macdiggs.com

I've been getting absolutely crazy and steadily increasing volumes of so called "Undelivered mail" spam to my main mailbox for last few months (1000+ mails a day) - even with SpamAssassin installed, and I really don't have time to search for email blocking solutions all day long (and the solution for this particular problem is pretty complicated afaik) - so yesterday I have decided to move all my email handling to Google Apps service, which offers handling your domain's email on Google's servers (so I can keep using my primary mike@//this-domain// addres like nothing happened)

The Google Apps offers email service just like gmail, and some other services I didn't need, as well. Google offers several options for the service, and the Basic version is free. I went with the Basic one, of course, as I'm absolutely fine with the features it offers. All I needed is large email box (and it's currently 6G+ on Google), IMAP access, and - most important - good spam filter (and this is the killer feature of Google's mail!)

The switch was very easy and took me may be about 15 minutes in all. I signed up for Google Apps for my domain, then went to my registrar's site and switched MX records (these records are responsible for telling the world which server handles your email) to Google ones (and left all other records as is, as I have no need for Google to host my web site). Then of course I have removed macdiggs.com from local domains list in sendmail (so that email from my co-worker who uses the same server to be delivered to the new location)

In a few hours, once DNS records propaged, I started getting all my email to Google.

And the result is absolutely fantastic! All that "undelivered/delivery error email" just automatically goes to spam folder (and is further automatically piped to the Trash folder via "is:spam" filter). All the unfiltered spam just suddenly disappeared from my mailbox. And this is very, very, very big stress relief. My mailbox is 99.9% spam-free again, after several annoying months..

Sure, there are some changes for worse, the biggest one being my email server becoming much slower to access than the dedicated one I have used until now, but I'm fine with the change, given positive outcome of the switch.

I finally found some time to spend a couple of hours with my new Canon Kiss X2 camera this Sunday, taking pictures of just nature, learning how to handle the camera and what to expect by applying different shooting settings. I think I just might have found a new hobby :)

More on my .Mac page… ▷

Got the highest possible residence status today..

I received one hillarious (though I was thinking WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?? at the time I actually looked at it) piece of HTML coding today, from some "web designer" my company works with (not for long anymore hopefully)

We asked that guy to code 9 pages for us, a pretty simple pages, not Yahoo portal or anything, mind you. Here, have a look what kind of CSS I have received!

Now, have a look at line number and scroll position. This monster has over 7000 lines!! For 9 pages!! And it weights 132K!!

And! It took almost a week to get these pages coded. Well yeah it definintely takes time to produce that amount of junk :)

..and survived today!

I was pulling out headphones from my backpack while waiting for the train today, and suddenly dropped my iPod down on the concrete of the platform. I had a split-second thinking if I should look down or not (I heard a plenty of stories that Touches and iPhones have exactly zero limit of being dropped and still working after that) - however, my Touch was as good as new, no problems at all, when I took it from the ground and turned on! Not even a single scratch (though this is not a surprize as I am using the most excellent InvisibleShield protection). Actually, on second thought, it might be the InvisibleShield which actually saved my iTouch… Or I am just a lucky guy :)

Phew :)

My first SLR got delivered today!

I got myself a new Canon Kiss X2 (or 450D if you live in Europe). Well actually I had Kiss X2 already, but I handed the previous one to my father who wanted it so much (sure I got some money back, but it was partially a present, too).

So today, actually my second Kiss X2 got delivered. Though the first one was the standard one lense kit version (18-55mm), I decided to pay a little bit more money for the double lens kit version, so now I have 2 lenses - 18-55mm and 55-250mm in my posession :)

This thing screams! Well sure its my first SLR ever, and anything will probably scream comparing to my older Ixys 900IS compact. But I really like the build and the quality, and the controls, and features of my new camera.

And it is such a satisfaction to just hold it in my hands and make shots accompanied but the real shutter sound, now the pre-recorded one :)

I'm learning basics of semi-pro shooting (mostly learning videos), so hopefully sooner than later I'll be able to make some really nice shots (I suck at composition shots currently :)

So, back to the viewfinder!

I recently faced a problem when I didn't want Rails' timestamp "magic" columns to be updated during update of records in database. I have a site where recently updated pages are displayed on front page, and I use updated_at timestamp to identify the most recently updated ones. However, the system also has a feature to reorder pages, where only the 'position' attribute is updated, and not the actual page content. The reorder operation can't be counted as a real update. However, any saves or update_attribute operations on a model fire up the magic columns update.

However, there's a simple way to permanently turn this feature off. Here's how I implemented it:

ActiveRecord::Base.record_timestamps = false #temporarily turn off magic column updates

@page.update_attribute(:position, pos)

ActiveRecord::Base.record_timestamps = true #turning updates back on

Good news, everyone (yeah, I'm in the middle of Futurama right now) - WebKit is at 100% on Acid3 test!

You can get the latest nightly build here and try it yourself!

This is great news, since WebKit is used not only on Macs, Windows, but is also the HTML rendering engine on millions of iPhones and iPod Touches (sure, since they use Safari as the web browser), as well as a web browse for Nokia S60 and last, but definitely not the least, it is the HTML rendering engine in Adobe's Air AND Google's Adnroid mobile platform.

I just wish my Sharp 920sh had a usable web browser…

It's been several years already since Apple have added ability to order prints directly from iPhoto application, but hm.. I just don't need to print anything in any decent quality, usually. However, our family friends had a wedding and we have decided to give them a personalized calendar as a little after-wedding present.

So, we (my wife, actually) fired up iPhoto, and created a little calendar for a year.

Press the Buy Calendar button, and we had a little package delivered to our doors in exactly 8 days.

It actually took that long because we're in Japan, and the order was printed and shipped from the USA.

A standard hanging wall calendar. There's only one variation, actually  - at least if you order from Japan.

The quality of both prints and paper are very nice.

And yeah, of course we have a little printed proof of Apple ego on the back ;)

Overall, I'm pretty satifsied with the calendar, though there are a couple of places where fonts went crazy (small calendars in empty calendar cells, not all of them, just a couple). That's because I guess Apple doesn't actually expect for months names to be written in Russian ;) Japanese stuff printed out just fine, as well as most of Russian letters, and of course English letters are the most perfect.

This will make a great gift, with very few time spent on it, and relatively cheap (around $30 USD including shipping) . I will definitely have this service on my gift radar in the future.

Excuse me for a completely non-technical post :) I'll come up with something soon I think.

Mr. Arthur C. Clarke, one of my favourite sci-fi authors, passed away at age 90.

A world without Heinlein, and now Clarke. Well.. it sucks….

Rest in peace. And thanks for all the great books.