Jason’s Random Thoughts

It’s amazing how something as simple as a printer can change our opinion on a technology but, in the case of webmail, this is exactly what’s happened.

Webmail has been relatively popular for half-a-dozen years. Hotmail, Yahoo!Mail and GMail have all enjoyed huge levels of success due to their simplicity and accessibility. As the internet became available in more places, people benefited from the ability to send, read and access their email from almost any location around the world. No longer was it necessary to carry around a notebook, or configure an email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird to access a POP3 or IMAP account somewhere. Within 30 seconds of creating an account with one of the big three providers, people would be emailing their friends and gleefully receiving spam.

But I didn’t like it. Not only was it possible for someone to look over our shoulder and grab our login information, but this required an incredible amount of trust on the part of the email providers. They will keep a copy of every email we’ve sent or received. If we were developing a new technology or otherwise passing along sensitive information via email (just because it shouldn’t be done, doesn’t mean it isn’t), then these organizations could theoretically take it and put the technology to use before anyone else.

Perhaps I’m just a little too paranoid.

However, for this reason, I’ve often preferred to use an email client such as Microsoft Outlook to handle my emailing and scheduling needs. It’s always worked well with my PDAs, whether Palm or Windows Mobile based, and the only disk space limitations I would face would be the amount of hard disk I have available on my PCs. That said, this is no longer a viable option … I need to send emails from work, now. Rather than start up a GMail account or make use of Hotmail, though, I’d much rather install a webmail application on my web server, where it could be used not only by me, but several people who also have email accounts with me.

Before this intro gets too much longer, I should mention that I do often send email via my HP iPaq. However, now that I am taking on new roles with my employer, I need to send and receive attachments through my email account. This just isn’t very workable with my PDA, which requires me to go outside to “borrow” a nearby hotel’s open WiFi connection. To that end, I needed to install a webmail client that was both versatile and easy to use. I’ve worked with SquirrelMail and Horde in the past, but nothing was quite so fun to work with as RoundCube.

The RoundCube Webmail Project

RoundCube is a browser-based IMAP webmail client with great multi-lingual support and an application-like interface. Like most full-featured email clients, it has support for MIME, spell checking, an address book, folders, message searching and more. The application is written in PHP and, like many other PHP-based applications, requires a MySQL database. What’s really nice is that the interface is fully customizable, and can be redesigned with standard XHTML and CSS2.

Although still in beta, the application is pretty stable. Rarely have I ever had a problem with it and, when I have, it was usually a small minor thing like having a “Message Cannot be Moved” message when organizing my archives. This would usually be resolved by a simple refresh of the screen.

Currently, RoundCube is at version 0.2 Alpha 1 but, I should mention, this version will not work on MidPhase severs unless you can modify the php.ini file. The issue seems to be with the “magic_quotes_gpc” setting, as MidPhase has this set at 1 by default. Unfortunately, RoundCube needs this to be set at 0.

Luckily, there are ways to get around this. In my case, I used a previous release of RoundCube. Version 0.1 to be exact. SourceForge has the previous releases, or you can download the version I had used from my server here.

Now the easy part … create a subdomain called “roundcube” or whatever you’d like, and upload the files. I wouldn’t use the names of “mail” or “webmail”, though. mail.yoursite.com is used as the mail server, and webmail.yoursite.com could be filtered out by commercial filtering programs. This is the case with my employer, so I went with roundcube.j2fi.net.

You’ll need to create a MySQL database, and you can call this whatever you’d like. It would also be a good idea to create a new login and grant it full access to the new database.

Next, open the db.inc.php.dist file in the config folder, and enter your database information. Be sure to save this as db.inc.php afterwards, otherwise you’ll receive an error. The same is said for the main.inc.php file. Although it’s not absolutely necessary, you may want to update the main.inc file for your preferences as well.

From here you’ll want to create the MySQL data tables (this is not an automatic process … yet). The code to create the tables is found in the SQL directory. Open the file that best describes your database (in the case of MidPhase users, it would be the mysql5.initial.sql file) and run that code against your new database. This can be done either in phpMyAdmin or something better like Query Browser.

