My Life

The other day at work I had to figure out how to accept a email give a reply to anyone that ever sends a email no matter how many times they email the address. Everything I could find had caching in it, with a little digging and poking around the web I found some information that lead me to this solution:

# Auto Reply without caching
# Creator: Richard Genthner
# Date 11-FEB-2010
#
# SENDER the email you want it to look like it came from
# SUBJECT What you want to change the subject to
# FILE the name of the auto reply message
SENDER=bob@example.com
SUBJECT="My Contact information has changed"
FILE=.autoreply_mesg

# Processor this will send the incoming message to /dev/null after sending a auto reply
:0 h c
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^FROM_MAILER
* !^X-Loop: $SENDER
| (formail -r -A"FROM:$SENDER" -A"X-Loop: $SENDER" -I"Subject:$SUBJECT";\
cat $HOME/$FILE) | $SENDMAIL -t
:0
/dev/null

Lets break this done in to sections. First we have is this:

SENDER=help@cfda.gov
SUBJECT="Our Support information has changed"
FILE=.autoreply_mesg

In this section we are setting the SENDER which is the email address that we want the message to look like. SUBJECT is the Subject we want to replace the RE: blah blah with something that is informational. FILE is the name if the file containing our message. In the next section we have the following bits:

:0 h c
* !^FROM_DAEMON
* !^FROM_MAILER
* !^X-Loop: $SENDER
| (formail -r -A"FROM:$SENDER" -A"X-Loop: $SENDER" -I"Subject:$SUBJECT";\
cat $HOME/$FILE) | $SENDMAIL -t

:0
/dev/null

So at first this looks cryptic but lets break it down line by line. So frist we have the :0 to accept anything then h and c tell procmail to keep a copy of the email just in case we need to process it more then in just this one block. * !^FROM_DAEMON says if its not from a daemon then proceed tot he next step. * !^FROM_MAILER means if not from a auto mailer aka mailing lists then proceed to the next step. * !^X-Loop: this mean is that if not a mail loop then proceed to next step. Which is the formail command. Let break this down by options, first we have -r which mean Generate an auto-reply header. This will normally throw away all the existing fields, then we have -A which allows us to apply custom information to the header fields, -I that any existing similar fields are simply removed. then we are cat’ing the auto reply file in the body of the message and then passing it off to the sendmail to send the file.

Well i have been working two jobs enorder to try to get a head right now. Working two jobs has been making me think about going back to school for Electrical and Computer Engineering double major here in maine. I have been looking at the courses and they all seem pretty interresting. This means I would have to give up one of my jobs. The Problem is I enjoy both my jobs. I telecommute for a Denfense Contractor at night and durring the day I work for a local teleco/IT support company. Both are challenging and both are interesting. So the choice is hard. The local job I would have to drop to part time enorder to go to school if I was to keep it. The reason I’m rethinking my education is because my IT degree and in field work that I’m doing now really isn’t using it and its pretty boring most of the time. IT stuff is pretty much the same thing every day over and over, fixing laptops,desktops, servers and printers. So I think I’ll take some ECE classes and see how I like it.

I went to boston a few weeks ago to meet up with lucas and BP. We had a blast in boston for the weekend. We went to The People Republic, a Brizallian BBQ place where the girl that was our waitress was drop dead hot. We even did the Sam Adams tour was cool because we all got glasses from the tasting. It was cool to be in the boston pubs when the soxs are playing becuase it becomes alive and its like if everyone in the bar is cheering for the same thing. So that I believe brings us up to date.

Ok, let me be frank, I’m not much of a windows user anymore like I was pre-2005. I attend to use Unix or Linux for all my needs. My new job has required me to brush off my windows skills and rehone them. All I have to say is after dealing with Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2007. Microsoft why the Hell can’t you leave layouts and way programs work? Exchange 2007 and Server 2008 panels and settings are so confusing by them making it what they call simple. I have to say windows 2003 and exchange 2003 were perfect in the layout and access policy. PLEASE Microsoft stop changing the server UI and compents of the UI for Server Applications. It feels like I’m speaking english and your speaking some screwed up language. I spend more time searching for shit then anything else.

End of my Rant! improvements to software is good as long as the user doesn’t feel like they have to learn something totally new.

Well for the past week I have been at my new job work my tail off. For starters on the phone fixing a Exchange server with microsoft to fix a domain rename and get exchange to like it. Also this week, I worked on a Cisco System Router and ASA 5505.  I have to say the Cisco ASA’s rock I couldn’t believe how easy it was to setup and deploy. The company I work does a lot of high WIFI networking and i have to its interesting. I have to say so far its been interesting. It will be interesting to see what next week will bring to the table. We do a lot with phone systems using VOIP so it will be interesting to see when I get into the phone stuff, but I’m hoping that i just stay in the networking part with a main focus in the security aspect of things to be honest.  I also got the chance to learn on the spot how to terminate fiber multimode.

Also my buddy jeremy has introduced me to a lot of new music of the past couple of months and I have to say his latest find is awesome. The band is call the Old Crow Medicine Show below is a video clip of it. Its a got a turn of the century sound to them.

Old Crow Medicine Show — Wagon Wheel

For the past couple of months I have given up on PHP and moved to Django to learn Python for Web. Which at first I was like hrm another framework! Just what i need in my life another dang framework for my clients to want sites done in. I have to say at first I was a little shaky at becuase I didn’t know python and had never programmed in python in my life. I knew with python you could do neat things like make the google logo automatically from friends that worked at google at the time. I have to say if your tight on deadlines take a look at django I was amazed how fast I could develop a complete site in. In the 4 months that i have been using it seriously in, I have built a complete CMS with Forum, Gallery, SMS and NOC(Network Operations Center).

I do have to say one thing, Its not easy to get up and running on a shared hosting enviroment. You will need shell access, able to install python apps and packages. I recommend if you can run it under mod_python instead of fastcgi or wsgi. Mod_python makes it easier to get up runing in a snap.

This project is currently only in none 1.0 releases, I recommend working on the trunk if you don’t mind reworking things time to time due to fixes or better ways to do things. Like currently I’m having to rewrite my gallery due to changes in fields and storing uploaded files.

If you sick of the same old php or RoR(Ruby on Rails) I say give Django a Shot.

Ok people that have come to my site, I’m currently getting ready for shipping out for the US Army. My close friend Mike Klem is going to be handling updates while I’m away for OSUT for the US Army. So he will be making updates about what I’m going though at basic and AIT for the Army.

Heres a little background on klem. Mike is a former USMC and we met at RIT by one of our close friends BP. Mike has offered to give a little weekly post about the current things I’m doing and going though while I’m gone. Considering the Army doesn’t issue a computer or Internet access at basic or AIT.

So check back time to time to see what mike has posted and leave questions and comments for him or me and he will forward them to me in his letters to me. I will be putting a canned auto-reply message on my email account while I’m gone and once I get back I’ll go though all my email and reply to as many as I can in the time I’ll have at home. If there are job offers in the emails, I want to applogize a head of time for the lack of response, its not that I’m ignoring you or turning to you down, its just that I’ve left for the US Army Training and will send a thank you note to you when I return. For those of you that are wondering will I finish up school and try to make it in the civilian world, I will some day, I have been trying to find work in IT since I left RIT a year ago. Since I couldn’t find work, and the army has been in the back of my mind since I was little. I had to make a choice to pay the bills of college.

Thanks

Richard ‘Moos3′ Guthnur

I wrote this code when I was coding for a Company doing web development. Basically what this is three parts:

So this is how it works. (more…)