Summersault Blog

As I did with the release of Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”, I thought I would share a few notes about my experience in upgrading to the latest version of the Mac operating system, 10.5 “Leopard”.
If you just want to hear about all of the good stuff I’m experiencing as a result of the upgrade, you can skip to the bottom line.
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Today’s edition of the Palladium-Item has an article about the unveiling of the new website for the City of Richmond. The article has an error about the version of the website that was replaced with this exciting new launch – it does not replace a site created in 2001.

In 2003, Summersault was hired to create the new City of Richmond website and in October 2003, the new site was launched. The Palladium-Item published a story about this on October 9, 2003, with the headline “New city Web site offers cleaner look.”

In 2005, the City replaced the Summersault-built site with a completely different version created internally, and that is the version referenced in the article as not meeting the information technology needs of the City or the design and functionality expectations of users.

Given that it was fairly widespread knowledge that Summersault had created a previous version of the City website, we have asked the Palladium-Item for a correction clarifying that it was not our earlier work that was so much in need of replacement as a part of the recent effort.

Congratulations to the City on the launch of the new site, and congratulations to Programming and Micros for a job well done.

We received a bit of mail today from the organization “StoresOnline.com”, which is hosting two marketing events in Richmond, Indiana on December 11th at the Holiday Inn. Their pitch is that if you attend their 90-minute “conference” presentation about how to make money on the Internet, you’ll get a free meal, a free personal organizer, and priceless knowledge. It seems that the reality behind the free offers is a bait and switch scheme, which has been documented extensively on sites like TheRipOffReport.com. The reports include some heart-wrenching stories from people who invested quite a bit in StoresOnline.com (Aka Imergent Inc Aka Inetseminars.com) thinking they were going into a legitimate business, only to find that the promises made to them were empty ones, and that when they asked for a refund, they were referred to lawyers or not even called back at all. Yikes!

In general, even though the popular narrative about the Internet boom is that lots of people are making money overnight, remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and so on. Never hand over your money to anyone promising you big bucks through Internet commerce just because they’ve got a flashy presentation and give you free food. Using the technologies of the Internet to build your business takes good planning, solid partnerships, and technical expertise – there’s no substitute, and especially not in the form of a 90-minute sales pitch.

As we’ve built Summersault’s web hosting infrastructure over the years, I’ve had a great time learning all about the security and privacy issues that come with managing a complex network of computer servers connected to the Internet. Of course, it didn’t begin there – part of being a good geek has always meant showing curiosity in how things work and what’s going on behind the scenes, and I can’t remember a time I haven’t enjoyed testing the boundaries of how secure various systems are. Perhaps that’s why I very much enjoyed Bruce Schneier’s book Secrets & Lies, a formalized (but accessible) look at of a lot of the security concepts and practices I’ve encountered over the years.
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In October 2006, I received a postcard at Summersault asking us to try out a new web-based wage reporting system run by the Social Security Administration, that would hopefully save on paperwork and related costs. I don’t necessarily like what the Social Security system represents (as an individual and as a generator of paychecks), but I did try it out, and had an unimpressive experience with the site. As a web developer, I appreciate getting feedback about the tools that I help to build, so I thought I would do the same for the SSA. I guessed the e-mail address of the official whose name was signed at the bottom of the postcard, and sent him a note:
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The IMail Server from Ipswitch software is a business-oriented e-mail management system that runs on the Windows operating system. A few years ago, we were hired by a local Internet Service Provider, Parallax Systems, to help migrate their IMail Server system to a new mail server using qmail and vpopmail on a Unix-based operating system, one of the most popular mail management system setups on the Internet.

As a part of that process, we created a Perl script to assist with the migration of all the virtual domain data, individual user mailboxes and preferences, forwards, aliases, address book files, etc. It uses the Windows registry key maintained by the IMail software and creates equivalent configuration settings under the qmail/vpopmail setup.
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Today’s local paper has a story about a software glitch at the Meijer big-box grocery stores that caused them to ring up all store purchases at half price. From the article:
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As a software engineer, one of the genres of programs that you’re always on the lookout for is the “killer app,” the tool or utility that immediately becomes the “best in class” for a given problem space and technology. One problem space where I’ve been hoping for just such a tool to come along is answering that age old question, “how can we quickly schedule a meeting between a bunch of people with separately maintained and very busy calendars?” In the past, it meant lots of back and forth conversations, disjointed calendar checking, and that sense that you were spending time on “administrivia” when you could be out enjoying the world.

Enter the free web tool Doodle.ch.
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Writer and prolific blogger Dave Pollard has a post up about when not to use e-mail, in response to people asking him how to reduce inappropriate use of e-mail in their organizations. I don’t agree with all of his rules (for example, I think it’s fine to send a group of people a link to a document/policy/site update instead of waiting for them to be notified via RSS or regular browsing), but find Dave’s points useful to consider.

What do you think?

Kelly Jackson Higgins has written a great article on Seven Ways to be Mistaken for a Spammer, first noticed from a Slashdot post. Kelly’s advice and observations are very much in line with our experiences as a company that hosts e-mail accounts and tries to fight the ever-rising surge of spam, and as developers who are often creating software that sends legitimate e-mail to users all over the Internet. The main don’ts from the article:

1. Ignoring “unsubscribe” requests.
2. List “repurposing.”
3. Providing unclear privacy checkbox instructions, and ignoring users’ responses.
4. Losing track of internal desktop and server machines that can be used against you.
5. Not keeping databases and address lists up to date.
6. Having vulnerable mailer forms on your Website.
7. Working with non-reputable third-party mailers.

Whether you take Kelly’s word for it or ours or someone else’s, these items are SO important to pay attention to.