If I can't continue my Metricom account I don't think I'll sign up for the Ricochet-2 network. It's 2.6 times more expensive (I was paying $26 a month prepaid for a year, Ricochet-2 would be $69 a month prepaid for a year) and I don't really need the extra speed, plus I have to buy another modem (or the Merlin PC Card which is about the same price). I would only use it at work since I have an Airport at Shannon's, so if I can go without it it'd be a good idea. I'll need to do something about chat and email. For chat I'll probably switch to AOL Internet Messenger since it can cut through a firewall (maybe the new version of ICQ can do that). I can do without mail for the moment and use a web mail service.

Maybe I can get a mail server for my Mac that has web mail built in. Communigate (SIMS' big brother) doesn't, Communicaget Pro does but it doesn't run on Mac OS. I thought EIMS has web mail, but it doesn't. Tenon has a server suite with a web mail server, but that's $500 ($400 for the Mac OS X Beta version, which is also a beta, though with well-established BSD packages so the real beta portions are the nice GUI front-ends). Even a third party web mail site would be nice, but they're all either "get all mail or leave all mail" on the POP server. I want something that will copy all the mail to the web mail inbox and delete any mail on the POP server that I delete on the inbox, with some option of clearing the inbox without deleting the POP mail. Some sort of synchronization features, I guess (which is why it would be easier if the web mail were built on top of the POP server I use).

I don't feel too good. Pick gave each of us a box with 1/2 lb chocolates, which I promptly ate. Then I was in the switch room with Simon and we were debugging some stuff and in an idle moment I was spinning in my chair. So a couple of hours later I'm still a little naseuous from the spinning and the chocolates don't help. I'm just way too old to do that kind of stuff.

WebStar has an email server with a web mail module. $600 is a bit of overkill though. Maybe I can write my own. With NetPresenz I can have an AppleScript CGI connect to the mail server and read/delete mail. This would be not easy to do, but possible. There is an AppleScriptable application called TeaCuP that's designed to be used by AppleScript applications to do TCP/IP work. The other option is with a Servlet engine write a Java Servlet to do POP mailbox control. That option would be easier for me since I'm much more familier with Java and I've already written a semi-complicated Servlet. It would require a Servlet engine, which Quid Pro Quo has. Note that SIMS saves email in mbox format, I think. So the CGI/Servlet may not even have to do any TCP/IP communication. Or I could set up Eudora on the server to get mail, then use AppleScript to manipulate Eudora, that way I don't have to deal with the POP3 protocol and can send mail without learning SMTP.

But I'm getting carried away. What do I want web mail for? I want to see what mail I'm getting, especially time-sensitive email like from friends or from eGroups telling me there's email to approve. If I don't have a Ricochet connection at work I can't go through the firewall to check email. Http packets can get through so a web mail option might work, but I want the web mail to be synchronized with my Eudora mailbox on my machine. Without constantly copying mail to another mailbox, it'd be nice to access the mailbox on Jennifer and read/delete messages, then get any messages I want to keep when I get home.

Maybe there's a simpler solution. (Damn headache is killing me. Remind me never to spin around again and make myself dizzy.) Why not just set up Eudora (or Outlook Express since I only have one Eudora license; oh wait, I can use the Eudora Lite option) and have it forward my mail to my work account during certain hours of the day? At least that way I get my email via my normal email client, and I can always send email out via my work server. I can set up an AppleScript launched by iDo Script Scheduler to start Eudora Lite at say 11:00 and kill it at say 20:00. Much easier solution than anything else I've thought up so far.

It'd be even easier if SIMS were AppleScriptable. Then I could just have the script change my account to forward email when I'm at work. It would only forward new email though, so there might be a mail or two that's left in the mailbox until I can get home. In any case, these solutions are only needed if Metricom drops my account. If it doesn't then the current solution works great.