I found (through Lifehacker) a program called Postbox. It’s an email client based on Thunderbird.
Until now I’ve been using Opera as my email client. I have used Thunderbird a lot but had to give it up because it kept asking for email passwords (very annoying!!!) even though I clicked on the remember button. For a while now, I’ve been using Opera as an email client and a “static” browser. By static browser I mean a web browser that lives in system tray and which I can show/hide with one keyboard button (Caps Lock in my case). That browser is used for quick access to sites like Google Reader and other regular sites I visit.
Few weeks ago I switched (due to compatibility issues) to Firefox based “static” browser. Basically I made my own Firefox edition called FirefoxPIM. It lives in system tray (thanks to TrayIt), and shows/hides with one keyboard button (thanks to AutoHotkey). Here’s how it looks:
So, now I’m trying Postbox as my email client instead of Opera. As it’s based on Thunderbird, it most likely has that same bug that made me switch client in the first place. However, it is very nice package and I absolutely love the UI. Also it has very nice indexing/search features. So until if/when that password bug appears and/or when it drives me nuts, I’ll be using this program as my email client.
Postbox
http://www.postbox-inc.com/
I’m sure most of you have heard about the Windows 7 RC release this week. I’ve heard a lot good things about Windows 7 so I though I’d install it on my laptop. The laptop came with Vista Home Premium which I switched to XP Pro because Vista had too much bugs and issues. At one point I had Ubuntu 8.10 installed but had to give it up because hibernation didn’t work properly.
Now Windows 7 is installed and I’m loving it. It works very well and is nice and slick to use. I’ve had no problems with it so far, except for the fact that Zone Alarm firewall doesn’t work in it (yet). There is also the Virtual XP mode which works nicely. Also I like the new task bar (or Super Bar as it’s called). Only problem is when trying to pin files in it. You need to use shortcuts to make it work properly.
I’m using the 64bit version and installed it from USB drive. Here’s good instructions how to do that. If you do the install from 32bit Windows (like I was), in step 6 you need to use bootsect from 32bit ISO because the 64bit version doesn’t work. If you don’t want to download the 32bit ISO (2.6GB), you can also find the 32bit bootsect.exe from google or you can use other 3rd party tool that do the same thing.
Windows 7 RC is available for anyone interested. The license is working until March 2010. After that Windows will reboot itself every two hours. In June 2010, it will switch into non-genuine mode (black wallpaper and constant nag screens).
Windows 7 RC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx
Well, here it is. After tons of work the new site is starting to be ready. Basically what I’ve done is updated all software to their newest versions and created new graphics. Also there is now Wiki available which all forum members can edit. The graphics are a bit lighter and curvier than previous one. I still need to do some tweaking with font colors and sizes.
Anyway, I’m sure there are still some things not working correctly. If you see any bugs, let me know. I’m going to add some content and do more tweaking this week (it’s week 18 now). Hopefully by the end of the week everything is settled and maybe we even have some kind of roadmap for CE.
Here’s a list of all programs currently in use:
Notice: there is a bug in the forum login/logoff at the moment. On login or logoff it might redirect you in the Wiki page instead back to the forum. I’ll fix it as soon as possible.
It’s been busy week. I’ve been fine tuning some of the time management techniques and done some preparations and planning for an office update, which is scheduled for this weekend. Basically I’m going to rebuild my office from scratch. Also I’ll reinstall Windows in my work system. Here’s few 3D designs (made with SketchUp and Kerkythea) of the new office layout:
About the new CE snapshot, I added QuickView tab. It works just like text editor tab does but for images and videos. Currently loading larger images can be a bit slow but I’ll optimize that next week. Also I’ll have to add an ability to zoom and scroll images. Controls to show next and previous images would be also nice. Middle click or Alt+Left click over image, video or audio opens the file in QuickView tab.
Change Log
- Added main menu popup action.
- Added main menu popup in status bar.
- Added visibility option for Main Menu.
- Added visibility option for tab bar.
- Added “Close tabs on left” and “Close tabs on right” actions.
- Added QuickView tab page.
- Added Korean translation.
- Changed shortcuts for panels to Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3…etc.
CubicExplorer 0.90.0.1105 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.4MB)
Nothing special to mention about last week. I was paralyzed by severe fatigue which made me sleep for 12-14 hours per day. So no progress last week. This week (week 10) there should be some progress and also a new snapshot on Friday.
On other notes, I’ve started to learn some new time management skills. It’s an ongoing process for this year. Mainly I’m using todo lists, spreadsheets and programs like ManicTime to track and plan my time usage. That hopefully will boost my productivity and also helps to keep future breakdowns away.
I’ve been using ManicTime for few weeks now and it’s really nice. It’s a freeware application for tracking your computer usage. I highly recommend it if you are interested on where your time goes while using computer.
ManicTime
http://www.manictime.com/
Well, not yet at work. It seems that the recovery is taking longer than I thought. I’ve been updating my working environment and introduced some new things like the project server which is pretty much hosting my entire life thanks to eGroupWare. These changes hopefully will balance the work load and prevent meltdowns in the future. The server is up and running. Reusing materials and parts resulted total cost to be 0€ 
.
Initially I was planning to host CE’s code in my own server, but after thinking it some more, there’s not really any reason to do so. There are many free hosting options out there so why not let professionals handle those servers. After reviewing different hosts, I ended up choosing Google Code Hosting. They have fast servers/connections and proper backups in many geolocations.