Be sure to make sure that you have a “logs” and “temp” directory in your webmail directory, and these directories are writable. RoundCube uses these two directories quite a bit, and you won’t get very far without being able to write to these places. That said, you don’t want to grant full access to these directories (or the “config” directory) as this could be a security risk. Instead, be sure that the directories have 755 permissions.

One thing I should also mention is the default maximum file size for attachments. This is controlled through the .htaccess file and is set to 2 Meg by default. You can increase this to whatever size is necessary. I’ve pushed it right up to 25 and have not yet run into a problem. That said, I’m not sure if you’d want to put this number *too* high, as there are very few email servers that’ll handle messages of this size.

Once all of this is done, you’ll be able to visit roundcube.site.com/installer/ (or just roundcube.site.com if you’re using version 0.1) and follow the on-screen prompts.

I’ll admit that the first time I had installed this application, it was a little tricky. However, now that it’s all set and in place, I’m quite happy to have made the small jump. I’m now in the process of moving over every email I’ve received since 1997 to my private webmail account, and this will likely spell the end for Microsoft Outlook on my machine. It’s been fun while it’s lasted, but carrying my notebook everywhere is just not an option anymore.

I’ll be sure to update this post for future releases of RoundCube.

Have you installed RoundCube or another webmail client on your web server? Did you run into any unexpected problems?

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It’s funny how our priorities change over time. A decade ago I would sink nearly every spare dime into my computers, eventually building a machine withover $7000 in components installed, not including all the extra peripherals one would expect to see on an over-powered custom-built workstation. As time wore on, though, having the biggest and fastest became less important. Digital sex appeal took a back seat to functionality.

Now, aside from adding computer RAM, it seems as though people are realizing that we don’t need the biggest and fastest computers in the world. Technology continues to advance, but the software is often perfectly capable of running on a five or six year old PC. But can the same be said for the Mac?

The Tiny iMac

A friend of mine recently told me about some trouble he was having with his 3 year old iMac. Since updating some of his software, the whole system has slowed down to the point where he can’t even open Safari in under 2 minutes. He had gone to a local computer retailer and picked up some RAM but, after installing the modules into the tiny wannabe-of-a-computer, the darn thing wouldn’t boot. Not knowing why, and not willing to pay for a retailer to fix the issue, he asked me for advice. Having experienced something like this in the mid-1990’s with an IBM, I gave him the most probable cause I could think of: he needs to add iMac memory.

It’s funny how the tiniest things can leave the deepest scars. When a computer just won’t boot after we have our hands inside, it can take a bit to go back in. Luckily, the upgrade process is far simpler now than it was in 1996.

In the case of my friend’s 17″ iMac, he needed only to take the bottom panel off his computer, and slip the RAM module into the available memory slot.

The Wife’s Next

My Reiko has been complaining about the responsiveness –or, more accurately, the lack thereof — on her own machine. While it would certainly be logical to replace the ageing desktop with a brand new notebook, it would be far more ecologically and financially friendly to buy some DDR PC2700 memory and bring the archaic calculator up to a Gig of RAM. Considering what she uses the PC for, this simple act would undoubtedly extend the life of her computer by another year or two.

Just like the iMac, upgrading her machine is a simple matter of adding some DIMMs. Her PC is just a simple Sotec and, although it’s not necessarily easy to upgrade the key components of the computer, the RAM slots are incredibly accessible. Heck, I still remember taking apart my old IBM 386 to the nuts and bolts just to reach the two 30-pin SIMM modules (if anyone remembers such things anymore). It’s nice to see that things are not quite as difficult as they used to be.

All this said, one thing that really bugs me about this whole process is just how cheap computer components have become over the last five years. Back in the day, a simple RAM upgrade required half a paycheque and at least two bloody knuckles. But those days are long gone. Now, for less than $300, many people can add another three or four years of life to their existing computers, saving these incredible machines from the scrap pile.

