Try out https://mailinabox.email/, a project I began a few years ago to make hosting your own mail much easier.
It includes comprehensive diagnostics to ensure everything is configured correctly, including reverse DNS, which is the most common issue that leads to mail not being deliverable / going into spam. This doesn't solve every problem, but lots of people have had good results with this project.
As I recall (I was at a talk by one of the principal investigators), the flaws were not so obvious as to use batteries. I think they might have even asked them to count their own family members. If anything it was probably not what was counted but the task of counting which might have been both unfamiliar and potentially culturally sensitive.
But there are other interesting things (claimed) about their language besides a lack of numbers that makes it less surprising that this might also be the case. There was very little recursive structure in the syntax, for instance.
I wrote a Thunderbird Extension for Sender Verification which implements SPF and DK on the client side, which may not be the best place to do it, but it's better than nothing at all. The extension is aimed at phishing, rather than spam. It also checks sender domains in several blacklists.
Should I celebrate that my website was finally/.'ed? (the link to the bill text) Apologies that my poor server couldn't handle the attention.
I kind of wish/. would automatically replace links in articles to Coral Cache pages when the site stops responding. That would be a lot better for everyone, I think.
I admit I may have exaggerated SPF's usefulness, but that's not a fair characterization either.
Without SPF, you don't know anything about the source of an email. With SPF at least you know the domain it came from. You may not know who owns the domain, but you do have one more piece of reliable information than you had before.
If your mail client checked From: addresses against SPF records in DNS, you'd know immediately this was a hoax. Redhat.com fortunately publishes SPF records and -- score one for SPF -- they can be used to identify with 100% accuracy that the mail is not legitimate.
How can you get your mail client to check SPF records automatically? Download the Thunderbird SPF Extension.
SPF would help users identify phishing. (See http://spf.pobox.com.)
I've written an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that checks the From: address in emails against SPF records:
http://taubz.for.net/code/spf
If people use the extension and if domains start publishing SPF records, we might find ourselves with a solution.
Re:RSS feed on voting?
on
Hacking Congress
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I am working on a website that does some of this and more, with a somewhat "open" XML backend. Bill status, voting records, statistics on representatives, text of debates on the House/Senate floors, email updates, RSS feeds....
The site is done, but I'm working on finding an affordable colocation solution. Should be up in about 1 to 2 months, unless someone steps forward with free colocation for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Try out https://mailinabox.email/, a project I began a few years ago to make hosting your own mail much easier.
It includes comprehensive diagnostics to ensure everything is configured correctly, including reverse DNS, which is the most common issue that leads to mail not being deliverable / going into spam. This doesn't solve every problem, but lots of people have had good results with this project.
There is a whole world of using tech skills to improve government transparency and civic engagement. See:
http://wiki.opengovdata.org/index.php/OGosh
http://www.impublished.org/wordpress/helptheman/
http://transparencyjobs.com/jobs/
http://sunlightfoundation.com/
There is a growing but now well-established community of techies focusing on this at the federal level, especially for the U.S. Congress. There are open-source projects like my GovTrack.us http://www.govtrack.us/getinvolved.xpd and oGosh!: Open Government Open Source Hacking http://wiki.opengovdata.org/index.php/OGosh and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=45606565313.
There's no end to what techies can do to work on improving civic life. I really encourage you to check out any of those links to get involved.
Here are some open-source projects aimed at improving the democratic process directly:
http://wiki.opengovdata.org/index.php/OGosh
Don't think you're the first to think of it. This very much happened to the Piraha people, as I recall.
As I recall (I was at a talk by one of the principal investigators), the flaws were not so obvious as to use batteries. I think they might have even asked them to count their own family members. If anything it was probably not what was counted but the task of counting which might have been both unfamiliar and potentially culturally sensitive.
But there are other interesting things (claimed) about their language besides a lack of numbers that makes it less surprising that this might also be the case. There was very little recursive structure in the syntax, for instance.
I wrote a Thunderbird Extension for Sender Verification which implements SPF and DK on the client side, which may not be the best place to do it, but it's better than nothing at all. The extension is aimed at phishing, rather than spam. It also checks sender domains in several blacklists.
https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/345/
http://razor.occams.info/code/spf
Should I celebrate that my website was finally /.'ed? (the link to the bill text) Apologies that my poor server couldn't handle the attention.
/. would automatically replace links in articles to Coral Cache pages when the site stops responding. That would be a lot better for everyone, I think.
I kind of wish
For the status and full text of the bills, and tracking via RSS and email updates:
H.R. 5417: Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006
H.R. 5252: Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006
To find out more about the bill, and to track it via RSS or email updates, see:
9 -786
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s10
I admit I may have exaggerated SPF's usefulness, but that's not a fair characterization either.
Without SPF, you don't know anything about the source of an email. With SPF at least you know the domain it came from. You may not know who owns the domain, but you do have one more piece of reliable information than you had before.
> I'd bet that it came from something@fedora-redhat.com
Check out the link I posted and see the screenshot -- it worked. The From: address was @redhat.com.
> The From address used by the plugin comes from the From: header in the message?
Yes. Does it matter that the SPF spec says to use the return path? Is this any less useful?
> 2. What happens if I open a message I stored from a few months/years ago
It will only check very recent messages. In other cases it will show a warning.
The extension isn't meant to replace SPF at the MTA level; it's meant to complement it. It's another layer of badly needed protection.
Download it, unzip it, and inspect the code!
If your mail client checked From: addresses against SPF records in DNS, you'd know immediately this was a hoax. Redhat.com fortunately publishes SPF records and -- score one for SPF -- they can be used to identify with 100% accuracy that the mail is not legitimate.
How can you get your mail client to check SPF records automatically? Download the Thunderbird SPF Extension.
(Disclosure: I wrote the plugin. :) )
SPF would help users identify phishing. (See http://spf.pobox.com.)
I've written an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that checks the From: address in emails against SPF records:
http://taubz.for.net/code/spf
If people use the extension and if domains start publishing SPF records, we might find ourselves with a solution.
I am working on a website that does some of this and more, with a somewhat "open" XML backend. Bill status, voting records, statistics on representatives, text of debates on the House/Senate floors, email updates, RSS feeds....
The site is done, but I'm working on finding an affordable colocation solution. Should be up in about 1 to 2 months, unless someone steps forward with free colocation for me.
Stay tuned.
Is there a website out there that tracks the different technological solutions to spam, with pro/con explanations?
See this Daily Princetonian story for an update.
SunnComm's CEO decided late last night to change his mind. "I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on research," he said.