Category: Site News

I updated MovableType to version 3.32 just now and it seems to be working a lot faster than the 3.31b version we were using before.
Anyway, now I have Widgets and StyleCatcher to play with, so you things might change around a bit; don’t be scared off. I might let my feminine side take control of this blog’s design for a couple days, but things will probably return to normal after the estrogen levels decrease.

So e-mail for our domains is now handled by Gmail; the switch was a simple matter of changing MX records and adding existing users of cosmicbuddha.com email to the Gmail for Domains web panel.
The way I was using my cosmicbuddha.com e-mail before was simply to have it forwarded to my Gmail account, and archived on my webhost’s mail server.
The way I will use it now is the same, except that my cosmicbuddha.com account is also hosted on the Gmail server.
This should reduce some stress on my webhost’s mail server, which is theoretically a good thing since it should reduce their costs, if even by a minute/insignificat amount. It is in my interest for them to benefit, because I pay for their services. You could counter that I have traded this benefit for security, but that doesn’t really worry me – if you want to keep something secret, don’t mention it in e-mail at all; it is that simple. Whether it is Google or some other party that wants your secrets, they are not safe in your e-mail. Period.
One practical issue I have regards Spam filtering. Spam from my cosmicbuddha.com account seems to be getting caught at that address and not forwarded to my gmail.com address. This means that in order to catch any false positives, I will have to log into the cosmicbuddha.com account and dig through the spam bucket.
The truth is, I can’t be bothered to do that – it takes too much time and is aggravating to see how many different ways spammers can spell any given prescription medication. However, in the past couple years of using Gmail, I have only had a couple false positives, so I figure I can live with that.
The greatest benefit, of course, is that we now get to use the Gmail interface for all of our e-mail, and this beats the hell out of old, tired webmail programs like Horde, NeoMail, and Squirrel Mail provided by many webhosts. And all of our mail archives are now hosted on Google’s supermagneticgoliath cluster, so I feel secure there and bask in the joy of native Google searchability as well. All in all, I feel Google is providing a wonderful service here.
[/end verbal fellatio]

I have applied for the Gmail beta for domains for cosmicbuddha.com. I hope it comes through. Gmail is the killer web app as far as I’m concerned.
I recently switched hosting providers for this site and chose Dreamhost. The biggest complaint I have about them so far is that their webmail app, Squirrel Mail, is crippled for the sake of stability of all Dreamhost users, and as a consequence, does not support the languages my users need most besides English: Thai and Japanese. This is a deal breaker as far as using our cosmicbuddha.com e-mail goes, because in addition to POP and IMAP accounts, we really need the webmail option. So I set everybody’s cosmicbuddha e-mail accounts to forward to their Gmail accounts (while still maintaining archives on our mail server), and we have been testing this configuration for about a month now.
I’m actually very happy with it – I could go the extra step and set the reply to (or even Send as) field for my Gmail account to j(at)cosmicbuddha.com, but this hasn’t been necessary (and I for some reason think of it as a bit dishonest or misrepresentative).
So a native Gmail account matched to our own domain name is the next logical step in the evolution of this system, and I hope we are accepted for the beta testing.
……………
I just felt like writing about shit no one else is interested in today.

BIG MAN is one of the first landmarks you should memorize in Osaka, and I learned this the hard way ten years ago when somebody told me to meet them there later.
I was all like, “what big man?” Everyone within a two kilometer radius spontaneously combusted in laughter at the country boy chawing on a rice stalk, with cow shit caked on his boots, driving his daddy’s tractor.
So yeah, this is me giving props where they’re deserved.

Most of you may not notice, but I’ve been using the new default design templates for this blog, and I apologize because I have no intention of customizing it until the final version of this blog software is released. Please bear with this generic design for a few more weeks (actually, I kind of got used to it).
P.S. If you see a lot of other blogs that look just like mine, it’s because they are all copying me.

We have successfully moved to our new webhost, Dreamhost. Our old host, iPowerweb, was cheap but there was way too much downtime, we were running out of room for all the sites we host, and their customer service was horrible… Anyway, with some coupon codes I found on the web, this Dreamhost account ended up being cheaper for two years than if I had renewed for another single year at iPower! So, I’m happy. Thanks to Gen Kanai for recommending Dreamhost. Shell access totally kicks ass!
Unfortunately, I do not have time to tweak the looks of my site all at once, so changes will come gradually (starting with my blogroll, I guess). This blog may change colors every time you see it for the next few months are so, which is annoying, I know, but bear with me.

That’s right, we’re running beta software, baby! The MT upgrade took longer than it should have because of a weird FTP glitch that prevented all the necessary files from being transferred to the server; it was driving me crazy trying to figure it out, but it all worked out in the end.
I have to say, waiting this long to upgrade had its merits – it’s been like riding around in a new car for the past half hour. So many new gadgets and features I had no idea I needed until I tried them! I may have even found an alternative hack for my sidebar photos.
Anyway, we can’t get too settled here yet; the move to a new webhost is still coming. Soon. Ah, it’s nice to know I at least got this tempermental software to work once, though!

I’m working on the site from now – just upgrading MT in preparation for the transfer. Fingers crossed…

I plan on moving this site to another webhost this week, so there will be some downtime. I may also switch blogging platforms… Anyway, don’t be alarmed if we are down for a while, I have to do some gnarly things to start preparing for the move.