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Saturday 2004-04-10 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Using webmail
Interesting problem: my whole approach for this travel blog hinges on being able to use webmail in Internet cafes on the road. I haven’t really looked hard at webmail accounts until yesterday evening though: I never used any.
On the SpamCop newsgroup someone suggested Fastmail (FM) and I decided to try an account. My idea was though to have a string of accounts, throwing each away after being used once. That sounds simple, but isn’t:
- you need another email account to verify the account when signing up; but I’ll be away for 65 days, and (also with other services) accounts will expire after 45 days not being accessed; and with FM if you terminate an account, it still stays active for 7 days
- also, FM doesn’t allow you to have multiple free accounts; Tmicha.net does not have that limitation (but does have the 45-days rule)
- that requires other means of evading keyloggers and sniffers in Internet cafes than simply discarding an account after use; various copy-and-paste strategies have been brought up in discussions, as well as using a USB flash drive (which may not be usable everywhere).
So, we’ll see… I may end up with a combination of strategies and using several providers in a “chain”.
Update 2005-08-19: Sadly, Tmicha.net was teken over by an Irish company and no longer provides free, spam-free email accounts.
Thursday 2004-04-22 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Using webmail - solved!
SikaSpam on the SpamCop spamcop.geeks newsgroup came with a brilliant idea today: install SquirrelMail on your VPS system. “Takes only 5 minutes,” he said.
Well, installing it took me a bit longer than that (I’m an RTFM junkie, and the FM was somewhat confusing for me, and in one place even incorrect) but it got done — it’s faster if you don’t RTFM! Then I read up on SSL on Apache but couldn’t get it working; it turned out I had to get my host to activate SSL for me which cost $55. (It also turned out that all my reading taught me a lot about setting up SSL on Apache — none of which applied to VPS. Grrr). I actually created my own certificate (cost: 0$). So now I can use SquirrelMail over a secure connection. Then I installed a bunch of plugins that make it even more secure, plus a number of just “handy” plugins. All set up now!
Meanwhile from the Fastmail user forum I also got a list of anonymous webmail forms: no login needed, hence no password to be captured. I’m keeping those, as well as FastMail, as a backup (all listed on a handy help page I made on one of my websites).
I’m all set for emailing; no need for a USB thingy now.
Saturday 2005-09-17 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
“Can you take your shoes off, please?”
I go downstairs with my luggage a bit early and just when I step out the taxi arrives, with Carla and Gwendoline on board. We have a smooth an luxurious start of the trip: we’ll be able to lug our luggage more than enough later! Amsterdam is quiet at this time — but the airport is crowded.
Security after check in is interesting: the gate beeps at me (as I expected since I have a metal buckle on my belt; a lady frisks me. So far normal. Then comes the surprise: “Can you take your shoes off, please?” OK — I’m expecting she’ll take a good look at my shoes, but no: first my feet are frisked, too, and then my shoes have to go through the scanner!
After that we shop a bit, then go to the gate; we leave on time.
Thursday 2007-04-12 - Al Mukalla, Yemen
No breakfast
When I get back to the hotel, Hussein is sitting on the stoop outside, next to Mohamed. We’re going to have Yemeni breakfast today, Hussein tells me: with beans. Looking forward to that (I’m fond of all kinds of beans), I go up to my room to pack and write a little.
When I get downstairs with my luggage at 10, it turns out that everyone missed breakfast: Hussein had arranged it all but forgotten to tell us breakfast would be at 8… Good thing I had a big glass of mango juice this morning in the new town.
When we leave, we’re also acquiring a policeman, riding in one of the cars: he’ll be escorting us to Bir Alī.
