Don't Back Down

Now that we've taken a look at getting a handle on our email spam, it's important to try and figure out how to really get on top of it. Sure, we can manage the spam process, and try to make sure that it doesn't get the better of us, but to make the most of it, it is important that we understand how email works to get the most out of the process. Since I use pair Networks, this will naturally look at it from that angle, but much of this can apply to any service.

First, of course, you have to be aware of the spam that you are receiving. We have already talked about that. But then you have to make sure to do everything in your power to keep from receiving more of it. While I know there are lots of people who swear by GMail for it's effectiveness in fighting spam, I have to say that I really don't find it any better than any other tool. You just have to find what works best for you. That doesn't mean that GMail is bad - it just means that is isn't going to be the best because someone says that it is the best.

Read "How Do You Actually Control Your Email Spam?" »

One of the most annoying items that we all face is undoubtedly email spam. Unfortunately, there is little that we can do about it, and so I figured that it was time to try and understand it better. Not so long ago, I made two changes that made this not only possible, but useful. First, I switched from using POP3 email to IMAP. This in turn led to the other change, which was to (finally) dump Outlook and start using Thunderbird exclusively. In fact, the only time that I've used Outlook in the last few months was to help a family member figure out what was going wrong. But that's a story for another time.

What these two changes have done has allowed me to look at email spam differently. You probably already know that Outlook handles junk email. I've mentioned it before. More than once, actually. Unfortunately, the Outlook junk filter doesn't have much of a brain to it. I'm sure it does something, but it doesn't seem to ever tell you anything about it, and operating in a void doesn't help anyone. Thunderbird, meanwhile, doesn't tell you a lot either, but it does interact with the most popular spam filter on the planet (SpamAssassin) and it also allows you to tag items as junk and not junk, which supposedly will help future items. I don't know if that helps or not, but it feels like it does, and sometimes that makes all the difference.

Read "Getting a Handle on Email Spam" »

It seems like I just can't seem to get rid of an annoying error that crops up every once in a while where I'm unable to delete AVI files through Windows XP. To be fair, I should probably elaborate and say that I'm unable to delete AVI files through Windows XP when I'm using Windows Explorer. Were I to use the command line, I'm sure that it would be just fine.

I think that I might have finally managed to lick this problem - though at this point I'm really suspecting that it has just gone into remission, so I don't know for sure. If you've seen it, then you know what happens. You try and delete (or move, which involves a delete) an AVI file and you get an annoying message telling you that the file is in use. You can kill the file handle using something like Process Explorer, but it would be so much better to not have to worry about it.

Read "Error Deleting AVI Files in Windows XP" »

Now that I've mentioned what would make TypePad really rock because those features are things that I run into every day, and also came up with a few features that would make TypePad just a bit better with some features that I run into, but perhaps not quite as often, you might be thinking that I don't like TypePad.

That's actually not the case. In fact, the more I work with it, the more I like it. Sure, you can't do PHP on TypePad, and using PHP makes managing sites easier. But you can use SSI, which is awfully close. In fact, since you use the blog name in SSI calls, all you have to do is substitute one blog's name for another in the SSI and you suddenly have a module that you can easily include on multiple blogs. This isn't quite the same as having a module that you can include from multiple places, because you can't actually parse the content for template tags, but it's close. It isn't Movable Type, but there's a lot to like in there.

Read "TypePad Does Have Some Great Features" »

Perhaps this is in reverse order, since I first mentioned what would make TypePad really rock, but hey - those are the things that I run into every time I use TypePad, so they were foremost on my mind. This next batch of items are things that are high on my list, because I get them a lot, but I don't necessarily see them every time I log in. They are just little nitpicky items that I'd like to see go away.

In all honesty, it would probably be better to address these first, because like most things, it's the little things that will get you. In life, you can often deal with the largest of problems, yet you're only too happy to let the small stuff build up and build up until you just can't take it any more. This list is all about the small stuff. The items that you only see from time to time, but that - if fixed - would make using the service just that much better.

Read "Now, What TypePad Could Use to Make it Better" »

Most of the work I do as a Consultant is for Movable Type. But I also work with TypePad, and I've actually seen some increasing activity in this area, most notably from larger companies who may not be ready to run their own MT installation and just want to get something ready and roll it out quickly. For this, TypePad is the perfect platform. It may not be as flexible as Movable Type, but it does offer you plenty of power in a nice interface.

What it doesn't do is give you a few tools that would make things run much better. Though comment pagination was announced a while back, and archive pagination came along afterwards, you still can't paginate your main index (though the code has been added). In fact, you'll find that some customers - even those who pay for the most expensive accounts - can't even use the pagination features that have already been announced! But pagination isn't the only feature missing from TypePad.

