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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Digital Condoms
One thing I know for sure, switching to Outlook (and thereby the Windoze Address Book) means I need to make sure my digital condoms are fresh, tight, and impermeable. To that end, I've installed trial copies of AVG 7.0 Professional (AVG) anti-virus software and Kerio Personal Firewall (KFP).My Thinkpad had a trial copy of Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2003 (Norton) loaded by IBM, but no personal firewall. I have used Norton for the past several years, and have previously used McAfee. I also used ZoneAlarm Pro (ZAPro) for several years. But ZAPro and Norton got a bit crossways and I got a little slack on the firewall stuff.
So a respected friend sent me a plug for AVG and encouraged me to try it. When I saw they had a bundle package with KFP I figured I'd give that a try, as well. So far, AVG seems every bit the equal of Norton AV. And the purchase/install/upgrade process seems to be functional -- unlike the idiots at Symantec who can never seem to actually sell you their software. Updates are far more frequent, and the package doesn't load a dozen different applications to manage its own upgrades.
KFP is not quite as easy to use as ZAPro. Firewalls are, by nature, complex things -- blocking out all sorts of stuff that may be useful. And lots of the stuff they block is not immediately apparent. So I'm working my way through the learning curve with KFP, letting it warn me about all sorts of innocuous things, and creating rule sets.
One area that seems a bit problematic, is the allowed sites list doesn't seem to work. For instance, KFP blocks the scripts that run in-browser editing windows (like those used by EditMe and like the one I use on my weblog). Even after adding my own domains to the allowed sites list the editing windows still didn't work. I had to disable all web filtering to get it functional. Since Mozilla manages the pop-ups anyway that's not a big deal, but still seems like a bug.
Posted by: 
Terry Frazier at 12:29 PM
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Categories: Privacy, Technology
Terry Frazier at 12:29 PM
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You're Kidding, Right?
No I'm not, but I guess I should be a little clearer about my tongue-in-cheek acquiesence to Outlook. It should be obvious I am not a big Microsoft fan, nor did I toss my friendly, flexible, e-mail program lightly. And I am not walking naively into some perceived Outlook nirvana. Over the years I have dabbled with both Outlook and Outlook Express as mail clients for myself and others -- always dumping them in some screaming fit of frustration after an hour or so.No, I have merely succumbed to the lesser of two evils. I have held out against the tide as long as I can. I have searched hi and low for solutions that will sync with my Treo, exchange calendars with my corporate colleagues, let me publish calendar data in a free/busy format. I have given up on finding a suitable alternative, and I am willing (though not pleased) to suffer the consequences of my choice.
So bear with me. Offer support and condolences where you can. Overlook my ignominious rants. Forgive the vitriol and invective I will no doubt spew. I walk into this with my teeth clinched and my eyes wide open. And please, please, please won't someone - anyone - write a complete and effective PIM tool suite to replace (and interoperate with) Outlook.
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 11:04 AM
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Categories: Productivity, Technology
Terry Frazier at 11:04 AM
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Saturday, November 20, 2004
Out with the Bad
Gregor gives up on retrieving false positives from SpamAssassin.
collateral damage
i have started to accept the collateral damage that is false positives and delete all emails on the server that spamassassin classifies as spam. here is my procmailrc, ready for use with any Maildir based setup. if you use /var/spool/mail, just remove the DEFAULT line. enjoy, but don't come crying to me if you miss emails... [via Gregor J. Rothfuss]
This is becoming more common. I long ago stopped checking the spam list at my ISP-provided e-mail account. I just assume it's 100% spam and let it all disappear. I'm also getting more lax about checking spam items created by any of my e-mail filter software. Anyone who doesn't already know me but really wants to reach me electronically can come to my blog. I have lots of presence indicators there as well as a spam-free e-mail form.
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 9:27 AM
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Categories: Productivity, Technology
Terry Frazier at 9:27 AM
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
To BlogJet, Or Not To BlogJet?
I'm on day 19 of my 30-day trial of BlogJet. On at least three occassions the program has crashed inexpliably, tossing rather lengthy posts that I had been working on. (Why can't these things crash on short posts that are mostly quotes?) That's enough to give me serious doubts about making the program part of my standard blogging arsenal. FeedDemon, OTOH, has been rock solid. And with the upcoming support for enclosures looks like it will make the grade and be added to the toolkit.
Posted by: Terry Frazier at 11:14 PM
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Terry Frazier at 11:14 PM
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