Unsurprisingly my blog is at a 4 month unique visitor low.

What, you think you can make 5 blog entries a month and actually grow your readership? Uhm, no.

Yeah, I’m bogged down with work, computer work, so really, once my work day is over, the last thing I feel like doing is sit on the computer some more.  And if I do make it back to the computer, my mind is so numb that nothing creative is forthcoming.

And that’s how it’s affecting my blog readership - negatively.  It’s common knowledge that a blog that is often updated is a blog that is well read.  Blogs are like magazines, except they’re nothing like magazines.  They don’t get published every week or month, they get updated daily, sometimes twice a day and those freakish Mobloggers can update hourly man, or by the minute even.

Blog readers are people for the now, in the moment, the second passes the moment passes and the next moment has its moment and if another second passes that’s the end for that moment too.  So you have to be there, in the moment, in the second and if you’re not… well, then you too shall pass.

Fine. Regular updates, I know I need regular updates.  And not crap either.  The net is full of crap and it really doesn’t need more crap in spite of the fact that it will get loads more crap. Posts like this one are not needed, people need info, they want to know stuff.

My helpful articles have the most readers, except this one post which sounds porny, but isn’t - that’s popular for no reasons pertaining to usefulness. But the howto’s and the what-i-did’s, they do fine.

So here’s some freaky and interesting stats.

My top search engines referral this month is for “1borneo”, closely followed by “1borneo.com.my” - I was saying how this new shopping mall doesn’t have a website address at 1borneo.com.my, even though they registerd .com, .net and .org, and now I hit at the top of the 4 results that displays when people type in 1borneo.com.my…. in my browser anyway.  I swear Google fudges up my search results in an attempt to ‘tailor’ them to my needs.  I need raw results, not results that they think I want - time to delete some Google cookies.

I digress.  Other anomalies include the 1% for “donut” and the 0.6% for “about” from search engine referrals. But I can’t be bothered to find the origin of those.

Encouraging in my stats are that Microsoft Explorer users are down to 50.9% and Firefox users are up to 40.4%. Windows users are down to 81% and Linux users are up to 10.3%. People reading my blog from Playstation Portables will soon be up to 0.1% - intriguing.

But my most worrying statistic is my unique visitors, but with 5 days left in the month, I can hopefully narrow the gap a little.

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After a wait, which, in my opinion, was way too long, the Tri Nation Rugby finally goes to Cape Town, South Africa this weekend as South Africa takes on New Zealand this Saturday, on green turf!

“I’m getting slightly moist”, said my friend as he quipped in a needlessly graphic way about his excitement for this game.  I can’t tell if he means he’s going to wet himself or whether he’s referring to something more sexual.

Nevertheless (shaking-vivid-image-from-mind), at 1305 GMT this Saturday, 14 Aug, the Springboks come up again their nemesis, the All Blacks, on the green-green grass of the Newlands Stadium.

What? A little history?

Yeah, the history of the Newlands Stadium is interesting, if not colourful.  The actual grounds of the stadium was bought way back in 1888 (which must make it hugely auspicious for the Chinese) and saw the first game played in 1890 in front of a meager 2,400 people.

Today Newlands stadium can seat over 51,000 people in a relatively modern, recently’ish renovated concrete stadium.  It’s still one of South Africa’s most beautiful stadiums, set among the greenery and the slopes of the wet side of Table Mountain.

The stadium is accessible by all modes of transport, but the trains will bring you closest.  Going by car is what many people do though, in spite of the fact that you have to park blocks away and walk your way in.

The walk is often part of the game, as along the way loads of people will be throwing a braai (BBQ) and having a tipple before moving on to the stadium for some serious rugby.

Future of Newlands Stadium

Now is the time to enjoy the rugby games, especially the international ones, that are being hosted in the historic stadium of Newlands, because soon it might not be used so often anymore.

Currently in progress, and hopefully completed before the 2010 soccer world cup in South Africa, is the Greenpoint Stadium.

Until recently, possibly one of the most neglected stadiums around, the Greenpoint Stadium actually occupied some prime property in Cape Town and, to be fair, hosted some epic concerts and sporting events.

It was an obvious venue for the high-profile football matches scheduled for the 2010 world cup, but the stadium was ill equipped for the hordes of people expected and, besides, was in serious disrepair.

Somebody somewhere made the decision that it would in fact be easier to virtually rebuild the stadium instead of the substantial upgrades it would require.  The future Greenpoint Stadium is slated to be able to house 68,000 people.

Not living in Cape Town I’m not up to date with the latest goss of its progress, but I would love to know if it will be done in time for 2010 and what will be done regarding parking, access and traffic in general, as it’s literally pushed into a corner of Cape Town which isn’t traffic friendly at all.

