The blog of Steve Root

  • Spam filter that blocks the spam senders from RECEIVING email!

    Interesting, I just tried to report spam to a company who I assume ran the campaign in good faith. The report got an unexpected response:

    : host lonvs07.kinexus.net[212.113.24.167] said: 554
    Service unavailable; Client host [89.234.3.158] blocked using
    relays.ordb.org; ordb.org was shut down on December 18, 2006. Please remove
    from your mailserver. (in reply to RCPT TO command)

    Panic! One of our server IP’s got blacklisted as a spam source!….. phew, not the case (thank you slashdot), emailiq are filtering their email for spam using a blacklist database that shut down over a year ago. The blacklist have decided they gave enough notice to people filtering against their list, so from now on they are reporting every email checked as being spam. If you’re not getting email today, better check with your mail provider.

    This company may not have meant to send spam, but because of spam they now have no email until the reconfigure their servers. Events like this show just how much spam is really costing everyone.

  • We featured on ITN National news

    54-itnnews-thumb-250x187.jpg

    I’ve got a backlog of things I want to post, delayed by a backlog of things I need spend time on at work first, but this one jumps all the queues. Our family business (Roots Kitchens Bedrooms Bathrooms) was featured on ITN news as a small business case study. The wonders of modern technology mean you can see it on their web site.

    57-nicolawithITNvan-thumb-250x375.jpg

    The story that began it all is the CBI warning of ‘prolonged economic misery’. ITN asked if we’d give our view of the economy, both as a business and as individuals. They sent the reporter, cameraman and Satellite broadcast truck to us for the afternoon to film, edit and dispatch back in time for the evening news. They phoned to arrange it this around 11am, and it was broadcast across the nation during the 18:30 news programme. If only we could turn around kitchens that quick….

  • BBC iPlayer – it might reach your iPhone but not my PDA (…yet)

    I’ve just come across an interesting article on boingboing (a web site with blog like posts related to computer things), it appears the BBC are trialling the iPlayer service to work to iPhones. BoingBoing noticed (or at least someone noticed and boingboing re-reported it) that they identify an iPhone by accepting the browsers name. They then send an MP4 video stream for your viewing pleasure.

    There’s a couple of interesting things there:
    1) There’s no “DRM” – the software technology that prevents you copying and sharing the file with others. I guess the thoughts are you’ll not be copying it because you’ll be ‘streaming’ the file and wont get to save it. You can download the file though, the article on boingboing explains how. I also imagine they’ve changed the screen size to suit an iPhone which is quite low quality for TV so it may not be too pleasant to watch on other screens anyway.
    2) MP4’s can be played by my windows mobile 6 PDA/Phone. I’m not sure I can persuade my windows mobile browser to tell the BBC it’s an iPhone but the effort the BBC have gone to in trying this on an iPhone means that they may extend that to other platforms later.

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