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I’ve been using Gmail for most of my mailing lists. There’s a very good reason for this. It groups things into discussions beautifully. I also subscribe to several mailing lists that reside on the same server. For example, I subscribe to BBEdit Talk and Yojimbo Talk, both of which are run by Bare Bones (shocking, considering they develop them). They don’t have a domain that’s dedicated to mailing lists, so the addresses are [email protected]. I’m also a compulsive filer, so I apply labels to these messages for quick manipulation. One label is “mailing lists”. Rather than map email “To:” each of these email addresses, I’ve been using the fact that filters work on a contains instead of match basis to simplify. For the longest time a filter that looked for “To: [email protected]” worked perfectly. It’s suddenly stopped working. It’s now an exact match.

Thanks to my article about a bullshit Steve Jobs interview, I’ve gotten my first threat. 12:11:04 AM mmskmmskmmsk: dlong 12:11:08 AM mmskmmskmmsk: get the fuck outta here 12:11:16 AM mmskmmskmmsk: posting garbage on digg 12:11:24 AM mmskmmskmmsk: trying to promote your own shitty site 12:11:44 AM mmskmmskmmsk: like you broke a story or something 12:11:48 AM mmskmmskmmsk: you didnt break shit 12:12:00 AM mmskmmskmmsk: the article on that site was not proven fake

While I’m going on and on about utility companies (because let’s face it, Verizon and Comcast are rapidly becoming nearly the same), how about I write up the experience I just had. I don’t normally expect visitors on a Saturday unannounced. Further, I don’t get packages. When I got to my front door, it was a Comcast employee. He warmed up by asking if I had Verizon home phone service. Well, seeing as I don’t like getting taken advantage of, the answer is no. He then asked me if I had a home phone. It’s clear where he was going, so I played along. Yes, I have internet phone service (Vonage in particular). He guessed that it was Vonage.

Verizon FiOS is looking real good, $44.95 for 15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. My Comcast cable access is 8 Mbps for $52.95. Verizon sends me advertisements in the mail multiple times per week advertising their fiber internet service. Given, it’s lumped in with those mass mailers that clog my mailbox, but it’s getting sent directly to my house. They proclaim in big proud letters: The limitless fiber-optic power of Verizon FiOS Internet is now here.

All right guys, Fall is fast approaching and you know what that means. It’s time for football. Last year we all had a lot of fun (though I barely summarized each week’s results and that’s likely to be worse this year). Without further ado, here is the info to join up. Go to Yahoo’s Football Pick’em page. You’ll need a Yahoo! account. Once there, choose to join a private group. Group ID: 31839

Despite my sporadic blogging here lately, I got chosen to be interviewed with a local newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News, for an article in their Sunday edition today. I haven’t seen the finished product, but we talked about blogging, professional blogging, journalistic integrity, and a blog’s effect upon your job and career in general. Hopefully I’ll come across as insightful. I’ll try to post the link once it appears on the website.

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I’d figure out who said it first, but that would mean I have time to. Here’s a quick rundown of everything that’s been keeping me busy. The Day Job # I’ve been involved in a task that’s rather new to me, high pressure, and interesting. Overall I’m enjoying it, but it’s still soaking up my free time.

If you keep your eye on Macs, you probably already know about Boot Camp. It’s a bit of a surprise, but I suspect it was done so that users choosing to run Windows can do so in a safer manner with proper drivers. The drivers included with the new software are the key part of this announcement. Hacking the firmware to coerce a Mac into booting Windows took a little while, but it wasn’t really all that complicated. However, putting money into a development staff for Windows drivers is quite an expensive proposition and it goes to show Apple’s commitment to leverage the move to x86 to their full benefit. They can easily scoop up fence sitters that afraid of losing the ability to run Windows.

Von-Age; the tele-fon works!: Vonage has sent me dozens and dozens of advertizements and free phone deals for months lately. Seems like they’re stalking me out after Verizon mentioned how I threatened to go into their Manhattan office three years ago in order to cancel my line faster (really it was a simple request they couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, cancel my line as of that day, they took 40 days to cancel my phone)

If you’re thinking about sound software right now, you’re way off. Instead I’m talking about the literal words. VOIP (Voice Over IP) is a really hot technology right now because it makes phone calls much cheaper than using traditional telephone service. I’ve pondered whether IP network use is cheaper than maintaining traditional phone networks, or if the telco’s were simply sticking it to everyone. Considering recent more aggressive pricing by the telco’s, I’d suspect it was the latter.