My recent personal quest to rid myself of spam has taken an unexpected turn. My friend Jason operates pretty much from web-based mail and his arguments for mobility, ease of access and lack of hassle are persuasive.
Recent data loss in OE has prompted me to look again at webmail options and my Googling took me to the online home of Oddpost. In their own words 'Oddpost is a web-based email (which will pull mail from up to 6 existing POP3 accounts) and news aggregation application that combines the rich, responsive interface of a desktop program like Outlook with the available-from-anywhere convenience of a web mail service like Hotmail.'
Oddpost has no ads whatsoever and uses the statistical analysis technique called Bayesian filtering to render your inbox 99% spam-free - with a little help and coaching from you. Oddpost uses today's advanced browser features to allow you to organize your web mail using drag and drop, auto-complete, right-click menus and keyboard shortcuts. And it's fast too.
For me, the 'Wow!' factor was Oddpost’s integrated RSS client, which delivers your choice of breeaking news and blog entries straight to your mailbox. Very slick and very useable.
OK. Now the downside. No, it's not the $30 dollars annual subscription for your 50Mb account - that's a steal, IMHO. You should look to my previous comment about browsers for a hint beacuse Oddpost needs Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher for Windows XP, 2000, NT, Me, or 98. Whilst I'm certainly no IE fan*, I do admire the way that Ethan Diamond and Iain Lamb - plus their three colleagues - have exploited IE's capabilities to produces a truly useful app that represents a genuine step forward in web-based mail.
I'll be trialling Oddpost for a month to see how we fare together but I'm impressed so far.
*Ask Jason his opinion of IE and you'll need to duck!
Those with a long memory or willing to spend eons digging through my archives will recall that I also post to HappyPalm, where a team of folks like myself try to keep your PDA happy by providing all manner of opinion, comments and reviews on PDAs and PDA related stuff.
Having spring-cleaned the PC and reloaded those apps I want and need (as distinct from those I downloaded way back when and simply forgot about), I am keen to keep up with the 'housekeeping' and avoid accumulating more crap.
Along with everyone else who has an email account, uses newsgroups or has bought something online, I am plaugued by spam on a daily basis and have been seeking a sensible and relatively low-maintenance solution to this problem for some time.
In the early years, I used my own customised rules or filters (depending on my email program at the time) to filter out the regular culprits by address, domain, vocabulary and phrasing. As the problem worsened, I tried a variety of add-ons including MailWasher and SpamNet (originally Vipul's Razor) but have usually parted company when the beta phases came to an end, the heavy-duty subscription requests arrived or punative restrictions were applied. Don't get me wrong, I'll happily pay for good software - I just less than happy about certain ecommerce methods.
As always, I have eneded up gravitating towards the GPL world and have been following a few promising projects at SourceForge. Today, I have plumped for POPFile - Automatic Email Classification and have spent a while getting it set up to work with my varied POP3 accounts. Although it is way too early to report any findings, the setup process was easy (RTFM or the online FAQs atleast) and the only teething problem has been an inability to get onto my own SquirrelMail based account on my host server in the States. NB:This teething problem proved to be user error - I had reconfigured the account incorrectly in my email client - nothing to do with PopFile, SquirrelMail or my host (especially my host - just ask him how many times I have forgotten my access codes or lock myself out!).
More on this story as it happens...
Yesterday evening, I headed out with SWMBO and a friend (not forgetting his wife) to celebrate their recent birthday. In a break with tradition, we eschewed our usual choice of Indian food and, instead, decided to try an Anatolian restaurant which was highly recommended by the regulars in the uk.food+drink.misc newsgroup.
Tas Pide opened last year as the third acclaimed venue in the Tas group and specialises in serving pide, a boat-shaped Anatolian bread dish, baked in a wood fired oven, upon which a variety of foods are served.
