Hotmail's a complete pain - but if you have to use it, make sure you activate the bulk mail folder. Any stuff sent out by automatic mailers should go straight to this folder - 99.99% of it will be total crap, and it can be set to "die" after a set period so you don't have to view it or deal with it.
Whatever you do don't reply to junk mail - most of the time the reply-to addresses are fake, and you're only putting your e-mail address out into the world for anyone to grab.
Don't use your e-mail address on Usenet, either. Tweak it instead - if you'r joe.soap@anywhere.com, adjust your posting prefs so that you become joe.soap@234564anywhere.com, and in your sig mention that anyone wanting genuinely to reply to you should remove the 234564. That will prevent automatic "harvester" programs from churning through the groups and swiping your e-mail address for sale to spammers.
And report persistent offenders to sites like spamcop.com. Spam is unsolicited and often very offensive -and it has damn-all to do with your browsing habits (but if you must trawl through a lot of porn sites, don't be surprised if your spam-count goes through the roof ).