Author: Paul Tomblin

Time to give up, or really give up?

I’m what you would call the last of the hold-outs. Until a year or so ago, I read my email almost exclusively with the command line/curses client “mutt”. I’d been using mutt since transitioning from the previous reigning command line/curses mail client “elm” around 1998 or so. I stubbornly continued using mutt for several reasons, not least of which was that I could ssh home and read my email on my own account on my own server, and have the same user experience whether I was home or at work. A year or so ago, work cut off my ability to ssh home.

I settled on a bizarre combination to replace it: I have a GMail account I can access at work. My home email is accessable through IMAP, and I read it at home with Thunderbird on my laptop, and on the go with SnapperMail on my Treo. I subscribed to all my high traffic mailing lists using my GMail account so I can read them when I’m at work. But because I’m stubborn, I’ve refused to unsubscribe them at home, and so-far have insisted on reading them with Thunderbird. Which leads to vast amounts of wibbling about trying to keep the two accounts synchronized – mostly by using my Treo to mark as read and deleted all the articles that I’d already read on my GMail account and the like.

But this is starting to drive me crazy. So as of today, I’m reluctantly giving up and unsubscribing my xcski.com accont from the mailing lists. I’m going to read them on GMail whether I’m home or at work. All that remains to be seen is:

  • Should I forward my non-mailing list traffic from xcski.com to GMail?
  • Or should I just give up running my own mail server entirely and sign up for “GMail For My Domain” or whatever the hell they call it?

If I take the last option, it would be sad to shut down my mail server. I’ve been doing mail service for a long long time and I was proud of how well it worked and how well the spam protection worked. Plus I’m not sure how the various daemons on my system that send email will work with GMail. Oh well, at least my mailing list mail server will continue to run.

That was relatively painless

I did the taxes today. It was a lot easier than I expected. Mostly because TurboTax did a good job of importing stuff from the previous year, and I took the tack that if I didn’t get a deduction for it last year, it’s probably not worth going through the form this year. Got a nice refund coming too.

Now that the most important time-sensitive use for this laptop is done, I can contemplate sending it in to get this heat-related Airport cut-out problem fixed. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but the fix I got at the Apple Store last weekend was only a temporary fix and it’s happening still, mostly when it gets really hot.

Last night’s paddle

Last night I went out for the first time with the bulk of the team. As well as myself and Dan, we also had Ken A, Doug R, Stephen B, Paul D. Mike was missing because he’s taking some sort of training class. As well as having a big group, I also tried out the new camera mount for the first time. Except for the fact that it was pointed a little too far up, it worked out great.

The gathering storm

Here I am at the beginning, just warming up and milling around while the rest of the team gets ready. I’m really concentrating on my technique, and I think it’s paying off. (Note: this part hasn’t finished uploading while I’m posting this, so it might not be here when you look.)

The gathering storm

Here’s a bit at the beginning leading up the creek. You can see most of the team in the background – yes, I was in the lead most of the time. At first I thought we were just waiting for people to catch up, but it turns out that the team was comfortable with the pace I was setting. I got some good sustained paddling and my shoulder wasn’t bothering me at all at this point.

See if you can catch a glimpse of Ken in the bright orange top. He’s got the most amazing style – almost no movement in his shoulders at all, just totally in the torso. I asked him if next time I could put the camera on his boat so I can study it, and he said that would probably be ok.

The gathering storm

This is on the way back. We’d gotten into a really shallow bit and had a strong head wind, and I’d fallen behind, so I yelled up again that I was turning back. Rather than just letting me go, the whole team turned around and paddled part of the way back with me. This part is towards the end of that, until the camera ran out of storage. I was really tired and my shoulder was starting to hurt, but to me at least it seems like my technique isn’t falling apart that badly. I’m proud of that.

Soon after this, the rest of the team stopped to practice buoy turns or something and I continued back. I made it a goal to paddle all the way back to the dock without stopping or even pausing, and I did it.

And because I know you’re all breathlessly waiting for another update on this…

I went to the Apple store today and the guy opened the laptop and said that the Airport card was just a tiny bit out of its socket – which he didn’t believe was enough to cause a problem, but I figure that the fact that the problem mostly happened when the laptop was warmed up and moving, makes perfect sense. He also said he put some insulating tape over the card as well so it wouldn’t make contact with the frame.

It’s been several hours and it hasn’t happened since. Woo hoo!