Might should review mail server setup

Last week I found out why some e-mail that I had sent had gone missing: Cisco's IronPort had quarantined it. So much for, 250 Ok. Naturally, the product is rather opaque about exactly what offended it about my messages. My servers come up clear on blackhole lists and suchlike.

I like to try to keep my computing arrangements simple. For the most part, if I attempt to deliver RFC-compliant messages in an RFC-compliant way then I figure it's largely on the receiver if they fail to deliver the message properly. Nonetheless, if I must live in the real world then I also have to consider how typical practice evolves.

Some time ago, I caved to modernity by adding an SPF entry to my DNS, at least that is a simple act. Also, I bother to have a proper SSL certificate set up for my MTAs. I wonder if what upset IronPort may mostly have been a lack of DKIM or DMARC or somesuch. Perhaps there is an easy win from adding such a thing that I should be considering, especially if the tide is inexorable, or perhaps the issue was something else entirely.

Inefficacy of cloth masks

I remain ongoingly irritated by the news coverage of cloth masks versus surgical masks or N95s. It reminds me of the red meat / white meat research that tends to be vague about pork or, if mentioning it, doesn't distinguish between cured or not, etc. Anyhow, sure, I would expect that many cloth masks suck. I'm using cloth masks made from densely woven fabric that sandwich many square inches of edge-to-edge HEPA-rated filter and with a wire for the bridge of my nose. How do those compare? Given the popular reporting's vagueness, I have no idea, but I am struck by how loosely some surgical masks fit. Though, for events like grocery shopping, I wear an FFP2 underneath it anyway.

Authoritarianism rising

Last week, the New York Times published an essay by the London-based journalist Moya Lothian-McLean, Boris Johnson Is Revealing Who He Really Is, which draws attention to how the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Nationality and Borders Bill, the Elections Bill, and the Judicial Review and Courts Bill include provisions harmful to various civil liberties; needless to say, they are not optimistic about the coming Online Safety Bill. It feels as if autocratization is increasingly widespread; one fears sleepwalking into its entrenchment.

I do not know how best to appear as an upset citizen to the powers that be. In our form of democracy, my usual default would be to write to my MP, but they would be against it all anyway, and I wonder how much an overseas voter weighs in comparison to a local constituent. Perhaps my voter status is irrelevant and, like anybody else, I am left with donating to openDemocracy or whomever. Years ago, I imagined that the Liberal Democrats were the defenders to support but, even back when people off-hand even remembered who leads the party, my civil liberties concerns tended not to be among their headline issues and it takes much effort for a party to get even their highest priorities addressed.

I have also wondered how to weigh in as a voice of sanity^* more locally. I doubt I am much credible for, say, a school board, given how I have no children of my own in local schools. Ordinarily, I might look at pollworking or suchlike but the pandemic does not encourage me, locally I rather doubt that I can engage in such without considerable risk of infection. To give some context, this morning's local social media included fear of being killed by receiving blood from vaccinated donors, I nobly refrained from mentioning Darwin Awards.

^*What I think, rather than what others think!