You go to your e-mail inbox. It says 12 new messages. You get excited thinking that you got your new job or your auction bid was confirmed. You click the button to enter it and what do you see, “FREE PORN INSTANT ACCESS!!” or ” Human Growth Hormone Supplementation – Save 50% Now”. You are now officially a victim of Spam. What is Spam? Spam is unsolicited e-mail. Basically it’s e-mail that you didn’t really ask for, or even want. Why did you get it? You got it because advertisers somehow
got your e-mail address. Either from filling out forms, Spyware, or randomly guessing it. By replying to “Not Receive This Type Of E-mail” at the bottom of most of those annoying e-mails, it confirms that your e-mail is valid and you will get more Spam now then ever. So then how is someone like me supposed to filter out the good mail from the bad mail? Well, I have personally found the answer. For the past two months, I have been Beta-Testing Atqui. Atqui is an anti-Spam program that offers
more than any other service out there. Being a beta tester, I was able to contact Alex, the lead developer and creator of Atqui.
ZP: What exactly is Atqui?
Alex: Atqui is designed to replace your current incoming mail server while allowing you to keep your existing e-mail address. The system removes unwanted e-mail before it arrives to your computer without having to use any silly software or a special e-mail client. It’s a universal, cross platform solution to a very common problem.
ZP: Why would this be on Zeropaid.com?
Alex: Zeropaid.com readers are technically savvy users that tend to get more spam than average. Current trends in the file sharing world seem to be revolving around spy-ware; I wouldn’t be surprised if this led to an even higher amount of junk mail. Atqui is a great option for them to reclaim their inboxes and not have to deal with the hassle of installing even more bloated software or giving up their current e-mail address.
ZP: How effective is Atqui?
Alex: So far, we’re looking at 100%. As of this interview, we’ve processed 35,000 messages without a single hitch. I personally haven’t received a piece of Spam since January.
ZP: Is Atqui Free?
Alex: Well, I really wish we could have pulled this off. We looked into using advertising methods to cover cost, but it raised way to many privacy concerns. Our database structure is designed to be as anonymous as possible- the only real identifying information is the users e-mail address. Advertising would have just killed that right off. We’re currently charging a little less than 10 cents a day, which I think is pretty reasonable for how effective the system is.
ZP: How long has Atqui been in development?
Alex: It’s probably been about 8 or 9 months. We started the design phase late last summer, with actual programming off and on throughout fall. Full time development started in December with beta testing beginning in mid January.
ZP: What are your views on file-sharing?
Alex: I wish corporate America would see it as a paradigm shift instead of a threat. There are some really distinct advantages to it, especially in the music industry.
ZP: What is your favorite file-sharing application?
Alex: Anything that’s not Gnutella based. I’m one who really enjoys the technology of an application. Too many people have focused on creating their own Gnutella client and nobodies thinking outside of the box. There’s got to be a better, more scalable, way.
ZP: What are your future plans for Atqui?
Alex: We have some really cool features coming up that will definitely improve the service in terms of customization and ease of use. It’s a little too early to elaborate, all I can say is stay tuned.
ZP: How does this compare to mail filters or other Anti-Spam programs?
Alex: From what we’ve seen, it’s a completely different approach. In our own private testing, we’ve yet to find anything that will block 100% of unwanted e-mail, without drastically changing the way you normally use your client. In a lot of cases, stopping the spam required more work than just deleting it to begin with. We originally designed Atqui to require little to no user involvement. In theory, you could sign up for the service and never again visit the website.
ZP: Why the name Atqui, anyway? And how do you pronounce it?
Alex: Within the last year a number of anti-spam companies have emerged. Not only are their approaches the same, their names all have the same ring to them. By choosing something a little off the beaten path, we hope to stick out a bit. In Latin, it’d be pronounced at-kwee. We’ve chosen to Americanize it a bit and use At-kwhy (Atqui, with a long i). I think it’s easier for most people to spell it out that way.
ZP: Anything you’d like to say to Zeropaid.com and the rest of the world?
Alex: It’s time to take control of your e-mail again. If any of the readers have any more questions, feel free to contact me personally at alex@atqui.com!
As of this interview, I have been using name Atqui for two months. I have been using it on one of my two e-mail accounts. On the account with name Atqui, I receive 23 e-mails a day. All are Spam. On my Atqui e-mail, I receive about 2-3 e-mails a day that are not Spam. I have yet to receive a Spam message with Atqui.com.
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