Although this goes against my understanding of how “the market” works, I won’t complain about the lack of non-recyclable stuff ending up in our landfills.

What do you do when your computer slows down? Is it better to buy new, or update and re-use old systems?

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With all the competition in the web hosting market, you’d think that companies would be working tirelessly to maintain a 99.9% uptime and offering superior services for rock bottom prices. However, for reasons I can’t understand, most hosting companies lean more towards offering sub-par services for premium prices. Luckily, there are some companies that recognize the importance of the service-to-price ratio. Canadian Webhosting is just one example of this.

Before going too far, I should tell you that Canadian Webhosting has asked me to review their site and, after a quick glance at their offerings, I’m quite happy to promote a Canadian business. Although I am Canadian, my web server is located in Chicago. Why? Because Canadian hosting companies are notorious for overcharging their customers. If I were to host my sites on a server within my home country, it would be 60-150% more expensive than the American competition. However, it seems that Canadian Webhosting is not like the home-grown competition … they can actually compete with the world.

Verifiable Uptime

Uptime can make or break a website, which means that this alone should be the top consideration. Price is pointless if your site has fallen off the internet, as are other benefits such as storage space, data transfer, databases and subdomains. Customers need to pay close attention to uptime guarantees and verify any sales pitch that sounds too good to be true. Some hosting companies will promise a 99.9% uptime, but fail to tell us that uptime is defined as “a server is running.” If the server is functional, but it can’t access the internet, the site is down. Period. Canadian Webhosting understands this.

I’ve checked around for reports of downtime with this company, but there isn’t one negative word about them. You’d think there’d be one complaint after ten years of business, yet there isn’t a peep. This alone sounds too good to be true but, when a company has great people, machines rarely have major problems.

Service-to-Price Ratios

As with any business, the cost of a service and value-add options can make or break you. Most of the better quality providers online are currently offering decent starter packages in the $8/month range, and Canadian Webhosting is no different. What is different, though, is the package detail.

For $8.95 CDN a month (when prepaying for 2+ years), site owners can host an unlimited number of websites, MySQL databases, and subdomains. Email packages come equipped with spam filtering at no extra charge, and can be accessed via your preferred POP3/IMAP client, or online through a web client of your choice. To sweeten the deal, you receive a $25 Google credit, and access to 50+ preinstalled scripts. This makes setting up new sites a snap for anyone that might not have extensive knowledge setting up a PHP/MySQL site “the hard way.”

Of course, cheaper plans are available but, for the sake of a few dollars a month, customers have a Terabyte of transfer every month, and 125 Gigs of storage available. If you opt for a bigger package, you get 3.5 Terabytes of transfer, 300 Gig of storage, a dedicated IP and support for Ruby on Rails.

Want something a little more Microsoft? They have Windows Server-based solutions available as well. I spent quite a bit of time looking at all the different offerings. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed.

Home Field Advantage

The .ca extension isn’t too popular for obvious reasons, but it seems to be incredibly difficult to obtain when working with a foreign web host. I have several .ca sites, and I can say with absolute certainty that most ordinary people will not go through the hassle of buying one and setting it up unless it’s part of a package deal. Luckily, the great people at Canadian Webhosting can do this for us.

To be completely honest, I’m really impressed with Canadian Webhosting. This is a Canadian company that is actually able to compete with web hosts in other nations. Considering the number of sites I have with .ca extensions, and how many more I’ll likely have by the end of this year, I’d be daft to ignore this company. They do offer free site transferring, which would be a great time saver if it means I don’t have to transfer MX records and upload 18 gigabytes of data across 12 websites and 19 subdomains.

If you’re looking for a great webhost, want something hosted in Canada, or some combination of the two, be sure to give Canadian Webhosting a go.

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The Lull must be in full swing because it’s that time of year when memes are flying through the blogosphere. Mike recently tagged me with one on “8 Random Facts” and, while this won’t be my first, it might be fun to share some Would’a, Could’a, Didn’t stories. Besides, what better place to share all the funny little errors in judgment we might have made than the interwebs?

