Good luck with the book!!!

I can't wait to get my hands on the new LOTR!
And good luck on your book.

Your website rocks.

Dude! Your fractals link is blown cheese! Check it!

Wil all the links in this post are broken

Those fractals are beautiful. Best of luck with the book. Personally I'm trying to participate in NaNoWriMo and having a very difficult time of it. Can't imagine trying to write a real book.

Yes, people, the links are broken due to what looks like a wee error, but it's easy enough to get to the pages anyway.

>> I’m putting my time into finishing my book this week.

Bring it.

Sixth Post!

Doh!

ooo this is the closest i've been to the top!lol

Enjoy your trip?

I love salmon.

looking forward to the book, should be a great read. I'm also glad you are getting the good version of lotr, i will also be purchasing it to. Have a great day!

Argh.

See, I compose offline all the time, and cut-n-paste into MT to update.

I usually use gedit, or some other simple text program, but I was sitting on my patio, enjoying the strangely warm November morning, writing on my iBook in Appleworks.

Turns out Appleworks replaces lots of "special characters" with codes.

Grumble. Stupid computers.

Well, the links should work now.

Must have Lord of the Rings DVD set....
*drools*
And a towel, too

friends don't let friends use sendmail.

http://www.postfix.org/

Ooh don't use sendmail! It's evil!

Use qmail: http://www.qmail.org/

Sendmail will give you nothing but headaches, I learned this the hard way ;)

Hey Wil, Not to get technical and geeky and all...but isn't this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0395489326/qid=1037128342/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-9422529-3194328?v=glance&s=books) the GOOD version of the LoTR? It's even UNabridged unlike the movie. :)

those fractals are cool...i'd like a whole room covered with them!

The fractals are way cool! Thanks for the update about MacRadio, I will definitely check it out. So glad that Finally after months of waiting LOTR is available. If there are die hard fans here check out
http://www.tolkiengathering.com

I can't contact the owner of the fractals page, but was wondering if he'd be adverse to me printing them? I'm not going to sell them or anything, I just want to get them on cardstock and use them for custom covers for journals for a couple of writers on my Xmas list.

Sendmail?

Most in the know would recommend Postfix, Qmail, or exim (depending on, well, variaus issues). Sendmail's got a bad reputation for exploits--think IIS. IIRC, the Moris worm was a Sendmail exploit (for what it's worth).

Just my two cents.

Others have already mentioned the evilness of sendmail. Their suggestions are fine, but I thought I should mention my favorite MTA: Exim. It's highly configurable yet very simple, and just works.

My anti-spam solution is "Active Spam Killer" (http://www.paganini.net/ask/) which I've used for almost a year now and has worked perfectly.

Wil uses an iBook? SWEET !!!!!
Does that make him a switcher???
Welcome to ou team, we're glad to have you.

Here's a pro sysadmin vote for procmail (having said that, I haven't ever tried out exim). I was actually doing this work at the time of the aforementioned Morris worm, and strangely enough, I've steered clear of sendmail ever since. Unfair, since that was nearly 14 years ago? Sure, but the general design philosophy of sendmail (monolith process, maximum privileges) hasn't much changed, so.

For spam, I use procmail and bogofilter, one of the Bayesian analysis filters. It's...interesting, at least.

Wouldn't you know the first time I said anything on your blog it would be something work-related?

I'm going to Atlanta tomorrow.

Don't use AppleWorks... one word: BBEdit! http://www.barebones.com. You can get a demo, lite or the real thing. One you go BB, you won't go back.
Also, check out all the web services hooks into MT. Try Versiontracker. I don't use 'em myself (got my own PHP system) but I know there are some who are doing some totally slick stuff with blogging with MT. One more note: NetNewsWire from http://www.ranchero.com - Oh heck one more note: Watson from karelia.com - These are the tools that make the Internet your slave.

So that's what I need to get my but in gear on this writing thing... a tree in a park.

Can't wait for the book!

