Tag: email

Eh? Comment from a “Fan”

On August 26, 2012

Exact quote, copy and pasted from the email:

“Are you saved by grace alone or are you saved by grace alone through “faith” in Christ Jesus? You leave out the actual key to salvation.

There is a difference. No faith no salvation pal! Faith is not belief but proven trustworhiness faithfulness. Paul called it the obedience of faith. So just because you believe in God’s grace is nothing but intellectual asscent to something that happened.

You weren’t just saved you were purchased. You were bought with a price you are not your own nor are you property of James White.”

Coherence please. Context please. 😉

AT&T Re-Blocking Outgoing Email Port 25 for Uverse Customers?

By David Westerfield

On February 20, 2012

In Technology

(FYI: When I first had Uverse setup, they allowed me to open SMTP port 25. This problem started when it was inadvertently blocked again recently. Long story short, there were other reports of this happening. Below is the process of trying to get it unblocked again.)

I have come to the realization tonight that my mail server has not been sending out emails since February 17th. I hopped on AT&T’s Uverse chat support and was informed (after connecting to a second tech for a possible different answer because, you know, not all techs know the same things) that AT&T is now blocking outbound SMTP port 25 for Uverse customers. I initially had the port opened on my account to allow outbound email for my mail server. But it doesn’t work now as of February 17. And if you want to have this port opened now, you must contact their Connectech team to unblock it. The number, as of now, is 1-866-294-3464, or you can apparently connect with their chat service here: https://chatnow.att.com/. If you send me an email directly right now, I’ll try to respond another way in the mean time.

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UPDATE 1: Okay this is rich. So I contacted Connectech via the chat app (which is an exe download, similar to TeamViewer), chatted with the tech about the problem and was asked if I had purchased a support plan. I said, no, I just need my port 25 opened again. He said, I can’t help you unless you have a package purchased (paraphrasing all of the aforementioned).

So let me get this straight: I already pay AT&T Uverse a larger amount of money for their technology (okay fine, whatever) than the other guys. I pay for support too when I have a problem, support that comes with my service. AT&T decides to block outbound port 25. To get it open, I can’t just call the regular support anymore. I have to call their outsourced “professional techs” to flip a switch. And in the process, at least pay them $20 more a month. You’ve gotta be kidding me? This is a new low for AT&T customer service. Ever heard of corporate communism? With their level of bureaucracy, red tape and hoops to jump through to get something done, for the one’s they’re supposed to be servicing, I can’t think of a better term. Or how about inefficiency?

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UPDATE 2: So after having blogged and tweeted this issue, I have received two responses from AT&T techs saying they can help. They asked me to direct message them on Twitter now with my account information. And although they are still tweeting others with issues, they will not respond. I don’t get it. Still waiting though …

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UPDATE 3: A social media guy (Mike A) from AT&T contacted me directly about the issue and is getting the ball rolling. Appreciate it!

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UPDATE 4: After receiving a call, I have yet to hear anything about a possible resolution or whether it is even still being looked at. I’ve called twice, left messages, with no response. Benefit of the doubt: could be very busy.

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UPDATE 5: Received a call from Mike A a little while ago at the social media team at AT&T and they let me know they have resolved the problem, port 25 is not being blocked anymore. There were apparently other reports of this happening and they are handling it on a case by case basis. Appreciate the help, Mike A, at @ATTTeamNatasha!

Latest on ClimateGate

By David Westerfield

On November 26, 2009

In Politics, Science

Found on DrudgeReport:

UK: Pretending the climate email leak isn’t a crisis won’t make it go away…
US: Impression left by emails is that global warming game has been rigged from start…
AUSTRALIA: Five MPs lead the way by resigning in disgust over carbon tax…
NEW ZEALAND: Climate Science Coalition caught lying about temp trends…
RUSSIA: Что скрывают ученые о глобальном потеплении?…
…ONWARD COPENHAGEN!

