Blog Master G

A friend of mine was a member of the jury on this trial, which ended last week. I’m having lunch with said friend tomorrow, so it will be interesting to hear the real story, unspun by the media.

Marin IJ – Jury awards $31.7 million to Novato surgeon

In the 60 Minutes coverage of the story is this paragraph:

A number of people who worked at UnumProvident, the giant of the disability insurance business, whose clients include CBS, told us that the company’s management puts tremendous pressure on claims handlers to deny new claims and shut down existing ones. And that many UnumProvident policy holders- who are obviously disabled – are left out in the cold.

Maddening? Yes. But surprising? Not so much. The giant corporations of America are used to getting their way. So why wouldn’t UnumProvident make it its policy to deny as many claims as possible?

The $31.7 million award in this trial may seem like a lot (and certainly is to most of us), but to a company the size of UnumProvident, it’s probably just a drop in the bucket. Let’s hope this drop will cause enough of a ripple to make this corporate giant seriously re-examine its policies.

For a 176-word recap of the world events of the past year or so and of Bush’s war-obsessed ways, check out this great post:

bit.ch :: The World Comedy

The headline says it all. I will say one word: Karma. OK, how about a 2nd word: Good.

Man accidentally shot to death while using gun to beat dog; had told wife he planned to kill pooch

Friendster is a really cool concept. I first learned of it from fellow Vassar alum Mike Sugarbaker’s blog. I just registered through him. It’s the six degrees of separation method of meeting people who know people you know — to chat, make friends, do stuff together, or even date. It brings the whole match.com experience a step closer to home, since it’s all based on “referrals,” so to speak.

Right now the site’s in beta so you need to be invited to join, but let me know if you’re interested and I’ll send you an invite.

Update (06.05.2003): Since this entry appears near the top of a Google search for Friendster, I thought I’d add a link to my profile on Friendster. Enjoy!

Imagine a world without any spam. Ahh…the peace, the quiet. Think that’s impossible? Well, even with software like SpamAssassin installed on my server, I still have to go into my spam directory to clear it out from time to time and make sure no real messages ended up there. I also get a number of spam messages sneaking into my inbox every once in a while.

Some time ago, I read about this reverse spam-filtering technique from Nancy McGough, which sounded really good, but she doesn’t share her “whitelist” script.

Then today I saw the same concept in action. I got an email from someone that required me to respond to it to verify that I’m a real person rather than a spambot. That guy is using a script coupled with procmail that requires anyone who sends you mail (except people or domains you approve in advance) to verify that he or she is a real person. It’s ingenious, really. And after someone has confirmed that he or she is a person, he or she will automatically be added to a “whitelist” or accept list and will not have to confirm in the future.

I’m seriously considering implementing this script:

Rejecting spam with a procmail accept list

My initial hesitation was that some people might not understand the need to reply to verify, but this script allows you to check the queue or cache of pending messages and either clear them out or approve selected messages/addresses.

I think it’s great. What better way to fight spam? (Aside from abstaining from ever using your email address anywhere online, of course.)

I’m tired of the constant problems with my current Web host and am looking for suggestions on other hosts. Please let me know your experiences and send your recommendations my way. I thought that invoking LazyWeb would be a good way to solicit some feedback, so this post will be pinging it.

I’m considering phpwebhosting.com and recently came across Infinology, which offers 9,000 MB of disk space for less than 10 bucks per month, which seems too good to be true (so it probably is). Any experience with either of those hosts?

Here are my primary requirements in a Web host:

1. Unix/Linux server
2. Disk space: I need at least 200MB and preferably more
3. PHP
4. MySQL databases
5. SSH access
6. Reliability
7. Regular data backups
8. Ability to run Movable Type and meet its requirements
9. Run custom CGIs
10. Multiple domains/sub-domains
11. .htaccess files, including directory redirects and protection
12. SpamAssassin

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

This is becoming a funny trend: Someone from the Department of Justice really must like my blog. Yet again I noticed a visitor from said federal department in my Nedstat site metrics:

24 January 05:33 US Dept of Justice, Rockville, United States

Do I have a fan or am I just being watched?

As of today, all of my blog templates now include the right-side navigation as seen on my blog home page. Before, it was just a wide block of text. Now visitors will have access to all the other navigation not just for my blog, but the rest of my site, too. The templates for which I’ve made this change are individual entry archive, monthly archive, and category archive.

This also marks the first official post in my new blogging category. At some point, I’ll have to go back and re-categorize all blog-related posts into this category.

It’s about time American people realize that Bush is up to no good. I just wonder why it took so long for his ratings to slide.

Yahoo! News – Poll: Most Don’t Back Bush Stimulus Plan

I can access my primary email again, but I will never know how many messages I lost during this frustrating downtime. Grrr… My problems are fixed, but the bitter taste remains.