I have uploaded all code to the server and it’s now available. There’s still a lot’s of cleaning to do in the code and folder structures. Also building instructions should be added. I chose Mozilla Public License (MPL) as the license. Anyway, from now on CE’s code will live here:
CubicExplorer on Google Code
http://code.google.com/p/cubicexplorer/
Another week, another snapshot. I’ve fixed few bugs and added few items in Edit and View menu. Also I changed the tab behavior so that when you close last tab, CE will open the "home" folder. Also when drive or media (CD etc.) is removed, all tabs that were browsing those locations are now closed automatically. I didn’t have time to do much testing with that feature so please let me know how it works.
On other notes, I switched to Ubuntu in my laptop. I did do a dual boot install but haven’t used Windows at all after the switch. Or well, I have used it but it’s been inside Ubuntu with VirtualBox. All in all, I’ve enjoyed every minute of using Ubuntu instead of Windows. Only issue I noticed was the fact that the file manager isn’t very good. However I have a plan to fix that. The plan is called CubicExplorer Lite. It will be a simple cross-platform file manager. Nothing special, just tabs and bookmarks. The plan is that CubicExplorer 2.0 will be cross-platform app, and as it looks like I need to switch to another programming language to make that happen, CubicExplorer Lite will be a perfect learning project.
Anyway, CE Lite is not top priority project at the moment so can’t say when there’s going to be something to show. I’m still choosing the programming language (suggestions are welcome) so it might take a while.
Change Log
- Added #204, Auto select first item.
- Added "New" and "New Folder" items in Edit menu.
- Added "Arrange By" and "Group By" items in View menu.
- Updated Chinese Simplified translation.
- Changed #211, Now closes unavailable tabs when drive/media is removed.
- Changed #212, Now opens "Home" folder when last tab is closed.
- Fixed #198, FolderTree shouldn’t show "Network Connections" items.
- Fixed #199, EAccessViolation
- Fixed #200, EAssertionFailed
- Fixed #207, Drive bar doesn’t respect the "Open in new tab by default" option.
CubicExplorer 0.90.0.1081 (SVN Snapshot)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.0MB)
So, I switched to Firefox 3 RC 1. From the tests I’ve done it seems stable enough. In fact, it’s more stable than Firefox 2 which keeps crashing quite often. There were few add-ons that didn’t work right out of the box. Some did have a working development version available, others needed manual tweaking.
- Open Firefox add-on (.xpi file) in 7-zip (or similar).
- Select install.rdf file.
- Press F4 or click File–>Edit
- Change the value in em:maxVersion to 3.0.
- Save and Close.
- Click OK to update the XPI file. Close 7-zip.
- Double click to install the add-on.
- Hope that everything works fine.
Obviously this doesn’t work for all add-ons since only the maximum Firefox version number is changed. But if there isn’t a working version available, it’s worth a try.
I just watched this interesting video. Linus Torvalds talks about Git. I’ve heard about Git before but never used it nor read about it in detail. Git is a version control system like CVS and SVN. Although I guess I shouldn’t mention those two in same sentence as Git since Linus hates CVS with a passion. Currently I’m using SVN to handle versions and I’ve been happy with it so far. But Git did sound interesting so I’ll have to try it out.
Git – Fast Version Control System
http://git.or.cz/
What would I do without my HTPC. I have had a computer hooked to my TV for the past 10 years. At first, I mainly used it as a DVD player. Now it’s the only source of video. Last year the analog TV signal stopped here in Finland. Ever since then, the HTPC has been the only way I can watch TV since I don’t have a set-top box nor a TV that can receive digital signal. Because I’m really addicted to TV, starting a project like this wasn’t something I was looking forward as it meant I couldn’t get my daily dosage.
Anyway, last weekend I made the decision to try Linux as a base for HTPC. I’m not that experienced with Linux so there was lot to learn. At the moment I’m using Ubuntu but might switch to Debian later. First thing I did was to install SSH server and Synergy. That way I could use my work system to work with Linux.
I have Hauppauge HRV-1100 DVB-T card and it worked right out of the box in Ubuntu (7.10). My motherboard has Nvidia’s SoundStorm in it which I got to work by following these instructions. I tried MythTV at first but quickly moved to VDR. I think it’s really the only choice if you are looking for a serious DVR solution. It handles transponders properly which means one can watch and record many channels (from a transponder) at the same time with one card. Setting VDR up can be little tricky but once you get to know with it, it’s pretty simple. At first I was using packages from e-tobi by following these directions. But since I had some troubles with few plugins, I now compile everything myself.
All was looking good and things were moving along nicely… until!
After days of tweaking I was getting nice and solid picture. However, there was some still unknown issue that made VDR (vdr-sxfe to be precise) respond slowly when used in TV. In monitor it worked fine. I tried pretty much all different combination of settings to make it work. No luck. I also tried different graphics cards which ended in disaster. Being stupid and careless I didn’t shutdown the power supply when I removed one card. I’ve never had any problems when doing so but this time I had to turn the card in an angle which short circuited few pins and that fried the motherboard.
So, now I’m waiting for a replacement motherboard. In the meanwhile I’m using an old board with Duron 800MHz processor. On a brighter note, this gave me the opportunity to clean the case. It was filled with dust and cat hair.
