I have often enjoyed a Web site called Odd Todd, which is the name of its creator as well.  His humor on the subject of getting Laid Off was really endearing, up to a point; specifically, December 2002.  But that’s another story.  Todd posts a daily fact that he learns from the TV.  That’s fun, and I thought of it as I digested a fact I learned from my computer.

 

I’m new to the realm of coffeehouse w-fi net surfing and such. I have wi-fi here in the penthouse, and lately I’ve been venturing forth among the java geeks. It’s cool. Today, between working, working out, long summer walks and swimming, I was sitting in my favorite hot spot, enjoying a cup of Organic Peru. I logged on to get my e-mail, and learned this:

 

Internet providers such as Cox Communications require that you specify settings in your e-mail program (outlook, express, whatever) that send all outgoing e-mails through their server, while you are connected to their service through your modem.  You can’t specify that your outgoing mail server is Yahoo or Hotmail while you’re connected to Cox.  This is to make it harder to send tons of spam through their server, I suppose.  So my cox e-mails go out through Cox, and my yahoo emails come in from yahoo but go out through Cox.  But down at the coffeehouse, I wasn’t connected to Cox, so e-mail wouldn’t go.  I had to use Web mail instead of Outlook. 

 

Next time I go down there, I’m going to try setting up a separate account in Outlook, that bypasses Cox and goes out through Yahoo, and see if that works.  I think it might.  Ain’t this $hi+ interesting?  Aren’t you glad you visited Metaphor today?  Whew!

 

By the way, apropos of exercise, I’ve been at it for nine months or so, and I’ve lost 80 pounds. Yay!