Good luck on it Wil. I have the email from my domain routed to a server outside my home network, then poll with fetchmail to bring it inside. I'm way too paranoid to expose that much of a home server beyond my firewall. Then again, over the years, I've had to deal with way too many mail-based system attacks. ;-) I can't speak for Mandrake, but the latest distribution from Redhat and some others defaults sendmail to only listen to the localhost (lo) and ignore external networks so you might need to check sendmail.mc or the dist. release notes as a prelim.

procmail is a MDA, not a MTA. exim and postfix are both decent free MTAs. For delivery I use mailfilter (part of Courier), though if you're a Perl person I've heard good things about Mail::Audit.

Just don't sit under a tree. Appealing as it may sound, there are lots of things that could go wrong (e.g. a bird deciding at that very moment that it's bowel is just TOO full; you sit in the exact spot where a dog has just followed the birds example, etc).
Gotta ask, going barefoot?

BLARG! The good version of lord of the rings ey? Didnt know there was a bad one. heh

Welcome to the Mac world!

I see a few people already mentioned NetNewsWire Lite - I have it running all the time & I can see in my dock when anything has been updated.

For a web browser, check out Chimera (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/chimera/) - it's the nicest & fastest even if it's still unfinished.

I also can't live without DragThing & ASM (http://www.vercruesse.de/software), which adds an application menu.

If you want to get really geeky, check out Fink (http://fink.sourceforge.net/) to install open source software including X11.

ETA on the book? When can I expect to get my hands and eyes on it? Not to rush the creative process, but I am very much looking forward to reading it.

It's December 11th already???

Man time flies!!

Is it just me or does the Shmoo fractal look really sexual? Maybe it's just me....

Don't use AppleWorks for your text... I'll agree with the BBEdit chime, but OS X's built in TextEdit works just fine too... just make sure you use plain text instead of RTF, natch (hit command-shift-T to convert from RTF to plain).

Yeah, I just watched the new LOTR version and I must say that one of the greatest movies of all times just got better! Plenty more character interaction. Just glues the thing together. Fantastic.

When do we get to hear more about the movie, Wil? What's it called?

Good luck on MacRadio tonight -- I'm so pleased that you've come over to the creative side of computing. Couldn't live without my Mac -- G4 at work, G3 PowerBook and G3 iMac at home -- they rock! And, pc people, don't start some flame war, OK? I won't change and I don't care if you do or not. It's just nice that Wil did.

Wil is smart.

iBook.... now you're gonna be famous! I can see you now... white background.... arm-in-arm with Steve Jobs....

Big welcome back to the apple!

some favorite links:
http://www.macosxhints.com/
http://www.insidemacgames.com/
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=frm&s=50009562&f=8300945231
http://www.macwindows.com/

Im very pissed off with Amazon of the new release of LOTR. My copy did not arrive today, as it should have done. I've had the damn thing on order since 6th October, and a friend of mine who also ordered it from Amazon, and who lives five minutes walk away from me, got his. Another guy i know ordered his copy from Black Star and he got his on SATURDAY!

On the plus side, that meant I got to see it, and my god is it stupendous. It truly is an even better version than the origional cinema release. Its got even more depth, and its just beautiful. Many scenes make more sense and flow smoother.
Thank you Peter Jackson. You made a fucking amazig movie of one of the best fantasy stories every written, and then you released a DVD version which was even better.

Yeah, so I'm a geek/fanboy. Bite me.

Hey Wil,

This weekend I watched LOTR, having seen it only once before, and realized with a jolt that Elrond is played by Hugo Weaving, the same actor who played Agent Smith in The Matrix.

Whoa.

So here's what pops into my head next:

Elrond: You lead... TWO lives... don't you, Missterrrrrrrrrr Baggins.
One, a peaceful hobbit, in a quiet shire.
The other, an advennnnntchurr-urrr...
a Rinnnnggg bearrrerrrr...

One of these lives, Mister Baggins, has a fewtchurrrrrrre...
The other does NOT.

heh-heh

Thanks for all the links, everybody.

However, I must set the record straight: I haven't "switched" in the sense that I've gone 100% Mac.

