Supportus Maximus Blog

I'm experimenting with blog writing software to go with my blog. I have just recently discovered that it is difficult for many of my clients to write directly in their blog because it is limiting in it's abilities to format. Many of my clients are professional writers and are used to certain functionality in using Word and other word processing programs. Because they are professional writers, they want their writing to look professional, especially when it is being presented on the web.

Pictures are also important to make the page engaging.

Right now I am trying out Windows Live Writer. It was a bit difficult to install this program. Frankly, I'm not even sure how I got it on here. I will have to do it again before I can tell my clients how to do it. It looks like it's a program on my computer, but these days it's becoming more and more difficult to discern, what is on the Internet and what is on your computer.

Essentially, what it is doing is tapping into the API capabilities in this Drupal blog and allowing me to make a blog entry and post it to the blog without going to my site in Windows Explorer and logging in. It is very much like I'm using Word except that it is creating an html entry rather than a Word document. Word documents, by the way, present difficulties when you cut and paste from Word directly into a web interface. The codes often make unpredictable results.

Here is a picture. It allows you to get pictures off the web or from your computer. There is a functionality where you can add a map.

Here's a map of Hollywood and Vine.

There is also insert video, insert tags, insert table and other things.

Spellcheck and some limited formatting are also available.

1. numbered lists
2. bullet point lists
3. block quotes

It seems pretty functional and easy to use. I am now publishing so I can see it on the web, as you are reading it now.

This entry is the first of a series of short, plain language, explanations about computer concepts and terms. I intend to explain things, in a digestible way for my clients and others out there, who might not want to be a computer genius, but need to know something about how computers work.

This entry is a beginning of the topic, "What is an IP Address."

Put simply, an IP address is a name given to a computer, printer, server or other device, so that you and your computers can tell them apart. It is a very universal way of naming devices on a network, so that no matter whether it's a Mac or a PC, an Epson Printer or an HP, a Windows Server or a Linux server, it doesn't matter, they all speak the same language of IP addresses.

Just like names, IP addresses, are only useful if they are different. If everyone was named Joel, it wouldn't help us very much to refer to people by name. Same with computers. An IP address is a series of numbers and usually looks something like this: 192.168.1.1

In fact, 192.168.1.1 is probably the most common one, at least here in the United States.

But wait, I just said they were only useful if they were different. Why is there a common one?

Well, because there are two kinds of IP addresses. WAN and LAN. Wide Area Network and Local Area Network.

Wide Area Network is what we call the Internet. All the computers of the world, that are on a WAN talk to each other and have to have different names or, as they are called, IP addresses. This is all very carefully monitored.

Local Area Networks are like what you probably have at home or in your office. All your computers sit behind a piece of hardware called a router, or on very simple systems, just a modem. So the only WAN (internet) address you have is on that router or modem. Everything behind it just looks the like the router to the outside world. Kind of like your home address is a number and a street. Someone passing by can see that address and locate it on a map, but that doesn't tell them how many people are living there or what their names are.

Wide area network IPs are like your home or business address, they are public.

Local area network IPs are like the names of individuals in your home or office. They are more private and more useful to those within the building.

That's all for now. This discussion will continue.

The other day I was showing my wife how to make an email responder. She wanted to have one that said that she was out of the office, but would return the email when she came back.

That seemed reasonable. I am used to the Microsoft Outlook "Out of Office Reply" and I was sure that Apple Mail had the same.

I looked around in the account preferences, very confident that I would find it. However, I suddenly got that sinking feeling that there might not be one. Well, I never found one and thought that perhaps I'd have to do it the old fashioned way and write a rule.

I read a post on the internet saying someone tried to use a rule to reply to emails, but found that the replies were empty. 

I decided to give it a try there on my dual core Powermac G5. I made a rule that said if my name is in the "to:" field on incoming mail, the person should get a reply with a special message. It even gave me a field where I could type this message. I typed a message and a message came up that said "Do you want to apply your rules to messages in selected inboxes?" (pictured above). I chose yes, thinking that meant that it would begin responding as soon as the next email came in. I sent one to myself to test it, thinking I might be starting an endless loop.

Well I got the email reply, and low and behold, there was no text in it at all. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in the testing of this operating system called Leopard.

BUT, I was more disappointed when I got a strange email from a friend who inquired as to why I was sending back all the emails she had sent to me in the last month.

I thought it odd and had the disorienting feeling that one gets when one thinks his computer is acting on it's own. My wife then asked me why she was getting a bunch of emails from me with old subject lines that she wrote. 

Then I started getting some as well. I knew something was wrong.

I scrolled down my list in my very full inbox and noticed that many of my emails had reply arrows next to them. Even ones I never replied to.

Sure enough, that little box got the best of me when it asked me if I wanted to apply this rule to my mailbox. It applied the auto-responder rule I made to every email in my inbox that had me in the "to:" field. Why would someone want this? I'm sure there is a reason, but they should make it much more clear that if you click this box your rule will act very quickly and may cause you to look like a fool.

The next day I replied to many an email, explaining why my email went haywire. Some people (I may not have heard from all of them) may think I'm mad at them or something that I would send emails back "unopened" as it were. Or maybe they might think I was being obnoxious. Whatever it is. I think this is a poorly thought out feature of Apple Mail. There should be an auto-responder that works. 

Since then I have found that the .Mac account has one. This is not good enough. You shouldn't have to go to the web to for a mail client feature. That's backwards isn't it? Better yet, the responder should at least send the text that you put in it, otherwise you have people very confused when they get their message returned to them with no reply at all.

I have been hosting sites with the same hosting company for a long time. Yesterday I was lured into another hosting company by their fancy website.  I have been using Aplus.net and I always recommend them to my customers. This fancy company that I was lured into, will remain unnamed because I didn't give them much of a chance.

I'm back from a trip to India. Pictures to follow. Just a quick report on my Drupal content management system experiences. I am starting to really enjoy the way it works. I see now that it is a great structure upon which to build a custom site. It's logic takes a little getting used to but as I've been working with it I'm understanding it more and more. The key to functionality is modules. There are many modules to choose from on the drupal.org site.