Kay Granger on the Energy Bill Being Crafted – Outrageous

By David Westerfield

On June 24, 2009

In Business, Economics, Environment, Politics

This is outright tyranny. Just like the trillions in bailouts that clearly aren’t working (see Warren Buffett’s comments from today, who himself is a liberal Democrat), this too will be crammed down our throats, without debate, without the consent of the people for whom Congress allegedly works, without any dialog or discussion, under the assumption of an unproven theory that man is causing the Earth to warm. This is simply outrageous. And it will raise costs on everything, especially energy, to levels we likely haven’t seen … and all this at a time when our economy is in one of the worst crises since the Great Depression and on the verge of possibly getting worse for a long time to come. Simply unbelievable. Yet this is the exact kind of nonsense that was warned against before the election. Kay Granger is up in arms on this one.

Insightful Emails I Receive

By David Westerfield

On April 16, 2009

In Personal

“Subject: Ever Think About a Different Domain Name?

Message: You know that David Westerfield is also the name of a convicted child raping murderer on death row at San Quentin? It was a huge case 6 or 7 years ago. Just a little ‘Fun-fact’ for you to chew on. Keep on keepin’ on.”

With all due respect … nooooo, really? It’s not as if I haven’t done a Google search on my name before 🙂

My response:

“Trust me, I’m very well aware of it 🙂 thanks for letting me know though … and no, I’m not changing my site name, haha :)”

I get quite a bit of traffic just from people searching that name and stumbling across my site actually … it’s a traffic driver. Why would I change it? 🙂

Top Webcam Email Alerts

By David Westerfield

On August 1, 2008

In Bizarro, Funny, Personal, Technology

I’m a nerd. I’m not afraid to hide it, clearly. As a nerd, I love technology. I have a webcam setup at home for security reasons, pointed across my front yard to catch possible intruders that wish to invade my property or cause other harm. I have a threshold setup on the software I run along with my webcam that, when hit, sends an email attached with a picture (or series of pictures) to an offsite email account.

Most of the time, I just get cars passing by, lightning during a storm, really any kind of movement or light change that causes enough of a fluctuation to trigger a webcam picture alert. Sorting through the emails on partly cloudy days is not always fun and many times, I just delete them all because it is too many to sort through. However, there are some rare occasions that I actually get something good, funny, or odd. Here is a sample of some of the best shots from the past two years that I have kept:
This guy thought he might try and get into my garage and steal some junk in the middle of the night last year in June.

Apparently, it proved to be too much of a risk for him with the flood lights along with neighbors who are not afraid to use a gun. Good, please leave. Whew.

I’m pretty sure this jumping spider knew he would send off an email alert and intentionally walked across the viewing range of the webcam.

It really isn’t that uncommon to see people walking across the yard. You would be quite surprised to know how many neighbors do this during the middle of the day 🙂 Anyway, this guy caught my attention only because he looks exactly like my wife’s brother. It was just the electric meter guy though.

I thought this was a fascinating photo study in the custodial/lawn service arts.

Finally, these are two shots from last nights’ thunderstorm that I thought were pretty awesome.

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Updated at 2:00pm on 08/02/2008:

I almost forgot … though we live in the city, we apparently are still on a rural mail route (can’t figure that one out). As such, we receive our mail (I would guess) about every other day on average, from a guy in a jerry-rigged minivan. He drives the thing from the passenger seat. Yet the wheel still resides on the drivers side … and I assume he has pedals on the passenger side as well. I’m still trying to figure out how he drives the thing without easily running into stuff. Very interesting to say the least.

I’m Not the Only One Apparently – Gmail’s Growing Spam Problem

By David Westerfield

On April 11, 2008

In Security, Technology

A while back I wrote this post pertaining to what appeared to be spammers utilizing Gmail servers to send spam to my account. I didn’t know if it was just me or if others were experiencing it as well. It’s not just me apparently. This article on The Register in the UK shows that this is quite a growing problem for all mailing systems, that is now causing many mail services to start throttling Gmail (as well as Yahoo) emails that come in. This is bad news because Gmail was supposed to be one of the more secure mailing systems. In addition, it presents a big problem for services like Spamhaus because spam emails being sent through Gmail SMTP servers are not blacklisted. Therefore a spammer can send email from foreign IP address blocks that may be banned in the Spamhaus database, but because the email is actually being sent via Gmail servers, it is not blacklisted. So mail services have started enforcing throttling to limit the number of email that are sent from Gmail. This just shows that no matter how much security you put in place (even complex CAPTCHA techniques), there is always a way around systems, always. And at some point, someone will find the holes. It’s just a matter of time. The trick is staying ahead and always keeping people guessing.