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the blue top rolling tobacco papers are for aesthetics only

24 May, 2007 07:39

Here I am without rolling papers and a bag of tobacco.  I glanced over at the empty packet of Top rolling papers and took special notice to the blue, cigarette type liners which were once separating the paper from it's container.

I searched high and low on the net trying to find out if these rolling paper look-a-likes were toxic, or smokable.  After finding nothing, I was fed up and decided to give it a try.

They are NOT smokeable.  It tasted like the char you would scrap off of grilled food, or off the grill itself.  I hope I am able to stop just one person from the constant spit and gargle that I have been doing for the last hour or so.  So I am telling you, whomever is reading this wondering just as I did, they are just for looks, nothing more. 

[Day to Day] [Bullshit]
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The essence of Reveal

24 May, 2007 05:44

"Reveal is an extension for Firefox 1.5 or newer. It was created for the Extend Firefox contest. Reveal allows you to see thumbnails of pages in your session history and quickly find the page you want."

This is an amazing firefox extension. With the hit of F2, your are presented with a graphical layout of your browser tabs. Each tab is represented by a preview icon that shows a small version of the content on each tab.

You can re-arrange the tab positions by draging the icon to the appropriate position.

When you hover over an icon, you can hit insert to search history and content.

Middle clicking the icon closes the tab, and a left click puts the web page in question into the current view.

Awesome! I sometimes have a couple dozen tabs open, and now I can get a visualization of what is on each tab without navigating to the page itself. - Love it, thanks.

[Software]
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HOWTO: have a custom domain name point to a changing (dynamic) IP address and host your own mail server with an external backup MX handler (in case your PC goes down) for $8.95 per year (depending on the domain suffix). Requirements: An ISP that will allow you to decline port 25 filtering, and a domain registered with GoDaddy.com (or other hosting services providing the same resources).

23 May, 2007 15:13

DynDNS is an excellent custom DNS service that hosts the needs of just about every type of network configuration. I signed up for DynDNS's mailhop and custom DNS services.

Custom DNS is a service which maps your domain name, such as myname.com to a dynamic IP address provided for most residential Internet services. This is a great way to connect to your computer, whether it be the web, remote access, or any other Internet services. At the time of this publication's creation, this service is $24.95 a year. A nominal price for the convenience of not having to remember your ever changing IP address.

Mailhop is a service which allows you to receive incoming e-mail on a non standard port. Unfortunately, a majority of ISP's block incoming mail on port 25, the only known port to route mail from an external source. This in turn not only prevents you from receiving SMTP connections, but it also prevents you from relaying mail to other SMTP servers other than your ISP's. Mailhop acts like a relay, and redirects your port 25 (SMTP) traffic to a non specified port, such as 2525. All outgoing mail can be sent to a non privileged port also, with a separate DynDNS service. However, this is not required if you feel comfortable using your ISP's SMTP services. The total cost for this service, at the time of this publication, is $29.95 a year. This includes a backup mail handler that will hold your mail indefinite, in case your PC were to fail.

The total cost for not feeling like a piece of dust on the net, $54.90 a year. I am able to provide myself a host name that points to a dynamic IP, a personal mail server, and a backup mail server that will forward mail when my system goes down, for $8.95 a year (depending on the domain suffix).

The foremost thing you want to do, is register a domain name with GoDaddy. I have not attempted this with any other hosting provider, so I am in no position to recommend alternatives with the same resources.

The second step is to set up a free account with DynDNS, the Dynamic DNS Service. This will provide you with a generic, predefined domain and host name that will point to your dynamic IP. After doing this, you will need to be able to update your IP information with the DNS service. Most routers, such as Linksys, have the ability built into the router OS. If you do not have a router that supports DynDNS, you can update your IP information with the numerous software applications that are available. Once again, I must point out, you may be able to do this with other dynamic DNS services, but I already had an account with DynDNS, and was successful with my attempts. After you have established a method for these updates, you can proceed to the next step.

Go-Daddy provides you with a service called 'total DNS control'. This service gives you almost total control over your DNS settings, without actually editing the zone file itself. This control panel can be found under domains -> my domain names -> (click on your domain name, for example myname.com) -> on the right most area of the web page you will see a blue box, click + next to 'Total DNS Control'. Next, click on the URL HREF, Total DNS control and MX Records. Launch to total DNS control manager.

