How to erase a blackberry 8100 – how to delete all data
I had a problem, and spent some time looking for a solution. Since it was a pain to find out how to erase all my data (hard reset) on a Blackberry 8100 from t-mobile, I thought I would post the process here and save someone some time.
- In the device options, click Security Options.
- Click General Settings
- Press the Menu key.
- Click Wipe Handheld.
- Click Continue
- Type blackberry
Good luck!
Download updates and software from Microsoft even without the Windows Genuine Advantage check
Have you been trying to figure out how to keep your Windows up to date so you dont spread viruses, but are concerned that if you update, Windows will stop working?
muBlinder is a piece of software that allows you to bypass Microsoft's Genuine Advantage check and download their software - such as Windows Desktop Search 3.0, Windows Defender, Internet Explorer 7.0 (which breaks Outlook 2003). It's available and update from the p2plife forums (unfortunately you need to register to download it), but the solution works, and is relatively easy to update. Another solution that doesnt allow you to download the extras is WindizUpdate, a plugin for firefox that replicates the way Windows Update works.
IE7 Breaks Outlook 2003
How ridiculous does that statement look! If you were wondering why your headers stopped printing when you print your outlook email, that is the answer. By installing Internet Explorer 7, you are foregoing your right to consistently print header information in Outlook. Several people in my office were reporting that some of their emails were printing without the header info. Upon doing a search in google for the phrase "email only prints text of the message", I found the following discussion @ lockergnome
I believe this problem started when IE7 was installed as I haven't seen it on machines that still have IE6.
and then another frustrated user:
ts definitely IE7 there are so many people (not just in these forums but also in others across the net) having the same problem - me too.
Microsoft are exceptionally quiet on this front. the only known solution i've seen is to uninstall IE7 & go back to IE6. i hae tried other fixes ie re-editing HTML back into plain & then putting back to HTML - this works sometimes - but sometimes not & is very time consuming.
So, what did I do? I removed IE 7 from all of my users computers and faster than you can say "microsoft needs help", they were all printing Outlook emails with headers again.
Im in the process of reviewing Office 2007 and Windows Vista, and it wont be much different than this review.
Move iTunes to an external drive on your Mac – intelligently
There are a few ways to move your iTunes collection to a different location. Here is an intelligent way that leverages the *nix underpinnings of Mac OS X using symbolic links.
- Close iTunes
- Locate your music collection in the Finder (it should be the folder "iTunes" under "Music" in your home folder
- Move it to the new location! Just drag and drop, we're going to fix it in a second
- Right click on iTunes in the new location and select "Make Alias"
- Move the alias to the location your old iTunes folder is. It is probably called "iTunes alias" or similar
- Drag your old iTunes library to the trash
- Rename "iTunes Alias" to "iTunes"
- Open up iTunes and check to see that your music is still there and working!
This gives you flexibility if you need to reorganize or free up space. By creating an alias (symbolic link), iTunes treats the music collection as if it was never moved!
You have committed copyright infringement. This is your second warning
Worried about getting busted using Bittorrent? You probably should be since it doesnt hide your identity. It seems that downloading movies is more likely to get you busted than other content. I have several friends who got notices from their internet provider after downloading movies. You may be able to do that safely too!
What you have to do is run a piece of software in the background called "PeerGuardian 2". The way it works is by blocking IP addresses. Your list is updated based on a master list, and you can choose if you want to block corporations, educational institutions, governments, etc.
In non-technical terms, internet addresses, just like physical addresses can be traced to their owners. By blocking addresses that are more likely to be tracking copyright infringement or sending bad data, it enables you to sneak under the radar and continue to download.
As always, be careful where you get your torrents from and use a reputable source like piratebay or tvrss. While I am on the subject, I'll give a plug for µTorrent too! It's a great windows based bittorrent client. If you are on a mac, Bitrocket is increasing in quality at a really fast pace. The built in search is awesome.
Worried about getting busted for music? allofmp3 is still up and running, and according to them is legal! I dont know about that, but $2 an album is the price music should be!
How to beat heat stroke & heat exhaustion.
