Monday, June 23, 2008

Evening Light

Going to bed early.

Dinner

Crossing the Burlington Street Bridge

Winding Path

Riding home.

Mail Problem Solved

After about 8 hours of effort, I developed and documented a solution to the problem of the Apple Mail Client in OS X Leopard not retrieving all messages from a POP mail account server. As is often the case, the solution to the problem can be eloquently and simply written in a brief set of instructions. Finding the solution is often much more difficult than describing the solution.

Email Issues Update

On the phone with technical support.

Snacking on Lundberg Organic Rice Cakes - Sesame Tamari Flavor

The Sesame Tamari rice cakes taste great! Since 1937, the Lunberg Family Farms have been providing nutritious and delicious foods that are good for you and the environment. Lundberg Family Farms have a website that shows photos of their planting and harvesting. They use organic farming methods and do not use Genetically Modified Organisms. You can learn more on their website:

On the phone with Apple technical support

Learn more on the Apple Computer Resource Group web page.

Lunch

Lunch at Which Wich

Walking to Which Wich

Cold Showers at Fitness East

As a result of the flood, some buildings are still without hot water.

Modified Elliptical Workout

In an effort to improve on previous workout results, this workout has
resistance and incline changing from 12/12 to 18/18 (incline/
resistance). When the level of intensity reaches 18/18, it is
necessary to slow down the rpm (strides per minute) to maintain about
14 caloies burned per minute. This way the pulse rate remains in the
target zone of 130 to 140 (the target zone will be different depending
on age and other factors). In the past, workouts peaked at 18/18 twice
and went as low as 5/5.

Precor EFX546 Elliptical Machine

It's been months since I've worked out at this gym. This is the
elliptical machine I've used for many years. I'd been using a
different elliptical machine at another gym for most of this year.
Because of disrupted steam service on campus, there are no hot showers.

Walking to the gym

Apple Mail Problem Update

Getting ready to take a lunch break and go to the gym.

The problem at this point seems to be isolated to the Apple Mail program not properly accessing the mail server. Or, perhaps, the mail server not being completely compatible with the Apple Mail program. The problem just surfaced in the past 24 hours which coincides with the configuration of the replacement iPhone (which involves configuring email on the iPhone).

At this point, new messages from most people seem to appear in the Apple Mail program, but not all messages. Messages originating from the iPhone (such as live feed messages) show up on the server, they show up on the iPhone, they show up in Thunderbird, but these and other messages are not retrieved by the Apple Mail Client on the desktop machine. The problem persists even after deleting all messages from the server and starting all over again with new messages. So, apparently something is corrupted with the account on the Apple Mail client and the corruption remains (and returns) even after deleting the account and creating it again. This is to be expected since many settings and hidden files typically remain after removing an account or program from a computer.

The solution will probably be found in calling Apple technical support and manually removing all remnants of the deleted account, then creating the account again in the Apple Mail client.

Update on Apple Mail Problem

Well, as you can see, I've barely moved an inch since my last update regarding the Apple Mail problem. It's not clear what is going on yet, but a possibility is that the mail server is having a difficult time differentiating between identical mail clients on different machines (or platforms such as iPhone) Or, perhaps the mail database is corrupted and needs to be cleared out.

Thinking the local desktop computer email account might be corrupted, I tried deleting that, restarting the computer, and then re-creating the mail account from scratch. A group of older messages were downloaded (but not all messages) and only a few of the current day's mail messages were downloaded.

When using Apple Mail on another computer, and requesting to download all messages from the server, only a few of the 178 messages on the server were downloaded. All of the messages should have been retrieved, but they weren't.

When using Thunderbird (a different mail client) to access the mail server and download the messages, all of the 178 messages on the server were downloaded.

It still isn't clear what is going on with the mail server. However, with Thunderbird working, at least messages can be retrieved in some form until the problem is resolved.

Unfortunately, this problem has used up about 4 hours of my morning. For now, I'm going to take a break, go to the gym and do my workout that I didn't get in this morning, and then get a bite of something to eat since I've not eaten since yesterday. I'd planned to check-in at the office briefly this morning, then go to the gym and eat after my workout.

At my desk

It's been a very busy morning. In addition to being a Monday, and the first day the University of Iowa has been open since the flood, I had the additional unpleasant discovery that some emails were not making it into the inbox on my desktop computer. They were, however, appearing in my iPhone. Unfortunately the iPhone will delete excess internal messages to make room for new ones. So, if the phone were set to erase messages on the server, and only set to view the 25 most recent messages, it would be possible for the phone to uncontrollably and permanently delete messages from the main mail server while at the same time purging them from the iPhone. This is very disconcerting since not receiving a message at all can frustrate people and also result in lost income. Concerned that I might start missing incoming e-mails, and already looking at a backlog of over 600 emails, I have spent the morning urgently trying to fix problems with email account. For this reason, I've not taken any calls. In the process of researching this issue, I consolidated all of my iPhone support documents into a single iPhone support page. The problem with messages not loading in the inbox is not yet resolved. When it is, news will be posted here.

At the office

It's a busy Monday morning. I'll be away from my desk for a while.

Riding east crossing the Burlington Street Bridge

Going to office.

Riding to The Lodge

Riding on Greenwood Drive. Going to get gym clothes, body composition scale, and other workout related items (later discovered that the exercise clothes weren't dry).

Morning light

Time for Yoga and Meditation.