"I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code." - Blogging RockStar
Archive for the ‘Open Source’ Category
Better Living Through Open Source
December 28th, 2007 by Sean
Open Source Living is a recently-established directory of open-source software.
Basically it’s stuff you can use without having to pay for it and without worrying about proprietary software issues.
Most of the criteria for inclusion in the Open Source Living revolve around the nature of the licensing for the product — it has to be freely redistributable, not discriminatory in its licensing, with source code available, etc.
To that end, the programs already listed in the Open Source Living Directory are something of a “who’s who” of open-source success stories: Firefox, OpenOffice, 7-Zip, and so on.
A fair number of Mac-specific open-source programs are also featured: Camino, Vienna, and NeoOffice.
The layout and design of the site are friendly and clean; it doesn’t look like something that was thrown together in an afternoon.
Check it out today!
Posted in Open Source + Software + Technology | 
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Spam In My Inbox
October 18th, 2007 by Blogging Rock Star
Even though it is still quite awhile until the prime-time December-shopping season, many of us have already noticed an increase in the spam in our email boxes.
How did they know my email address?
Spammers can:
- “Harvest” email addresses from web pages
- Subscribe to other mailing lists to gain access to other subscribers’ addresses
- Use programs to send spam to computer-generated email addresses. They do not need to know whether the generated address exists or not, that’s what ‘undeliverable’ bounce-backs are for
- Purchase your email address from companies that specialize in #3 above.
What can I do to fight spam?
The simplest way is to filter your emails. If you get spam messages from email addresses of a particular domain name or IP address, you block that domain name/IP address. If you get spam about “Viagra”, you block all messages with “Viagra” in the message.
This is content filtering, which can be achieved using the mail processing rules and content filtering rules in your email program like Microsoft Outlook.
Another way to filter email is by using an anti-spam program. I like using Adaware.
If you prefer using a POP email client to access your emails, you may want to check out Mozilla Thunderbird.
Thunderbird is a lot like Outlook Express, but a lot more secure and it’s Open Source.
Anything else I can do?
- I personally keep a few email addresses, and I designate a couple of them for newsletters and other online subscriptions. This way, I am not releasing my critical email addresses to people/companies I don’t trust.
- Use an email form instead of exposing your email address on your web pages.
- Never respond to spam. Remember, all these spammers need is a handful of responders for their spamming activities to be worthwhile.
You can further install an anti-spam program onto your computer to help you scan emails in your POP mail client. McAfee Spam Killer is one of such programs.
Posted in Email + Open Source + Spam + Spyware & Adware | No Comments »