Playing sports in the Texas summer is brutal. Growing up in Singapore, I used to get heat stroke / exhaustion playing soccer in the summer. I would come home with a headache, often vomit, and require excessive amounts of sleep. It didnt seem to matter if I had enough fluid beforehand, during and after the game, I would still sometimes feel sick!
I think I have found the solution:
Information online tells you to drink water, water, water and maybe gatorade if you like. Well, I am suggesting trying an electrolyte formula - such as the following from Clif. This is probably going to do more for you than the high fructose full gatorade crapola. I've purchased some and will be trying it on myself in the upcoming games to see how I fare. I will hydrate myself with this before the game, have a water bottle full during the game and use it after aswell. I'll keep you updated on how well it works!
Update: The stuff works! I usually drink two pint glasses before the game and then a cooler full during the game and then a pint glass when I get home. I still feel tired - dont get me wrong, but I dont get the immobilizing headaches and vomiting like I used to!
How to be popular on myspace Part 2
By now you've read my insanely useful article: How to be popular on MySpace part 1. Well, now we're gonna start talking to people to see what works and what doesnt when trying to meet people!
By now you've got an awesome profile and people are probably sending you messages! If not, dont worry! We'll get that started right now.
The best way to find interesting people that you may be able to meet is to "browse" for people in your area. Put in your zipcode, and the type of people you are looking to meet. I would just put single women (or men if you are a woman or gay man) within 5 or 10 miles of my zip code that are aged 21 - 27 or something similar. Then, browse the profiles and pick out a few you like.
The Neg
Im going to introduce you to a pick up artist technique called "the neg". It wont work on everyone, but generally it works well on good looking people (im not sure how well it works on guys). The idea of a neg is that it is a backhanded compliment. A commonly used example is "Nice nails! Are they real?".
Take a look at the persons pictures, and pay them a backhanded compliment - or say something where they will feel like they have to qualify themselves to you. What most dumbasses do is they will see a picture they like and send the person a message saying "Damn girl, you're smoking!" or something similar to that. The person will probably not respond to that. What they will respond to is something along the lines of "Why dont you ever smile in any of your pictures? You're kinda cute like my little sister:)". Most good looking people on myspace will have some sort of "bitch shield" up to random strangers saying things to them. However, if you point out something that no one else has, they will feel compelled to qualify themselves to you and win you over.
Banter
You can use a neg a few times in conversation to banter back and forth. If you do it too much, they take it as offensive and will stop talking to you. Alternatively, you may want to ask them a question that makes them think, or something that they will feel like they want to share their opinion about. Look at their profile for clues on this. I sometimes say that I am new to houston and I need to know the hot places to go for dancing or something like that. This does two things. It makes them curious about from where you came and also has them think about what cool places they would recommend so as not to disappoint you.
Moving from myspace to the real world
This is probably the hardest step. It is definitely a lot easier if the other person asks you first. Basically, you should at some point start talking about what you like to do. I've tried a few things that seem to work. Challenge the person by saying things like "We could never hang out - we are too similar! We would argue all the time!". Question them about how fun they actually are. You want the other person to invite you to a location where they are going with friends. This is much better than trying to set up a "date" per se. Remember, if you are a guy inviting a woman, the chances of her coming are slim to none by herself. Suggest that she bring her friends to the place you guys will be. It helps if there is a special event going on there that night. If you are a guy and the girl invites you somewhere, the best thing to do is show up with some girls also. This gives you additional credibility as a guy who women find attractive.
Remember... dont take anything too personally. You will get rejected more than you will be invited out. The success rates at a bar / in person are much higher than online, but you can cover a lot of ground much faster online and it is easier to pick out people that you would want to spend time with.
Have fun!
How to be popular on Myspace part 1
Myspace is the ridiculously popular social networking site now owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch. There are tons of people on myspace and oodles of hot girls and guys. People browse through profiles all the time to check their owners out. We are obsessed with learning about strangers. So, how do you maximize your profile so strangers will obsess over you? Read on!
