Category Archives: Technology

I want a new email program

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I’ve used a number of email programs in my life … but none of them did everything I really wanted.

Here’s a rundown of the features I’d like a new mail client to have … and the products that currently support them.

Feature Like … Details
Message filtering Eudora File & modify messages as they are received based on any & all message attributes.
Display filtering   Let me choose what messages should be displayed based on any & all message attributes.
Powerful thread / conversation managment GMail Group all messages on a single topic together, including messages I sent, so I can keep track of conversations. One of my big gripes is having to search through my Sent messages folder looking for my own replies.  GMail does this quite well.
Open Source Thunderbird ’nuff said
Contact & Calendar managment Outlook Much as I hate to like a Microsoft product, they really have a well integrated package in Outlook.
Newsgroups Thunderbird & Outlook Express  
Centralized configuration storage Outlook I use email both at work and home … and it’s a pain to have to reconfigure the mail client any time a change one or the other. If the configuration information (filtering, etc) could be stored on a server, that pain would be eliminated.
Web access to server Outlook Sometimes I use webmail to read messages … sure would be nice if I all the above features were also available in a web interface in addition to a GUI.

So if anyone finds a program that does all those things, let me know.

Buy WordPress …

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… and others 🙂

Yahoo has created a new game “Tech Buzz Game” that is a fantasy prediction market for high-tech products, concepts, and trends.

When you sign up you are given $10000 in virtual money to invest in various concepts. You invest that money in various commodities (Browsers, IM clients, Linux distros, operating systems, etc). The price adjusts based on popularity. Popularity or buzz is measured by Yahoo! Search frequency over time.

Currently I’m invested in the following: GOOGAD, LINUX, SPAMASSASSIN, WORDPRESS, FFOX, GAIM, & JAVA.

As of right now, I’m up more than $2600 🙂

(via wordlog.)

If Aragorn had been a project leader…

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… his speech at the black gate of Mordor might have gone something like this …

Hold your code! Hold your code.

Sons of iSeries, of AS400, my brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.

A day may come when the logic of programmers fails,
when we forsake our debuggers
and break all links of procedures,
but it is not this day.

A nano-second of microsoft and shattered firewalls,
when the age of midrange comes crashing down,
but it is not this day.

This day we program!

For all that you hold dear on this good system,
I bid you stand, programmers of the net!!

Yeah, I’m weird like that.

Watch what you say on AIM

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In todays climate of privacy mania, I find it quite interesting that AOL would change their terms of service to eliminate any possiblity of a right to privacy when using their AIM chat service …

Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

(empahsis mine)

I tend to chat a lot on the AIM network (using GAIM, and there’s no way I want to explicitly give AOL the right to the contents of my chats. Not that I discuss anything earth shattering, but some conversations are on the more private side.

An option, of course, would be to use the GAIM encryption plugin.

Thrashing Through Cyberspace via Mike Wills.

New spam trick – use an ISP

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According to the SpamHaus Project–a U.K.-based antispam compiler of blacklists that block 8 billion messages a day–a new piece of malicious software has been created that takes over a PC. This “zombie” computer is then used to send spam via the mail server of that PC’s Internet service provider. This means the junk mail appears to come from the ISP, making it very hard for an antispam blacklist to block it.

Zombie trick expected to send spam sky-high | CNET News.com

I was afraid something like this was going to happen.

Looks like authenticated mail relaying is going to be mandatory, even inside a network.

The only IP address that will be legitimate for unauthenticated relaying is 127.0.0.1 (localhost) and the mail servers own addresses.