ODAY marks a milestone as I submitted my 2^nd Year Progress Report (PDF, HTML). My 1^st year report was enormous in comparison, totalling at 202 pages which went under the heading Continuation Report (PDF, HTML). Last month I started to work on my thesis and distributed my L_yX (front-end to L^AT_EX) template among the L_yX users community. This template appears to have become quite popular, which entails a rewarding feeling.

I am expecting to complete my Ph.D. next year, at the age of 24. As for future paths: academia is appealing, industry is appalling and otherwise all is confusing. The next stage remains undecided. I will have to ponder and come up with a decision within the next couple of months. I would like to sincerely thank all my readers, who have unknowingly motivated me to carry on with some heavy burdens. I have recently come under great pressure due to involvement in many (technical) support-related groups, as well as my jobs and the degree program at the University. I am glad to say that I have regained full control and can now cope with all my commitments and obligations.

Photo taken in 1984 or thereabouts

The new looks of Slashdot?

LASHDOT will become standards-compliant XHTML/CSS rather soon as new code is currently being tested. If these changes were to be confirmed, one wonders how the vast audience would react. Perhaps the new layout would have slow penetration as it gets exposed to the community already. Looking at the Web Archive and making a comparsion with the new layout, long tradition definitely gets broken. I, for one, welcome the change reluctantly.

Always store your mail in (at least) two isolated places

nfortunately for most of us, there is rarely an option in mail clients which caters for one-click backup and restoration of E-mail. We still lack an embedment in a GUI, which makes backup trivial to all, as well as quick to invoke.

An alternative to explicit backup is duplication of data files. Owing to the use of Open Source applications, my mail gets backed up on the SAN every night and on another computer twice a week (in an open and raw MBOX format). I advise everyone to install a reliable mail client and set up a repeating job that can handle backups without any user intervention (see links below).

Microsoft applications (speaking of computer crashes when backups are truly needed) rarely seem to mind portability and safety of data. Outlook and Outlook Express would lock your mail in proprietary formats, which is the reason why I ceased to be their user (having started with Netscape Mail). Anything that served Microsoft’s purpose, namely my immobility, appeared to be the grand goal. Thunderbird will save your mail in a form that is extremely painless to back up. Furtherfore, it can also easily import mail from Outlook or Outlook Express, in a way that preserves all the data and even mail settings.

Another backup option is by converting mail to HTML, which is open and standard-compliant. There exists a Ruby script called eml2mbox which bridges a gap and helps towards the generation of Web pages from individual mail messages.

Older notes about mail management:

• Local or Web-based E-mail
• Public Mail Accounts and Filtering
• Urgent Mail Account
• E-mail Address Disclosure
• Managing Large E-mail Quantities
• Autoresponder Trick
• Solution to Junk Mail
• Managing E-mail on a Personal Domain

Thunderbird-related items:

• Outlook Versus Thunderbird
• Thunderbird Aqua – an attractive theme for Thunderbird

As well as links that are related to mail, lots of resources and tips on backup reside on this Web log.

otLinking is a term describing the situation where one site uses another Web site’s traffic, usually to display images it does not own. It is considered an act of stealing or unfair and unauthorised use of content. A few days ago I read a story about an HotLiknking victim that has gone a long way to achieve that sweet old revenge. As a large hamburger chain HotLinked a Flash clip, the Webmaster could notice unusual levels of traffic pulled from afar, namely from the hamburger chain’s Web site. He quicikly reacted quite shrewdly. The Webmaster explains: “…I redirected everything coming from Fuddruckers.com (the HotLinking criminal)… Wrote a nice little message pointing out how incredibly stupid their web developer is. And then redirected the main page to a pleasant little website showing photographs of slaughterhouses. And also opened up some more popups, for those that don’t have popup blockers.”

Also see my previous write-ups on HotLinking:

• Bandwidth Thieves – My battle against HotLinking
• Stolen Graphics – An hilarious Hotlinking Story

SN joins the on-line advertisement club. They will soon enable pay-per-click ads to be embedded in Web pages. According to ZDNet, MSN has already launched an advertising application, which upon closer inspection, leads to an appalling invasion of privacy. The Seattle Times (free registration needed for reading) reports that:

AdCenter uses information from customers who registered for services such as Hotmail or who tailored the MSN home page to their interests. It supplements that with data purchased from the Experian credit bureau.

This was predicted long ago in one of Joel’s most popular essays. Joel Spolsky used to work in Microsoft and he foresaw the exploitation of cookies and information swap:

…One day, Expedia could start offering higher fares to customers who have more than a million dollars in their Investor stock portfolio. There’s not really anything technically impossible about this, and it’s probably legal, too…

Bill Gates arrested in his younger days (photo in public domain)

ECENTLY I came to discover more about the personaility of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, perhaps possessed by the measles. He has become yet another one of the ugly guys in the block, perhaps even topping the man above. He was caught yelling “I’m going to f—ing kill Google” and throwing a chair across his office. Anger management comes to mind.

Given the aggressive behaviour of Microsoft, it was not too surprising when Massachusetts prepared a proposal that will drop Office in favour of Open Source solutions. I wish them to best of luck in their future endeavours, which are sure to insire the remainder of the country over the long term.

Massachusetts is preparing to deliver another challenge to Microsoft’s core PC software business: a directive to force all 50,000 desktop computers used by state employees to be stripped of Microsoft’s Office, the suite of applications used on an estimated 95 per cent of PCs the world over. Instead, they would be required to run an open-source version, such as OpenOffice or StarOffice – software produced by volunteer programmers and distributed free of charge.

A shrunk-down screenshot of CrossOver-themed Thunderbird

OZILLA Thunderbird has been my primary mail client for several months, having made it the permanent replacement for KMail. I thought I ought to share a recommendation for a theme. I personally find Apple’s Aqua theme and brushed metal elements in Jaguar/Tiger highly appealing. I even went as far as tailoring my own in Firefox (see below). I have also come to discover that CrossOver, the Aqua-inspired theme for Thunderbird, is by far the most popular theme at the moment with approximately 18,000 downloads in the past week alone.

Related items:

• Firefox Mac OS X Theme – my personal Firefox theme (see picture below)
• My Firefox Theme

Mac OS X theme for Firefox