"Cheap Viagra online"? That's got to be spam.

"Your account is about to expire"? That might make some pause for a moment, but nowadays most people know it's spam.

But an e-mail titled "Oil drops to $100 per barrel"? That'll get people clicking.

Spam e-mails continue to evolve as filters get better and people get more savvy with technology. The latest pitch for clicks is to disguise the subject line as news, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies said in a recent report.

A message for those of you with no iPhone or BlackBerry: Your cell phone is smarter than you think.

In fact, your boring old cell phone has enormous potential. Here is a guide to checking your e-mail, looking up information and updating your calendar, just by sending text messages. You can use any cell phone, but you'll need a generous text-messaging plan.

In its recently created status blog for MobileMe, which has struggled with downtime since its launch earlier this month, Apple admits it lost some e-mails during a four-day period at the height of the outage.

Spam, one of the most annoying features of the Internet age, is celebrating a milestone.

In the spring of 1978, someone sent a note advertising a new computer system to the addresses of about 600 people on Arpanet, the government-designed precursor to the Web.

The unsolicited message sparked an immediate outcry. "This was a clear and flagrant abuse of the directory!" one user on the electronic list wrote.

This was the first of billions of spam e-mails sent over the next 30 years at a rate that has grown astronomically.

If you've ever hit the send button after writing an e-mail while under the influence only to feel that immediate pit in your stomach called regret, then a new Google feature may be just what you need.

The Internet search giant has added a feature to Gmail called Mail Goggles, which allows users to take a closer look at an e-mail while preventing the sending of messages to significant others, friends and bosses in the late hours of the night. The feature is only available at night and on the weekend, according to the Official Gmail Blog.

The news media is full of stories about e-mails and documents that were better off not sent. Last year an airline CEO accidentally sent an ultra harsh e-mail to complaining customers, the text of which was obviously not intended for the customers. Frustrated employees frequently send embarrassing internal memorandum to public news sources. And is there an e-mail user who hasn?t regretted accidentally sending an e-mail to an unintended party?

A critic of Gov. Sarah Palin is suing to try to force preservation of any government-related e-mails that Palin sent from private accounts.

Andree McLeod, a former state worker, filed the lawsuit against Palin, the Republican vice presidential candidate, in Anchorage on Thursday. Palin's gubernatorial spokeswoman, Sharon Leighow, said Saturday she could not comment on pending litigation.

By default, the feature is automatically turned on Friday and Saturday nights, but people can set for any day and chose the hours in which the safeguard is activated.

Laws in all but a handful of states give the public access to government e-mail. But what if that e-mail was intentionally deleted or routinely purged?

In Hawaii, Gov. Linda Lingle's office allowed e-mails of her top aide to be purged. In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley's administration allegedly ordered state workers to delete their e-mail correspondence with his office. And in Missouri, lawsuits claim Gov. Matt Blunt's office deleted e-mails and ordered the destruction of backup e-mail tapes.

Twitter, the popular microblogging site, has become the latest target of phishers. The company is warning its members to be careful of messages that redirect them to spoofed Twitter sites in an attempt to steal their user names and passwords.

"This particular scam sent out e-mails resembling those you might receive from Twitter if you get e-mail notifications of your Direct Messages. The e-mail says something like, 'hey! check out this funny blog about you ...' and provides a link," the company said.