Back to the Rugby

But I digress.  Back in Rugby land not only do the Springboks have their work cut out for them this weekend as they meet the All Blacks on their home turf, but the poor Springbok coach Pieter De Villiers does too.

There is forever an issue with colour balance in the Springbok team and I read, nearly chocking on my coffee, that black and coloured people of Cape Town traditionally support the All Blacks!  Race, I tell you, is one of those nasty dividers equaled only by religion.

Why can’t we all just see each other as human and practice a unifying religion like, say, rugby?

What I would like to see is the entire crowd at Newlands Stadium dressed in green, the way the staunch All Black supporters at the Dunedin Stadium were dressed in black when they met the Bokke there.

And no boo’ing or hissing when the All Blacks do something good or bad, just nothing but a deafening silence.  Or not, as the Bokke did break a nearly 100 year old record that day at Dunedin, but still, an all green crowd would be amazing.

The Springboks doesn’t have an easy ride either way.  They played 3 games so far and lost 2 of those, so they’re a little behind in the standings.  Check out the standings table for the dire picture.

But Bokke to the end! If it can be done, they can do it.  Go Bokke, I don’t mind what colour my Bok is, as long as he’s green!

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Warning: this is an environmentally geeky post.

I recycle.  About every 3 months I take a car load of rubbish to the recycling depot and walk away with about RM10 - RM16 for my effort. It’s not about the money though, it’s about the environment.

The majority of my rubbish consists of plastic, specifically plastic bottles.

The tap water here isn’t exactly drinkable (although I believe if your constitution is robust you can get away with it), so I buy bottled water instead of boiling my own.  It’s a toss up, but I reckon recyclable plastic is better than using loads of electricity.

My Personal Impact of Drinking Bottled Water

I buy a box of 12 1.5 litre bottles of reverse-osmosis water every week or so.  It recently increased to RM10 per box, so it costs me 56c a litre (RM 10 / (12 x 1.5) = RM0.56).  The waste from this is 12 large plastic bottles and a cardboard box.

Even if I crush the plastic bottles, over the span of 3 months it accumulates into quite a pile.

I’ve recently noticed the increase of water vending machines here in KK though.  Water Shop, it’s called.

You pay something like 20c and buy yourself a litre of reverse osmosis water, which you collect and take home in your own container.  This, of course, appealed to me as the water is cheaper and with my own container I could reduce my bottled-water related waste to zero.

Until recently though, they’ve all been pretty far away from my house and petrol is way more expensive than plastic or water.

Buying Water from a Vending Machine?

Then environmental activism happened to me. First a Water Shop appeared outside a small shopping plaza near my house, and I serendipitously bumped into 16-litre containers at Giant, perfect for taking your very own reverse osmosis water home in.

So I bought the container for RM65, stopped at the Water Shop on the way home (which btw is “open” 24 hours a day) and filled it up for RM3.70, which at 20c per litre means the container can actually hold close to 19 litres of water. Suits me.

Result? Water Shop chalks up one for the environment, as they contribute to me removing a substantial amount of consumer generated rubbish from the cycle.  Piles of empty plastic bottles and kilograms of cardboard box.  I know, before I recycled the rubbish, so the impact is probably not that great, but recycling also wastes energy and who knows what it gets recycled into.

But it also reduces the demand for plastic bottles and cardboards boxes ever so slightly.  Times that by a few hundred people and the impact could be significant. I like to think I make a small contribution.

And the RM65 container will pay for itself in just over two months.  I save 36c per litre of water, so after 180 litres, or 10 refills, or 10 weeks, I will start saving money on water.

Everyone’s a winner.  I told you it was a geeky post.

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Don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time on my computer. I mean, A LOT.

Like many people, I work on my computer. My work is totally reliant on my computer, so there’s nothing I can do that doesn’t involve my computer (god help me if one day we run out of electricity).

I work long hours - loooong hours. And the type of stuff I do requires mammoth sitting-down sessions. My hobbies, like this blog for instance, also include computers. Like I said; I spend a lot of time on my computer. A LOT.

Often when I get busy with a bit of programming or writing an article, hours can slip by and I don’t notice. I don’t notice, that is, until I try to get up from my seat and my knees, legs and arms lock up. When I then reference the clock and realise I just sat in one position for 3 hours with nothing but my fingers moving over the keyboard, then I stop wondering why I suddenly locked up.

Joints that stop working and atrophied muscles aside, my flabby gut also indicates that I sit on my ever-increasing-in-girth ass waaaaay too much.  Getting older only amplifies these results of a computer-centered lifestyle.

Oh, give me a break

Exactly! The solution to the problems above (and possibly many that are yet to rear their ugly heads), is to take frequent breaks. 10 minutes every hour, says the experts, and micro-breaks every so often, just a minute here and there where you put your arms in the air and look beyond your screen.

