Spam continues to be an annoying part of business and personal email. No matter what programs someone might install to filter email messages, spam always seems to appear. Here are some helpful tricks to prevent the chances of getting spam.

How spammers grab addresses

Basically, spammers will start sending you junk email as soon as:

• you list your email address on a public web page (your web site, forums, etc);
• you subscribe to various newsletters and you confirm to their agreement without reading it (for example, you confirm to receive promotional emails);
• you received an email from someone who you don’t know and you open the message. If the email message is using the HTML format, once you view the email, the spammer will know for sure that your email account is real and so he will keep sending you junk emails;
• your browser security level is set to accept various cookies and controls, or simply you manually agreed to deploy/install such files.
• you clicked on a link or attachment from an incoming email message, although you didn’t know who the sender was.
• you don’t permanently use an anti-virus program.

How to avoid getting your mail account on spam lists

Theoretically, it’s simple: don’t do the above actions and you will stay away from spam. Practically, it isn’t so easy. You need to communicate with people, after all this is why you got an email address. So you want to use it, not to hide it.

How to avoid receiving spam

• Get yourself at least two email accounts. Use one for public communications (forums, communities, business cards) and keep the other one only for trusted contacts. Use only the public one for registering for Internet services/accounts. Indeed, you will still get spam, but this way at least you have a clean account.
• If you have to list your email account on public pages, try to cheat spam spiders. Instead of writing your address as “john@domain.com”, write it as “john_at_domain_dot_com”. People will understand how to read it, but robots will not. As an alternative, you can make a transparent image with your email address and instead of writing it on a web page, just link the image to it.
• Read Terms & Conditions pages. Whenever you have to subscribe to a newsletter or to create a web account on a site, make sure their Terms & Conditions page doesn’t give them the right to send you unsolicited emails. Do not select to receive promotional offers by email.
• If your email client can do it, then make it to receive and display incoming emails as plain text, not as HTML.
• When receiving a spam mail, do not attempt to unsubscribe. If you didn’t subscribed, then why unsubscribing? Most of spammers are using it to validate your email address, for further spamming purposes. It’s simple: if you unsubscribe, it means your email address exists and someone (you) is reading the emails.
• Do not use auto-responders: an auto-responder is a clear signal for the spammer that the junk mail arrived at a real email address, which gives him a “good” reason to keep sending spam.
• If you email client is able to do it, then use auto-preview functions and erase junk email before you download it on your computer.
• Do not click/open links, images or attachments coming from not trusted sources.
• Do not confirm or trust applets, plug-ins or ActiveX components not signed or signed with invalid certificates.
• Set your browser security so it doesn’t accept 3rd party cookies (at least the Medium level on Internet Explorer).
• Use live updates: update your operating system, Internet browser and email client software as often as possible. Spammers, as viruses, often take advantage of your security holes.
• Use an anti-virus program and check for updates daily. Spammers and worm viruses go hand in hand.
• Report spam: no, it will not stop spam, but you will help the experts on making better software. Reporting spam will make you feel better.

For several years, WordPress has been a framework of choice to build dynamic and easy to manage websites. The power of the WordPress program gives clients a stable and simple CMS (content management system) to maintain their sites without needing to know HTML scripting language, or requiring to purchase or install special software.

The WordPress developers have recently released a major upgrade from version 2.92 to version 3.0.  There are a number of great improvements to the administration tools and interface, increased security features, and fixes to several bugs and quirks.

Upgrading your current WordPress framework to version 3 is a painless process if you have administrator role privileges on your site. There are, however, some careful pre-upgrade steps you should follow before upgrading; Back up your entire MySQL database and site files to a local computer hard drive; Check the compatibility of currently used plugins and scripts; schedule the upgrade during a time of limited visitor traffic and allow for a restore buffer in case of problems.

Quiet City Design is offering a special price for WP upgrades, which includes database and file backups as well as adding extra security tools for an extra measure of safety on your site, all for $25.00 (plus HST). Upgrades will be scheduled according to your site’s traffic slow periods, and no downtime will be needed. Call or email for more details.

Effective July 1, 2010, Quiet City Design will be implementing some changes to the Terms and Conditions for client projects.  These changes focus primarily on payment structures for projects occurring over several weeks or months.

New Hourly Rate

Project work will now be billed at a hourly rate of $49.50 per hour, up slightly from $45.00. Projects that are in progress will be completed at the original rate quoted, except for those that are ongoing or lasting over several weeks and months. In these cases, an invoice has been (or will be) prepared for completed work up to June 30th at the previous rate and will continue at the new rate until completed.

New Payment Terms

More significant changes to the Terms and Conditions apply to the payment schedule for active projects. Alternate payment terms have been negotiated based on the project type, client needs and business structure, and project turn-around time at the discretion of QCD.  Beginning in July, one of 2 different payment structures will be specified in all quotes.

For projects with less than 30 days turn-around, a deposit of $200.00 or 50% of the estimate (whichever is lower) is due at the beginning of the project with the balance due within 30 days OR the entire project is considered 100% COD.

For long term projects (more than 1 month turn-around, or on retainer) a deposit of $200.00 is due at the beginning of the project. On the last day of each month, an invoice is generated for the time spent on the project during that month. Invoices are due within 30 days (by the issuing of the next month’s invoice). When the project is completed, the final invoice is generated on the day of completion, and due within 30 days of the date issued.

For a complete list of Terms and Conditions, click the link at the bottom of the Quiet City Design website.

Project Description: Quiet City Design has been behind the visuals of The Salvation Army’s National Music and Gospel Arts Camp for three years.  The 2009 camp underwent some program changes, and the logo helped communicate the fresh, new perspective.

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Project Description: The Salvation Army’s annual Christmas fundraiser is very visible and recognizable during the holiday season, but lacks the professional brand presence that the rest of the organization has undergone.

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