Fast Email
I’ve completely simplified my email set-up by eliminating the Spambayes proxy service after learning that Thunderbird’s junk mail filtering system is indeed Bayesian.
My previous set-up was like this:
Email client -> YPOPS (if applicable) -> Stunnel (if applicable) -> Spambayes -> Anti-virus Email scanner
YPOPS is for downloading yahoo email without having to use the web mail interface.
Stunnel is a universal SSL wrapper. Some POP3 services require SSL, like Gmail for instance.
Without the Spambayes proxy in place, checking mail is significantly faster. The set-up is now like this:
Email client -> YPOPS (if applicable) -> Anti-Virus Email scanner
Under the old set-up, checking email would fail occassionally as the local app-to-app connections would sometimes hang. With fewer steps, everything works far more reliably and quickly.
The change wasn’t completely painless. I have retrain the junk mail filter from scratch and I had to manually reconfigure the email client so it would proxy its connections through the anti-virus application and that got a little confusing at times with four email services, each with multiple accounts under them.
Pain of Colour and Gamma Calibration
It took me a good two hours to calibrate each monitor’s gamma levels… and now I’ve lost those calibrations and I have to do it all over again.
I’ve had to do these monitor calibrations a number of times already, so I’m extremely tempted to get an entry level monitor calibration system like the ColorVision Spyder or the Pantone Huey to take the whole guess work out of the process. To be honest, I really don’t fully trust my sense of evaluating colour and grey scale values. 
If you’re serious about any sort of computer imagery, whether it be digital photography/cinematography, 3D rendering or illustration, it’s important to ensure that your monitor isn’t skewing your perception of the finished product.
Pantone Huey
Colour calibration hardware/software used to be the domain of the professional, but they’ve come down in price dramatically. The Pantone Huey sells for $89 USD, putting it in reach of many entry-level consumers.
Colour calibration isn’t a one-time affair either. Monitors slowly go out of sync over time so it’s recommended that the monitor be checked at least once a month.
I think for me, it’d be worth it. Hours upon hours can be spent on lighting a scene for a 3D render. If my monitor isn’t calibrated correctly, that means my perception of the colour and lighting in that scene isn’t correct either and those are hours that are completely wasted.
If I send those renders to a professional print house to make a hardcopy for the portfolio, then it’s also money wasted.
As I am getting more serious with computer imagery, colour calibration becomes increasingly important.
Tags: anti-virus, avg, colour calibration, email, huey, pantone, pop3 access, proxy, stunnel, system re-installation, thunderbird, ypops
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