Best of: Thunderbird edition August 23, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Email, Extensions, Gmail, Mozilla, Thunderbird.add a comment
Although there are claims that email is dying (or more specifically, desktop email clients), Thunderbird still remains the best free and open source alternative to proprietary email clients such as Outlook; just like its cousin Firefox, Thunderbird can be extended, tweaked, and re-used in unorthodox ways to power it up, and so it’s possible to turn Thunderbird into the ultimate Outlook replacement, or make it integrate smartly with Google’s services.
A calendar is a must have for any email client, and at the moment Thunderbird doesn’t come with out out of the box. However, the Lightening project embeds a fully-featured calendar into Thunderbird, which supports CalDAV so you can synchronise Google Calendar easily; by doing this, you’ll also benefit from Thunderbird picking up event invitations sent to that GMail address. Extending the calendar further are extensions such as vcs Support, which allow you to import & export vCalendar files, multiple timezones can be managed by using FoxClocks, and tasks from Remember The Milk can be managed from within Thunderbird with the Provider extension.
A simple way to keep your contact list in the main view is the Contacts Sidebar, and you can access your Google Contacts in Thunderbird by using Zindus to keep them in sync. In fact, by using Zindus on multiple machines, you’re able to effectively keep your contacts synchronised and still access them online through Gmail.
Several annoyances can be fixed in Thunderbird easily, making it more powerful. For example, MailTweak will allow you to change so many advanced options in Thunderbird – I found it useful as it removed those pesky ‘Local Folders’ which were unused because I used IMAP. Speaking of IMAP, I recently posted about a fix I came up with to correct Thunderbird’s behaviour in the way it handled the GMail spam folder, as beforehand messages in spam were treated as new mail. Also, you can get a reminder when you forget to attach a file to an email, which I’m sure we could all benefit from, and you can remove that message sending dialog box. Finally, this extension will let you chose between inline or attached forwarding easily.
Outlook features a note-taking app and an RSS reader, and while Thunderbird has the latter, the trend is to opt for an online feed reader; using Thunderbrowse, you can embed Google Reader straight into Thunderbird so you can continue to read your updates in any browser. And the notes app? A while ago I came up with an unorthodox way of using GMail’s filters and Thunderbird’s templates to make a note-taking system tied to my email.
To send IM messages on a range of networks, or to simply use Twitter from within Thunderbird, have a look at the SamePlace extension which adds more messaging features to the client. It’s also possible to get a lightweight weather forecast from anywhere in the world in your sidebar with World Weather+; although weather extensions are stereotypically bloated and annoying, this one’s made really well.
If you’re an IMAP user and want more information & control over your messages, take a look at these two extensions: Display Quota does exactly what it says on the tin as it shows a progress bar of how much space you have in your email account, and GMailUI adds several features from GMail such as keyboard navigation, archiving and expression searching.
GMail supports IMAP IDLE in Thunderbird, so email is pushed to me as soon as it arrives. For greater control over sending & recieving of email, MagicSLR provides lots of options including a combined Get/Send button similar to Outlook. You can delay the sending of email until whenever you like by using Send Later, and you can ‘bounce’ a message to the correct recipient whilst keeping headers intact with mailredirect.
Finally, these two extensions will allow you to add extra information to your emails; you can timestamp your messages with the current date and time, and XSMTP can insert additional headers into an email to denote urgency, confidentiality and other things.
I’ve tried to compile a list of the best power tools for Thunderbird to make it suitable to replace Outlook (and GMail’s web interface to an extent), but if you have any other tips or extensions that are worth a mention, please let me know!
Locked out UK August 21, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Language, Travel.1 comment so far
How culturally aware is the United Kingdom? Of course, we know the stereotypes, but how much do we really understand and appreciate our neighbouring countries on the content? We all know that the Italians gave birth to pizza, but do we know how many words in English came from their language? And – with cars and fashion brands aside – does our country really know where things originate from? The UK is unfortunately very locked out to other countries around us. We’ve become an outsider to the rest of Europe, to an extent, and I believe that our nation’s attitude is very unlike that of our neighbouring countries.
Consider this; how often do we get a foreign-language song in the UK charts? The occasional tune like Dragostea din tei, but why is the music of countries so close to us missing in our society? Generally speaking, music on the continent is more shared around; a song from Turkey, for example, will often be played in Italy, and although people may not understand the lyrics, they’ll still go out and buy the song if they enjoy it. In fact, it’s almost embarrassing that the music that we do know to be of foreign creation has somehow been injected with English – artists such as Shakira and Enrique have to change the lyrics of their songs into English just to stand a chance in the UK music market.
Why is this? Are we the reject of some elite club of nations? Or perhaps our people have entirely the wrong attitude, which is a shame because there is a wealth of music, films, literature and culture that’s ready to be enjoyed, with language being the only barrier. Whatever the cause is, we’re showing up the rest of Europe as a member of the community because they’re just seen as holiday destinations.
