Donnie’s Blog

Today I installed postgrey to see if I could cut down the amount of spam that my mailserver receives. It is really pretty annoying to get all this spam, and then to have to review my junk folder to make sure it really is spam.

Postgrey is a greylisting service. The idea is simple: When an e-mail arrives, my mailserver will tell the remote server that the local recipient (i.e. me) isn’t available, but try again in five minutes. Normal mailservers will dutifully try back again in five minutes, and the mail will be let through. Spam servers, on the other hand, generally ignore such responses since they are too busy annoying other people by that point.

It will be interesting to see how well this works! I especially hope I don’t miss any important e-mails, but it’s not like I get a lot of e-mails anyway…

You may have noticed that my website has changed a bit. I upgraded my installation of Wordpress. The biggest reason why is that I was just getting sick of all the spam comments. I had quite a list of blacklist words, and it was getting annoying, fighting that battle. The newest version of Wordpress is supposed to have some very slick features for dealing with spam, so we will see how it goes.

Hopefully I won’t have accidentally opened up any new security holes…

I still need to update my Gallery installation too, so that integration will be missing for a while.

Today I ate at Lucky Boy for the first time. This is really strange since I went to both high school and college only a few miles away from the place, and I was often up very late at night. Oh well; not knowing how tasty the food is has probably preserved decades of my lifespan.

I got the double cheeseburger, and I think it definitely rates in the top 3 hamburgers that I have ever eaten. Yes, I have a rating system, and yes, I really do keep track of such silly things.

Considering only tastiness, the rating is:

1. Monster Burger (Red Robin)
2. 1/2 lb. Double Cheeseburger (Lucky Boy)
3. 1/2 lb. Cheeseburger (Tops)

However, I think that Lucky Boy’s burger probably shortens your life more, so taking health into account:

1. Monster Burger (Red Robin)
2. 1/2 lb. Cheeseburger (Tops)
3. 1/2 lb. Double Cheeseburger (Lucky Boy)

(Yes, after 30 you start taking health into account…)

I won’t bore you with the rest of the list. Not in this post, anyway…

So, I got my little convertible when I was a senior in college. I had just gotten my official offer letter from Microsoft, and I triumphantly took it to the dealership and demanded a car. That was back in June of 1998.

Today, in April of 2007, I just discovered that I could lock my trunk so that it can’t be opened using the lever inside the car. I accidentally turned the key the wrong way and discovered that the lock responded positively to this “abuse.” Curious, I tried the lever in the car, and lo and behold, the trunk stayed securely closed.

I don’t think that knowing this would have made my life any easier in the last 9 years. There were never any times where I thought to myself, “Boy, if only I could lock my trunk shut.” But I have to admit that it is a little embarrassing that I didn’t realize my car could do that until just now.

I just hope I’m not missing anything really cool that my car can do…