please comment below..."

That's because the web page is looking for an active web server on port 80 and NOT looking for an active email port on 143, 110, 993, 995 for incoming and 587 for outgoing.

Hint: It helps if you read the web pages before posting URL's.

Spam is anything unsolicited. I get email from friends and colleagues. And, from businesses with whom I have current outstanding orders. (e.g., eBay regularly informs me of a purchase, when it is shipped, when it is scheduled for delivery, etc.)

My cell phone carriers notify me when they charge my account for the current month's service.

No solicitations. No political ads. No Nigerian princes. No "john does" trying to cold contact me.

My alma mater would love to offer me a free email address (in their domain). What value that -- other than vanity? It gives THEM a means of contacting me that they wouldn't have, otherwise (so, plenty of upside for them, very little for me).

Friends and colleagues know not to give my email address to third parties, even if I *know* those people (If I wanted them to have my email address, wouldn't I have GIVEN it to them? Why would they need to ask for it from someone else?)

If I receive a message "apparently" via a colleague, it likely means THEY have been hacked and everyone in their address book targeted (in which case, the email address that was exposed is invalidated and replaced with a new one, cutting off any further contact via that vector)

Fairly enough. A TV news broadcast did report on Friday before I downloaded those webpages that such problems had been suffered by Microsoft already on Thursday (contrast with a theory about an attack timed for Friday the 13th), and LinkedIn is always buggy, as are many other Microsoft things. E.g. whilst writing this post, it took Microsoft Edge nearly twenty-two minutes to save one - ONE!!! - LinkedIn webpage via a good Internet connection.

Though alt.comp.microsoft.new-products and alt.comp.microsoft.windows and alt.destroy.microsoft and alt.news.microsoft and microsoft.public.msnewservers and alt.comp.os.windows-10 showed almost nothing about a recent Microsoft failure, alt.comp.os.windows-10 shows since Thursday (Thursday being not Friday the 13th) a report about new Microsoft-emailing wonkiness:

From: "Jeff Gaines" snipped-for-privacy@outlook.com Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10 Subject: Email Oddity Date: 12 Nov 2026 21:41:09 GMT Message-ID: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net>

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"I reported to Microsoft in mid October 2026 a bug in Visual Studio 2026 | |relating to links to files, I kept track of it via their website. | | | |Today I received 3 x emails from "Visual Studio" | |( snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com) dated 15 October, 16 October and 21 | |October updating me on progress as this is investigated, the headers show | |these dates. | | | |Any thoughts on how 3 old emails turn up all together nearly a month after| |the dates shown on them? | | | |I use eM Client and all my other emails (usually confirming I have spent | |more money) have come through OK. | | | |I may follow up with a legal group as I don't know what would happen if | |these were needed as evidence, but I'd appreciate any thoughts first. | | | |-- | |Jeff Gaines Dorset UK | |The fact that there's a highway to hell and only a stairway to heaven says| |a lot about anticipated traffic numbers." | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

(S.

And email addresses are not private so they get on lists which spammers use. And there is no 100% reliable method of deciding whether a message is spam or not unless you examine the message and make the decision yourself.

I hope you check your junk folder often.

I prefer not to have a junk folder at all because it can cause legitimate messages to be overlooked. This doesn't happen often but it will happen when least expected.

Why aren't phones making any effort to help the user decide whether a message is spam or not? Email apps on phones seem to go out of their way to cover up where the message really came from and will open remote content without asking. Why can't the phone display the sender's and receiver's email addresses instead of just their names and why not give a hint of which country the email originated from?

...>

LOL many of my friends will send to 50 recipients in such a way that all recipients can see all recipients' email addresses. Trying to explain to them why this is a bad idea or showing them how not to do it is a waste of time.

...

They get on "lists" if you are careless with them.

If it is not from one of my known contacts, it is spam.

My email provider seems to have no problem with this.

Email provider notifies me if it has rerouted any "suspected messages". Otherwise, my email client tells me if there is anything in my "Spam" folder.

I have encountered a couple of such notifications, in the past month. In each case, the notification was delivered to each account (and the accounts SWMBO has, as well).

