General

I know that at least one person who reads this page has considered running a mail server on his system. Now, here’s the problem; there’s basically two ways to do it. You can: Run the mail server on your main system, and hope you don’t have to shut down that often, or Run the mail server on a dedicated machine that just stays on all the time. Now, I endorse method 2, since that’s what I do. But many people don’t have an extra computer lying around, so method 1 is better for them. ...

I’ve got a new bookmark server. Ol’Bookmarks was OK, but it really didn’t act the way I wanted it to. So I’m trying out b. Yes, that period is part of the name. Pretentious, but still pretty cool. It’s all written in perl, and the bookmarks are stored in XML (well, XBEL) format. The only drawback to switching to a new bookmark server is that irritating part where you have to get all of your old bookmarks into the new system. Let me tell you, I don’ think I’ll be switching bookmark servers again any time soon, unless the new one will accepts imports in XBEL format. It’s just too much work. ...

You’ve heard of SMTP, I’m sure. It’s hard to use the internet without at least having heard the phrase once or twice, even if it’s when you’re jabbering away with tech support because you can’t send mail. A recent Internet Draft, published about 2 weeks ago, proposes a new “AMTP” (“Authenticated Mail Transfer Protocol”). I read through the draft, it’s pretty neat stuff. I can only see a couple of (small) problems with it. First and foremost, the implementation described forces mail server administrators to work with a CA (certificate authority). This means giving money to someone for a signed X.509 certificate, so that you can establish a TLS connection with other AMTP servers. If the CAs decide to price these X.509 certificates high enough, it’ll basically kill the protocol. Secondly, it pretty much kills the home user who doesn’t wish to use his ISP’s mail server (like me) for whatever reason (i.e., they force you to use an Envelope-To encapsulation). Based on the specification in the Draft, all mail servers must have synchronized DNS and rDNS records: if mail.example.com’s A record is 10.10.10.14, then 10.10.10.14 must be a PTR for mail.example.com. This can cause problems with ISPs who won’t (or can’t) provide proper reverse DNS for their customers. It also has the (theoretical) possibility of causing problems with a sysadmin who didn’t have enough coffee; make a typo in a zone file, and your mail server suddenly won’t work. ...

This is a real picture. Behold the . . . whatever. -- UPDATE – It was photoshopped, and not real, so I pulled it. Looked cool, though.

Central Texas Disc Golf Love is the premiere site for information about public disc golf courses in central Texas (Austin, San Marcos & surrounding areas). Aerial photos of the courses, with lots of digital photos of the actual tee box, fairway, and basket positions. Good stuff. If you’re a dgolfer in Austin, I recommend you check it out. Of course, if you’re a dgolfer in Austin, there’s probably no way you DON’T know about the site, either. ...

So I just got back from playing a round of disc golf with my buddies Andy, Paul, and Nathan. Fun was had by all. This was the first time I’ve played disc golf since I was about 10, and I have to say I think this may become a regular thing. The only trick will be figuring out when I’m going to sleep; you’ll notice it’s after 1300 here in Austin. I’m usually at least 3 hours asleep by now, since I have to work tonight. ...

Just when I think “There’s never going to be a need for me to read kuro5hin again, I have to see what’s posted, and this is there. Now I’m going to have to go back every few days to see if the next part(s) are up yet. On the plus side, it’s a very interesting, well-written article about networking. Parts one and two are also worth reading. . . . and they’ll help me with my upcoming headache, load-balancing the connection between the two offices here. But that’s not for a while yet; I’ll have more time to study & ponder. ...

well, I think I’ve finally found what I’m looking for with my iPAQ (handheld). Opie made it to versio 1.0 earlier this month, and it’s included in Familiar v0.7.1. If you don’t know about it, Compaq made the iPAQ in a manner such that alternate operating systems can be put on it; I personally know of three other operating systems that will run on the H37xx series ( linux, netbsd, and Plan9). Handhelds.org is the “headquarters” for the open-source, linux version for the iPAQ (and sharp Zaurus, and a few other devices running on ARM processors). It’s gotten a lot better since it first started, and Opie (which is technically a fork of QPE) is looking pretty good. How good, you ask? This good: ...

OK, I know I’m either preaching to the choir, or to deaf ears here . . . . Pretty please, with sugar on top, if you write me a message, email, AIM, whatever: spell the words correctly, and capitalize where necessary. There’s not much that bugs me more than having to read something that looks like it was written by a 3rd-grader (unless it WAS written by a 3rd-grader). Society in general, and the English language in particular, is suffering greatly at the hands of the instant message, the SMS message, and the shorthand of chats and IRC. ...

And after a nice uneventful weekend, I’m back. I didn’t really do anything exciting this weekend, but I did manage to download lots of fun stuff to watch this week. I also cooked up a nice tuna steak; for 5 bucks at HEB, it’s a pretty good start to a tasty meal that’s (a) a lot more food than your typical fast-food fare, and (2) way healthier to boot. Add on a green salad and some green beans, and you’ve got a huge dinner for about 6 bucks, and 10 minutes of cooking. And only about 5-7 “countable” carbs (depending on the salad dressing). ...