I have the iBook, and she is a wonderful mistress...but I am still married to my RedHat 8.0 box, and Anne and the boys use the Mandrake 8.2 box.

Hold out for the gift set! Bookends = luv!

Good luck finishing your book! I'm another of those NaNoWriMo.org pain-loving freaks, and I'm only at 19K so far. If your book is written anything like this website, I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for it! :)

Bought LOTR:FOTR Special Edition today. Watched it today before work. It made me late because it was sooooo long. But it was worth it! I'm going home tonight and watching all the extras. :)

Been trying to connect for several minutes to macradio to hear the broadcast, but keep getting an "Internal Server Error". So I'm probably gonna miss it unless it gets fixed RSN.

Got a message from Amazon saying that they've shipped my expanded LOTR. I've had it on order since September, so I can hardly wait.

The bookends woulda been neat, but I can live without. I need more bookSHELVES, but bookends.

/wave,

uman

Wil,
you computer geek, *scribbles notes* as Gypsy is planning to one day own a ibook---

Good luck with the book- can't wait til it comes out....

:)---- :P

Nice job on macradio! But those guys are "real" geeks ;-)

Good luck with the server Wil, though may I recommend Qmail over sendmail? It has way, way, better security, is much faster, and uses maildirs instead of classic mailbox files, which assists in numerous ways...

Qmail can be found at http://www.qmail.org

Joe Q Public

Stop taking those pills, they aint doing you any good. May I also suggest that you ask your Doctor for a full frontal lobotomy, 10 rolls of padded wallpaper and some armless pyjamas.
You ruined and terrible form of life, fucked up in a dribbling Uruk-Hai

OMG I'M LIKE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING THE FIRST TO POST!!!!!!111

You are sooo sappy and cheesy. To an almost pukey, gross degree. I keep reading it though. God, I'm sick.

Congrats, good luck...woohooo and stuff.

Your composing more of the book?
Let me know when its done. I'll take a dozen!
Seriously is it going to be on distribution? Even in the UK?
*hopes*

I see that red-neck assshoooles have polluted your message boare with their circa McCarthy era brain-dead comments. Don't let it worry you Wil... They are dinosaurs. They are evidently illiterate, and they are all cowards who need a cause behind which to hide and from which they might exercise their "patridiotic" sociopathy.

these are how wars start. People get all up in other peoples business, when really they should just keep their noses out. Who cares if Wil is a liberal, if you don't like what he says don't come here. We may not even all agree with wil, but the truth is we dont come he to be sheep, we like wils writing style and most/some/all of the points he makes. I'm british, so dont even start on me saying i'm a pussy liberal, cos i 'm not even a yank. I dont like Bush as a president, but i also dont know what goes on behind the goverment scene. I can't explain nor condemn his actions, because i just dont know. People have their right to an oppinion, the fifth amendment is it? Freedom of speech. Wil can say what he likes, and so can you, but why waste your precious breath on someone who doesnt give a shit about what you say? and also, they way you said it leaves a lot to the imagination. Stop being a redneck, and if you mean what you say, go about it on the right channels and explain to us in a more civilised way.

(like, longest post, ever!?)

I tried to listen, but nothin was workin on my comp last night. Though I somehow managed to get into the chat room.

hey Wil, you should try spamassisin. it is more effective, i'm going to install it
soon as soon as i get time to breathe.

Actually, it was 11.12.02, not 12.11.02... dumbass brit

Thanks to Wil for being on the show last night, and thanks to you listeners for listening in. (I am the producer of last night.)

Yes, we are techogeeks - on the other hand, during Mac Help Radio (the name of the show) that IS our jobs, so... we come by it naturally (so to speak.)

I apologize to Wil about the full Mac 'Switcher' label. Eww.. bad word. Anyway, Wil, you are a 'Switcher' in the sense that you like and enjoy the Mac and you are glad you are using that instead of MS Windows at this point. I think Mac folks have come to the conclusion that UNIX folks are a good candidate for Macs due to the underlying core of OS X being a *NIX variant.

Last word on this - many Mac users have mixed computer households, and most Mac users have to use Windows at work. At least two of our show hosts fit that description.