The next order of business is to refer a host name to your dynamic DynDNS host and domain name (CNAMES, an alias of sorts). Click on 'add a new CNAME record'. The alias name should be the host name you want pointed to your IP address assigned by your ISP. For example, mypc.myname.com would resolve to your IP address at home, or wherever. In this case, your alias would be mypc. Step two in this form asks you to enter a host name. In this field, enter the host name and domain name provided to you when registering for your dynamic DNS account (DynDNS). I recommend you leave the TTL box as is, especially if you frequently feel the effects of black hole time distortions. The TTL field enables you to control the time in which your dynamic IP information from DynDNS is sequenced with the DNS information at go daddy.

So there! mypc.myname.com points to my dynamic IP address! You just saved $24.95! That is one hell of a deal compared to what you may have been paying.

The next step you must take in order to allow Internet mail to reach your system, is make a few changes to your MX records. There should be two entries already in the DNS record (your MX records are also listed in the DNS control manager). You will need to change the priority of these servers, leaving a higher priority, the lowest number, available to your GoDaddy host and domain name, the one that points to your dynamic IP. For instance, you would change 0 to 10, and the following respectively. Your host name at go daddy, such as mypc.myname.com should be priority 0, the first resource that is contacted when new mail to your domain arrives. You can do this by clicking 'add new MX record'. Be sure to leave the associated backup servers available, as they will be your primary mail server if your home PC were to go down.

OK, great, now you will receive mail on port 25 to your home PC, or whatever. Now I hope you are asking yourself, if my PC goes down, where does the mail go?

On the go daddy site, go to E-Mail -> My E-Mail Accounts -> Manage E-Mail Forwarding. Here you will be able to forward users at your host and domain to an alternative e-mail address (while your SMTP server is down). I do not suggest forwarding to your domain name, or your host name on the domain that points to your home computer. They might get pissed off. 'Might' is a very casual word for it.

OK, so now I can receive e-mail on my own server, why can't my MTA send mail successfully? Most secure MTA's do a reverse DNS lookup. If your IP address doesn't have a definitive entry to your domain name, it most likely will be rejected. What you want to do is set up your MTA to utilize your ISP's SMTP server, or an alternative. This is beyond the scope of this publication, and its setup varies with each unique MTA requirements.

Have Fun!

[Technology]
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This is my letter to Yahoo in regards to my canceled Mail Plus account.

22 May, 2007 18:29

I had been a Yahoo Mail Plus customer for several years.  Aside from Yahoo Mail Plus, I have tried out several other paid web services that you offer.

My account has been my portal for collaboration through almost four years of college.  You can imagine that my contact information has been solidly fixated throughout my list of associates.  With that, you can also imagine that switching to a different e-mail address is not only time consuming, but also an expense.

Over a year ago I started experiencing odd behavior with message permissions (such that I could not move or delete messages), and authenticating external e-mail accounts (any external e-mail account) for use by the composer source address, POP3 functionality, and forwarding.

The message manipulation problem was solved shortly after contacting customer support, thank you.  Verification of e-mail addresses at the time was partially solved using a work-around which probably was not condoned by your company in any means.  I was promised a quick response and told that the problem would be handled by a higher level tech support employee.

I had never received any detail response, nor was the problem fixed.  Shortly after contacting you, the work-around no longer worked.

Recently I needed to forward my mail, for various reason, while I was on a business trip out of my area.  I contacted customer support and sent the following message after your employee refused to investigate the problem.  Here is the message I sent to your company, along with a post on my Blog (http://myspew.com, my explanation will continue after the following message):

"Your phone support technician, Jake made no attempt to resolve the send/receive issue I was having with my account.  I asked if he could have someone look into the problem, or if he could transfer me to an higher level support employee, but he refused.  He made me aware, that sometimes it can take up to 48 hours for Yahoo!'s mail server to deliver mail.  This is not a service I would like to pay for.  I told your representative I would wait 48 hours, and if the problem doesn't magically resolve on its own, I would be canceling my account.  He replied it was my choice and I can do whatever I want.  Please note that the problem in question, verifying e-mail addresses had been a problem for well over a year.  When contacting your technical support over a year ago, I was given a work-around enabling me to bypass the verification codes.  A year later, which is now, the work-around no longer works, I need to setup forwarding immediately, your tech support chooses to not help, and your business does not care if a paying customer renews his premium account.  I don't feel the Yahoo! in the air anymore."

I want to add that I told your representative several times that this has been an ongoing issue, but the impression I had was that my utilization of my paid services was not a priority with his department, or Yahoo in general.  When I told him I would not pay for services and functionality that I could not use (the reasons for being a loyal customer all these years), he quickly gave an attitude and asked if I wanted to cancel now; he would help me do that with no problem, and at that time I decided to say goodbye, end the call, and think long and hard about the repercussions of changing a long time e-mail address.

