How to filter out Spam on the Mac?

I have been using OSX Mail application since years now, I have been activating the Junk filter also since all that time, and, as much as I can recall, I have been happy with it... a long time ago. But these last years, as the spam got really out of hand, I ended up using up most of my email-reading time in email-deleting and email-searching. Piles of junk at the door every morning, every night. Piles and piles. I tried to define additional rules to kind of nail this terrible thing. With no real success. I understand a few reasons why spammers can still spam us: they spoof other people email addresses, they set many random words in the email bodies, and use images as spam contents. All this is very annoying.

Then I discovered, now a few days ago, SpamSieve for the Mac. This plugin takes the same training approach, where you are the one defining the good emails and the spam emails. It then builds a Corpus, which is a list of words, appended at each new email qualification, and associated with a probability for each word to be part of a spam email. Then this probability can be used to move automatically an email to a Spam folder - when greater than 75%. Between 50 and 75% you will have to choose and tell SpamSieve which is which. Everything that comes out with a probaility lower than 50% will remain in your mailbox or go to whichever folder your other Mail rules define.

That's the principle, roughly. What makes SpamSieve appealing to me is:

• its simplicity to operate and make changes in configuration
• its speed of execution
• its apparent efficiency
  

I am running a 30-days trial version for the moment, but will definitely purchase a license if the program is as good as it already seems. Will keep you posted on this.

Note taking, information processing

We daily face lots and lots of information. What computers were supposed to manage for us in fact flood back to us perpetually as a virtual boomerang. The information flows non-stop. When at your desk, facing your mail program, news reader, internet browser, you're already filled with information. Stuff for which you need to take rapid decisions. From which you also generate action, like spreadsheets or emails.

We need tools to handle these heaps. So store, sort, make searchable. To create other actions. Just to keep up and still be productive. Be faster, as fast as the flows towards us. I have been looking for a long time for these, which would increase my productivity, and my overall performance in the work field.

Here is what I have found:

• Microsoft OneNote on Windows is quite the best I could find overall. To create 1-click away notes and screen captures it's a great tool. The way you organize everything within that program makes things easy to look back in. Also the way all external documents (emails, files..) can be dropped to create explicit links. Dearly missing on Mac.... Commercial.
• For the Mac I just discovered Yojimbo. Not as good as OneNote but usable, still. More on this later. Shareware.
• QuickSilver on the Mac also. Dearly missing on Windows :-) Allows you to operate many tasks with a few keystrokes. From google searches to running programs or email people or (again) set new events in iCal. Freeware.
• TypeIt4Me on the Mac: set text snippets (essentially used in emails for me, but could be anything else) through predefined key sequences. Takes away the load of repetitive typing. Shareware.

To make OSX look and feel consistent: UNO!

For those of us who ever "switched", we know that OSX is a great (if not the greatest) and sexiest OS around. There's a little caveat though: for some reasons the design of the interface windows has been taking multiple routes that sometimes make it a bit difficult to the eye. To remediate this problem, interacto.net came up with UNO. This freeware safely changes the look and feel of all applications, into a UNO style, that I personnaly like very much. Try it!