I've concluded that my favorite smtp server is postfix. I recently switched from courier-mta to postfix on my main server, and I couldn't be happier with the switch. Courier isn't actually all that bad, but it is definitely... quirky. I remember the first time I set it up it too me over a week to tweak all the 'bofh' options (i'm not making that up) and get mail flowing properly in and out. Postfix, on the other hand, is as easy as pie to configure. I had already been using postfix on my backup mail servers, so creating a config file for my main server took no longer than 15 minutes.

Posted by ra in computerish at 23:19 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

It's not as much to do with MT itself (I actually think it's nice and easy to use), as it is my dislike of six apart and how they conduct their business. The whole free, no-longer-free, free-again licensing fiasco aside; I have to say that six apart's delivery of MT sucks, at least from an administrator's point of view.

Like any other public-facing software package (read: potential compromise point/attack vector) on my server, I keep track of updates to movable type. Although some new versions are just feature-releases, there are a fair number of important security fixes that must be addressed. For most software packages on my server, I rely heavily on announce-only mailing lists to find out about security-related releases, and to a lesser extent, on RSS feeds and webpages. When I started looking for a movable type mailing list, I came up empty handed. I eventually found one hosted at sixapart.com, and I signed up. To make a long story short, the list turned out to be defunct, even though it was still active on their website and accepted new subscriptions. I emailed the list owner about the list, who happened to be one of six apart's co-founders, but never received a reply.

Posted by ra in tech at 01:30 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I hate it when I start typing a long query in the mysql client (mysql command-line interface) and then I realize that I'm not ready to run it yet or that I need to run a different query first. I either have to hit backspace 137 times, or I sometimes hit ctrl-c thinking I am using a bash shell; which of course kills mysqlclient, requiring me to reconnect.

Fortunately, I've finally found some shortcut key sequences to solve this problem, as well as some other useful tips. (these shortcuts also work in bash)

ctrl-w - 'cut' the word before cursor
ctrl-u 'cut' all input before cursor
ctrl-y 'paste' cut text

alt-f - move forward one word
alt-b - move backwards one word
ctrl-a - move cursor to the begining of the line
ctrl-b - move backwards one character
ctrl-e - move cursor to the end of the line
ctrl-f - move forward one character
ctrl-h - deletes one letter at a time (backspace)
ctrl-l - clear screen
ctrl-r - search previous queries

Posted by ra in tech at 00:16 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)