The profile image
This is essentially the first point of attraction. It's gotta be catchy and it's gotta be good. If you are attractive, focus in on it. If you are not attractive, it's really important to make it interesting. Im OK looking, but I decided to take a really crazy picture with my Photo Booth on my Mac and use that. On a page filled with profile images, mine definitely stands out enough that people will look a little longer. The pic doesnt have to be of you, but people are less likely to click if it is your dog or a beer bottle
Other Pics
With your other pictures, you want to show a wide range of things going on. Show yourself partying with lots of different people. Go out for a few nights and bring a camera with you. If you're a girl, take pictures with lots of different guys. If you're a guy, lots of different girls. The better looking the other people are in your pics, the better you look & the more fun you look like you're having. If you seem like a fun person, then people will want to get to know you.
The profile
So, you want to cast the widest net so that people will relate to you. No no no! Be certain about what you like, but also be a little vague in your details. If you lay out your entire life in your profile, there is nothing left for people to learn about you. Avoid the "I grew up in Plainsboro NJ and moved to blah blah blah". That's boring as heck. Make yourself mysterious and intriguing. Instead of saying you are a regional sales representative for xyz widget company, make a joke and say you are a professional superhero. Get imaginative and make it interesting.
Themes
People go all out with their themes on myspace. Im not a big fan of them, but that is just a personal preference. If you do put up a theme, make sure it doesnt take away from the functionality of your page. If people cant read it or use it, it's useless. Also stay away from too many flashing images. That wasnt cool on the net in the 90s and it isnt cool now.
Friends
Make sure you have a good base of existing friends on your profile. I would say that 20 - 30 is probably the minimum you want. Dont go around myspace asking everyone to be your friend so that you end up with 400 friends. You are not Tom. Get your friends to give you credibility by writing on your page and commenting on your pics. The more other people have to say about you, the more cred you get. It's kind of like a seal of approval. If you have a really good friend, make sure they dont bombard your page. You want to show variety and depth.
Once you've built up your profile, you're ready to go and meet people! Tune in next time to learn how.
How to get over an ex!
There is no surefire way to get over an ex boyfriend / girlfriend. When you break up, especially after being together for a long time, it is like losing a part of yourself. Do not fear though - it is not losing a part of yourself, it is just "like" losing a part of yourself.
There are a common set of 5 stages of grief that people go through during a breakup:
- Denial
- Anger / Resentment
- Bargaining
- Depression
- Acceptance
Denial
At this point, you cant believe what has happened and you are most likely overwhelmed by shock - half expecting things to go back to "normal".
Anger / Resentment
This is when it gets nasty & you might be inclined to do or say things that you will regret to the other person. You blame the other person for causing the situation or wasting years of your life, or being so difficult. In many ways those things are necessary because essentially fighting with each other and causing hurt makes the break up easier to comprehend for each person.
Bargaining
Im not quite sure that this is next after anger. Apparently, this is where you will feel inclined to try to convince the person that you can change or they can change and you really should be together. The decision to break up feels wrong and it seems as though the solution is to get back together rather than stay apart.
Depression
It's really quite straightforward. You feel down in the dumps, alone and withdrawn from the world. At this point, the loss is acknowledged and it takes time to deal with it and sort through the issues. This is when you will feel most alone in the world. But dont fret! the best is yet to come.
Acceptance
The breakup is now in your past. You're able to move forward with your life. Hopefully at this stage, seeing the person doesnt send you backwards in to one of the other stages.
What else?
Now that you know the stages of grief, you can at least understand what you are going through. Some other things you may experience during grief is a sense of a lost identity. You need to rediscover and redefine who you are without the other person. It's difficult and dangerous because its important to have stability in your life.
How to get through it
- Go to the Gym / work out - This is a fantastic thing to do when you are getting over a break up. Working out releases endorfins in the brain so you feel better than you ordinarily would if you were going through a break up (I am working out 5 - 6 times a week).
- Be more social - Hang out in coffee shops with a good book, make some new friends who dont know your ex, get out of the house!
- Generally get more busy - The less time you have alone to think, the less time you will be sitting alone thinking about your break up. Dwelling on a problem rarely presents a solution. The only thing to help with a breakup is time. If you can allow time to pass without overanalyzing the situation, it will help.