So, without further delay, here are the 8 random facts that contributed to my not having a million dollars:

1. 6 Months of Pain - From 1998 to 2002 I owned and operated a small computer company in Southern Ontario. The advantages I sold to customers included “after-hours service” and a computer designed specifically for the buyer.

The way it worked was quite simple. People would set up an appointment, either by phone or online, and I would meet them at their home, work or somewhere else to talk about their needs. From there, I would suggest a specific computer and we’d work out the final configuration from there. Most machines could be assembled and delivered within 3 days and, if a customer wanted to watch me build and configure their computer while explaining what everything does, I would do the work in their home. This alone allowed me to win over dozens of clients. But, alas, it wasn’t to last.

In 2002 I had a run of very demanding customers. Because my company lived by word-of-mouth, I needed to work twice as hard to win these people over. Unfortunately, that never happened. Regardless of what services I offered, these clients refused to say ‘thank you’ and accused me of ripping them off. At one point I was almost sued until I showed that, for these particular customers, I was only making a 0.7% profit after everything was said and done. By the time they stopped calling, I discovered that I had lost $80 with each computer sale between January and May.

Good thing I had a full time job elsewhere.

2. Walked Away From the Table - Well … It was a slot machine, but why argue semantics. In 2002 I was playing the slots at a casino for several hours with a girlfriend (if you can even call such a sloth a ‘girl’), but was coming up empty with every pull. After calling it quits, a lady in her late 60’s sat down to pick up where I left off. Two minutes later, the klaxon was blaring and she was $23,750 richer.

This was also the last time I ever played in a casino.

3. Didn’t Take the Job - I was offered a programming/DBA job at an online startup in 2004, but didn’t take the job. At the time I was really short on cash and didn’t want to quit my steady job for such a risky venture. Now that startup has revenues in excess of $300-million a year and the owner is known to be very generous with loyal employees.

4. Dropped the Wrong Domain - Who knew that one of the first domains I had ever owned would become a popular name in Germany? I didn’t. So when I found out that I lost a decent sale of a domain by not renewing it, I wasn’t too impressed.

5. Didn’t Buy a Ticket - I’m terrible with lotteries. In 10 years, I’ve managed to “win” about $50 after sinking a good $4000+ into the system. To this end, I stopped playing a month before moving to Japan. Two weeks later 6 of my 7 numbers were pulled. Total prize? $437,680. Number of winners? Zero. I would have taken the whole pool.

6. Didn’t Pitch the Idea - Skateboarding was a big thing when I was in school, but I could never do it. To make up for this deficiency, I made a little toy that would let me “fingerboard.” This is to say, one could skateboard on a table with their fingers in some make-believe world. The idea became popular in my school and it was still “cool” a year later. The following summer, I was watching TV and saw an advertisement for a plastic finger skateboard … it was the same thing I had invented years before when I was 9.

7. Got Bored - You wouldn’t know it by looking at my stick figures today, but I used to be an artist. Heck, I even managed to score a few commissions and earn several thousand dollars while in high school. Several people spoke quite highly of the work, but I never thought it was good enough for the money paid. Unfortunately, I became bored with the work and looked for a new challenge….

8. Didn’t Write The App - In 1998 I was quite frustrated with how difficult it was to get my hands on new anime episodes. Back then, everything was done over IRC with XDCC servers or FTPs. I had thought about writing an application like Kazaa as a way to “force leechers to share,” but never put the code down. Napster and other applications hit the web soon after, but it was too late for me to get in there.

I will not make the same mistake with Embink.

So there you have it. Eight random facts on a very specific topic. The funny thing about this list, though, is that one might think I’m a pathetic and luckless loser. But this couldn’t be further from the truth … I’m not completely luckless
Heck, if I was a complete loser, I never would have been able to move to Japan, marry my Reiko, or keep going past the age of 25. Sure, there have been some lost opportunities, but it’s not enough to keep me from trying in the future.

To keep this meme going, I’d like to tag Nick from RomanDock, Nick from Anything Goes!, and MsDanielle.

