For the last 3 days I have not been able to send emails out of my Outlook 2007 on my computer. I could only write emails through my Blackberry (thankfully). I contacted my hosting company Bluefur Hosting, and started troubleshooting. The error I got was that my SMTP server cut off or did not respond.

First it was determined that it was a network issue of some sort, as the problem was consistent with whether I was at home, or at an internet hotspot at the coffee shop. It was not singled out to a specific router or an IP address. Also, when I tested it with my spare laptop with Windows XP and Office 2003 on it, it still gave me the same errors. So my computers were ruled out - 2 computers running on 2 different versions of Office/Windows could not have the exact same problem at the same time.

The next thing to check was the server responsiveness through a more manual mean : telnet.

Get into your command prompt, and type “telnet mail.yourdomain.com 25″ and also do it with port # 26.

In my case, port 25 gave me no response, and port 26 was fine. Hence, somehow port 25 was not working. Bluefur’s response was that both ports 25 and 26 (which are the most common for SMTP ports - POP3 for incoming can usually be found at 110) were responding fine for everybody else, so it must be an ISP blocking port 25 on other SMTPs!!!

My only conclusion is that, for whatever reason, Shaw Cable has cut off connections to ports 25 of all foreign (in other words, self-hosted, instead of using myname@shaw.ca type of emails) servers.

If you are having troubles with this in the BC/AB region of Canada, try changing your port # on Outlook to 26.

ActiveX controls - a method of an embedded controlling system that gets deployed on your computer from a website so that certain websites can perform more robust functions - that’s what it is basically. It was a Microsoft creation, and when the internet was young and not as powerful, it was a goldmine for web-based software. Some major websites that use ActiveX controls is MLSLINK for realtors (Multiple Listing Service which provides real-time online listing data). Also, Quickbooks online (an accounting management system that tracks income and expenses) uses ActiveX control for their online platform.

It’s getting out of fashion. It’s in its dying breaths, because web languages have evolved enough to be able to handle very complex tasks in a visually friendly and speedy manner without having to rely on ActiveX controls anymore. I have observed how the MLSLINK system works and all of these functions could be performed just the same (if not better) using a blend of Javascript, AJAX, and robust server-side scripting using PHP or ASP.

Why use ActiveX controls to program your stuff, when other more common codebases can handle it all the same, and you have more learning resources for Javascript/PHP/AJAX online than ActiveX documentations? Also note that having to install ActiveX to be able to use a platform is a tedious task. The whole point of many web-based software is so that you can observe and modify your data from virtually anywhere in the world where you have internet. If I were using Quickbooks online, and I was in a hotel far away from home, it would take me a few extra steps to be able to use it at that computer.

Javascript, PHP, AJAX is more than enough to create very robust and functional data handling web-applications, and you don’t need to install anything everytime you use it on a different computer.

Down with ActiveX controls - in comes Web 2.0.

So, I’m on.. almost a week since my purchase of a new laptop (model to be disclosed later in a separate review) and it has Windows Vista Home Edition on it. I am contemplating upgrading to Windows Vista Business 64 bit to see if that works better (the CPU is 64 bit compatible).

So far my experience with Windows Vista, overall, has been positive, but there are glitches, obviously (nothing’s perfect). The visual, and the navigational presentation is more than superb, and it is much easier for me to navigate through compared to XP. At the same time, the basic elements, and where to find things etc. are on an extension from Windows XP so it’s not difficult at all to migrate through.

Here are the good things I have to say about it :

• The Start Menu Bar is simply superb compared to that of XP. Instead of the fly-out style menus that used to coer up the whole screen if you have a lot of apps (and I certainly do), it has an internal navigation system that opens the items under items in the shape of trees. Also, accompanied with that is a quick search bar - I know this is a rip-off from Mac OSX, and it’s a good thing to copy for sure!

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It seems that somebody at the Apple Headquarters got a whiff about my article on iFags vs. Mac Users and their tendencies, and they decided to launch a lawsuit against me. Their claims, according to the papers I was served, is as follows :

“Your incident on your blog has damaging consequences to the reputation and revenues of Mac users and Apple Inc. Apple and its subsidiaries find the article to be very disturbing in its derrogatory nature, its obscenity, and the falasity of the accusations against Apple Inc. We have assessed the collateral damages caused by your blog entry … to a total of $500,000 US Dollars, and this letter officially serves you the civil lawsuit, filed in the Cupertino Superior Court, which is part of the State of California judicial circuitl”

Well, I do not have money for a lawyer, and the lawsuit amount is for $500,000 US. They figured, judging by the number of people who come each day, and the number of backlinks to that post on the internet, that’s about how much business they lost. I’ll spare you the detailed calculations the corporate lawyers at Apple included.

The jurisdiction of this lawsuit falls under the USA, not my own country Canada, based on the following factors -

• Apple Inc. is an American company.
• My blog has more readers from the US than from Canada. Well, considering the US has 10 times the population, and they too have the internet, it’s a given. I wonder if I can dispute this? My web hosting server is in Vancouver, and so is Jeff Kee Consulting!
• The “incident”, as they refer to it in the legal documents, happened over the cyber space, so the jurisdiction must be set based on the audience, not the physical location of the writer (myself).

What a pain in the ass. I have to fly to California JUST for a settlement conference in the civil courts!!! And they’re not even paying for the tickets!
Apple, however, hinted in a later article that they are offering to settle this - basically, they want the article removed, and replaced with a positive review about their Macbook products. And they are requesting that I make a purchase of a Macbook Pro 15.4 inch or higher, out of my own pocket, so that I can write credible reviews of it in a positive tone only.

I suppose I should be thankful this did not spread to a human rights lawsuit - the term “iFag” could be offensive in nature towards homosexual people, but thankfully, I had the disclaimer on my entry, so I think I dodged that bullet.

Well, since I don’t have cash for a lawyer, nor the $500,000, I guess I have no choice. I guess I’ll have to return my new Windows Vista laptop and convert again to a Mac. Oh well, to avoid bankruptcy, it’s worth it.

I also just realized that you are a fool if you took this seriously up until this point - it’s April 1st.

So, I finally moved onto Windows Vista. Actually, the word “finally” does not really fit here - it’s still very fresh, and if I had it my way, I wouldn’t be on it yet. But, after trying a Macbook Pro and giving it up, and realizing my laptop screen on my Toshiba laptop with Windows XP was a lost cauase, I finally had to move on.

Overall, I’d like to note that I am satisfied with Vista!

Pros :

• Cool design. It looks sharper and nicer than XP, or Mac OSX.
• Enhanced security - altho it’s no Mac when it comes to defeating viruses, it has a strict permission system on by default that prevents sketchy programs from running without your permission. I turned it off because I know what I’m doing - but for the everyday user, this is a much more reliable security gate than SP2 that was patched for XP a long time ago!
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