Jacmoe's Cyber Soapbox

Sometimes you need to just be able to send emails, without having to install a full-fledged email server and/or use a dedicated library, like Swiftmailer  or PHPMailer   (assuming, of course, that you use PHP - otherwise insert your favorite email library here).

The send function in PHP uses sendmail (if it's installed) to send emails, and this blog post outlines a way to be able to do that by means of a small program which can emulate sendmail.

I wrote a blogpost  previously about using fake sendmail for the same purpose, but msmtp (which is what we'll be using here) seems to be actively maintained, and it's in most package repositories for Linux, so a much better option IMO. ;)

And, like fake sendmail, it works in Windows too.

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So, why did I remove the letters from my keyboard?

Did I do it because it's cool, or is there a deeper meaning behind the madness of it?

The answer is: both reasons. :p

I've been a programmer for a long time, and since I am Danish, I've been using a Danish (Nordic) keyboard layout - and it sucks! because the { } and [ ] and @ and $ are all available only by using the Alt-Gr key. Thus making programming a lot more tedious and RSI-inducing.

I've also been lusting for the Das Keyboard , but it's awfully expensive! The Geek Factor is pretty high:

"Das Keyboard compares to the legendary IBM Model M. Its best-in-class, mechanical, gold-plated key switches provide a tactile and audible click that makes typing a joy".

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A new year is upon us, and while I normally don't do New Year resolutions - at least not silly ones like quit smoking, start loosing weight and spend more time with the family - I do grab the opportunity to take stock of the past and make a list of things to focus on in the future. You can call it a one-year plan, if you like. :)

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I've just outsourced the comments system to Disqus. :)

The old comments are still there, but all new comments will be using the new system.

I sincerely hope that it will benefit both this blog and all future 'commenters'. :)

I am not really fond of using text-areas in my web browser for authoring blog posts. Emacs has excellent text editing capabilities, and it has Org-Mode which is perfect for authoring structured text, like blog posts.

There is a lot of functionality in Org-Mode; it can be used for taking notes, managing TODO-lists, time planning, GTD (Get Things Done) and much more. And, as with all things Emacs, I've only touched on a small part of what it offers.

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PEAR is a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components.

A PEAR repository is installed either locally or system-wide and is tied to the machine it's installed on.

Wouldn't it be great if you could do a directory-local PEAR install? That could be freely moved around in the filesystem, including other machines? How about multiple project-specific PEAR installations? That you can submit to source control?

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