Tag Archives: email

geek howto linux privacy

HOWTO retrieve email with fetchmail and forward it on with procmail

July 7, 2011 – 10:40 pm
fetchmail

fetchmail logo

I’m starting a new gig Monday, so I got a new email address for use while I work there. Now of course, I have many, many email addresses, but thanks to Google Apps, I still check them all through a Gmail frontend, and can ‘send as’ any address I want; which makes it almost seamless to integrate new email accounts. However, today we hit a snag, whereas my last client offered to simply forward my mail to another address, the new one wouldn’t with something about auditing as their reason, which I can completely understand, as long as they understand, having to check email via multiple clients just won’t scale. That’s right Anthony, ‘this won’t scale’. So, since we’re rocking Linux and open source we know we can fix it some way, and that’s what I live for, the challenge. Ya, that’s right, I was given a stumbling block, I stared it down and proclaimed, “challenge accepted”.

This is a preview of HOWTO retrieve email with fetchmail and forward it on with procmail. Read the full post (628 words, 2 images, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)
Tags , , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (2)
O'RLY? spam

Latest e-mail scam: death threats

February 14, 2008 – 1:51 pm

You’ve got mail!I guess since the Nigerian scams are too common people are working on new angles to rob people via email.  This is a great one too, the email purports to be from a contract killer with the recipient being the intended target, but the killer will renege on the killing if the person will cough up some cash.  It said, in part, “Am very sorry for you my friend, is a pity that this is how your life is going to end as soon as you don’t comply. … I don’t have any business with you, my duty as I am mailing you now is just to KILL/ASSASINATE you and I have to do it as I have already been paid for that. [...] Get back to me now if you are ready to pay some fees to spare your life, If you are not ready for my help, then I will carry on with my job straight-up.“  The FBI reports that it started seeing these emails about 6-8 months ago, and they’ve traced at least one to Eastern Europe.  It looks like they’re even starting to resort to some standard phishing tactics to get more personal information out of people, “…some bold thieves have even used the e-mails on FBI letter­head, or claim to be from the Department of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration or Better Business Bureau. Typically, they say some kind of complaint was filed and ask the recipient to make a phone call, click a hyperlink or open an attachment — tricks designed to steal personal information.“  So just remember, if any of this were true they would not be contacting you via email.

Permanent link to this post (281 words, 1 image, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)
Tags , , , , , | Permalink | Comments (9)
commerce geek

AT&T DSL plan for $10/month

June 19, 2007 – 2:09 pm

attI’m in no way endorsing AT&T, but I’m encouraged when I see a more ‘tiered’ approach from ISPs, and DSL for $10/month is a great choice for consumers. It seems that this tiered or ‘naked DSL’ is only being offered up by AT&T as part of the “…concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last ayb attDecember.” The speeds are what you’d expect for the price, 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, but this is far and away fast enough for 90% of subscribers I bet, the ‘speed’ that they try to sell is not something a normal user is going to bump up against. In what makes it seem even more of a concession instead of a new marketing initiate is that, “The plan was not mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T’s DSL plans, and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn’t mention it, but clicking a link for “Term contract plans” reveals it. It’s also presented to customers who go into the application process.” Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come, America trails most other countries in high-speed internet usage, and with so much going on online, you really need a high-speed connection to really take advantage of it. A $50/month 1.5/768 is really not needed by most, it’s a rip-off for them, but $10/month is something they would get great benefit from without being fleeced.

Permanent link to this post (258 words, 2 images, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)
Tags , | Permalink | Comment (0)
commerce spam

Spam levels mysteriously fall 30% in a week

January 16, 2007 – 1:40 pm

SpamThis is an amazing statistic, particularly after knowing how much email was just spam as of last month, the level of spam is down 30% from last week. “After rising steadily for many years spam levels have mysteriously dropped 30% in the first week of January. According to SoftScan the most plausible explanation is that a botnet has broken down and lost control of it’s zombie computers. Other possible explanations have been put forward including a large number of infected machines getting replaced by new computers received for Christmas or spammers being isolated by the Asian earthquake. Both explanations are considered unlikely. Spam accounted for almost 9 of 10 emails in December. Diego d’Ambra, SoftScan’s chief technology officer, said that governments will probably be forced to take a tougher stance on spam due to the sheer volume of the problem.” That would be amazing if they could tie it to people getting new computers over the holidays and finally shutting down their trojan based messes. Of course it’ll just be a matter of time until their systems get back to that state and they start complaining their computers are ‘slow’ (wonder why?).  I’m sure buying a new computer next year will solve that.

Permanent link to this post (204 words, 1 image, estimated 49 secs reading time)
Tags , | Permalink | Comments (6)
humor

Flame Wars sparked by misread emails

February 14, 2006 – 8:28 pm

Over at The Inquirer.net, they have a great article about the fact that flame wars are often sparked by misread emails, or if not misread, misinterpreted! Hmmm…this hits home since I know some disagreements have started over similar circumstances. ”According to a new study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people only have a 50-50 chance of detecting the tone of an email. However they actually think they have guessed it right 90 per cent of the time. Psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago said that this of course leads to flame wars when people misread an e-mail’s content or see a post on a message board. Part of the problem is that people think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they ‘hear’ the tone they intend in their head as they write. Those reading messages interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations.” Ok, start the “I hate it when you get defensive like this” replies! ;) * <-j/k

Permanent link to this post (171 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)
Tags | Permalink | Comment (0)
Page 1 of 3123

Next Page »