Thursday, January 3rd, I finally got around to re-installing Windows on my work laptop (yes, this post has taken a while to complete). I decided on Vista over XP, because I know that I will have at least one virtual machine running Windows XP with our "base" software configuration. If I still want to keep playing with Linux, I can also run it in a virtual machine, although I probably won’t be able to utilize fun stuff like compiz. Just like the last time, I had a pain in the ass trying to find the drivers for my laptop’s hardware. Specifically, I had trouble finding the Bluetooth drivers and the updated drivers for several devices. Read on to find out more about my continuing journey to setup my work laptop, starting with my trouble activating Vista.
Archive for the 'Software' Category
I have been using Gmail’s IMAP access for my Gmail account, as well as for my ask-mark.com e-mail that I have hosted with Gmail. I use Thunderbird to check my five e-mail accounts hosted with Gmail, all using IMAP. This has worked out great since I first posted about it back in October. That all changed yesterday.
Continue reading ‘Gmail IMAP access disappears and reappears’
I had it with Windows Vista at the end of 2007. Between the week of constant nagging that I had to re-register my laptop (I had to replace the motherboard about six or seven weeks ago, so naturally Vista believes I am pirating the OS), all the general build-up of crud in Windows and my desire to get Linux to work with NetWare and eDirectory, I dumped Vista just after Christmas. After backing up most of my data (once again I had forgotten my Thunderbird address book), I popped in the SLED 10 DVD to start my voyage that would eventually lead to my using two different external monitors and a total of four different Linux distros before determining what my final setup will be.
This is relatively old news on the internet, but Google is now offering IMAP connections to Gmail accounts. IMAP allows you to view your e-mail on the server from various IMAP-enabled mail clients, keeping it synchronized among the different clients. POP3 had been the only other way to view your Gmail account outside of the Gmail site, and that would require downloading your e-mail to a POP3 client or webmail service (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc.). However, if you were to check your Gmail from multiple POP3 clients, the clients would not necessarily remain synchronized.
Lifehacker has a quick tutorial on how to setup Thunderbird to take advantage of the Gmail IMAP goodness. You will want to follow their directions to quickly make use of your Gmail tags as Thunderbird folders. Then dump the automatically created Thunderbird folders for Junk, Trash and Sent, in favor of the Gmail folders for Spam, Trash and Sent Mail, respectively. The LH article even shows you how to get Gmail keyboard control in Thunderbird using the GMailUI Thunderbird extension.
I have already started moving my e-mail archive, with messages that date back to 1999, over to Gmail from Thunderbird. Gmail’s lack of IMAP was the only thing that held me back from doing this when I dropped Outlook for Thunderbird earlier this year. Now I can have my archive wherever I check mail. I’ll have to look into Google Apps for Domains for ask-mark.com to complete my Google circle.
I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to realize what was going on inside my computer. For quite some time, I have been annoyed by the tendency for my music’s ID3 tags to get corrupted. For example, I would find long strings of DWORDs in the Comments field, or my ratings would get screwed up. This would wreak havok on my iTunes library because the music files would contain information different from the iTunes library XML file. As I would browse through my library listings, I would find the meta data changing before my eyes! I think I have found a reason for this, and the post’s punny title is a clue.
Continue reading ‘Title Bout: iTunes vs. Windows Media Player’
As I continue to watch the recent season and series premiers, I thought I would post about how you can use your computer as a DVR of sorts, or as a supplement to your TiVo or cable or satellite dish DVR. I saw a CNET article about the free media player called Miro. In addition to being a media player, this open source project has support of RSS and BitTorrent.
By supporting both RSS and BitTorrent, Miro allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite TV shows and automatically download the shows to your computer after they air. It is like having a free season pass for a TV show without the cost associated with the iTunes Music Store. Read the CNET article for details on how to get Miro and set it up to download your favorite shows. Of course, this is for educational purposes only.
You should also get educated about Phoenix Labs’ Peer Guardian 2. It will block communications to and from media companies, advertising companies, government and other unwanted network resources. It has several built-in block lists, but you can modify or remove those lists, as well as adding other block lists. Peer Guardian does not allow you to break the law, but it does help prevent your personal information from being collected by those you do not trust.
Am I the last person who continues to browse the web in a window that isn’t blown up to full screen? I have noticed in the past several months that when I visit other people’s computers, or if someone else uses mine, the browser opens up maximized. My personal preference is to browse with Firefox in a non-maximized window, usually around 1000×700. My screen resolution on my desktop at home is 1280×1024, so it’s not like I don’t have the screen real estate there. At work, I’m working at 2680×1050 on my laptop screen, and 1600×1200 on my secondary display. Again, I am not lacking in screen real estate.
One of the other things I notice when I browse the web is that I tend to leave my browser window on the right side of the screen, leaving the desktop or other windows partially visible to the left of the browser window. Then, I will still find myself using the taskbar buttons to switch between applications, rarely using the Alt+Tab (or in Vista, Win+Tab) task switchers.
The sites I usually browse to fit most, if not all, of their interesting content within the confines of my windowed browser. On some sites, I am actually spared from viewing obnoxious flash ads on the right side of the page, because they are hidden off screen. The content, however, is still rarely obscured by the size of the window. There are times, however, that some content does get cropped from my view. In those cases, I just expand the window that tiny bit to let me see what interests me on the page.
Of course, there are times when I’m viewing pictures or other multimedia that might be best viewed with a larger window. I tend to hit F11 and expand the browser to full screen mode with minimal intrusion by the chrome. Then, when I’m done, I restore the windowed state of the browser and continue on with the rest of the internets.
So, does anyone else browse the web with a windowed browser instead of a maximized or full-screen browser?
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