Clearly, someone has hacked the provider as the messages were not targeted to either of us (they weren't even in English)

Why use a phone for email? It's difficult to read and near impossible to reply.

I've educated my friends not to do this (and colleagues "know better"). This sort of behavior is common among the "you've gotta see this! isn't it hilarious?!" crowd. My email tends not to include such stuff. Likewise, political argument.

People who don't practice good email hygiene lose access to my inbox.

SWMBO has a bigger challenge as her friends aren't quite as tech savvy. As a result, she knows never to respond to an email *apparently* from one of them that looks fishy.

And, NEVER click on links or open attachments.

Your TV news broadcast was occurred on the initial day (Friday) the outage, which is considerably less than the 400 days reported by the URL's you provided:

Thanks for the "fairly enough" comment, whatever that means.

What we need is a tax on every email or text message or phone call.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

It doesn't have to be you who is careless with your email address. And there are plenty of services out there offering to check if an email address is valid or not.

That's not going to work for most people, particularly businesses wanting new customers. Initial contact has mostly been replaced with online forms but rejecting email which is not on a known contact list will still cause issues.

Most people won't know that that happened and will claim that they never received the email.

I don't agree. It's convenient to be able to pull a phone out of my pocket and check my email when I'm away from home. I don't find it hard to reply either if a short text reply is needed. Anything to do with attachments will be done at home on a real computer or on a laptop I have with me.

Many people don't have this option because either their friends are ineducable or the email came from the boss who "wanted everyone to see who the message was sent to". Arguing with that may be risking your job.

That's your choice but not one most people can make.

I often send links to people so that they can get a file from a server of mine which is too big to send as an email attachment.

Because you were recommended by a friend who already has your email address.

Not possible because who would count the emails and send the invoices? If I was told I had to invoice all users 1 cent per email they send from my server I'd just ignore the request because there is no simple way to do it which wouldn't cost me way more than 1 cent per email.

Any sender would have to purchase a bitcoin-like token and include it in the message. Any email or phone provider would have to verify it.

The sender would pay. If people send free email or didn't pay per phone call or text message, my PC or cell phone could refuse them.

The cost of snail mail keeps us from getting hundreds a day. Make electronic messages work the same way, basically need a stamp or a postage meter to pay for delivery.

This ain't hard technically.

All AI generated content should be clearly identifiable too.

John Larkin Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center Lunatic Fringe Electronics

That will go nowhere for reasons similar to why this went nowhere

Apparently, they've never managed to guess any of my addresses! Or, did so ant the mail server figured out they weren't desired contacts!

I don't really care about "most people" as it's not part of my responsibilities to hand-hold them. I care about how *my* time is used and how exposed *I* am to threats (and pointless distractions).

Thunderbird emboldens the names of folders that have new content. So, if the folder name is in bold, it has something inside.

POP3 is the only thing you have to check manually:

----8<----8<----8<----8<---- Status Report from 12.07.2026 Number of e-mails in your Spam folder: 1 Number of new e-mails in your Spam folder: 1 Analysis: From: Subject: [M] StreamsWave snipped-for-privacy@umwsb.com 🇺🇸 Ultimate US IPTV: Every NFL, NBA & FIFA 2026 game + 160K VOD

Legend Analysis Tools: Lock Lists: Other: [T] Text Pattern Recognition [B] Personal Blacklist [F] Moved by Filter Rule [H] Mail Header Analyzer [G] mail.com Team AntiSpam List [M] Moved Manually [S] Spam Server Blocker [A] Global AntiSpam List This status report is automatically created daily with the first POP3 access to your mail account. Please check the content of your Spam folder from time to time.

----8<----8<----8<----8<---- I.e., THEY moved the message into my spam folder of their own accord. No doubt because they saw the same message being delivered to ALL of their users!

If I am "away from home" on a vacation, I carry a laptop. If I am away from home to buy groceries, the mail can wait until I *return* home.

A phone exists for *my* convenience -- to contact the people that

I don't support contact from such people.

Before SWMBO had her own email account, one of her friends would contact her via mine. I tolerated this -- until she started sending her (me!) clippings and jokes and other "mass mailings".

