Mailinator!

OK, it’s only been around since July 26 or so, but this is the coolest web site I’ve seen in a long time.

You know how when you sign up for something on the net, they need an email address? Well, if you don’t run your own mail server, it’s hard to create fake addresses a the drop of a hat (like " bullshit@logic.cx" ; don’t email that address, it goes to /dev/null at this point). And it takes at least 4 minutes to sign up for a yahoo email address.

With Mailinator, there’s no signing up. if an email addressed to “foobletch@mailinator.com” is sent, the mailinator server creates the address on-the-fly, and you can check that address by going to their web site. There’s not a password associated with it, but hey, that’s cool. And the messages are automatically deleted after “so often” (which is a non-specific time period of less than 12 hours).

I think the next time I sign up for something online (where money isn’t involved), I’m going to use a mailinator address.