Read "What Would Make TypePad Really Rock" »

I've mentioned before (more than once, in fact) that I don't much care for social networking. This could be for two reasons. Either I just don't get it - a distinct possibility - or because I'm just not very social - also quite possible (in fact, quite possibly even more likely). For one reason or another, I haven't really managed to get into Twitter, though I've tried a few times. I want to like the service, but I just couldn't get into it. I finally figured out that the problem wasn't so much that I didn't like it, the problem was in how I was using it.

The other day as I was chatting with a friend (not on Twitter), I mentioned my confusion, and he pointed me to a series on the use of Twitter from Jennifer Laycock of Search Engine Guide. At this point, I should mention that Search Engine Guide, and by extension Jennifer, are customers of mine in my Movable Type Consulting business. But that doesn't mean she doesn't know what she's talking about. In any case, she has so far put together three parts in her series (one, two, three). It's worth reading, but ultimately all it did was get me moving in the right direction. I had to find a good client to really get attached.

Read "A Good Twitter Client Makes All the Difference" »

Even though I deal with Movable Type a great deal in my job as a Movable Type Consultant, and I have written plugins for the platform for something like four years now (including the award-winning MT-Notifier), these days I tend to do more integration and implementation. I'm not complaining, that's just the way it is.

In spite of that - or perhaps because of that - I have never really used Subversion much. I guess that I just never considered myself enough of a developer to do it. Well, that and the fact that I never really had access to a Subversion repository. Sure, there is Beanstalk, but I just can't get into the habit of handing my data over to someone else. One is because I don't like to pay someone else to hold onto it, and two is because I'm stuck if I am ever offline for any length of time. As a result, I've known for a while that pair Networks offers Subversion, but I've never used it. That all changed recently.

Read "Using Subversion at pair Networks" »

It isn't often that I have to rename a ton of files. Usually I find that it is just faster to rename the three or four (or ten) files that need renaming than it is to figure out how I can do it by writing a batch file - it just isn't worth taking the time to dig up all the arcane commands that I've managed to forget over the years and make it happen. But then there are the times when I have dozens upon dozens of files. Or hundreds. In fact, just the other day I needed to rename upwards of 450 files. Doing those one at a time was daunting, to say the least, and maybe it was going to be worth figuring out the batch file after all. Then it happens that Windows doesn't do regular expressions very well, and it looked like I would be renaming them all by hand.

Then I found Bulk Rename Utility. This relatively small (less than 1MB) download comes feature-packed with just about everything you might need to rename a whole bunch of files. In fact, it will probably come with more than you need. It certainly could do everything that I needed and then some.

Read "Using Bulk Rename Utility to Rename Files" »

One of the reasons I like pair Networks is the shell account. I don't always need shell access, but it's really useful to have it when I do need it. Much better than the alternative - needing it and not having it. One question that comes up when you start talking about shell accounts is accessing the thing. For users who are used to Windows, it's a legitimate question - it's just not something that you're typically exposed to.

What you'll need is PuTTY - a great little application that allows you to connect to an SSH server. SSH stands for "secure shell", and that's how you login to most shell accounts. There are some that will allow you to do so with a standard telnet client, but that's less than secure, so don't do that. The only problem with PuTTY is that you have to type your password every time you need to connect. That's not a bad thing if you don't do it often, but if you disconnect and reconnect a lot, it can be a royal pain. Enter Pageant (available at the same page as PuTTY).

Read "Using Pageant with PuTTY at pair Networks" »

For a very long time I was a faithful Outlook user. Well, that's not true. I wasn't really loyal to Outlook specifically or Microsoft generally. I just used Outlook at work and so I used Outlook at home. It was what I knew and I was used to it. So I stuck with it. But then I decided that it was time to really make the switch to IMAP and Outlook really bites at IMAP.

You know it does. If you try and use IMAP with Outlook you'll get a message that says something like Your IMAP server has closed the connection. This may occur if you have left the connection idle for too long. Sure, you can change the timeout error, but it doesn't matter what you set the value to, you still get the error. So that was a no-go. It was time to look elsewhere.

Read "How to Totally Replace Outlook (in Windows)" »

I have been a user of WS_FTP for a while - years, in fact. I can't even tell you when I started using it. I'm sure that it was in the 1990s sometime. But at one point, I started getting this error - Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings and I just couldn't figure out what the problem was. Eventually, I noticed that the error did come up on the Ipswitch forums, but not until I had already solved it (more than once).

The problem, you see, has to do with the fact that I change computers. A lot. But it can even happen if you don't change computers - for instance, if you upgrade your computer (perhaps to Vista). What is happening is that the location of your keyring - even if you don't use one! - isn't pointing to the same place. So you need to tell the application that it's moved. It's not a difficult change to make either. Here's how.

Read "Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings" »