Not to be outdone by Simon Waddignton's excellent JLDA calendar, I added a calendar to our blog.
There isn't much there yet - just a schedule of the HOA meetings planned for 2006 in the default template. Let me know when you have an event to add to our shiny new new calendar! If I get a little activity, I'll take the time to customize our calendar's template and stylesheet.
You may not like the development going on all around us, but along with the traffic and the noise will come some very cool things. It turns out that the Pulte development at 428 Alice is going to have a fiber connection to the Internet. A fiber optic cable is capable of enormous bandwidth. Speeds of a gigabit per second or more are possible, and these days the costs are amazingly low.
I met two weeks ago with a representative from Paxio - the folks who will bring the fiber in to the neighborhood. They assured me that when the fiber is laid to 428 Alice that they'd also run the fiber to our building. I will most likely subscribe to a 100 megabit line. This will give us download speeds about 15 times faster than what we currently have, and upload speeds an amazing 130 times faster! If you are not already on my network, you may want to give it some serious consideration for next year.
The fiber should be installed in the January - March timeframe. I'll post more details as things progress.
I am very happy to report that the UPS I purchased for one of the networks in our building just paid for itself. This afternoon's power outage lasted 42 minutes. Our 1500 KVA UPS has 52 minutes worth of reserve power, so the fourthstreetlofts.com network never missed a beat. YAY!
I am often being asked to add or delete users from our mailing lists. One of the main reasons I chose to set up "real" mailing lists is so that users could manage their own subscriptions and profile settings. Please use the Mailing Lists link on the right to access our list server if you wish to subscribe, unsubscribe, change password, etc.
In an attempt to deal with spammers, I have replaced the old "everyone" e-mail alias with an official mailing list. This list has many advantages over the old alias. It is a subsription service - YOU decide whether or not your name appears on the list. You may subscribe or un-subscribe at any time, and a copy of all messages sent to the list is kept on the server "forever".
To ensure privacy, and keep spammers at bay, new members must be approved by the list moderator before being added to the mailing list, and only list members may view names of other list members or message archives.
If you'd like to learn more about this mailing list, edit your profile or un-subscribe, click here.
A few more of you have expressed interest in connecting to our global address book. Below are a few steps that should get you going. If you are still confused, please come to the next H.O.A. meeting. I'll be there to demonstrate this and a few other great things that are available on our network.
-Jim Pire
The following instructions are for Windows. I know that Mac mail clients are capable of using LDAP servers. Perhaps one of our resident Mac users can post instructions...
Continue reading "Connecting to Our Building's LDAP Server" »
I finally set up an LDAP server for myself and for the residents of Fourth Street Lofts. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a long time, but unfortunately, it was not as easy as I had hoped. It took a lot of work to get it going! I'm now in the process of adding e-mail addresses of all your neighbors.
If you are a Windows or Linux user, this address book can be integrated seamlessly into your mail program. Once it's set up, you can even use Start --> Search --> For People to find the e-mail addess of anyone whose name appears in the address book. My hunch is that this can easily be integrated into Mac mail clients as well.
Add a comment below if you'd like access to this new global address book. It's way cool!
OfficeDepot will recycle one electronic item per customer per day for free all summer long. Click here for the full story.
We have excellent Internet connectivity options here at 247 4th Street. There are currently two 6 megabit Business dsl connections into our building. One is through SBC and operated by Bob Hogg at Jacklondon Networks, the other is a Speakeasy dsl line and is hosted by me. Both offer significantly higher speeds than "ordinary" dsl or cable connections. We can offer better pricing and better service, and in most cases, no installation charge and immediate availability.
I would strongly recommend that homeowners and renters talk to Bob or myself before installing their own broadband connection. If you'd like to know more, please contact me!