Webapps Extending Uses March 8, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Clippings, Internet, Software.add a comment
DesignM.ag has posted an article on unorthodox uses of WordPress – that is, not using it as a blog. For example, WordPress can be turned into visual bookmarking database, an email newsletter hub, a contact manager and even a wiki; Design.mag links to all of the tutorials and plugins so it’s easy to adapt your WordPress installation, and if you don’t already have hosting for WordPress, hop on over to DreamHostApps for no-strings-attached webapp hosting.
This article got me thinking; what other applications do we use that could work for us in different ways? I’ve tried to think of some myself.
- It’s not a secret that Google Calendar can be used to book resources and equipment but I don’t see it being implemented as often as it could be.
- A CMS like drupal could be turned into a portfolio or note-taking application.
- GMail has been transformed into a ‘Personal Nerve Center‘ which is used to store information, bookmarks, to-dos, news updates and blogs.
- I’ve used GMail + Thunderbird as a cross platform, offline sync’d note-taking system.
- Twitter can be used to run a link blog (article to follow)
It’s harder than it looks to think of uses for online software. Perhaps in the future, we’ll see more plugins and tutorials on adapting well-known internet applications for other uses.
[http://designm.ag/design/11-non-traditional-uses-of-wordpress/]
The secret behind Twilight’s success January 5, 2009
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Literature, Reviews.1 comment so far
It’s no doubt that the world has gone crazy for Edward Cullen – Libraries are left without any Stephenie Meyer books in stock, fans surround movie theatres, and numerous websites are set up adoring the characters; it’s like Harry Potter all over again.
After re-reading the book and seeing the film, I’ve been able to come up with a few reasons why vampire love story is so appealing.
- It has the ‘James Bond effect’. Girls who read it want to be with Edward Cullen. The guys want to be him. He has a dangerous lifestyle that’s loved by all.
- Twilight is a blend of very different genres. Take all the best parts from a steamy romance novel, add a handful teen angst mixed with Sci-Fi, and a lot of action-adventure. Bake for 434 pages and you have Twilight. The different parts of the novel will hook a wide demographic of people.
- We can all relate to a character. Okay, so I don’t have the problem that I crave human blood, but I can certainly place myself in Edward’s shoes in a few of his awkward situations. However, one of my friends said that she could identify with Rosalie’s issues a lot. The characters are created to reflect our everyday feelings.
- And of course, the thrill factor. There’s a lot of adrenaline in Twilight. The thrill of the illicit human-vamp love, the thrill that Edward may turn on Bella, the thrill that the coven may be found out. Meyer has created a lot of suspense in all of the right places, which really pays off in keeping fans.
Twilight has been an overnight craze, so I’m glad to say that I was a fan before the hype started. If you’ve not yet come across it, I’d really recommend to have a look! You will not be disappointed.
DRM Ethics December 30, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, DRM, Media.add a comment
Exactly how far can we take our rights – not just with digital media – but with all of our media?
Consider the following situations.
- Say you bought Nevermind by Nirvana a few years ago, but can’t find the CD. You know that you bought it, and all you want to do is import the tracks to your PC. Does buying the CD give you the license to go and P2P the tracks to your PC? You’ve already paid for them.
- What about transferable rights? Say you want to lend the CD to a family member, does that temporarily remove your rights? How about the rights that they have? And what if you burn a copy of the CD for a present to somebody?
- Being an avid teen movie fan, you buy all of the American Pie films to watch one evening with some friends. However, because none of them have contributed to the costs, do they have the rights to be watching it with you?
- This one’s a hot topic amongst gamers – are you allowed to trade video games with friends? Or emulation, can you only obtain ROMs for games you own? There’s a so-called ‘24 hour rule’, which states that you can only own a ROM for a game you do not own for 24 hours, but is everyone honest enough to honour this?
- You bought a song from one of the many music stores on the internet, but its DRM won’t work with your MP3 player. Is it OK to use software to rip off the DRM protection so that you can use it with your obscure brand of MP3 player?
Some thought provoking questions that we probably don’t even ask ourselves when we buy media.
Here’s some last food for thought, and this one, I feel very strongly about:
Imagine that you’d bought your whole music library from iTunes, 1000 songs worth for example. You were very happy with the service they provided, you found the rates acceptable, and you used an iPod so that tracks were compatible. You had no issue with the DRM in place. Now imagine that Apple went bust, and all of the stores closed. All of the iTunes servers went down, rendering your entire library locked up by DRM. Now what do you think about DRM?
Blog Action Day ‘08 – Poverty October 15, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Technology.1 comment so far
It’s shocking how there is an obvious divide in technology across the world today – In this room (technology wise), I have two modern computers (XP Desktop, Mac Laptop), a Canon printer & digital camera, an alarm clock, an iPod dock, an old iPod Nano, a cheap webcam, and a Samsung phone. Compare it with those who only just have enough money to get from day to day, let alone enjoy the full benefits of the technology we take from granted these days.
