A company that banned email on Fridays. Food for thought

Heard this story on NPR this morning. Made me think about declaring my own email-free days.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91724075

internet speed

So I was having a discussion the other day with someone who was some years younger and whose experience with the internet has largely been broadband. The discussion actually started with, "in my day, the web was too slow for porn." So then I had to explain how it could be too slow.

My first computer didn't even come with a modem. When I did get one, it was 2,400 bps. That meant nothing to my non-technical interlocutor. So I explained that my current broadband connection is 3 million bps. I think that got the point across. But then I realized how obsolete those memories are and how it would make a good blog entry to memorialize it. So how much has changed? Well, my connection is currently about 1,250 times faster than it was back in the day. So if my math is correct, a 1MB file back then would have taken 58min 15 sec to transmit under optimal conditions. Today, it would take about 3 seconds.

Turning the other cheek

The noting of "turning the other cheek" stems from Matthew 5:39 (also Luke 6:29 in some translations). Not too long ago, I was thinking about the phrase "turn the other cheek." I don't think that Jesus intended for us to subject ourselves to wanton abuse. He did, after all, instruct his disciples to shake the dust from their sandals if a town does not receive them. He didn't tell them to retaliate, but he didn't tell them to remain in a hostile situation.

So what does this have to do with turning the other cheek? Maybe the idea is that we should deflect the blow, but not retaliate. Instead of standing there in defiance to the punch, why not turn your head in the direction opposite the blow. If you are about to be hit on the right cheek, turn your left cheek away from the blow. Deflect the brunt, absorbe the rest. Be at peace with yourself, knowing that you did what you could do and do not allow yourself to be provoked to negative actions. So, turn the other cheek away from the attack. Maintain the peace and do not retaliate so that you may act in love and turn away wrath with your soft response.

.htaccess fix for trailing slash(es) on server-parsed HTML files

I now have a complete fix for not only trailing slash(es), but also characters following the slash, and a redirect to the proper/permissible path.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*\.shtml?)/.*
$RewriteRule ^.*$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}%1 [R=301,L]

You also deny these altogether by changing [R=301,L] to [F,L]. This will generate a 403 FORBIDDEN response.

.htaccess fix for trailing slash(es) on server-parsed HTML files

I just came across something slimilar. Here's a link:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/apache/3412891.htm

Presidential outlook

America will do well with John McCain or Hillary Clinton, but America will falter with Bama. McCain will bring a period of bumpy progress. A Clinton administration will be smooth and harmonious, setting a foundation for wise economic prosperity in a second term. An Obama administration will be stagnant and will bring no improvement for any present American issue. Senator Clinton will be most productive joining forces with John Edwards, but it is uncertain if Senator Edwards could win a Presidential election after a Clinton administration.

Spam this!

I finally had a great idea in my war against spam. Even if you have a personal and a not-so-personal disposable account, it is an imperfect arrangement. The idea is that at some point your not-so-personal account will reach an intolerable limit of spam and you can abandon it and move on to some other then-in-vogue address. But between inception and abandonment, what about the annoyance of the steadily building spam? And for that matter, wouldn't it be nice to know WHO didn't protect your email address and WHO you can blame for this dastardly misfeasance? And wouldn't it be nice to not have to keep track of multiple accounts?

Having your own domain name (i.e. JaneDoe.com) is the first step. Next, find a web host or an email service (Google and Yahoo, for example) that will let you use your personal domain with their email service. Create whatever email address you like (say, jane@janedoe.com) and only provide it to your most trustworthy correspondents.

Now for the genius part! Establish a sub-domain that will be easy to remember (i.e. Jane.JaneDoe.com), but don't configure any email addresses for it. Instead, set your options so that all messages sent to this sub-domain go to your private email address. So any email sent to blahblah@jane.janedoe.com will be delivered to jane@janedoe.com. Don't dismiss me just yet. This is the good part! Whenever you buy or sign up for something online, create a new email address according to the merchant. So if you buy something from amazon.com, enter your email address as amazon@jane.janedoe.com. It does not matter that this is not your email address as all messages sent to the sub-domain are delivered to your private email address. Now if you ever start getting spam sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com, then you know that Amazon is responsible for not protecting your information. As for stopping it, now you can create a block/filter that deletes any future message sent to amazon@jane.janedoe.com and you will NEVER get another spam from anyone who obtains that address. But this caveat: I use Amazon as a convenient example. I have shopped with Amazon for years and have never had a single problem. It is a great company in every respect, so in their case, you could trust them with your private address.

As a final note....if any of your trusted correspondents do not use anti-virus software, a nasty virus could harvest the email addresses from every email sent to or from that person. So this might not work until the next American centennial, but it should last you a decade.