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Things I find on the Interwebs
Office 2007 Files Being Blocked by my Office Spam Filter
01 year ago
For years, I’ve used a mail filtering gateway to check out e-mail before it’s delivered to our Exchange Server. This removes the load from the individual workstations and the Exchange server.
Today, we hit a snag:
Apr 26 15:19:18 cobalt amavis[17681]: (17681-16) Blocked BANNED (.wmf,docProps/thumbnail.wmf), [64.191.130.98] [199.134.141.228] <email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers> -> <email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers>, Message-ID: <088D6CF23075604E98428E502FC954EF0786DC43CB@email.removed-AT-too.bad.spammers>, mail_id: 17k-16SEPQYU, Hits: 1.211, size: 157087, 12689 ms
For whatever reason, just today, my filter decided it was time to stop Excel 2007 spreadsheets. From the looks of it, because the e-mail or the attachments to the e-mail contained a “wmf” file.
Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to find one thread about it on the interwebs. And it’s not helpful, just confirming my problem and asking for help.
So, if anyone else is using Amavis, has this problem and knows how to cure it, please contact me and let me know how to fix it. Thanks…
UPDATE 1 (4-28-10): I contacted the person who originally created the mailing list thread above. He, like I, have basically allowed the WMF files through, trusting our virus scanners to catch any culprits. THANK YOU MICROSOFT! (NOT)
Why I don’t have (or want) an iPad
01 year ago
by Kevin
in The Internet
In a sentence: It’s an over sized iPod Touch. At least that’s my impression to date.
Things I like about it:
It’s Size: I think it’s just the right size for a tablet.
It’s Weight: Ditto the size thing.
It’s Display: Very crisp, vibrant and clear. Duh, it’s an Apple device.
Things I don’t like about it:
The On Screen Keyboard:As much as I’ve tried to use and become familiar with the iPhone’s keyboard (which is a smaller version of the iPad’s) I simply find myself wishing for a normal PC/Laptop keyboard. My biggest gripe about the Apple touch keyboard – having to switch to an alternate pane to enter numbers.
No Printing: Really ?!!!? I understand the e-reader licensing thing, but what about getting real work done?
Lack of Flash Support: This one isn’t terrible, but it sure makes browsing the web on the iPhone a bit a downer.
Which basically means that I’m wanting an electronic version of the pen and note pad. In fact I’d kill (not literally of course) for something like that. Something that’s about the size for a full page of notebook paper and weighs about as much as the iPad that allows me to jot down notes, browse the web, manage my e-mail, reminds me of important things, keeps all my contact data handy, is able to take pictures, capture voice memos and at the end of the day allows me to search and retrieve all of that information quickly. Oh, and it has to work they way I think too. If I could find a device like that, I’d give up my iPhone, get that new device and simple flip-phone and be able to get a great deal more done.
The closest thing to date to this “mythical device” of mine is a peice of vapor-ware from Microsoft: The Courier. If the device actually comes to market and functions the way that the videos here say it does. Then it is, without a doubt, the perfect “tablet” for me.
And speaking of YouTube…
01 year ago
by Kevin
in The Internet
Why does YouTube upgrade to HD content, allow a 2GB file upload limit and then force a 10 minute time limit?
Why would the 10 minute mark mean anything to them? It’s not the replay time, it’s file sizes they should be concerned with – assuming they are concerned about bandwidth bills. If they concerned about storage, it once again falls to the 2GB file size.
I mean, currently I can not capture my game videos in HD format and therefore I don’t upload them in HD format. I create them in standard 480p resolution (720×480). This produces about a 500MB file for a 10 minute video. But what if I want to create an 11 minute video or even a 10 minute 32 second video because the gameplay ran to the time limit of 10 minutes? Should I be forced to time shift parts of video to get it posted? Personally I don’t think so – I think Google should simply say “Your videos must be 2GB or less in size.” Guess what? The 2GB limit would force HD video to shorter than 10 minutes. But at the same time it would allow me to create an SD video that is a few seconds over the 10 minute limit.
I guess I can only see one reason what they enforce the 10 minutes limit. AD REVENUE. If you look at a new video every 10 minutes or less, then they get to display more ads in a day. This, in the end, generates more revenue for them. I can’t knock them for that I guess, but they should be able to over come that with Ajax type adds that rotate every 10 minutes.
I guess I’m just whining because I want to post slightly longer videos. But I guess if they game me a 20 minute limit, I’d complain about wanting to post a 21 minute video.
YouTube and Copyright Infringement
01 year ago
Ok, this one really ticked me off several months ago and I’m hacked off again by it. I don’t do this often, but every now and again, I post a video to YouTube. On at least two occasions, I’ve wanted to add some hard-driving music for the video.
In one instance, I did so. I added Nickelback’s “Animals” song as a background track to my video. It took a while, but Google finally ripped the sound completely from the video and plastered all kinds of “copyright infringement” on the thing at the same time.
I want to go on record as stating that:
- I am not trying to make money with these videos.
- I respect the artist who created the music – I did so in this case by giving the artist credit at the end and by buying the album.
- I’m not trying to use the music to promote one side or the other of a political argument.
- I’m really not even sure how to contact the people in question to ask for permission to use the song in this manner.
- I’m sure I couldn’t afford to pay for the rights to the song even if I could contact them. (See No. 1 above.)
So my beef is: Why is it a crime to use songs that I hear everyday on the radio to add a bit of entertainment to my videos? Especially if I give the people who created the song the credit for it!
So now, YouTube has this area where you can use “pre-licensed” tracks for your videos. But there’s a problem. If you allow YouTube to add the track, then every bit of audio in your video gets replaced with the “pre-licensed” track. See:
So here’s my question about this “audioswap” feature: If I own the songs in this “pre-licensed” list, can I use them in my videos where I have control of what the sound like?
The reason this is such a problem for me is that my videos contain gameplay footage and I would like to maintain the sounds of the game as well as have the music play. In fact some of my planned videos will contain commentary by me or my friends. I need to control what is played as audio and not simply have the entire audio replaced with a song.
Where are you???
01 year ago
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that a lot of people on my blog roll seem to have not added anything to thier blogs. I don’t know the why but I wish everyone would start blogging again!