I was so disappointed and had no other options, so I canceled my account and switched to a personal e-mail address domain, personally ran mail services on a dedicated server in which I host various web and internet based services.  I knew that this will be available for any needs that might arise.  However, for as long as this has been available to me, I choose to use Yahoo for all my e-mail needs.  This shows the appreciating I once had for your Mail Plus services.

If I would have received any sort of response, such that it might contain "we will look into your problem", "how can we keep you as a customer", or an acknowledgment of any kind, I would be satisfied.  Since I did not receive any such communication, I am asking for a partial year's refund.  This issue will not go away until it is resolved to my satisfaction.

Thank You

[Software]
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the responsibility of my web host provider

21 May, 2007 21:58

My hosting provider called me today asking if I wanted to renew my hosting for a particular domain with an ongoing (for now) special price. Normally I would be annoyed at this, but I was not for these reasons:

  1. Whether in the best interest of the company (for profit), or not, calling your customer to remind them of service expiration is appreciated, especially if your hosting package is of any importance.

  2. The caller was not pushy nor harsh and if I would have had my CC where it was supposed to be, I probably would have renewed because of this.

  3. I don't get a call from them every other day.

I just have one question that has been bugging me off and on, mostly on (especially when visiting there home page); there happened to be some DNS issues the last couple years at this establishment. Many customers were not effected for the majority of the down time, except for the last great blackout. In any case, when taking the total days in a year and calculating the downtime in relation to the relative constant availability of my content, the actual percentage is below what the guaranteed 99.9% ULA permits. Well, I decided to make some fuss about this:

(I dropped all these posts from my OLD BLOG'S database and I will not edit for character breaks)

#1

DNS for my domain: myspew.com is currently not responding. This is thernthird instance with this hosting account where my web page has not beenrnavailable. This contradicts your ULA/advertisement. I let this slidernpreviously. However, at this time, I want an appropriate refund.

#2

Dear Sir/Madam,rnrnThank you for contacting Customer Support.rnrnThere is an ongoing network issue which is causing connectivity issues to GoDaddy servers for customers depending on their ISP and/or geographic location. The issue should be resolved shortly.rnrnPlease let us know if we can help you in any other way.rnrnLearn more about our Shared, Virtual-Dedicated, and Dedicated hosting: Click herernrnSincerely,rnrnTrenton P.rnGoDaddy.comrnCustomer Service Representative

#3

Yes, you can be of further assistance. Please read the original message. I amrnrequesting a partial refund because of your non-compliance with your own ULA. rnTo be honest, I wouldn''t be pushing this issue if it happened just a couplerntimes. I would appreciate a reply from a customer support representative byrne-mail. My e-mail address is andy.wright@yahoo.com. I will push this untilrnthe issue is resolved. I have had experience with smaller hosting companies,rneven ma and pa (so to speak) hosting services that had greater reliability. Irnhope you will step up and resolve this on-going issue I am having with yourrnhosting plan.rnrnThank YournrnAndy Wright (andy.wright@yahoo.com)

#4

Dear Andy Wright,rnrnThank you for contacting Customer Support.rnrnThe recent downtime on your hosting account has been caused by Denial of Service (DoS) attacks on our DNS servers, we are working hard to keep this from happening again, however the service is still within our 99.9% uptime guarantee.rnrnPlease let us know if we can help you in any other way.rnrnDon''t let "no lock, no deal" come between you and your customers. Show them that transactions on your site are secure and encrypted! Click here for more information.rnrnSincerely,rnrnScott G.rnGoDaddy.comrnCustomer Service Representative

#5

I realize the 99.9% uptime for this particular incident may comply with myrnagreement with your company. However, you are failing to take intornconsideration the previous two incidents where my website was not accesible. rnJust as you, I keep detailed records of these occurences. Please takernreference to your records. I am in no way trying to create trouble, but pleasernbe aware that this service is not acceptable. In the account this was arncorporate portal, or a personal homepage, you must accept responsibility. Irngive your company a lot of credit. Your customer support is fantastic, andrnyour response time is exceptional. However, when I bought your service, Irnassumed it would be reliable and permanent. Transfering my site to anotherrnprovider would be troublesome. I am left in a position where I believe yournshould be accountable with your agreement. Granted you may not consider arnpersonal home page, such as this, applicable in a greater sense to therncontinuation of your company, but I needed access to the information stored inrnmy account when your DNS server was not available. I see more and more largerrnproviders such as yourself offering great services, benifits, and attractivernprices; however, I am also seeing many of these companies making false promisesrnthat either they are not capable of providing or not commited to. This bothersrnme a lot. I am NOT the type of person to push when it is not justified. rnHowever, since this is not the first incident, or the second, I have tornconsider what your intentions as a internet provider are. To sum my positionrnup: with all your great potential, and your proven success, -put- policies inrnplace (more extensive than are available now) to ensure something like thisrndoesn''t happen again. I went to school for computer networking, and Irnunderstand there are situations where faults accure. At the same time I amrnseeing small ISP''s with less resources fill the needs of the consumer.rnrnPlease take notice to this. I want an apropriate refund for the cumalativerndowntime.

