I don’t really toss and turn over stuff like the geopolitical situation, or the results of the You’re The One That I Want television program. Right now, the thing that’s getting under my skin is the fact that Thunderbird apparently can’t keep itself functional for more than five minutes when doing something demanding.
What’s really amazing is that my server’s local Dovecot IMAP daemon is a more efficient, stable, and fast manager of e-mail than Thunderbird’s local hard drive storage.
I don’t have cataclysmic issues with Thunderbird’s IMAP client capability. From the data integrity perspective, I don’t like that deleting a message actually copies and recreates it in another folder (“Trash”), while only marking the message for deletion in the original folder (in IMAP, marking for deletion doesn’t mean the message doesn’t exist…yes, it’s weird).
Then, you have to mark the thing for deletion out of trash and “expunge” the dang thing (that’s how you get rid of a marked message), or I think Empty Trash consolidates those two operations into one inconvenient one.
But I digress. So, anyway, I’m copying all my local storage over to my new server, so that I can get to my stored e-mail from anywhere inside my LAN, and in the future anywhere over SSL web mail. And, it’s actually faster and more stable than my hard drive.
On a broad basis, ranges of IP addresses (item #2 in image) are grouped by “class”: classes A, B, and C. A typical network configuration is class C, like 192.168.1.X. It’s class C because you can only change the last number. Class B networks let you change the last two numbers, and Class A networks let you change the last three numbers (all but the first one).
I could have done a class A network (since this is a private, non-Internet range of IPs), but I decided to do two varying numbers because I have no need for a third one (just too complex…something like 253^3 possible computers on the network).
So, all my IPs are in the form 10.1.X.Y. This way, I can group routers on 10.1.1.X, servers on 10.1.2.X, known hosts on 10.1.3.X, printers on 10.1.4.X, and unknown (DHCP pool) hosts on 10.1.5.X.
Dropping Slackware 11.0 on the new box, so you now know that all is well in the end.
I had a bit of an odyssey to get to this point, and I can’t say it’s quite over yet. I can say that it has been a lot of fun, and for the most part I kept my cool through all of it.
My problems began when I couldn’t locate my screwdrivers for the build. The Phillips I have is perfectly sized for computer screws, and the one I had to borrow was not quite the same level of perfection. But it all worked.
The next big challenge was the size of my case, which is – of course – small. I mean small. So, there was a lot of wrangling. Like micro-screwdrivers unscrewing mounting brackets on power cord sockets just to get a motherboard screw in. Very challenging, delicate work.
Then, I was pretty dang sure after all that work that my motherboard was DOA. But, it turned out the generic power cord for my external AC power supply brick was actually the culprit, so that was an easy, RMA-avoiding $7.99 fix.
I used a voltmeter to figure that out, by the way.
Then, I figured out that I didn’t have a VGA patch cable to be able to use my monitor. RadioShack solved that problem for me.
Then, I figure out that the VIA BIOS doesn’t really enjoy USB keyboards natively (they work fine after an OS has loaded drivers). So, I need one of those blasted USB-to-PS/2 adapters that you get all the time and never carry to school with you.
But, it’s all doable.
NetBSD gets dropped on, which I thought might be a load of fun. Well, I’m not going to say “Boy, was I wrong,” but I also am not going to proclaim it a perfect fit. It’s…terse, perhaps. A bit outdated in terms of satisfying even an extremely conservative Linux semi-veteran.
I had to re-drop it in order to get a shell that allowed me to use backspace, for example (a non-standard option). Let alone all the control codes that were spraying onto the screen whenever I pressed tab for filename completion or an up arrow for history search.
I’m watching the n/ package series come on with Slackware now (which most people would consider conservative enough to be unusable these days), and I couldn’t be happier with the choice. Even though NetBSD has a bit of that “just works” effect when you play by their rules, it just isn’t quite worth the hassle for something that’s supposed to be fun. Maybe next time.
I’m strongly considering NetBSD for my server OS, the night before the afternoon everything comes from Newegg. I’ve used it before, and for something like what I’m doing it’s just about perfect (no multimedia, no monitor, established server software).
The portability peccadilloes of Solaris make it not quite feasible for my VIA chipset, but NetBSD—aside from not having ZFS—give me that similar awesome server feel I’ve been hoping for. I think it will be a good project, at least to try. I can always go back to Slackware.
Those who are around me for large portions of my “down time” know that I am an avid technical reading enthusiast, meaning that I have devised a clever-sounding term for masochistically poring over countless pages of systems documentation under the guise of preparation for various “projects,” of which perhaps only 20% even are begun past the conceptual planning phase.
At this point, alas, my “Home Toaster” project has been declared effectively successful, meaning that anything that hasn’t been done can be done, or has been done. Either way, I’ve decided that anything I haven’t done doesn’t merit doing until I actually make the stupid server. If that makes sense.
Since many of you are becoming hungry for a Pop Tart™ at this point, I must explain that the home toaster has virtually nothing to do with delicious pastries hot and fresh from your toaster. My experience with the server administrator lexicon comes from perhaps definition #2 from here and, regrettably more specifically, this one.
But I hate qmail, so I’m ignoring that its author coined the term in basically the same respect as I’m using it.
