I love email. Well, I say love, what I actually mean is that it's my primary form of communication at work. Email can be great, especially if its well-crafted, but beware of what you send. Sometimes it can go badly wrong.

In the TV business, there's a lot of discussion, some might say nooise, about user-generated content and how it can be harnessed to create "TV". I'm sure it's one of the topics that we'll tackle at the next Chinwag Live debate, Web TV Takeover.

It might be an age-old stereotype, but in that freaky way that activity online mirrors the real-world, so it does here, too. A survey produced by Bizrate.com, reported by eMarketer, showed that the balance of US online buyers in 2002 shifted towards a majority of female buyers.

What do you get if you cross a games console, TV tuner, a personal video recorder (e.g. TiVo or Sky+) with a recordable DVD player, music player and throw in some Internet connectivity for good measure?

Ask someone how they found out information about their latest holiday and it's increasingly likely they'll have used the Internet. Heck, even my Dad's at it and he only started using a computer in the last couple of years. According to a recent survey by Churchill Insurance, 60% of us depend daily on the Internet.

Some other titbits from the research:

Recent research from Nielsen//NetRatings, covered by Netimperative is claiming a massive rise in the number of high-speed internet connections in the UK with a staggering 235% growth rate. Across the whole of Europe, the rate is lower at 136%, but still represents significant growth.

The number 419 may mean nothing to you. However, if you've had an email address for a while the chances are a solicitation has slipped through your spam filters enticing you to send your bank details off to Nigeria to share in untold wealth.

The 4-1-9 scam is particularly well known, with both the US Secret Service and the Nigerian Government setting up websites devoted to tackling the problem.

Well. Are you? Now's your chance to prove your marketing nouse, with this Marketing IQ test from Copernicus Marketing Consulting.

Decide whether the 20 statements presented are true or false. For the cop-outs amongst us, there's a don't know option, too. Correct answers get you points, which you'll lose for getting questions wrong. Fun and educational. What more could you ask for?

Finding the time and budget to attend a conference these days is getting more and more difficult. If international terrorism and lurgies don't put you off, then there's a good chance you'll spend plenty of time trying to convince the powers that be they should let you jet off to some exotic location.

A snippet from Meta Group's April study featured in the ever-useful eMarketer Daily, provides confirmation that email usage in the corporate world dominates the volume of communications. 80% of respondents preferred email to phone. Interestingly, the speed and effectiveness of email weren't the key factors. The top three reasons were:

It can be a major test of patience and pocket if you're looking for a wireless hotspot. Even in a teeming metropolis like London there's no guide map, and only persistent online searches reveal the location of the capital's hotspots. Places where you can surf wirefree crop up in the strangest places, for example the BP services on the A4 on the way into London.

Following a previous story about reading email on the toilet, it's been fascinating watching recent stories on The Register.