#6

Dear Andy Wright,rnrnThank you for contacting Customer Support. Unfortunately, any such requests for a refund must be done at the time of the instance where our service was down, and todayâs outage does not qualify for this. I apologize for any confusion and the inconvenience.rnrnPlease let us know if we can help you in any other way.rnrnLearn more about our Shared, Virtual-Dedicated, and Dedicated hosting: Click herernrnSincerely,rnrnTim P.rnGoDaddy.comrnCustomer Service Representative

#7

Thank you very much for your quick reply. However, your response is flawed. rnLet me explain why. Your ULA describes your service being offered to me, withrna reliability of 99.9% uptime -of available time -. Yet, you refrain fromrndescribing the term, available time. Please give me (the companies) definitionrnof available time, and convince me that your ULA is not legally (orrnfundamentally) flawed. If service up-time is solely determent by yourselfrn(godaddy), then indeed, your ULA for my hosting plan is criminal (not legal). rnI have done the math, and determined, with reasonable undoubted (but possible)rnflaw, that I am entitled to 5% of my monthly hosting fee. Yet, you do notrndescribe the scope of this deduction. In relation to my situation, and yourrnagreement, these errors were not caused by my own scripting or coding errors.rnrnAndy Wright (andy.wright@yahoo.com)

#8

Dear Andy Wright,rnThanks for contacting customer support. Unfortunately, further details regarding interpretation of the purchase agreement are not available through this forum. We do apologize for any frustration. I have sent this issue to my manager for further review. Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.rnrnLearn more about our Shared, Virtual-Dedicated, and Dedicated hosting: Click herernrnSincerely,rnrnTim P.rnGoDaddy.comrnCustomer Service Representative

I did not receive a response. I really thought I would. Nothing...

The moral of the story: give credit where due, and fuck you when it is due to me!

[Day to Day] [Technology] [Software] [Bullshit]
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Yahoo! Mail Plus

21 May, 2007 04:31

It has been a while since my cancellation post, and reason post (directly to yahoo) for my premium service cancellation, and I have yet to receive any response or acknowledgment.

To recap my situation, I have been unable to use many of the Yahoo! Mail Plus features such as an alternate source e-mail address, mail forwarding, or POP3 utilization because I was unable to authenticate an external account.  As soon as I canceled, I was able to do what was required for these features.

If I were to even receive an automated response, such that it might contain "your issue will be looked into", I would be satisfied.  Tomorrow afternoon I will try to contact someone for a partial refund of the year's service.

A year ago I was writing:

slow cookers, the blue-ray technology of culinary arts

[Software]
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Aura Cacia Travel Blog

20 May, 2007 18:52

Aura Cacia, an essential oil distributer, is looking into the farming practices of Australian Sandalwood, and distillation methods for other oils in that region.  The series has already begun, running from May 14th to May 23.

Random Thought : I rarely have any use for patchouli EO. However, I dug up a batch that has been sitting for a few years - mixed it with some Clementine Petitgrain, and questioned why I never crack that bottle open. It was absolutely incredible.

A year ago I was writing:

Byte Size Guardian, Dina - Thanks Gizmodo

as I tip toe through the capital state trail

[Aromatherapy]
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Falwell goes to HELL

16 May, 2007 09:16

When I first heard of Falwell's death, I have to admit that my immediate reaction was a chuckle, and a "serves him right" - as evil as it may be.

The web's blogosphere is flooded with posts commenting on the exileration of his death.  I had trouble finding a compashionate reaction, rightly so.  His extremist beliefs, even to the most faithful christians, insulted the logical mentality of a majority of humans.

I did find a blog post, here, that left me speechless, a bit scared I must admit - hypnotic to suggestion of a group belief.  As suggested to them, the only reaction to those whom found his ways sour, were biblical references with blurry meaning.  This is, just as, crack is addictive to those who fall through once sensible fingers.

Everyone will remember the day Falwell went to hell. 

[Day to Day]
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Land where drunk cows swim and home to my daily hand