For those of you trying to get through to MacRadio.com, please be patient. We are experiencing growing pains, which I'm working through at the moment. Our little server is working it's heart out, litterally. We are also testing new phone equipment later this week, which we hope will resolve the phone quality issues.

Again, thanks.
--- Robert Aldridge, producer of Mac Help Radio

Ouch,

Hehe, good luck with Sendmail. I'm sure you could try Qmail, PostFix, etc... But Sendmail really isn't that hard. If you do it right, it's just as secure as QMail and just as fast as PostFix.

However, you may wanna take a look at Webmin which is an awesome system/server administration tool you can use while you're away from home. :)

It's sendmail and qmail admin modules are quite excellent as well.

http://www.webmin.com/

Actually, it was 2002-11-12. (ISO 8601) I think the periods w/ day before month is Cryllic, or Turkish, or L33tish, or something like that. :) (And come on Wil... your web log already puts the dates on the stories... you're a writer, come up with a damned title!)

Wil,
Be careful under that tree because it can be full of discoveries. Everything about it can be distracting. I am sure your book will turn out fine. I can not promise you that I will ever get around to reading it because I have alot of distractions. I read a great long book last week
and got a slight headacke for my procrastination.
Finish what you started.

FG

Found your site after clicking on a friends site, from another site... Good to see that you are writing a book, I'm an aspiring writer on the side, hence my blog. Best wishes!

got mine today - FABULOUS! Really really fabulous.

I wrote it up here if anyone cares.

that didn't work... here rather ---> http://www.verybigdesign.com/verybigblog/archives/000746.shtml#000746

And FG is right; Newton was under that tree writing and discovered gravity. If you aren't careful you might find someone's old socks, that would be.... ewwwwww...

Damn, I consider myself a geek, but I'm not having much luck with installing Redhat Linux on a couple of old P200's I have lying around. Damn, non standard video card can't be detected and Gnome doesn't want to start. Maybe I need a more recent version (I have 6.2). ARgh!!!

Plus, after living in a windows/DOS world it's challening to figure out new Linux commands. Uh, how do you change directories again. I'm all for alternatives to Windows. Too bad poor old BEos didn't make it. What a fun, easy to use OS to work with.

On other fronts...hope your book/talks will be as cool as Bruce Campbell's. Just saw him in Berkeley on Tuesday. Way "smokingly" cool.

Lovely fractals...
Good luck with the book!

Cheers.

Here is a VERY cool computer thing, trust me you will like it!! Computer simulated fireworks site!

http://doody36.home.attbi.com/liberty.htm

The "shmoo" fractal is my favorite. I think I would like one of those for a pet.

well, no one mentioned exim for sendmail replacement, so I figured I should :-)

Also, to counteract spam, I am using spamassassin which works really well. I get about 20-30 spam mails a day, and it stops most of them...usually every few days one or two get through (their algorithm is supposively 99.9% effective)

But you can customize it for your own spam, so people who spam you regularly you can blacklist locally (or white list them if it blocks spam like things that you actually want :-) )

Can't wait to read the book Wil! I hope I can get it as a Christmas present! Oh, and the better LOTR version is great isn't it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would second the recommendation of exim. It's an excellent MTA; it's now Debian GNU/Linux's default MTA, and we used it extensively at Cambridge while I was a Computer Officer there (of course, the fact that the author worked for us did help.)

I cannot see any reason to struggle with sendmail in this day and age.

I encourage you guys to download the
1024 X 768 fractals to use as Mac desktops/Windows wallpaper.

That's why I chose that size! ;-)

http://www.spacebrothers.com/fractals

And Wil, bro, thanks for your support!

\/

I encourage you guys to download the
1024 X 768 fractals to use as Mac desktops/Windows wallpaper.

That's why I chose that size! ;-)

http://www.spacebrothers.com/fractals

And Wil, bro, thanks for your support!

\/

Wasn't the cast interviews and the commentaries just so hilarious?!?!?! Loved every minute of it! Hey, good luck on the book, Wil...hope to read it one day!