Archive for category Email
Linux.com reviews text email clients
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux, Email, Install on January 6th, 2007
Linux.com has another great article up, this time re-reviewing text email clients. You may ask, “Why use a text email client nowadays, when there are so many GUI-based clients available in all distributions?” And I have an easy answer for you: Try running KMail/Kontact/Thunderbird/Evolution over a console-based SSH connection. Doesn’t work ‘cuz there’s no X server running? Exactly!
These days, Mutt is probably the most popular text-based MUA for Linux distributions and *BSD variants. The reasons for its popularity aren’t hard to discern. It’s GPLed, so there’s no licensing issue as with Pine. It’s full-featured, and has support for IMAP and POP3, several mailbox formats, control over mail headers, PGP and MIME support, and much more.
Of course, it’s not news to me that mutt kicks ass. I am constantly torn between using mutt or KMail. KMail makes working with old/archived email a lot easier, but for working with incoming mail, nothing is faster, easier, nor more configurable than mutt. If you haven’t given it a try, you really need to.
FreeEnigma – webmail encryption extension for Firefox
Big thanks to to iSpider.pl for pointing me towards FreeEnigma, a Firefox extension which can encrypt/decrypt webmail messages on the fly:
FreeEnigma brings cryptography to webmail, with an ingenious set of free and open browser plug-ins that work with Yahoo, Gmail, and others. The plugins implement a version of GPG (the free/open version of Pretty Good Privacy) and scramble and de-scramble the text in your webmail before you send it and after you receive it, reducing the amount of information that webmail providers have on your communications.
Those who know me know that I am a big proponent of encryption. My reasons are mainly philosophical. Email is normally sent in plain-text, which means anyone between the sender and the recipient can read that email. Add in the fact that our current administration seems to truly believe it is legal to snoop on all communication within and without this country, and you have the possibility for a very bad situation. Encrypting email might make using email a little more difficult, but it is worth it to help enhance one’s privacy.
FreeEnigma is currently doing a roll-out by invitiation. If you are interested, you can sign up for an invite on their website.
7 Deadly Sins of Email
Tetsou’s article regarding the “7 Deadly Sins of Email amused me, because I am guilty of at least a couple of the sins. Email is not my strong point. I prefer to stay in touch with people via email, but I am notoriously bad at actually replying to email. So the seventh sin
7. Failure to respond in a timely fashion
I was recently sent an email from an Internet consultant who wanted to buy a domain name from me. I wasn’t using the name at the time and promptly replied that I would be willing to sell at a reasonable price. Several days went by and I heard nothing back. I checked my email account to ensure that everything was working fine, which it was. After a few weeks, I came to the conclusion that the consultant had rejected my offer and so I sold the name on. Imagine my surprise when I heard back from the consultant agreeing to the price! I regretfully informed him that he had missed the boat. Avoid this sin by being diligent and responding to client and customer emails in a prompt and timely fashion. Your customers will thank you for the courtesy.
For anyone who’s sent me an email, then gotten annoyed because two or three months have passed and I haven’t answered, fear not! I will answer your email. Eventualy. I don’t think I’ve ever gone a year without answering an email. But I’ve definitely come close.
Yahoo! Mail beta
Get in on the Yahoo! Mail Beta right now! Download Squad has step-by-step directions for forcing your way into the Yahoo! Mail beta:
Been dying to try the new AJAXed-out Yahoo! Mail Beta? Well it turns out it only takes a few simple steps to switch your Yahoo! Mail account over to the new hotness.
It actually is just as easy as the article makes it sound. In less than five minutes, I was in on the beta, as you can see from the screenshot above. I’ve just spent a few minutes testing out the new Yahoo! Mail, and I am quite impressed. One note: If you use Linux, you’ll get a warning that Yahoo! hasn’t tested Mail Beta in Linux yet, and can’t guarantee that it’ll work. But it’s working flawlessly for me in Ubuntu (Breezy) using Firefox 1.5.0.2.
Procmail primer
Posted by Biffster in Debian/Linux, Email on April 19th, 2006
Procmail can be either a blessing or a curse. Once you get the hang of the syntax and write a few recipes, it can be a major timesaver. But learning the syntax can be a real pain in the ass. Fortunately, there are a few great tutorials on procmail. And linux.com has a primer for those new to procmail up right now. It’s a very good introduction to this powerful but confusing tool.
Procmail is a Mail Delivery Agent (MDA), meaning it can be used along with a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) such as mutt or sendmail to filter messages. Procmail processes all messages before they are delivered to your mailbox. You can have your incoming messages distributed into various folders based on preset criteria such as the subject of a message or the recipient. The use of regular expressions for creating rules and the ability to run multiple rules on messages make procmail a very precise mail filtering program.
Mess with Outlook user’s minds!
This looks like a fun activity: hack email headers to mess with Outlook user’s heads!
Microsoft Outlook uses a rectangular bar above the message header to display information and warnings about the message you’re reading. It may report that you replied on such a date, that an attachment was suppressed, or that line breaks have been removed. Sometimes, though, you might see a very different message—perhaps something like “This message violates the USA PATRIOT Act” or “ERROR: Microsoft Outlook detected. Get a REAL email client!” As it turns out, anybody who can control the custom headers for outgoing e-mail messages can cause such a warning to appear. E-mail server administrators have this level of control, as do spammers, hackers…and you! Here’s how.
I’m not an Outlook fan, and I strongly recommend that other’s use a less-dangerous email client. But this sounds like a lot of fun! 
More one-click goodness: GmailThis!
Okay. First there was BlogThis! Then there were single-click bookmarklets to add a page to del.icio.us. Now there is GmailThis! – a bookmarklet that allows one-click access to composing via GMail:
GmailThis! is an easy way to make a Gmail email without visiting mail.google.com. Once you add the GmailThis! link to your browser’s toolbar, emailing will be a snap. Or rather, a click. Clicking GmailThis! creates a mini-interface to Gmail prepopulated with a link to the web page you are visiting, as well as any text you have highlighted on that page. Add additional text if you wish and then email or save as draft from within GmailThis!
