In a future blog post, I’ll be reviewing Firefox 3 (which I’ve been playing around with for awhile) and the various Firefox extensions that I’ve been using with it. I’d like to ask of the other Firefox users out there if they have any Firefox extensions that they really like and would recommend that I try out. Head on down to the Comments section and share your suggestions (and help me get even more out of Firefox)!

Tags: addons, extensions, Firefox, web browser

Hello folks,

This summer, one of my goals is to get organized and find useful tools that can help me better organize my life, both in the real world and in the online world. Therefore, I’d like to know if you have any suggestions of Web 2.0 sites that I’m not currently using but that I should consider checking out.

Also, if anyone out there actually knows how to use Facebook for useful purposes, I could sure use some help figuring that site out!

Please hie thee hence to the comments section and offer your suggestions. Thanks!

Tags: comments, Facebook, Help, social networking, suggestions, Web 2.0

Hello to everyone out there in No Man’s Land. I’m in the middle of a brutal war, one that you may have engaged battles with in the past: the war on spam. But today, the enemy has pulled out a secret weapon that is completely decimating me, and could pose a very serious threat.

No, I’m not writing this way to be funny, I’m very serious about what’s going on. It has to do with one of the websites that I maintain, the one for the 17th District PTA. Because its webhost gave up the ghost about two months ago, I’m currently hosting it under the same hosting package as the one for Webmacster87.info, but today it’s apparently been scapegoated into a pretty difficult situation. Here’s a copy of the dispatch that I sent to my webhost just a few minutes ago:

To whom it may concern:

I’m writing concerning a rather serious issue which has come up today concerning one of my domain names. The main domain name for my site is webmacster87.info, however this one is concerning 17thdistrictpta.org which was added on.

Today I have been receiving an abnormally large amount of spam coming to my personal e-mail (webmacster87@gmail.com)–about 1800 in the last twelve hours alone, and still counting. However, all of these were actually “Delivery Status Notification (Failure)” messages that, when I examined them, showed that it appears that some spammer has been sending out spam e-mails with From e-mail addresses that have @17thdistrictpta.org suffixes. Because many of these spam e-mails were sent to invalid addresses, they bounced back, and since the fake From addresses (like “ahplatne_1979@17thdistrictpta.org” and other random things like that) don’t exist, all of those bounce-back things have been sent to my own personal e-mail, since it is the “catch-all” address.

I am concerned that some spammer or group of spammers somewhere is using our domain name fraudulently as a scapegoat from which to send out spam messages, and I am concerned that this could have grave ramifications for the name of the organization that it represents, such as it being blacklisted by e-mail services, or possibly being reported to you or someone else as though I was responsible for those spam messages. I’m also quite concerned about the impact that the amount of bounce-back messages is having on my bandwidth and your servers.

I don’t know if you have the ability to do anything about this issue, but since you are my web host and your servers are the ones being affected by the tremendous amount of bounced-back messages, you would be the best ones to report this issue to. I would appreciate any advice and assistance you could possibly offer on how to deal with this issue so that I am not affected by further ramifications (and can possibly stop the deluge of bounce-backs).

Thanks for any help you can offer.
–Douglas Bell
Webmaster, California 17th District PTA
http://www.17thdistrictpta.org

As you can see, this is very serious, and I’m very scared about what the possible blow-back from this could be, so I could REALLY use any help you could offer. Have you ever had an issue like this? Do you have any ideas of how I can stop this? Please sound off any advice you may have in the comments!!!

Update: Here’s an example of what I’m dealing with, as you can see in Gmail’s spam box, and an example bounced-back e-mail. But it’s not the fact that I’m getting these bounced-back e-mails that I’m worried about, I’m worried about blacklists and people seeing the domain name on these spam e-mails and thinking bad things…

Tags: 17th District PTA, Delivery Status Notification, e-mail, spam, urgent, web host

Hello everyone,

I’m going to be going on a school-related trip in the middle of February which will force me to be completely away from the computer and the internet-at-large for about ten days. Now, I had considered not doing anything on this blog for ten days, but I’ve changed my mind and decided that perhaps something that I should do is take the opportunity to invite folks to write a guest blog article to be featured here on Webmacster87.info during my absence, just to keep the blog going.

