Tuesday, 16 January, 2007
Odds 'n Ends
Lots of things percolating in the brain these days. I don't know if any of them will stick, but it feels good to be thinking again.
- Like most people, it seems, I experienced a huge spike in my spam count sometime in November or early December. I don't know if somebody had learned to defeat front-line filters or if a surge in spam just overwhelmed things. Whatever the case, Thunderbird's spam filter wasn't any help. Sunday my hosting provider installed a new version of SmarterMail and apparently some new front-line filters that reduced spam to a trickle. But yesterday they rolled back the changes and my spam count is back to almost 200 per day.
- I used my Web mail client while I was on vacation last week because my Thunderbird client couldn't send mail through the server from my hotel connection. I don't know why it could receive mail and not send, as the password is the same for both. In any event, I've come to appreciate the convenience of keeping my mail on the server and using a Web client. If only my provider (SectorLink) had something better than SmarterMail.
- I'm giving serious consideration to changing hosting providers. SectorLink is okay, although they've lost my mail at least twice, and several times there have been interruptions to my service. Other hosting companies give more and apparently better service for a lower price, and include things like one-click installation of blogging tools, site designers, etc. I can get all that from LunarPages, HostGator, or one of dozens of other sites for less than half of what I'm paying now.
- Some of you know that years ago I tried one of the first PDA phones, and found that I didn't much like it. The screen was too small, data input was difficult at best, and the overall features were pretty weak. I found that I didn't really need to get my email that way, nor did I want to read Web pages on that little device. I have two friends, however, who say they're incredibly productive with the newer units. One is using a BlackBerry Pearl. It might be worth looking into again.
- I've seen several of these reports lately, of people blindly obeying the satnav or GPS navigation systems. I can't even imagine how totally clueless somebody has to be in order to drive off the road based on the word of a computer system. Don't they even look before turning the wheel? How could these people even have received their driving licenses? Don't they teach judgement anymore? The mind fairly boggles at the idiocy of it all.