David Whelan - Welcome - Updates @ O'Faolain.com
Welcome to my online home. I'm a lawyer and law librarian and this is where I have gathered together resources reflecting my interests, specifically the intersection of law, information, and technology.
More about David Whelan
Second Look at Postfix and Dovecot on Ubuntu 9.10
it would be an understatement to say that I am a relative newbie on Linux and Ubuntu. There are a couple of servers and applications that I feel very comfortable with but most of my experience with the operating system and environment is through trial and error until I reach a stable plateau. Once I hit that sweet spot, I tend to stop. Part of reaching that point is finding relatively easy solutions to my needs, one of which is a solid e-mail server that supports Web mail. I have documented my experiences before on this site, looking at full e-mail servers like Axigen, Mailtraq, and Surgemail, which I am currently running. It is clear, though, that I am sidestepping a "come to Jesus" moment when I need to buckle down and figure out how to use Postfix and Dovecot. This is where I am now.
Looking Up, Looking Down
What do job competencies and the 2010 Paraprofessional of the Year have to do with each other? Timing, mostly. I was reading with interest about Allison Sloan and her impact in Massachusetts, and the "paralibrarian" title. Then I was attending a session on competencies for senior library management at the Ontario Library Association's 2010 conference. Both reflect the two ends of the seemingly-limitless fascination the librarian world has with who is a librarian.
Favorite Google Chrome Extensions
I was reading the Web4lib discussion list and saw a request for favorite Google Chrome extensions, qualified by the suggestion that perhaps it was too early for anyone to have favorites! Not too early for me, as I have shifted completely to Google Chrome in both Windows and Ubuntu Linux environments, eliminating my use of Mozilla Firefox and using Microsoft Internet Explorer (8) only when I have to. The extensions that have emerged since Google 4 came out are making it a powerful research tool.
Goose Your Koala: Alternative Look on Ubuntu Netbook
The Human theme on Ubuntu is nice although I typically switch it to clearlooks. But I was looking around for ways to enhance my netbook look, in part because I am still fine-tuning my interface.
Ubuntu 9.10: Access Windows Files in Dual Boot System
I am straddling two universes at the moment, using Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and Windows XP on the same machine. I had assumed that I would be rebooting if I needed to grab something from my XP machine that I hadn't dumped out to a server somewhere. You can imagine my surprise when I went into my Places menu in Ubuntu, clicked on Desktop, and in the new window, saw an icon for my computer right next to my File System.


