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April 17, 2007
Mail | Turn off web bugs
Did you know your email is bugged?
Email marketing messages typically include web bugs, which are normally small, invisible images with a tracking number in the file name. They are typically used to track when, and how often you view each message.
This isn't really a big deal, except that spammers also use web bugs. Thus, when you view a spam message - often simply by selecting it so that you can mark it as junk - you send a signal back to the sender as if to say, "Thank you very much for the spam. Please send more!" And that's probably not a signal you want to send.
How to turn off web bugs
- Open mail > Preferences > Viewing, and uncheck the box beside "Display remote images in HTML messages"
- Close the Preferences window.
Email messages with images will now display a "Load Images" button - for the one's you do want to view.
Find out more about web bugs on Wikipedia.
Posted by Brad at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2007
Safari | Control-click web PDFs
Viewing PDFs in a web browser can often be frustrating. Sometimes the text is too small to read. You can't search it. You may not be sure how to download it. It can be a drag.
If you are viewing an online PDF with Safari, control-click on the PDF. A menu will display giving you the option to zoom in or out. "Auto Size" will blow it up to the width of your browser window. And most importantly, you can select, "Open with Preview.app." Got to this PDF and try it.
Before I found out about this option, I used to download all PDFs, and then open it in Preview. When I was done, I'd locate the file and trash it. Silly me. If I use the tip above, I can simply close the PDF when I'm done and it's gone. Full control, no debris.
Posted by Brad at 09:50 AM | Comments (1)
