Month: January 2004

I recently decided I’d had enough spam when the spam outnumbered the real email by 10 to 1. I guess that proves that I’ve had my email addresses too long and they’ve ended up on everybody’s lists. Even with it’s flaws I still use Outlook Express. I’ve used OE since 2000, before that on the Windows side I used Eudora, Pegasus Mail and Netmanage Chameleon. (anybody remember that one?) I considered using Mozilla Thunderbird because of its spam filtering, but it’s still at version 0.4 and doesn’t look quite ready yet.

And then I found Spam Bully, a spam filter add-in for Outlook and Outlook Express. It took about a day to train but after that all my spam is out of my inbox and safely diverted to a spam folder. So far I’m pleased and will probably buy the program after the evaluation period is up.

One piece of software that I did buy is Trillian Pro. I’ve used the free Trillian off and on for instant messenging , as well as GAIM and the standard clients. (AOL, ICQ, MSN, etc.) The free version of Trillian crashed on me some, as did GAIM, and I went back to using the standard clients. But after hearing good things about Trillian Pro I took the plunge and paid $25. The result? I got a rock solid multi-service IM client that does everything I need.

I have always been a slow typer, due mainly to the fact the I have cerebral palsy, albeit a mild case. Unfortunately as a result of my car accident, I’m now a quadriplegic. I have some use of my legs, good arm movement and some hand movement, but I can only use my thumbs and left index finger for typing.

So I was very interested when I saw the Wired article “Transforming Thoughts Into Deeds.” The story is mainly about a company called Cyberkinetics and their brain-computer interface called Braingate, which has already allowed monkeys to move a cursor with their thoughts. Clinical trials should begin sometime this year and a product might be on the market by 2007.

Other companies and researchers are working in the same field, but only Cyberkinetics appears to be close to a commercial product. While it seems likely that I will walk again to a degree and that more hand function will return with time, it’s nice to know people are working on these things.