I’m running several dedicated servers from mediatemple and I have dozens of domains that I’m hosting for clients running on those. The qmail application seemed to have chosen the very first domain on each server as it’s default return address for all alert and mailer-daemon messages.

I wanted to alter the domain it used, so I changed it by editing the configuration file:


$ vi /var/qmail/control/me


Enter the domain name you want and save the file, then reboot qmail:


$ service qmail stop
$ service qmail start


USB thumb drives, being electronic, were not designed for the washing machine. In a hurry to watch Collin so Beth could start her portion of our weekly cleaning, I forgot to remove my USB thumb drive from my pants pocket. While cleaning she tossed those pants into the wash.

Most of the data I had on it is not lost as I know how to keep backups - it’s just anything changed since my last backup is now gone forever. I’m just bummed at loosing a 512MB USB drive that I used almost every day.

I remember staring out the car window at farms, fields, mountains, and oceans thinking about technology to make car trips a bit more exciting. It was a dream of mine when I was twelve to have a device that would somehow allow me to listen to any of my music at any time, and anyplace. In this vision it was more like a wireless headset that could access my CD player at home, even if home was a thousand miles away.

As a sophomore in High School I recall reading Fahrenheit 451 and how Guy Montag’s wife had a radio that fit into her ear, and she always seemed to watch a television that filled an entire wall. When I read it, I was pretty excited for the day when those devices would be available.

Today I sit at work with a small ear-bug that’s linked to an iPod, with almost every song I own stored on it and a battery life of a standard eight-hour day. The music plays at a level to keep me going but also allows me to hear the phone ring or take it out when someone starts talking to me.

Although I don’t have one yet, televisions and screens that fill entire walls a fairly common, and flat. If you combine one of these projection screens with a video-conference system you can exactly reproduce a scene from old sci-fi.

Though we’re missing the expected flying car and bubble-city, we have accomplished a few things that were once a little boy’s dream. We’re headed for a time when everything is wireless and can work no matter where you are in the world, a time when technology is faster, smaller, and smarter. Already the lines between devices are blurring and things are merging into single products. Computers and becoming TVs and phones are becoming cameras and music players. Is there really a need for me to control my refridgerator from afar?

Video Games are already extremely realistic and almost have no where to go but into a third dimension. When my little boy is grown up, I wonder how much technology will have advanced? Will we have electronic news papers that update instantly with feeds from news sources? Will books be downloadable into an electronic paper binding, meaning you have an infinite amount of books but only one “device” to carry?

Will my room adjust lighting, temperature, and other settings when I ask it? I think that Star Trek had everything right when it dealt with the future. We seem to already have communicators, now all we need are replicators, transporters, holodecks, and a computer we can easily talk to. I’m excited to see what we come up with.

Everyone loves having something recommended to them, especially when it truly is something they’ll like. Some of my most favorite things came to me because someone else introduced me to them. Some are simply good movies to watch, games to play, and some stick with you forever. The internet is important to me because it allows me to connect with people with similair interests all over the world. If some guy in Austria writes about how he learned to do something, or how did it faster, I can share this information despite the fact I’ve never met him.

Especially in the various types of blogging, the internet allows anyone to publish anything they are willing to write. I have a coworker who feels that no good will come of trusting the data in the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. His view is that if anyone can edit the pages at any time, the amount of pranksters and vandals would eliminate any truth. My view, and my experience is that Wikipedia is far superior to even the best commercial encyclopedia out there. It seems the number of people with good intentions far outweigh those with bad, and because they’re from all over the world they are constantly watching.

Even I don’t trust Wikipedia 100%, but the great thing about the internet is that there is always another option. I view American media as a filter looking to grab ratings like a sitcom. If you take many different sources which are all free from the FCC guidelines all found on the internet, you can better your understanding about the world.

Every day I follow the many RSS feeds I have saved and every day there is something new for me to learn. Whether it’s a first-hand account of the London bombings complete with a cell phone picture, a cheap way to make your own baby wipes, or simply someone else’s opinion, the internet has it all.

I am a PHP programmer. It is my primary programming language and honestly was my first (HTML/XML/CSS/JavaScript don’t count). It was clearly my first Object-Oriented language, which brought me to a whole new level several years ago. I often am asked to develop databases based off of Microsoft Access 2003, even though it’s already outdated and has millions of better options available. Because of my OOP programming habits, I found myself in the Visual Basic Editor tool a lot more than I was running through the Access-provided “wizards.” Because I have had to learn Visual Basic for Applications, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to dive into Visual Basic. I borrowed a copy of Visual Basic .NET 2003 (which itself is two years old), and began toying around.

Naturally, my first application is a calculator.

I often wonder if Collin will embrace technology the same way I have. Technology has been growing at a rapid pace before me, yet it was not always so. Will Collin accept the internet as something that just existed his entire life, or will he recognize the power it holds? I was only 14 when the internet debuted, but I’ve seen it grow from a complicated yellow-pages replacement to everything it is today.

If there is such a thing as a Collection of All Human Knowledge, it’s the internet.