My toaster is a nice little Slackware 11.0 install that invokes more of Pat’s famed Better Judgment than I have ever before been able to use. In that, it picks up more of the Slackware default “equipment” than I have ever found cause to use in the mail server world.
The rundown is as follows:
Sendmail, the famed senior Great Satan of all mail servers (SMTP), in a bit of an “appliance mode,” if the cursed thing has something that simple. Sendmail accepts messages originating from the local machine (think: web form submits on the local Apache [see way below] or simply me just screwing around with localhost-originated mail). It also picks up mail from fetchmail (also see below) and hands it off to procmail (see below…sorry) for equally stupid and monolithic delivery.
The “appliance mode” idea comes from the concept of a smart host, which means that any mail my machine is stumped as to how to deliver (like, mail with a destination of gmail), is simply passed on to our ISP’s mail server for “smart” processing.
The anti-everything vitriol comes from being a fully converted, Bible-thumping Postfix and maildrop user. But neither of these come with Slackware, and they’re a bit much for the job I’m doing.
Procmail, the famed senior Great Satan of local delivery agents (LDAs), doing nothing but dropping mail into the home directory in the much-beloved maildir format.
Dovecot, compiled from source (no native Slackware package), as the much-beloved maildir-compliant IMAP, IMAPs(ecure), POP3, and POP3s server. Dovecot serves up the mail to webmail and Outlook/Thunderbird. My router will only export IMAPs and POP3s, since I want to be speaking SSL outside the LAN.
Fetchmail, which is a cute little program that connects to POP3 and IMAP servers and downloads mail to the local system, passing it to the local SMTP server (Sendmail) for local delivery. This system allows for the consolidation of a set of personal inboxes into a single inbox, available anywhere via webmail or IMAP/POP3.
Apache, MySQL, PHP + RoundCube, which has been mentioned on this blog. RoundCube speaks to Dovecot and displays my e-mail with AJAX-y fanciness. It also originates mail through my lovely Sendmail instance.
RoundCube is beautiful. It uses the native PHP IMAP library provided by IlohaMail, which is my non-AJAX pick for PHP webmail.
Samba, for file sharing that speaks the native MS SMB (Server Message Block) protocol, which we all know and love as File and Printer sharing. The concept is a personal P: drive and a family-wide S: drive.
Various FTP, SSH, rsync, and other remote-access provisions for hobbying around, making backups, and running the server without a monitor.
I’ve taken too much time and space here, but suffice it to say that this was such a fun project I have been seeking to re-open its file and make it more complicated for fun.
The end of this video is rated “Fox Network Prime Time” with regards to language, but if you can take it, it’s funny. Especially for those of us with musical backgrounds in those funny, big instruments that play bass clef music.
And I don’t care what the directors say, the trombone was not meant to play on the tenor clef. I hated that clef so much.
Would I buy an iPhone for $499 + a 2 year Cingular data contract? Nope.
Would I drool all over my keyboard reading about the iPhone and imagining all that delicious technology making its way into a more Blood Money-appropriate device?
Just heading to bed now, but I’ve had a few thoughts on my mind that seemed to merit a cursory mention.
1. Cluster is not dead, and it is certainly not finished. EZ-E is taking a judiciously-designed break in order to modify his thoughts based on his experience of The Fountain, which like my tumultuous relationship with The Counting Crows’ ”’Round Here,” destroyed all forms of art as he once knew them. Cluster 2.0 will follow at some point, with Meta being the appointed (somewhat undemocratically) as the starter of the story.
2. I have been mulling over this idea to create a separate website to provide a Web 2.0-type collection of “Colorful Idioms.” I’m not talking Tarantino fare here. In fact, much of the idioms I have noted so far have a tendency to avoid obscenity.
This grew out of a roommate conversation, in which various forms of “Southern” lingo were thrown about, with many comparisons and contrasts made based on personal experience and various word origin discussions. Examples (not necessarily mine) such as: “colder than a well-digger’s butt [in the winter]”, “nuckin’ futs” (thanks, Cluster), and “kicking butt and taking names” were all thrown about in various modifications.
Yes, obscenity will arise. But there could be a filtration system, peer-moderated. Pretty simple DB work with a Google-spartan UI. No fancy highlights and DHTML animation here. Just a usable system.
I consider some sort of Slashdot-esque Karma system for “author ratings”, with some RPI-like (as in, BCS-like strength-of-schedule) composite of site participation/citizenship (Slashdot moderation/metamoderation), ratings from peers (a la Digg, etc.), and a strength-to-noise ratio measuring how “well” your terms tend to do.
I know this is turning into a name-dropping bonanza, but a Flickr-like tagging system would allow taxonomy with no moderator-implied structure.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, if one hasn’t noticed. You might say, “Why not UrbanDictionary?” Because Urban Dictionary has a buttload of funny stuff buried in noise. Definitions of individual words are ranked and prioritized, but it’s hard to get to a good or even mediocre one like the definition of O Canada when you have do deal with total excrement like this sullying the whole experience with some clumsy inside joke.
Digg does it right by allowing the noise but only displaying the signal. If you make it easy to bury stupid stuff, or even uninteresting stuff, people will do it. The value of the network will multiply.
I would be happy to entertain thoughts and doomsayers on this one.