- Join a club, group or new activity - Increase the number of times you do an activity during the week. Take a cooking class. Join a book club. Do something you've always wanted to try. Go travelling!
All of these can help you take your mind off grieving for the most part but will allow you to think about it in moments - to process things without dwelling.
In this case, I am taking my own advice! I hope it works for you.
Shortcut at Gatwick Airport (LGW) – save almost 2 hrs!
I flew Continental Airlines from London Gatwick yesterday and the line was a mile long. I didnt wait in it, but someone I talked to said they waited for approximately 2 hours to check in. I waited 15 minutes to drop off my bag and was then ready to go through security. How did I do it? Online check-in. I checked in and printed my boarding pass the night before and then went to the bag drop to get rid of my bag. Continental's check-in area is a little bit hidden and it is a maze. You have to go down a ramp to check in for economy. There is one line for the bag-drop, and it is right next to the first class check in. The secret way to get there is either an elevator or a set of stairs to the right of the long ramp that goes down. Hope this helps you save a couple of hours of your life.
Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR
I've been working on my Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR for a few weeks now. See the previous articles (1, 2, 3) that detail my problems. I've purchased a ton of hardware and returned a ton of hardware. Here's what I am left with and approximate prices:
- Case: Antec Sonata $80
- PSU: Seasonics S12 500w Power Supply $90
- Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor $120
- Motherboard: MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 $70
- Memory: 1GB DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 - Corsair Value Select $82
- Video Card: Radeon X1300 PRO PCI Express 256MB (MSI) $70
- Harddrive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L300S0 300GB $100
- SDTV Tuner: Hauppage WINTV-PVR-150 MCE $50
- HDTV Tuner: DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite $99
- Sound Card: AuzenTech HDA X-PLOSION 7.1 DTS Connect $125
- DVD-RW: NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI $25
- Software: Windows XP Media Center 2005 $110, uTorrent -$FREE
Total Cost: $1021
Not so cheap anymore!
Other gear in my setup
- Monitor: Panasonic TH42PX50U 42 Inch Plasma TV
- Receiver: Onkyo TX-SR601U
Mistakes Made
I've made a bunch of mistakes building my HTPC. When the computer kept rebooting / stalling, I wrongly attributed it to hardware / driver problems. My assumption was compounded when I read that people were having problems with the turtle beach montego (my original HTPC sound card). I ended up spending a lot more when I had to keep returning hardware. I now think that the problem was with the original PSU in the Antec Sonata failing. It was rated at 380w and when I ran through the Power calculator, it seemed that it would be enough for my hardware, but apparently that is not the case. Either the PSU is failing or the hardware is much more power hungry than the calculator thought.
What can you do with it?
Now that I've just dropped a grand on this box, what can I do with it?
Recording TV - You'll now be able to set media center to record your favorite shows for you in High Definition. Some pitfalls here are: you need a really strong signal. I purchased a Terk indoor antenna, but the signal is weak. I am within 15 miles of all the broadcast towers in Houston, but my directional antenna only picks up 2 stations well from inside my house. The rest of them are pretty choppy. Im going to try buying a $100 antenna and put it in my attic run a cable down to my living room.
Downloading Torrents - While my TV channels dont fully work, I've got to use uTorrent to subscribe to shows on tvRSS.net in order to get my fill. I've also got my Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD on Time Warner cable as a backup 
Music - Im not using it for music. This is when it sucks to have all your music in iTunes. It would be nice if someone (Apple ?) wrote an iTunes interface for Windows Media Center (but I cant see why they would)
Gaming - I dont use it for big screen gaming, but I can see myself getting a wireless controller and maybe installing MAME or an NES / SNES emulator.
Is it ready for primetime?
If you are an inexperienced user thinking about building a HTPC, no, it's not. Even if you are an experienced user, it may be more pain than its worth. Especially the quirks with OTA broadcasts. In fact - right now I would prefer to download a torrent of the show rather than record it over the air.
This quirkiness / lack of seamless integration is where apple really has an "in" into the living room. Steve jobs recently stated "we hear you load and clear" when asked about a potential Apple media center. The Mac Mini is a great little platform. It will be fantastic if they can integrate a dual HD and SD tuner into that package, or even have a little add on. Im a little disappointed with the inflexibility of the Windows Media Center software. It's missing a lot - such as the ability to automatically compress a recorded show to Divx. This is a relatively young product, but unfortunately, it still acts like a computer and not enough like an appliance. This is where the failing is. Things dont "just work".