Here are the rules:
1. People who are tagged need to write a post containing 8 random facts about themselves.
2. At the end of the post you should name several other bloggers to be tagged.
3. Leave a comment for the bloggers and link to your own post.

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The Chicago Tribune recently ran an article discounting a position held by long-time comedian-turned-sociologist Bill Cosby that rap music and hip-hop culture is partly to blame for the “moral breakdown of the family” unit. Associate Professor at the Chicago State University, Yan Dominic Searcy, cuts right to the chase in the piece and, oddly enough, his position almost mirrors my own when it comes to the validity of Cosby’s recent book, “Come On People: On the Path From Victims to Victors,” co-authored by Alvin Poussaint.

I read this book a few weeks after it was published and, after just a few dozen pages, I was left scratching my head over the content. I’ve read dozens of sociology books on the subject of racial poverty in various countries, and to say that rap music is to blame for the state of America is about as insightful as saying cream cheese is responsible for America’s obesity epidemic. Sure, people who listen to rap music might go out and commit the same type of crimes they hear about in music or engage in various sexual activities with others, but most people won’t. Why not? Because the average person is smarter than this.

I’ve been listening to rap music since the early 90’s. I remember a time when LL Cool J sent ripples through the industry by saying “I don’t give a damn” in his hit Let Your Backbone Slide. We’ve come a long way since then, with artists like Eminem saying “I don’t give a fuck,” and 50 Cent talking about how “suckin’ his dick is the real career move.” But does such explicit language really corrupt today’s listeners?

In a word: no.

Twenty years of hip-hop has given me, a typical lower-class white man, some insight into another lifestyle in an entertaining and creative way. I’m not going to grab a gun, round up a posse and settle a score. I’m not going to go club-hopping to pick up sexually over-charged women who think it’s better to get through life on their back than with their brains. I’m not even going to flaunt any wealth I might acquire in an attempt to impress others or inspire envy. Though the music certainly “speaks to me,” it doesn’t control me.

Music Reflects Reality

Eminem said it best in Sing for the Moment that “music is a reflection of self” and “we just explain it, and then we get our checks in the mail.” Rap and hip-hop doesn’t alter reality, it reflects reality.

Many of the truly talented artists grew up in adversity. Violence. Police harassment. Poverty. Drugs. Sex. We’ve all heard time again that if we really want to excel in something, talk about something we know. Well, guess what, Bill? These people are talking about what they’ve been through and what’s still going on in communities all over the world. Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Dr. Dre would not have gotten anywhere singing about responsibility, education, or building self-esteem with some lyrically twisted version of John Lennon-esque communal enlightenment. If the communities affected by violence, crime and excessive youthful promiscuity really want to change rap music, they need to change reality.

Of course, this is not something easily done, and would require a whole lot more than just a change in the lyrical lexicon.

Leave Sociology to the Sociologists

Societies have had problems since their inception billions of years ago, and are not limited to human societies alone. That said, the view Cosby and Poussaint portray is not one that should be published in books. Before reaching the halfway point of Cosby’s cynical compilation of condescendingly colourless crap, I was wondering why this was published in a book rather than on a blog. The statistical numbers that are quoted are so obviously tweaked to make it sound as though teen pregnancy, murders, and drug consumption is at an all-time high that you’d have to be daft to take it at face value. As Searcy points out, these issues have been on the decline since the 1970’s … an era that both Mr. Cosby and Poussaint should remember well.

Social ills are so complex and difficult to categorize that it cannot be solved with one grand solution. I completely understand that both Cosby and Poussaint want to see poverty-stricken individuals, regardless of ‘race’, make something better of themselves. But to put the blame on one subject, while ignoring the bigger picture, is an insult to every person that has read their book or lives in the ghetto. I’m a semi-educated white male who has never had to live through these conditions, but even I can see music is not the sole culprit, if one at all.

Sociology should be left to the sociologists. If the rest of us have an opinion, it should be said online rather than paper. There are just too many opinions and not enough fact making it into print recently, which only cheapens the value of books.

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