Down With The Man | Part 5

Why being fake has never been easier. Welcome to the Down With The Man issue: Part 5.

MMM, MEATY

Privacy. Between spam, phishing and the daily wear-and-tear of your email, it’s no wonder many of us craft alter egos for the Interwebs and open email accounts specifically designated for worthless emails. But even that can be too much work. Well, time for a break: say hello to Mailinator, the no-signup, no-registration, no-hassle fake email address generator.

Why is it better than a made-up invalid email? Because it allows you actually get past that first step of email validation when you register for forums, fill out web forms, get free trials, and are otherwise spam-endangered by various one-time signup processes.

Here’s how it works: you just make up an @mailinator.com email on the spot — could be anything, from [email protected] to [email protected] — and Mailinator generates a temporary email account when mail arrives for you. You can check it on the site, via RSS, through a widget, or straight from your browser toolbar — just enough to validate your email for each signup and forget about it.

Word.

Earth Day the Wired Way

This year, celebrate Earth Day with a simple but tangible touch to your wired ways.

We’re all for sustainable sustainability — the concept of making simple, everyday changes that enormously benefit the environment in the long run.

So, to celebrate Earth Day this year, we’ve created a neat little graphic to put in your email signature, show off your green bone, and remind people to think about the simple things that matter. We call it an eco-signature.

This Brain Pickings original is a digital freebie, and completely open-license and copyright-free. So snag away — download the image here, or just right-click/ctrl-click the image below and save it to your hard drive, then pop it in your email client’s signature preferences.

Got doubts about how much of a difference this little thing will make? Doubt not: The average employee prints 6 unnecessary pages per day, amassing a grand total of 1,410 per year. How many people did YOU email today?

Learn a couple more smart, handy tricks for easily relieving the daily tree-trashing epidemic.