So here’s how it works. If you would be interested in guest blogging on Webmacster87.info, please let me know in the comments of this post and I will send you an e-mail with additional information. I’m currently just planning to run the guest blog articles while I am away (February 14-23), but if I get an overwhelming response, I may decide to expand them to cover the month of February.

If you indicate that you are interested in guest blogging, your post will need to be submitted to me no later than Sunday, February 10th. (Earlier than 2/10 will be great too.) I will be scheduling the posts in advance so that they will show up on here while I am gone and nowhere near the computer.

What kind of content? I would be interested in any guest bloggers who want to write an article about technology and/or teenage life. (You do NOT have to be a teenager to participate–in fact, I’ll probably be inviting a few people that I know who aren’t teenagers to contribute.) Note that unlike Lorelle VanFossen’s two months of guest bloggers, I will not be entirely opening up my blog to guest bloggers; I will be reviewing guest blogger articles that are submitted to me primarily for decency before I schedule it in the posting queue. However, if you are interested, I certainly invite you to join in and relieve me while I am away from the computer.

(Incidentally, I will also probably be doing another one of these guest bloggerthons for another long trip that I’m taking in June, so this will not be the only opportunity.)

Anyway, I just wanted to extend the invitation to anyone who’s interested. As for the trip that I’m taking in February, stay tuned for more details coming in the next week or two.

Tags: article, Blogging, Guest Bloggers, invitation, Technology, teens, trip

Well, MacHeist has just sweetened their 2008 bundle for the last time. They’re trying to get $300,000 raised for charity through bundle sales within the next three days. I must say, over the last two weeks their bundle has certainly improved in its impressiveness factor, and so I’m probably planning to buy it and do my part.

However, there are three applications in the bundle which I will not be taking advantage of. I already have a license for 1Password, which is an awesome password managing tool for Mac OS X. I know that a lot of people really like Snapz Pro X, but personally I’ve never figured it out, and I have a license for iShowU, another app which does the same thing. And as for Wingnuts 2, I’m not particularly planning to play that kind of game. (However I’ll be keeping my hands on the mini golf game because it seems interesting, and even if I don’t like it, I’m sure my younger brother would.)

But anyway, I will be giving away a license each to 1Password, Snapz Pro X, and Wingnuts 2 from the bundle. MacHeist allows me to specially designate these licenses to you when I do the check out for the bundle, so these will be licenses especially for you with your name on them. If you weren’t planning to get yourself the full MacHeist bundle but are interested in one (or more) of these three apps, this is a great opportunity to get them free!

How does it work? Post a comment to this post on Webmacster87.info telling me which app(s) you would be interested in getting for free and why you want it/them. The deadline to make your comment is 7:00 AM Eastern time (4:00 AM Pacific time) on Tuesday morning, January 22nd–this essentially gives you 38 hours. I will announce the selected winners Tuesday morning, and will purchase the bundle Tuesday afternoon (the licenses for these three apps will go out to the winners at that time, and the licenses for the remaining 11 apps will come to me for my own personal use). Please be sure that when you post your comment you enter your Name and E-mail Address exactly as you want it to appear in the license for the app(s) you’re interested in. If no one is interested in a particular app, then I’ll just keep the license and file it away somewhere.

Also, do you plan to purchase the MacHeist Bundle, but haven’t yet? PLEASE use this referral link to buy the bundle! I really really would like to get a free license for LaunchBar, and if you buy the bundle through that referral link, I get LaunchBar for free! (If you use my referral link to give me LaunchBar before Tuesday afternoon, I’m willing to use your referral link as well to return the favor.)

Again, thanks to MacHeist for putting on such a great event, and doing it for a good cause. And, thanks to all the developers who are throwing their apps into the ring for this excellent cause as well!