Immediately upon our arrival, we were served with complimentary bowls of red lentil soup, which had an unexpected but delicious citrus taste unlike anything I have tried before. Having despatched the soup very rapidly, we proceeded to demolish our chosen starters which included falafel, grilled mussels in batter and a lamb mince and houmous dish. As is often the case, SWMBO chose not to have a starter and wait for her main course. The chef and waiter would have none of this and presented her with a complimentary dish of finely chopped salad and herbs, so she would not be left out whilst we other three ate - a little thought goes a long way.
Over these and copious amounts of bread, we chose a variety of dishes for our main courses. My friend's wife had a Kiymali pide with a meat and vegetable filling while he choose a deep and rich Moussaka with a green side salad with figs. SWMBO chose a Peynirli Bademli Patlican, which comprises an aubergine casserole with almonds, tomatoes and organic mulberries. I went the full carnivore route and had the excellent Kuzu Tandir, perfectly ovencooked lamb piled high on toasted bread and served with piles of herbs and spices to dip each morsel into. No-one could find a thing to be less than satisfied about and each of us groaned and waved away the dessert menu when it was offered, choosing to end the meal simply with regular and Turkish coffees.
With three bottles of excellent house wine, including the superbly named BuzBag red, water, and service charge included we just tipped the £100 mark. For three courses and drinks and all the trimmings in a prime London location, that constitutes good value for money in my book.
Up until now, I have been very lucky in that when I have needed ingredients for Spanish dishes, I have been able to get them through friends and colleagues. However, my store cupboard ran dry and I decided that a more local solution was needed.
A small amount of judicious enquiry revealed that if one wanted authentic Spanish ingredients in London, there were only really two choices - Garcia's autoservicio supermarket and P. De La Fuente's grocery. In a city of 7 million people, the fact that these two stores are literally a stone's throw from each other in Notting Hill's Portobello Road might seem a little surprising - but not so when you dig a little deeper. Although there are no real ‘Spanish districts’ as such in London, it is estimated that some 7,000 to 8,000 Spanish live in North Kensington and around another 4,000 to 5,000 in neighbouring Victoria. The Notting Hill's Spanish School, where a colleague friend studied, is also a gravitating point for the Spanish in London.
Demographic studies over, I asked my friend his opinion and he advised that I should head for Fuente's. With wife, daughters and one daughter's friend in tow, yesterday morning saw me heading off to the world-famous Portobello Road Market. After an hour of steering a baby buggy through one of the world's largest street markets whilst trying to track the movements of 5 women trying clothes and the like, we finally arrived at the door of P. De La Fuente's shop. Inside, the shop is fairly small with an incredible variety of goods on ceiling high shelves. The fresh and chilled produce is displayed in a cabinet along the rear wall of the shop and it was behind this that I met the incredibly friendly and helpful Leo. Leo immediately struck me as a smiling, happy and knowledgable Padron and was happy to discuss my requirements for the best chorizo, morcilla and Spanish pancetta with which I will be making a fabada Asturiana. Whilst slicing and wrappping the sausages and ham, he also exchanged a few simple greetings and phrases with my eldest, who is learning Spanish at school. Although a little shy, she answered and was obviously chuffed to have used her newly acquired language 'for real'.
Although I have yet to cook my fabada, the samples I was offered in the shop were very tasty and I am pretty sure they will make for a rich and authentic dish. So, if you are looking for that elusive Iberian ingredient, I would recommend that you pop by Fuente's and see for yourself.
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Being laid up and off work with a mystery illness is not my idea of fun but it did give me the chance to rebuild and clean my PC, format the hard drive and do a clean, clean, clean install of Windows 2000 Professional. Man, I'd forgotten that I had a 12Gb hard drive with the amount of old cack that was on there.
This spring clean, combined with my new Speedtouch modem and ADSL service, makes for a nice swift online experience compared to the crawl of months gone by.
However, my contrary laziness is not completely banished because I preferred to muck about with Analog X's ATS (Atomic Time Sync) and nnSoft's nnCron to keep the right time rather than replace the shagged CMOD battery. Likewise, my online activities are still carried out to the whine and drone of a power pack fan which has seen better and more silent days. Well, I'll need something to do when I'm next ill, won't I?