One of the great frustrations of being a mobile user who doesn’t use webmail is having to manually change SMTP servers each time I switch locations. There’s one for when I’m at home, another for when I’m at work. And when I’m on the road, I have to remember to VPN into work in order to use their SMTP server. (Yes, I know, I should be using the VPN all the time…but it only protects traffic between my computer and RIT, and much of my traffic goes elsewhere.)
No more.
Yesterday I found an article by David Reitter, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, called Send E-Mail Everywhere: Postfix on Mac OS X (and other Unix systems). It has step-by-step instructions on how to securely set up a local SMTP server on your Powerbook.
It seems to be working…I ran a test where I sent mail to myself on six or seven different email accounts, and the test messages all arrived safely. And it’s a whole lot faster than using the RIT SMTP server.
So, Mac tech gurus…have a made a terrible mistake? Has this set me up for abuse of my system in ways I can’t anticipate or protect from?
My sabbatical application for next year has been approved! I’m still working out the details, but it looks quite likely that I’ll be spending next year (with my family) in the Seattle area.
This mean that I’ll need copious advice from my Seattle-based friends and colleagues on finding a place to live, getting settled in, homeschooling our boys, and people we must look up when we arrive (probably in July).
It also means that RIT will be looking to replace me for a year with a visiting professor, which is the real point of this post. We really need someone who has both interest and expertise in web development and social computing. It’s a great opportunity for someone in industry who wants to spend a year in academia, or an academic at another school who needs a sabbatical opportunity of their own.
I realize that Rochester isn’t everybody’s ideal destination, but it really is a great city to live in. And I can’t say enough good things about the work environment—I have great colleagues, a wonderful office, excellent support staff, and incredible facilities (both technical and recreational). The cost of living here is very low (and if you act soon, you could even rent our close-to-campus house, complete with furnishings…), recreational and cultural opportunities abound, and the public schools are excellent.
If you’re interested, send me email, and I can give you more details.
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