11.29.2004 14:21

Eudora Considered Harmful

Eudora is a terrible e-mail client.

I don't just mean that in an abstract sense. I'm not that fond of graphical MUAs in general -- remember, I use nmh, a slight update to an e-mail system invented by the RAND Corporation back in the seventies. But I did use Netscape's mail client for about a year when I was stuck running Mac OS 7.5.X and Mac OS 8 and survived okay. (Then I started running Linux on my Mac and went right back to MH.)

But I had to use Eudora at one of my previous jobs, and I hated it. Something about the whole interface grated with me, although I was never quite able to put my finger on it.

But now I'm having problems when I send mail to people using Eudora. My mail is totally RFC 2822 compliant -- it uses MIME, the right formats, the right headers, and so on. But Eudora doesn't like it. Eudora thinks that MIME parts are attachments. And if it doesn't recognize a particular kind of attachment, it whines to the user, warning them about the dangers of opening attachments.

In contrast, the same message opened up in a more reasonable, but similarly pretty, MUA, such as Thunderbird appears exactly as you'd expect -- the MIME parts are displayed inline when they should be (such as when they're plain text) and appear as clickable icons otherwise.

Oh, yes, and then there's the fact that Thunderbird is free, and comes with no ads, whereas the college has people using the ad-sponsored version of Eudora (???!!!), so there are issues with the ads being hidden.

Also, Thunderbird leaves the message alone -- messages in a mailbox are just as they were received. Eudora, however, rewrites the message -- it splits out attachments as separate files (stored separately) and rewrites the message into a sort of pseudo-HTML, with links to the attachment files. So good luck moving your mail from Eudora to another MUA without some hoop jumping.

Evil.


Posted by C.M. Connelly | Permalink | Categories: Mail, System Maintenance

2004 Apr 29 1:24 PM

Training SpamAssassin

I've added some information on training SpamAssassin to our page on the SpamAssassin spam filter.


Posted by C.M. Connelly | Permalink | Categories: Mail

2003 Apr 28 11:23 AM

Spamassassin Installed

I have installed Spamassassin, a spam-filtering package, on the department's mail server. I've added some information about SpamAssassin to the e-mail section of the department'ssupport area.


Posted by C.M. Connelly | Permalink | Categories: Mail, System Maintenance, Linux

2002 Sep 14 10:59 AM

Mail Changes

Because the server has changed, your e-mail client configuration may no longer work. pop.math.hmc.edu provides both POP and IMAP service. (SSL-protected access is in the works.)

The outgoing (SMTP) mail server is esme.math.hmc.edu. However, esme will only accept mail sent from the department's subnet. If you're planning to use a dialup connection, you should use your Internet server provider's SMTP server. If your ISP is Mudd, through CIS, you should use CIS's mail server, thuban.ac.hmc.edu. You should also use thuban if you're using a wireless card.


Posted by C.M. Connelly | Permalink | Categories: Mail, System Maintenance