Conclusion
Im not happy with Windows MCE 2005. Frankly, recording on my $12/month Scientific Atlanta 5300hd box is better than my $1000 Windows MCE 2005 box. I'd like to try and make this work by installing MythTV on Ubuntu which seems to offer more flexibility, but I am waiting for Dapper Drake to come out around the beginning of June to do it right. Im very conflicted about this right now. I want to watch TV how and when I want to watch it. I want to do it legally and in High Definition when possible. I dont want to have to pay 60 bucks a month to Time Warner Cable to watch my 5 or so shows that I can get free over the air. The kicker right now is that with my current setup, it is more inconvenient to try and record in HD over the air than it is to download the torrent. I will make this work! Keep your eyes on this space.
Surgery Complete – Reapplying thermal paste to my Macbook Pro
There have been quite a few posts around the net already on how to fix the heat issues on the first few revisions of the MacBook pro. I tried it, and it appears to work!
I followed the: iFixit guide to disassemble my MacBook. The only thing I didnt have to do was remove the harddrive. I then cleaned with Arcticlean 1 and Arcticlean 2 and then applied my Arctic Silver 5 to just the die - like apple should have done. It was really time consuming and you have to be careful... but I think it might be worth it.
First 24 Hours
My MacBook Pro still gets damn hot. I've read that the Arctic Silver takes some time to cure. I am booted into windows right now where the MacBook pro gets the hottest. I ran a very repetetive macro in excel that turned the fans on pretty high speed. That made me realize that I've never really heard the fans before.
Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR – part 1.2
The system has continued to stall even after replacing the video card and sound card. I thought it was the HDTV tuner card and removed that. This fixed the problem for a while, but then I experienced the system freezing again. So now the question is - what is causing the system to freeze?
The things that popped into my head were:
- Processor is dying
- My motherboard is incompatible with c-media sound processors (like the ones found in the turtle beach montego and Auzentech X-plosion)
- The 380w powersupply is either underpowered or failing
Well, I decided to try a few things today to figure out what was wrong. I removed both TV tuners and watched a DVD. The system worked fine. I added in the Analog tv tuner - the system worked fine. I added in the Digital Tuner - the system crashed while playing a DVD.
Then, I removed the analog tuner and booted with the Digital Tuner. The system booted fine and was stable. I loaded the ATI TV software and played an HD stream. The ATI card fixed the problem of choppy playback, however it seems that the HD signal is stronger directly on my TV, but that is another issue.
So, prior to realizing it could be a PSU issue, I ordered a new motherboard, processor, ram and video card.
| 80699-5 | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $107.40 | 1 | $107.40 |
| 241163 | MSI K8N NEO4-F nForce4 Athlon 64 Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $80.99 | 1 | $80.99 |
| 80098-21 | Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 Value Select Memory Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $80.90 | 1 | $80.90 |
| 321962 | MSI RX1300PRO-TD256E Radeon X1300 PRO PCI Express 256MB DDR2 Video Card w/TV-Out & Dual DVI Retail ***Free Shipping*** | $95.75 | 1 | $95.75 |
Those are coming on Tuesday or Wednesday and I am debating buying a PSU just in case the system still crashes. I also decided to purchase a DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Lite to replace the ATI HDTV Wonder that I thought was giving me a bunch of problems.
Building a HTPC is not quite as easy as I thought it would be, even with the extensive experience I have in building PCs.
I wish apple had come out with their HTPC a few weeks ago when I decided to do this project. According to reports from the shareholders meeting, Steve Jobs' comments "We hear you loud and clear" may indicate that apple is working on something. It certainly wouldnt take much to take the Mac Mini to the next level.
Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR – part 1.1
This is just a minor update to Part 1. I ran into some problems and wanted to document them.
First, let me give you my relevant system specs as these may be partially responsible for some of the problems Im having.