What are we, the people above the Brandt line, doing to help those in developing countries, technology wise? Most people have heard of the ‘One Laptop per Child’ project, an initiative to help provide cheap laptops as an educational aid – we can directly help this project by paying for laptops for these children, or buying one for yourself, in which the proceeds to straight to the fund.
[http://laptop.org/]
A slightly different route is set up by Digital Links International, which recycles people’s old computers, giving them new uses in countries which are less fortunate than ourselves. Data is securely wiped from the computer using MoD standard specialist software, 100% of the computer is used (no landfill quota), and the donater can track where their old computer is being used in the world.
[http://www.digital-links.org/]
Today is Blog Action Day, a day set up to unite bloggers around the world with a single good cause. This year, it’s poverty, and I hope that people can take small steps in the technology they use to combat poverty around the world.
The solution to Notes? September 23, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Creations, Email, Gmail, Google, Notes, Sync, Theoretical.4 comments
Maybe this’ll be the solution to my notes dilemma?
Things I used:
Is it really that simple? Here’s what I did.
- Created a ‘Notes’ folder in my GMail account. Set it as the default templates folder in Thunderbird.
- Created a plus sign GMail address, and a GMail filter to put all email to here in the Notes folder.
- Write my note in a new email. A sample one might look like this:
To: Me+notes@someone.gmail.com
Subject: @Music @Money @ToDo
Message: Ask Dan about that £10 I lent him – maybe use it to buy tickets for that Gig?
Now, to save the note, either hit the send button, or save it as a ‘template’ in Thunderbird.
Checklist: Offline access? Yup, through iMap I can access the notes offline. Online web access? Yeah, just log in through GMail. Portability? Of course! Email can go anywhere, so I can have my notes on any platform, sync’d whenever I need them. Features? Uh huh, the subject line acts as tags, and I can search the notes through GMail’s powerful search front-end. I also have permanent notes (when I send the email) and ongoing editing notes (by saving them as templates). I can embed HTML into them, too.
Ok, it ain’t perfect…yet. It’s the best solution I have so far, and I intend to stick to it for a while – Google are managing my email, my calendar, my search, my photos, and now my notes!
Why I’ll never be happy with notes July 21, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Notes, Software, Sync, Theoretical.1 comment so far
Out of all of the tools I use on a computer, I’d say that multimedia notes have been one of the most useful, and I think that they’re severely underrated – I’d often store a mini progress log, annotate a picture or keep a phone number in notes, because it’s too cumbersome to then go and create a document to do these tasks, especially when the document will probably be deleted soon.
Notes are infinitely useful. But so is sync.
It’s an implicit necessity for me to be able to access any of my data – be it email, calendars, or files – across different platforms easily, have offline accessibility (through some medium like a client, Gears etc) and have a web interface.
I know it seems a lot to ask, but in my situation, I need portability.
And from there, the problem arises.
X has some amazing features, but will only sync to Windows.
Y is a sleek multimedia power-app, but we can’t get it offline.
Z will sync to all systems, however it has no web interface and lacks advanced tools.
There is no standards for notes. iMap and vCard are two standards for mail and contacts that are universally supported. What have notes got? Where would they even go? We could probably all name some built-in email aplications that will inherently know these protocols, but what about notes? By having image annotations, does that mean you loose out on a multi-platform/client user base? Ok, so plain notes are fine, but exactly where will they go, what can they be access in.
Do you see my dilemma? I can never find the perfect solution for notes because there is no ideal for it set.
Someone needs to create a system – similar to that used by, for example, calendars – that is globally accessible.
HowTo: Sync contacts with iMap May 29, 2008
Posted by CLibra in Articles, Creations, Email, Gmail, HowTo, Sync, Tools.1 comment so far
With Plaxo being bought by Comcast, people I know are feeling uneasy about trusting their data in Comcast’s hands.
But how many alternatives have we got for syncing? .Mac? Google? There a possibilities, but Plaxo is probably the best in it’s field.
I actually stumbled across a solution by accident – a fit of dragging and dropping in Outlook Express turned out to be viable.
What do we need?
- An iMap account of sorts (GMail?)
- Contacts stored on a computer
- Get your contacts in a workable format – export them as VCF files. This will take a while if you’ve got a lot, but it’s worth it.
- Open the VCF file in a text editor. You’ll get something like the following:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Doe
FN:John
NICKNAME:Jonny
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:john.doe@gmail.com
etc
3. Copy this into an email. Put the person’s name as the subject, and send it to your iMap account – store all of them in their own folder, maybe using filtering rules.
Now all of your contacts can be searched with your email – you can access them on any client (even the web if it’s a provider like GMail), and if you need to import them into a program, simply copy the body of the message into a text file and change the extension to *.vcf
