Disable the Mail Activation Procedure

Alright, I know it was a measure for anti-spam, and that’s nice of the developers to think of us, but, they didn’t think that someone might not have a SMTP daemon running. So, when WordPress uses the mail() function on my own server, it just doesn’t work! Well, I’m a newbie to using mail() and such ( avoided on purpose ), but from what I understand you must have a working SMTP daemon up in able to use the function. If not, I’d appreciate a little help through that part.

That aside, if I am right in my speculation I’d really appreciate if someone (or some people) answer any, or if you can, all, of the following questions:

Is their a pre-existing plugin to do this?
If not, is there a hack?
If not, where would I be able to find the routine of this
so I can fix this myself.

Thanks in advance for all your help.