Tags: 1Password, applications, bundle, contest, LaunchBar, licenses, MacHeist, referral, Software

UPDATE: I have completed fundraising for Sojourn. However, if you are still interested in supporting the organization that sponsors the trip, you can get donation information on Sojourn’s website.

Hello everyone,

I’m going to break away from the regular content on Webmacster87.info to make a more personal post and a request for assistance. I have been invited to go on a once in a lifetime journey with students from my school, called Sojourn to the Past. Sojourn is a ten-day academic tour through major civil rights sites in Atlanta, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; Selma, Alabama; Birmingham, Alabama; Hattiesburg, Georgia; Jackson, Georgia; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to visiting such sites as Stone Mountain, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Memorial, Little Rock Central High School, and the hotel where Dr. King was assassinated, I also have the opportunity to meet a number of speakers who are a part of the civil rights movement.

All of the speakers teach lessons about tolerance, acceptance of others, non-violence, courage, compassion, forgiveness, and civic responsibility. Our group will meet Congressman John Lewis, from Georgia, who was arrested over 40 times and beaten fighting for justice and equality. We meet Elizabeth Eckford and Minnijean Brown Trickey, two of the Little Rock Nine, the first African American students to desegregate schools in our country in 1957, fifty years ago. In fact, Minnijean travels with us for part of the ten days! We also meet 85 year old Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who almost single-handedly desegregated Birmingham, Alabama. We meet Reverend Billy Kyles, who was on the balcony with Dr. King when he was shot in Memphis and spent the last hour of his life with him. We meet an incredible family called the Dahmers, whose father/husabnd was murdered in 1966 while leading voter registration drives. This family will share how they never gave up on justice, and continue to believe in the American system. We meet Chris McNair, whose daughter, Denise, was killed in the Birmingham Church Bombing in 1963. He is the father of one of the four little girls who were killed and shares his story of never giving up on justice and not to hate those who did this terrible deed.

The main reason that I want to go on this trip is because a lot of the extracurricular activities that I participate in are based on principles similar to those of the civil rights movement, and this trip is a special opportunity that I want to be a part of. I am intrigued by the thought of not just getting to learn more about the civil rights movement, but to actually be able to interact and meet the people that made the movement a reality. It’s a very special opportunity because these people won’t be around for much longer to share their perspectives. I’m really hoping to be able to go on this exciting trip.

The reason that I am writing this post is that I need to raise a total of $2500 in order to go, and I cannot personally afford the full cost of this trip, and so I am asking the readers of my blog, if they are interested and are able to, to donate so that I can raise enough money to go on this trip in February 2008. There are a few ways you can donate. The easiest way is through the Donate box that is on the left sidebar of Webmacster87.info–that will allow you to donate directly to me through PayPal. Note, however, that if you are donating via PayPal, a small PayPal fee is subtracted from that total (you may want to use the PayPal Fees Calculator to determine how much I’ll actually be getting), and PayPal donations are not tax-deductible. If you would prefer, you can leave a comment in this thread and I will personally contact you via the e-mail address that you specify with information on how you can send a check, which is tax-deductible (I would send you all the info on the various IRS quirks that are necessary to make it tax-deductible). In the Donation box, I have put a suggested default amount of $10, but any amount helps. If the total that I raise exceeds the needed $2500, then the extra goes toward a financial aid fund that is available for other students to attend this program.

If you would like to learn more about the trip, including the itinerary, list of speakers, and other information, feel free to check out Sojourn to the Past’s website.

Thanks in advance for any support you may be able to offer!
–Douglas Bell

Tags: assistance, civil rights, donations, fundraising, history, Personal, request, School, Sojourn to the Past, south, trip

You want to know what a modern global empire is? Think Starbucks. According to Wikipedia, they have 13,168 stores worldwide and are opening 7 new stores on a daily basis. I think that’s absolutely ridiculous.