Case: Antec Sonata
Motherboard: Asus A7V8X
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2600+
Video Card: EVGA e-GeForce FX 5500 (256mb Ram)
HDTV Tuner: ATI HDTV Wonder
TV Tuner: Hauppage DVR150 MCE
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Montego DDL
Problems
- HDTV decoding is choppy, both when transcoding and recording
- Changing channels on the HDTV tuner is very slow (approximately 20 seconds before a new picture comes up)
- Turtle Beach Montego DDL crashes the system - freezes the cursor on screen requiring reboot
- Tried to use the drivers for c-media 8768 as recommended elsewhere on the net
Possible Remedies
- Purchased Auzentech HDA X-Plosion to replace the Turtle Beach Montego
- Provides Dolby Digital Live
- Provides DTS Connect
- Much more expensive than the Montego
- Claims to provide Hardware decoding of HDTV signals when combined with ATI HDTV Wonder - so it could solve the issues of choppiness and slow channel changing.
Stay tuned! I should have my final system by the end of this weekend.
Building the Ultimate (cheap) HDTV PVR – part 1
I want to cancel cable.
My girlfriend and I watch very few shows that dont air on the regular over the air (OTA) broadcasts. Luckily, we are pretty central in houston and have pretty good HDTV reception for all the major networks. So, why do we pay > $50 a month to Time Warner Cable for our TV? Ah, thats right - the DVR - our Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. The functionality of being able to record our shows and watch them whenever keeps us hooked. So, why not build my own PVR! If I try and keep the cost down, it will pay for itself in the money we save not paying Time Warner Cable.
Minimum Requirements
- Old PC - I would recommend something in the past couple of years. The processor I am using is an Athlon XP 2600+ with 1 gb of ram and a 300 gb Harddrive
- ATI HDTV Wonder (comes with an antenna and remote)
- Other TV tuner card (Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 requires you have a regular tuner to use an HDTV tuner)
- Video Card - Im going to recommend a Radeon 9600 or newer. These have a built in hardware decoder for HDTV (h.264) which will reduce the strain on the processor and will probably give you a better HDTV experience (especially if your computer is old). Make sure you buy the right kind though - older systems likely have an AGP slot and not PCIe. Check on this before buying.
- Windows XP Media Center Edition - if you can find it, buy the one that includes the Microsoft Remote
Optional Extras
This is where you can get carried away and really raise the price. Find a few things that you want and stick with them. Unless of course you want to go all out!
- ATI All in Wonder (combine the regular tv tuner and the video card into one)
- Outdoor HDTV antenna (get a better signal)
- Microsoft's Media Center Remote (has better buttons for working with Media Center than ATI's remote)
- Wireless Keyboard
- Big harddrive - check whether you have SATA (small cable) or Parallel ATA (usually a wide, thin grey cable)
- Home Theater Case
- µTorrent
- Sound card with Optical Out (to connect to your home theater receiver). This one, Turtle Beach TBS-3300 has Dolby Digital Live which can convert any stream into Dolby Digital. Nice bonus.
- DVI to HDMI cable (to connect to your HDTV)
- HDTV
So, while you're busy buying all of that stuff, I am going to wait for my packages to arrive so I can put it all together and give you the next article about getting it all set up!
How I can switch to a Mac for work: Part 1 – Email
After my last article: Why I cant switch to a Mac, there were a lot of great responses. As a disclaimer, I wrote it in frustration, but I was not looking to bitch, I was looking for some answers. The biggest frustration I had was with email. After reading through your responses, I had a couple of new solutions to try to solve my email dilemma: Mozilla Thunderbird and Novell Evolution.
Novell Evolution
Novell Evolution, originally Ximian Evolution is the fullest featured email / calendaring app in the linux / unix world. It is currently at version 2 and is a testament to the strength of the open source model. Recently, Novell released to the open source community, the Ximian Connector - the plugin for Evolution that allows the most complete operability with Exchange servers outside of Microsoft Outlook. Evolution can work on Mac OS X also, but it is not a native app and must be compiled and use elements in the Gnome Tool Kit. The Mac port also lags behind in its version. Fink lists it at 1.4.6 as of this writing and the Ximian Connector has not been ported to Mac yet.
