Verizon E-Mail Problems

Posted on by

I’ve noted several stories lately about Verizon’s e-mail not functioning properly, but I’ve run into it myself for the first time today. I got a bounced message from my e-mail server indicating that Verizon’s mail relay has been down.

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at kelvin.k2.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.<xxxxxxxx@verizon.net>
Sorry, I wasn't able to establish an SMTP connection. (#4.4.1)
I'm not going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long.

Apparently they are blocking IP addresses from connecting to their relay, probably based on some lame reverse lookup. How does this affect me? Well, my e-mail server is hosted by a multi-national company. It’s highly likely that the IP address of my e-mail server shows up as being assigned to a foreign company and is thus blocked. That stinks.

I can’t complain too much about Verizon because I use their DSL service at my home, but seriously, those of you who use Verizon need to move your e-mail elsewhere. They are the first major company to out-and-out block connections based on IP origination and they have no plans to change this policy. Those of you who are stuck, should get a Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail or similar account if you have no other choices. GMail is particularly good because of the large storage space and the POP3 access.

The Music Industry Finally Gets The Memo

Posted on by

I was amused to see this story — Music Industry Embraces an Online Future — talk about how the music industry is getting healthier with online music sales. The story is pretty much a fluff piece about how people are starting to buy music online, but the funniest quote in the article has to be this one:

“The subscription model will be incredibly popular once people understand it and get their heads around it. The difficulty is that it’s so radically different to what people have seen in the past. It’s not like an electronic version of a record store,” said Barney Wragg, vice president of Universal Music International’s new media division, Elabs.

The only people who don’t understand the subscription model are the music executives. All you can drink is a way of life in the US, from cell phones to long distance to Golden Corral. I commented almost two years ago when iTunes started up that they needed to move to a subscription model. Everyone assumed that original Napster service would charge between $5 and $20 per month. Boys and girls, XM offers subscription music service via satellite. Hello? Anyone home in the music industry?

The fact is that the music industry is doing everything it can to avoid the future. Ultimately we’re going to have music on demand services, paid by subscription, that we can carry around on whatever the iPod evolves into. This middle step of selling songs online for 99 cents is probably necessary and thankfully there are enough people willing to pay through the nose for worse service (here’s where you should insert my rant about how $10 per album for music is a rip-off without getting the atoms to go with the bits; for $10 you can own the actual CD and rip it yourself). But everyone understands the subscription model. If the music industry moved quickly, it would have avoided Kazaa and all of the other Gnutella spin-offs. But instead, they continue to move at a glacial pace, sticking a toe at a time in the water while everyone else continues to download music, eroding the possibilities of success in the future.

Favorite Destinations

Posted on by

Courtesy of my neighborhood Staples store. I assume that someone working at the store did this for laughs. I didn’t set this up in any way — I just walked by it and had to take a picture.

iraq-dest

This image was shot with my Verizon Audiovox cellphone camera. That should explain the quality (or lack thereof) of this image.

Me

Posted on by

I realized that I don’t actually have a photo of myself on this site. This image was taken with my Canon G3.

jeff-bike (56k image)

This picture is of the second longest covered bridge in North America. It was taken 1 July 2004 in Waltham, Quebec with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel. Bikers seem to have a thing for covered bridges, myself included.

jeff-bike (56k image)

You might be able to tell from these images that I have a thing for motorcycling. My current ride is a 2004 Harley Davidson Road King.