About two years ago, I made a just-for-fun post in the private phpBB Teams forum in which I asked team members to lookup and find out how many Starbucks stores were in their area. Here in the SF Bay Area, there’s at least one Starbucks in every city. In fact, there are five different Starbucks stores within only a 2 mile radius of my home. One of them is a block and a half up the street. Across the street from AT&T Park in San Francisco, there literally are two Starbucks stores within three buildings of each other, on the same block. (Albeit one of them is a store inside a Safeway store, but the Safeway store does have a Starbucks sign on the window which is three buildings away from the standalone Starbucks store.) When a class from my school visited Chinatown two weeks ago, there were two full-blown Starbucks stores literally a block apart from each other across the street from the Chinatown entrance. And both were full to capacity. That just flabbergasted me.

So the challenge is for you to find out how many Starbucks stores are in your area? To determine this, enter your address into the Starbucks Store Locator, and to make sure we’re all on the same page, choose a search radius of 20 miles. The total number of stores will be shown on the bottom of the list. Post your result in the Comments section of this post.

I bet that you probably can’t beat my number unless you live in New York City or something. There are currently 217 Starbucks Stores within 20 miles of my house. Yeah. THAT’S a lot of caffeine.

Can you beat my 217? (Other friends of mine who live in San Mateo don’t count!) Hie thee hence to the Store Locator, and then share your results in the Comments section!

Tags: challenge, craziness, empire, locator, Starbucks, stores

For about a month now I’ve been registered on Facebook, mostly because most of the people that I’ve asked have reported good experience with it, and I kind of wanted to see what the big deal was. (I am still boycotting MySpace, as I have heard nothing but bad stuff about that ratty old thing owned by Rupert Murdoch.) I’m sort of starting to get the hang of it (although it’s still kind of weird new to me). Considering that my parents lost my summer History assignment packet last week while they were cleaning my room without my knowledge while I was away in Sacramento, although they deny those accusations and think that I lost it, Facebook is actually being useful in providing the contact information for me to harrass ask my friends from school to see if they might have a copy that I can borrow. (I’m still waiting for a response, by the way.)

But anyway, I’d like to try to make the most of Facebook and its infamous apps platform (although not utilizing it to the point where it replaces any of the other Web 2.0 services that I know and love). Therefore, I’d like to ask my seasoned Facebooked friends out there to offer me some advice. What apps should I be installing and using on Facebook? What is it that I should be doing on Facebook? What is the meaning of life? Hie thee hence to the Comments section!

Oh, and for those that didn’t notice the super convenient counter up above, today was the 200th day of 2007! I didn’t get to make a proper post because my computer was doing TechTool Pro optimization all day today from the eDrive, so I’ve kind of been away from the comp most of the day.

Well, yet another brand new invite-only hot Web 2.0 service has emerged as the latest thing that everyone is talking about, and it’s called Pownce. So far, I think it seems kind of like another Twitter/Upcoming ripoff, but I’m giving it a try. However, since it obviously seems to work best when you have a group of friends, are any of you already on Pownce so that I can add you? (Or add me as a friend; my username on there is probably easy to guess.)

Or, do you need an invite to Pownce? I’ve got 6 fresh invites, hot off the grill, to anyone who needs one.

Hie thee hence to the comments if you want to convince me to use this instead of being an exclusive Twitteraholic.

On PreviewCast #036 I reviewed Skitch, the amazing, awesome, practically magical new screenshot, image annotation program and sharing service from Plasq. Just how amazing, awesome, and practically magical is it? I sent David Lewis (Highway of Life) a Skitch invite a week ago, and yesterday he showed me what he did with the application. That screenshot with annotations “click this first, then this second, etc.” completely wowed the user he was giving support to, yet he told me that he did that screenshot, from capturing the window to uploading it to mySkitch in 86 seconds. Skitch is amazing and useful in so many ways; you really have to try it.

The good people at Plasq just gave me an ADDITIONAL five invites this morning to hand out, so at this moment, there’s still 25 more invites up for grabs! All you have to do is complete our PreviewCast Survey — I will be sending out Skitch invites to everyone who fills out a survey until I run out (first come, first served). You too will be wowed by this awesome application!