Junk Mail and Spam
10 05, 11
In mass spectrometry, the limiting factor in the sensitivity of an instrument is not so much the signal as the signal to noise ratio. Claiming sub attomol sensitivity for a pure peptide in a virgin column is one thing, running it on a background of 1000ng of a cell digest is a whole different ballgame. Of course, there are tricks that improve sensitivity, as much by eliminating noise and collecting more ions of interest, the common acronym is SRM, for selected reaction monitoring, or single reaction monitoring, in which the instrument duty cycle is directed to only measuring what you want to see.
I’ve been trying to apply the same principles to my email inbox. What I need is some form of SRM ‘selective rubbish monitoring’, but it is hard to only chose what you want to read. Rather you have to find a way to filter the rubbish. Spam filters can help, as can directing some mail to folders before you even read the message.
My email has several categories. Like most of us, I am bombarded with emails from scientific supplies companies who, at some time, captured my email address by fair means or foul. The lack of selectivity of the missives indicates the complete lack of targeted marketing, and for the last couple of months, I have been automatically clicking the unsubscribe button to get rid of these. Most companies are professional organisations that respect these requests, a few don’t seem to get the message despite repeated responses. The university does an excellent job of filtering the more generic ‘garbage’ (adverts for potions and similar...). Overall, I would say my strategy is working. Slowly, but surely, the amount of cr*p in my inbox is diminishing.
This should mean that the signal to noise ratio is getting better - on this one I am less sure. One consequence of this is that more of my inbox requires attention. I use the number of messages as a barometer of how on top of things I am — from Good (<0 or less) to OMG! (200+). The average seems to have crept up, so I guess the S:N ratio must be moving in the right direction.
And finally, every day the University spam system sends me a report of what is has done for me:
Please do not reply to this mail.
This message lists items of mail that the University mail system has
rejected or filtered on your behalf because they were identified as
probable unsolicited junk email or contained a suspected computer
virus.
The University does this because it might have deleted something I actually wanted. I have never found a message that I wanted. Their systems are good. So good, in fact, that this daily report is now automatically filtered (by me) directly into my Spam folder! be nice if I could say “I trust you, so stop telling me how you’re looking after me”
I’ve been trying to apply the same principles to my email inbox. What I need is some form of SRM ‘selective rubbish monitoring’, but it is hard to only chose what you want to read. Rather you have to find a way to filter the rubbish. Spam filters can help, as can directing some mail to folders before you even read the message.
My email has several categories. Like most of us, I am bombarded with emails from scientific supplies companies who, at some time, captured my email address by fair means or foul. The lack of selectivity of the missives indicates the complete lack of targeted marketing, and for the last couple of months, I have been automatically clicking the unsubscribe button to get rid of these. Most companies are professional organisations that respect these requests, a few don’t seem to get the message despite repeated responses. The university does an excellent job of filtering the more generic ‘garbage’ (adverts for potions and similar...). Overall, I would say my strategy is working. Slowly, but surely, the amount of cr*p in my inbox is diminishing.
This should mean that the signal to noise ratio is getting better - on this one I am less sure. One consequence of this is that more of my inbox requires attention. I use the number of messages as a barometer of how on top of things I am — from Good (<0 or less) to OMG! (200+). The average seems to have crept up, so I guess the S:N ratio must be moving in the right direction.
And finally, every day the University spam system sends me a report of what is has done for me:
Please do not reply to this mail.
This message lists items of mail that the University mail system has
rejected or filtered on your behalf because they were identified as
probable unsolicited junk email or contained a suspected computer
virus.
The University does this because it might have deleted something I actually wanted. I have never found a message that I wanted. Their systems are good. So good, in fact, that this daily report is now automatically filtered (by me) directly into my Spam folder! be nice if I could say “I trust you, so stop telling me how you’re looking after me”