Archives for March, 2006
Linking to a page within a PDF
Linking to a PDF on a web page is easy enough:
<a href="mypdf.pdf">This is my PDF</a>
Not until Acrobat 7.0 came out could you link directly to a page within a pdf, such as sending someone to page 4 of the PDF to skip straight to the pertinent content.
<a href="mypdf.pdf#page=4">This is my PDF</a>
Note: This feature only exists in Adobe’s Acrobat product, but I don’t see it being much longer before an Open Source PDF Viewer will implement this feature.
Don’t put off your yard
On those days when you just don’t feel like taking care of your yard, you should do it anyway. Last year was a bad year for my yard because I kept putting off taking care of it, went on vacation for two weeks, and never really got around to it. As expected, the grass died. All of it. Seeing the err of my ways, I decided to put in a sprinkler system that will at least get the watering of my yard taken care of regardless of my schedule. I’ve also started my fertization schedule based on Randy Lemmon’s Lawn Fertilization Schedule which has worked well for me in the past. This schedule doesn’t include any weed-n-feeds because most sold in stores are NOT formulated for our Texas St. Augustine turf. So, my yard is currently full of weeds, but there is definitely some good growth of St. Augustine. My wife is very determined to pull the yard back into shape, which she has proven can be done even with the worst yards, like we had back in 2001.
Keys to the plan: Water often, mow often (on highest setting), pull weeds, fertize based on schedule, use pre-emergent herbicides, and pray for the best.
The moral of the story is that it takes more effort to bring your lawn back than it does to maintain it in the first place.
Qmail sending messages as anonymous@ or root@
Recently, I’ve discovered that all email being sent via script through my mail server, a Qmail server, was arriving with anonymous@servername and root@servername as the from address rather than the specified From in the message headers. After several hours of Internet research, I happened upon a message that solved another issue, but included a bit of information helpful to my situation. Due to the huge SPAM problem the world is having, mail servers are now displaying the Return-Path for the message, which basically is the actual system user responsible for sending the email. This helps mail servers determine which servers are responsible for SPAM via open relay and the like. When you send mail via email client, the Return-Path is already set to your email address, so this problem won’t affect you there.
To get your From address workign again for your formmail scripts, you need to add the following code to your script before sending the mail. (Note: the @ will be applied by the server, so the alias is the only thing necessary for the MAILUSER)
Perl:
$ENV{'MAILUSER'} = 'myusername';
$ENV{'MAILHOST'} = 'mydomain.com';
PHP:
putenv("MAILUSER=myusername");
putenv("MAILHOST=mydomain.com");
Another easy to fix this is to add the Return-Path to the header portion of your mail function:
Return-Path: Alias <alias@yourdomain.com>
Brokedown and bought an iPod
I finally brokedown and purchased my very first iPod. I decided against the currently overpriced video iPods as I have heard reports of poor battery life when watching movies on the device. I found Apple.com selling refurbished iPod Photo/Color models for about $200. I could resist and now I have it. I’ve never had a problem with Apple products and this time is no different. I only have a problem with them pricing themselves out of my market. Compared to the other two mp3 players I have owned, this one costs about twice as much and seems worth it for a few features alone. The first feature is the ability to pick up with the last point of listening without thinking twice. My other two always startup and play from the beginning of the playlist or even worse, the menu system. The second feature is not really a feature at all, but proof that iPods are huge. Everywhere you look, iPods and iPod accessories are available. I haven’t check yet, but I’m sure you can found iSomething for sale at the local Walgreens. If you haven’t seen or played with an iPod, find a friend and play with theirs.
I’m back
Wow, it has been about two months since my last post. I’m not sure where the two months went, but I’d like to make an effort to keep my blog up-to-date.