Hopefully Apple is working to include the Ximian Connector or elements of it in future versions of Mail / iCal and Address Book. It would be a shame not to!
Mozilla Thunderbird
Now, with Mozilla Thunderbird, do I have a solution? Lets take a look. I downloaded the latest release of thunderbird and fired it up. I put in all my information and it started catching up on about 300 mb of messages. Thunderbird was noticably faster at downloading messages than both Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage 2003. One of the complaints I had with all previous mail clients I had tried on the Mac is the lack of fully functional HTML. A lot of users had a great deal of criticism about my need for HTML. I agree. HTML is a waste for simple text messages which is the majority of normal communication over email. However, I would much rather have a full-featured HTML option rather than just the basics. Tables help with formatting, especially when you are sending multiple lines of similar data. Now I am happy with the email sending, receiving and formatting. What about addresses. One of the weaknesses with Thunderbird is the inability to connect to the built in Address book. Not a big deal. Thunderbird was not designed to integrate in with the native address book on each system. I have not yet figured out a good way to synchronize my contacts to the Mac. Once I do that, Thunderbird will be a pretty great email solution for any platform.
What works:
- Fastest IMAP support I have seen on the Mac (nice job Mozilla!)
- Nice interface and easy to use
What Doesnt:
- No built in address import from Exchange server - limited ability to import other address book typess
- Not integrated well into the OS (but it works on all platforms!)
- Cannot synchronize with a palm/blackberry on the mac (yet)
Where to go from here
Mozilla Thunderbird fills my needs pretty well. My colleagues and I share an address book that is in an outlook public folder. If I were able to synchronize this or use LDAP to access it (dont think you can with public folders, only the global address list), then I would be well on my way to replacing my Windows PC. I am looking forward to companies integrating the Ximian Connector into their software, or others porting Evolution to Cocoa. I think the future is bright. Look out for the next installment of my trials switching to the Mac.
How to find out who is sending you spam using email headers and visual route
A lot of spam these days has spoofed headers. Some of the spam I receive says it is coming from me to me, or even from the people I do business with. We can examine the email header to determine who actually sent the email.
- Open your email client and find a spam message - shouldnt be hard these days. The one I will be using claims to be from Suntrust Bank and looks like this:
- I use Outlook 2003 at work so as you can guess, finding the headers is a little less intuitive than other email clients. First, double click on the email to open it in a separate window. Then, click "View -> Options". You should have an email header that looks something like this:
Microsoft Mail Internet Headers Version 2.0
Priority: normal
Importance: normal
thread-index: AcTFH98jKHBYsxN5RGKIBDEI/WSbTA==
X-iHateSpam-Quarantined: Quarantined by iHateSpam Server Edition (389)
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Received: from my1.email.net ([11.111.111.111]) by my2.email.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.211); Sun, 7 Nov 2004 18:16:26 -0500
Received: from 80.117.48.160 ([80.117.48.160]) by my1.email.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.6713); Sun, 7 Nov 2004 18:16:23 -0500
From: "SunTrust bank" < -support56@suntrust.com>
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Subject: SunTrust Bank Online
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 12:16:19 +0100
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... More stuff down here... - What we are looking for is the IP address of the spammer or the spam relay that sent the email to us. We can see that it is
80.117.48.160because this is the address that doesnt belong to our email server and it is also the original server that our server received the email from. - Now for the fun part! (2004/11/29 EDIT - Visualroute server is no longer there, possible to use ip2location.com)Lets put their IP address into the IP2Location to see where they hang out.
It looks like this email most likely came from Milan, Italy. So now you have a way to track down who is sending you emails by their geographical location
How to use this information
- Check interbusiness.it in Senderbase - a website to check out how much email they send - From there you can find the abuse email address and send them an copy of the email header you received. It is important to send the header because they will not be able to track down the spammers without their IP address that is in the header. If they are decent, they will deal with the spammers, if not your time has been wasted.
How to Use the Ipod (v3) with Redhat Linux 9.0
I am unsure whether this How To guide is backwards compatible with the previous versions of the Apple iPod. I have a 30 gb Ipod (v3) and this has only been tested with that