The 10 minute breaks, I can assure you, are quite important, as it helps circulation. Nothing like poor circulation when it comes to the sports field or the bed room I tell you.

Alarms are great reminders, but I find myself killing those, or just ignoring them, pretty easily. Let me just snooze this alarm and off I go on a 2 or 3 hour sitting-down spree.

Enter WorkRave

It should be little wonder that Ubuntu includes a program that can save you from Repetitive Strain Injury. I think Linux users love their computers so much that they really just get up to eat (and pee, but only if the adult diaper is saturated), so it people like Rob Caelers & Raymond Penners to come up with something like WorkRave.

WorkRave is a neat little programme that comes with Ubuntu by default.  It essentially forces you to take regular breaks, and I’ve set mine so that it locks my computer so that I can’t ignore it and have to break.  Handy.

You can set it to remind you of micro-breaks, which gets a little annoying as it seems as if it warns you every minute, although it’s every 10 or 15.

When your hourly break rolls around, it also gives you some random exercises to do in the form of graphics, like stretching your arms, tilting your neck, twiddling your fingers and other RSI preventative exercises.

Then once you’ve done those, it locks the computer (you can set it that way, or not), and forces you to spend the other 9 or so minutes away from your computer.  I usually walk down the stairs or do something equally active, just to remind my legs what they’re there for.

So, do your body a favour and get this nifty little programme.  If you use it religiously, I’m sure you’ll find you have more energy and less aches & pains.  You might also just be able to sky someone in frisbee without falling down when your puny legs hit the ground.

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Einstein once said that one definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over for ever and ever expecting a different result.

Well then, when it comes to computers, we should all be mad really, because such is the nature of the computer, that you could well do the same thing over and over for ever and ever and a different result might just occur.

In Windows this is, of course, more true than of any other operating system, but I don’t use Windows anymore (I use Ubuntu, thank you), so lets not talk about that.

This afternoon, for no apparent reason whatsoever, Evolution on Ubuntu (Hardy Heron 8.04) suddenly decided it would use nothing other than my default SMTP server.  Or so it appeared.  Although I could still receive email as normal, Evolution refused to send email from anything by my default SMTP server.

I have three email accounts set up in Evolution and all of them use different SMTP servers (although the 2 offending accounts are hosted on the same server, using the same default SMTP port).

Suddenly, this same thing I did over and over for ever and ever yielded a different result.  Naturally I was stumped and yes, I did feel ever so slightly mad.

I thought about what I did differently today.  There were two things.  I installed the updates that Ubuntu advised me to, but nothing that was related to email or Evolution as such.  I also installed Filezilla, and thinking back it was shortly after this that my troubles started.  Obvious solution? Uninstall Filezilla.

This yielded no results.

The actual problem with Evolution using only your default SMTP server

Truth be told, even though Evolution indicates that it’s only using your default SMTP server, it really isn’t. Maybe the programmers were lazy, but it is in fact trying your other accounts too, it just specifies the default account.

It connects and seemingly hangs, but it doesn’t, it’s just waiting for the time-out.  When it does time out it will tell you, unable to connect to mail.suchandsuch.com and you’ll realise it was in fact not your default server.

In my case, and it might well be your case too if you’re using HostGator, my SMTP port 25 suddenly decided not to work anymore.  Mind you, I read on the net that this might also be due to the ISP blocking this port in an attempt to stop spam.  Ha!

So if you’re using Streamyx through Telekom Malaysia in Sabah and you have this problem sending mail, then you know that your port 25 has been blocked (as of this afternoon it seems).

Solution to Evolution using only your default SMTP server

Luckily for DIY SMTP peeps like you and me, there are alternative ports for SMTP.  One such port that works with HostGator (your experience might vary) is port 465.  This is the SSL port, which has the added benefit of making the process of receiving your mail more secure. In actuality, if this is the only thing you do, it has very little benefit.

Nevertheless, if you specify this port, then you should also specify an SSL connection, otherwise there might be a miscommunication and things will not work.

How to implement the default STMP server only solution in Evolution

Ok, so first we need to tell Evolution that you want to use the SSL port for your SMTP transactions.

In Evolution, go to Edit -> Preferences and then click the offending account to highlight it, and press Edit.

Select the Sending Email tab and add :465 to the Server Configuration box, which should already have something like mail.suchandsuch.com.  So then you have something like mail.suchandsuch.com:465.  This is how you specify a different port in Evolution (the default is port 25).  Note: your alternative port might be different.

Then also change Use a Secure Connection to SSL encryption.  You’ll find this option in the Security section on the same tab.

This should solve your problem. It did mine.

Technically, you can specify any alternative port, as long as it’s not 25, which is the default and the most likely number your ISP is blocking (if that is indeed the problem).  I did a quick search and found that 465 is HostGator’s SSL Port, which is supported by my account and my email client, Evolution.

Chew on that, Einstein!

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