Then, deleted the account and told SWMBO to get -- and manage -- her own account.

Most people have to dress, and act in a particular way. That's their problem, not mine.

I have (free) cloud accounts that I use to exchange "large objects" that aren't suitable for email attachments. And, any attachments that aren't text (things like photos) are shrunk to tiny instances as a courtesy to the receiving party (who may wonder why their email program is "hung up" -- downloading an oversized attachment)

That friend would contact me with YOUR address and ask me if I wanted contact with that party. If you are eager to ask for my email address, then you'd likely be willing to GIVE yours to someone to forward to me -- with knowledge that I may opt NOT to contact you (for whatever reason).

"No, I'm not interested in helping Bob build a BSD machine" "No, I have no desire to reminisce about some past experience (esp if I didn't SHARE it with that person)"

I used to post (USENET) with a valid address. But, contacts from long lost relatives, old flames looking to rekindle past romances, high school reunion groups, etc. made it clear that there was little value to making myself accessible, in that way. If I want you in my life, I'll find a way of making that happen. Otherwise, <shrug>

Typo for "fair enough" most likely.

That's fine but it follows that there is no "one size fits all" solution for filtering unwanted communication whether by email or other means.

But most people have needs between those two extremes. If a local business asks me to fix their email then it's useful to have a phone with me so I can both check my own email and explain to the business manager that the only optiont is to wait for Microsoft to fix it.

By that logic you may find that not many of your outbound calls are answered.

I prefer no contact from such people too but many people have no choice.

I think we're getting into psychology now. Like you I can dress how I like and act how I like but when visiting clients it's likely that I will tailor things to suit.

An intelligent agent can fill the role of a "secretary"/personal assistant. It's not hard to recognize a solicitation, advertisement, "cold contact", etc.

The chances of someone cold contacting you with an offer that you wouldn't want to refuse is pretty slim -- so there is no downside to being overly aggressive in filtering out contacts.

Then you suffer the consequences for that. I am quite willing to forfeit casual contact from people who mean very little to me. And, have no problem extending myself to people who are important to me.

The business doesn't have a computer that you can use?

How would you have done these things when your phone was securely fastened to a wall in a fixed geographical location?

If people don't want to receive my calls, they don't have to! That is entirely their perogative -- as it should be.

When my phone rings at 2AM as a friend looking for help recovering a disk failure, I am under no obligation to:

- answer the phone

- drive across town to solve his problem

Absent my assistance, he is left with "retail" solutions and the schedules they offer.

No, it's about how you want to live your life.

I've turned down job offers because the staff dressed "formally". Or, because the lab was quiet as a library. Or, because of the hours you were *expected* to be on hand.

I got rid of my business phone line shortly after getting it because clients felt entitled to waste my time "chatting" ("Hey, YOUR boss may not care if you are wasting his time/money but "my" boss likes having that time and money to spend as HE sees fit!")

I've met long-time clients and seen startled reactions play on their faces: "You're not what we expected!" (I would assume you were expecting a competent design -- why would your expectations extend beyond that?)

When I worked for Kurzweil, he was always a bit uncomfortable around me -- my manner of dress, speech, attitude, hours that I would work, etc. Yet, "reviews" from customers were always glowing.

One day, he encountered me at a "trade show" -- 3 piece suit, pocket watch on gold chain, hair coiffed, shoes with a mirror finish, respectful/educated tone, etc.

In the shop, I am representing *me*. Around customers (and prospective customers), I am representing the company. A responsible person realizes the differences in obligations in each of those cases.

I would never have accepted a job with that sort of exposure

But what do I do when it makes a mistake? Fire it? I get so little spam that it's quicker to just delete any I do get.

No because then they'd have to provide a desk for me and I'd much rather do this kind of work by remote access. Also my email is only available in eM Client on a computer or laptop of my own or the email app on my phone. There are many reasons why I dislike "webmail" even if I have the necessary password.

Such a phone can be easily used without getting in the way of another individual sitting at their desk.

Ok but that has very little to do with email or spam issues.