Chris, your email checking example is not 'close'. You note
'there are still some odd legal email addresses' it won't
handle, but that doesn't allow commonly used things like
+addressing (which I use on every submission I make to bb)
and it doesn't enforce the comparitively strict rules on
the hostname part. But that doesn't seem relevant anyway.

And if you are worried about the form being used for spam,
then there are ways to deal with it. A CAPTCHA needed only
for the CC request is one possibility, another would be a
daily quota of mail from any particular IP.

Unfortunately, that only tracks them down.

In the meantime, someone may get ticked and enter the upstream SMTP server from the webpage into a RBL.

In fact, there are all kinds of ways to lock that down. But for now, the vast majority of BB users get a fast simple tool to communicate with the BBers at the top - because that is all the tool can do, is send to the the BBers at the top, so it doesn't need locking down. As an example, using the CAPTCHA would certainly help, but it would also then require those filling in the form to add one more thing. Although the cost to any one person seems small, the total cost to all users - the legitimate users, at that - is high.

That's crazy. There are zillions of sites that let you email things to people. Include the IP address of the sender in the message and sending spam that way is a waste of time.

If you're really paranoid, you can require the user to enter a CAPTCHA.

Edited by author 01-27-2003 05:12 PM
Eli;

The classic problem with "CC me" is that it then becomes possible to use the "Feature Request" as a small scale spam tool. I just fill in any old address that I want to send a message to, drop the message in the various fields, hit the "CC Me" button, and away it goes. (The fact that the message is then associated with Cory, Xeni, Mark, et al through no fault of theirs just compounds the problem.)

Unfortunately, part of the lockdown needed to run such a feature request is to tightly restrict the recipients of the message. Some sites tried just enforcing the referrer, but this is easily spoofed with moderately capable tools.

There is a separate issue regarding the edit checks on an email address. This comes close...

[a-zA-Z0-9._-]*@[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9._-]*\.[a-zA-Z]+

...but there are still some odd legal email addresses (like the ones including spaces in the actual address) that this will throw out.

Given the concern over the security around the feature in the first place, it didn't seem to be worth the effort of trying the solve the associated other problems.

Feature request on the 'suggest a site': option to CC me with the message
sent. It bugs me that I can't automatically archive it with the rest of my
email (in-coming or out-going).

My first ibook went in 7(!) times. They kindly replaced it with a new one recently, and it had to go back immediately. Now, I'm crossing my fingers...

I've found the Apple laptops to vary pretty widely in terms of ruggedness. Here're the duty-cycles of the portable Apple equipment I've owned:

* Apple Portable (Luggable): Indestructible

* Powerbook 100: 1 year

* Powerbook 145: 2 years

* Powerbook 520c: Still working

* Powerbook 5300: Still working

* iBook Bondi Rev A: Still working

* iBook Lime: Still working

* iBook Graphite special ed.: Still working

* iBook 500 Dual-USB: Lemon, replaced by Apple with an iBook 600

* iBook 600: Still working

* iBook 700: Lemon, 3 months MTBF

Edited by author 01-26-2003 02:14 AM
Yeah, VAIOs pretty much suck. My Z505LE went about 9 months before the keyboard started to fall apart. It's real piece of shit. It lasted one major software project and one technical paper(I did GEORDI on it) before it started to disintegrate.Keyboard, trackpad, major cosmetic "blisters" where my hands rest. The finish is disintegrating before the onslaught of my skin being in near constant contact
with it.

The VAIO is a manager/marketdroid's laptop. It's something you use maybe a couple hours a day plugged into your dock at work, or use to touch up a PowerPoint presentation when you're on the plane. It's not something you bang on for 12-18 hours a day constantly.

I'm sorry your iBook is being such a lemon. It's discouraging because I kind of thinking that my next slab might be one of the new Powerbooks. Has this been a problem just with this machine/model or all the Apple laptops you've owned?

I have an Emac, a thinkpad 600 and a generic pc. The Emac feels to dmn slow, but I just upgraded to 10.2. The thinkpad is durable, fun, and perceptually fast and runs win2k. I like them both.

The desktop has a nice monitor and this great old IBM clicky keyboard that's fun to write with.

128mb is a lotta email. Ain't no ISP in the world gonna keep all that for you. You need a broadband connection and an old pc with an 80GB drive to hold your stuff.

My iBook has given me a world of pain as well. Been sent back twice already (once for broken ethernet port, once for frayed power cord) and the ethernet port is loose once again and will need to be re-refixed.

Not to mention the cracked screen, which WAS my fault, but, goddammit, I wasn't cleaning it THAT hard. :(

I'm sorry, I'm just very upset about my cracked screen. I can barely see what I'm typing.

But, man, there was no reason for the ethernet port to break TWICE.

Read the message: 1Gb, not 1GB. That's 128MB. I have good filters, I read fast, and I don't have a life.

I know I won't convert any diehard Mac lovers... but I've had but one blue screen (crash) on my Windows XP system running a Dell since XP was released (what is it? about 18mos now?) Anyway, XP is solid and Dell is solid.

I loved the Vaio I had but it was flakey. I supported about a half-dozen of them for this one company and I think at one point or another half had to go back for repair or swap. I had a couple hundred Dells and I think I only had 2 returns in 2 years.

On another topic... what's up with 1GB of mail? Really? Did you maybe mean 1MB? I mean a GB of data is a LOT of stuff even if it's media. How can you possibly process that much information?

I have a machine with a big disk on a fast pipe get all my mail, and serve it to me by IMAP. That way I can throw out my comuter, pick up a new one, type my username and password in and watch it fill up with everything the other one had.

I'd be happy to let you use it but you probably wouldn't be interested until I get the San Francisco mirror up.

Thanks, Damien! I've spoken with an Apple Service Center this morning and resolved the issue. I appreciate the offer, though.

Cory, if Apple can't resolve this (I think they will), shoot me an email and I can suggest an local Apple Authorized Service Center that might be able to help.

But I do think Apple will resolve this. Sorry you're having so many problems with your iBook. It really isn't common. I've set up dozens personally that have yet experience a single hardware failure. And there are thousands (even tens of thousands) of more people out there with iBooks that are problem-free.

1Gb=128MB (bits, not bytes). I receive about 50MB of file-attachments a day (at least), plus in excess of 3,000 spams on a bad day (on a REALLY bad day, when someone's doing a dictionary attack on craphound.com, I'll get the same mail to a@craphound.com, aa@craphound.com, aaa@craphound.com, ab@craphound.com, aab@craphound.com, in excess of 10,000 messages on one occassion). I also get every quicktopic post made on BB, about 75 high-traffic lists, some in digest some not, etc. 1Gb may be on the high end of what I receive on a typical day; probably more like 0.5-1Gb.