Michael W. Lucas's Blog, page 20

60 Seconds of WIP, 10 August 2023

Today’s snippet is from Run Your Own Mail Server, discussing local databases in Postfix.

We discussed the aliases file back in Chapter 1. An alias is a system-wide message forwarding, so that email sent to one address on the host can be redirected to a real account. Whenever you update the aliases file you must run newaliases to regenerate the database. This is a classic Unix feature, but Postfix lets you follow that example and store most tables as local databases.

You’ll often hear these local...

Patreon update: I got paid, mostly

The subject says it all, I guess?

Patreon appears to have sorted out their latest kerfuffle. I lost a few Patronizers, but I’m nowhere near as badly impacted as some creators.

Blaze Ward’s latest Milestone Publishing Newsletter talks about the importance of owning your platform, as greatly as possible. I mostly agree with it, except for the part about moving to Shopify. They’re an external vendor, they will enshittify. I can do everything with Woocommerce and Bookfunnel that Shopify can do, and ...

Patreon has stopped paying me

Patreon has failed to pay me for August, as part of their latest implosion.

If you’re one of my beloved Patronizers who backs me through Patreon, check to see if you’ve been charged. Because I haven’t got it.

If you’re flexible on where you back me, I built my own Patreon at https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/product-category/patronizer/. I usually do a soft sell on the whole “ditch the middleman” thing because lots of you have reasons for using Patreon, but this latest mess impels me to brin...

60 Seconds of WIP, 3 August 2023

Today’s snippet is from Run Your Own Mail Server, discussing LMTP versus dovecot-lda(1).

Once multiple messages start arriving simultaneously it’s much more efficient to use a dedicated daemon for local delivery, via the Local Mail Transport Protocol (LMTP).

Why have a separate protocol for local email? LMTP is a heavily trimmed-down version of SMTP. LMTP doesn’t need queues; either it delivers the message to the user’s inbox and reports success, or can’t deliver and reports an error. All queuin...

“Apocalypse Moi” Kickstarter is live

Presented for your amusement: DOOM.

Technically it went live yesterday, but I had to post July’s “See the Sausage Being Made” so here it is. Also technically, it funded the first day. Further technically, that means I can pay the publishing expenses and break even. I am fond of food and having teeth and stuff, so I’ll still be shilling it until the very last day.

If you do nothing else, watch the video. We worked hard on that silly thing.

https://mwl.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/am-ks-2023-vid...

July’s Jabberwocky Sausage

This post goes to Patronizers at the beginning of July, and the public at the beginning of August.

Once upon a time, I owned a Chevrolet SSR hard-top convertible. It retailed for fifty thousand dollars in 2005, back when that was real money. No, I didn’t buy it. I won it at a $500/plate charity auction. That I got into for free.

It was a fantastic car. It devoured road. The sound system stunned drivers on the opposite side of the divided highway. Over the fifteen years we owned it, three women a...

60 Seconds of WIP, 27 July 2023

Today’s snippet is from Run Your Own Mail Server. Here’s a tidbit about the link between Unix accounts and email addresses.

I expected to be further along, but Apache and X.509 had different ideas. Delay: yet another service they provide!

Your test system is set up the same way most twentieth-century mail systems were. Each email address is associated with a Unix account. Adding a Unix account automatically creates a matching email address. Email addresses without Unix accounts are processed by ...

Enterprise Ebook Licensing

Tilted Windmill Press now offers group and enterprise licensing for ebooks.

I deferred implementing this for years, despite the occasional request. Then I saw Julia Evans’ income graphs, where enterprise licensing is a big chunk of her income. Somewhat amusingly, my annual income reports inspired her to post this. Be generous with information about how you run your creative business, people will build on it and you can stealborrow their improvements.

The enterprise licensing also applies to bund...

60 Seconds of WIP, 20 July 2023

I finally got to see a historical-rules baseball game over at Greenfield Village, which gave me the background I needed to write the final stretch goal for last year’s Prohibition Orcs kickstarter.

“Make writing a baseball story a stretch goal,” I said. “Taunt Ron, and Brigid, and Kris,” I said. Me and my bright ideas. I’m paying for that now.

Here’s a bit from the opening.

Reading transcript

January would shiv your spleen with knives of ice. February’s only mercy was its swiftness. March deligh...

“Apocalypse Moi” Kickstarter pre-launch page up

I now have doom on offer. Pre-offer, yes, but offer.

Apocalypse Moi, a collection of eleven apocalypse-themed tales, will launch 1 August on Kickstarter. If you have any interest, I’d ask you to click on the “Notify Me On Launch” button. Kickstarter uses those pre-launch follows help decide if they will promote a project.

It contains two tales brand-new for this collection — the Prohibition Orcs story “Forbidden Taste” and the standalone techbro-nightmare-fantasy “Yesterday’s Girl”. It also col...