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Migrating Outlook .pst file into Thunderbird on Linux

Matty B. — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:43:22 +0000

I’ve been slowly trying to move away from Windows/Microsoft and more towards Linux. So far, the move has gone pretty well over all. I’m dual booting just because of two programs that I need Windows to run but outside of that, I’m on Linux. One of the biggest hurdles I found, was attempting to move my email from Outlook over to Thunderbird. I had download the various conversion tools but none of them worked and found that the absolute easiest way was to install Thunderbird on my Windows partition and on its first run, select that you want to import from Oulook.

I then booted Linux and navigated to:
C:\DocumentsandSettings\[windowsuser]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[jibberish].default\Mail\[mailaccount]

You can then copy the pertinent folders to here:
/home/[user]/.mozilla-thunderbird/[jibberish].default/Mail/[mailaccount]

Just as a reference, I’m running Ubuntu and this took no more than 7 minutes to complete. At this point you can now run Thunderbird and all of your email will appear. The only thing left to do is setup your accounts and any special rules you might have had to automatically drop emails in certain folders on Outlook. Now this process does not copy your address book and only deals with email messages.

Do you remember music television?

Matty B. — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:33:49 +0000

There used to be a time when you could turn on your favorite music channel, MTV or VH1, and actually watch music videos. And if you were saavy enough, your TV was connected to your stereo and you could almost use it as your own personal dj. So what happened? Are these channels really getting better ratings from such quality programming as The Hills, The Real World, A Shot at Love, I Love New York, The Surreal Life, that Flavor Flav show, and whatever else is on. What’s even crazier is that these artist spend an insane amount of money on their videos and they don’t seem to get played. And if the videos are being played it’s definitely not on any channel I get. Now, I’m not sure what other shows are on these channels as I tend to avoid them like the plague, but I say bring back the music videos and let’s get back to a simpler time. One where we had cheezy videos and not rubbish programming.

Putting spending in perspective

Matty B. — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:39:08 +0000

What I’m about to say is going to make me sound like a salesman, but it’ll make sense when you really think about it. It’s based around a discussion I’ve had with multiple people regarding the purchase of a mattress. I spent $1200 on an “o-pedic” version of a memory foam mattress. When I told people that, most couldn’t believe that I spent that much. But look at it this way; most people will spend an average of a third of their life in bed. Since sleep is so important, I didn’t feel that $1200 was that much money, considering you typically have a mattress for at least 10 years. And most seem more willing to spend $20,000 on a vehicle when they’ll spend 1 - 2 hours in it a day. So why is it people don’t want to spend the money on something so important, like a mattress? I don’t have the answer. But it is easier to spend money, when you take a step back, and look at the overall value and benefits you’ll get from a particular purchase.

My recent engagement

Matty B. — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:16:46 +0000

Hokay, so, my lack in posting, I know you’re all probably saying WTF. Why don’t you post more often? Well I can tell you. I recently got engaged to the most beautiful woman in all the land. So posting, I have to say, takes a back seat to any sort of wedding planning as we’re just over a year away from the actual date.

And just a little about getting engaged. This wasn’t something that “needed” to happen because she got pregnant, because she’s not. Getting married in that situation is the absolute wrong thing to do. I’m also not one of those people who was with someone for the better part of a decade and getting married is just the next step in the relationship. I absolutely love her more than anything, and can’t imagine my life without her.

I will post some good stuff once some of the initial wedding stuff is completed. So sit tight for now.

Scientology is fake

Matty B. — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:42:35 +0000

Well at least that’s my opinion. But seriously, take a look at the ridiculous amount of evidence that just blows holes in their “religion”. The list is too long to give but Google and you’ll find an insurmountable amount of evidence asking the question, “Why does anybody subscribe to this non-sense?” I’d say it’s partly due to the fact that some people are easily led by Hollywood and the idiots who spout non-sensical babble. Smarten up and be a think for yourselfer.

I could go on and on but I’ll just end up way too heated to type coherently.

Overcoming Comcast’s bandwidth throttling/traffic shaping

Matty B. — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:17:06 +0000

If any of you out there are familiar with the bittorrent protocol, you’re probably aware that many ISP’s are now starting to employ tactics to shape and throttle your bandwidth. While this, in my opinion, is completely wrong, it’s being done whether we like it or not. And, when you’re trying to download large files legally, it now becomes an absolute nightmare. But for the time being I can say that I’ve been able to circumvent Comcast’s attempt and throttling my connection. Using the two guides below I am now able to download whatever I want without having my connection being reset. So please read on if you’re having difficulty and I should mention that I use Azureus.

Azureus’ Wiki:

http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Avoid_traffic_shaping

Encrypting Bittorrent traffic:

http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-encrypt-BitTorrent-traffic/

Many people say to switch to a new ISP but in terms of cable in my area, it’s Comcast or nothing. I am looking into DSL but I’ve always heard that the speeds aren’t nearly as good. It comes down to me needing to do a little research. But for the time being, this has worked so I’m going to stick with it.

Hosting fiasco

Matty B. — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:59:22 +0000

Yesterday, I was finishing up a post and actually approving a comment when the page just hung. I then opened up a new tab and attempted to load my site only to find that my account had been suspended. Just like that, no warning, no phone call, no email, nothing. I was completely disconnected. Come to find out, the site was eating up too much CPU usage. From what was described, it sounds like a memory leak or just a bad executable but I’ve now been switched over to a semi-dedicated server. I’ve also lost the post and comment that were up when all of this happened but I guess it’s not a big deal because my sweet cooler modification didn’t end up working out. The lesson learned out of all of this - I’m not too sure other than be sure to research your host before hand because it’s tough to contact them when there’s no emergency phone number and you lose email due to them suspending your site.

Reuse and Recycle your paper - A homemade pad

Matty B. — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:08:41 +0000

Many of us end up printing out documents, presentations, or what have you, only to have to reprint them again. This in itself is wasting paper and costing you or your company money. Why not turn those printouts into scrap pads. Take a stack of paper and cut it into quarters. You’ve not got a stack of scrap paper to jot notes on. But be careful. If what you’ve got up has sensitive information on it, this could pose a problem if they just get thrown in the trash. That’s why it’s best to either shred or burn them. Just another quick and easy way to help the planet and your wallet.

Homemade Vinyl Record Cleaner

Matty B. — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:48:35 +0000

There are many commercial products available to clean your vinyl records. If you’re looking to clean hundreds or even thousands of records than a vacuum record cleaning machine is the way to go. But to keep your records clean as you play them is pretty easy.

The materials needed for this product are scrap 2″ x 4″ , scrap 1″ x 2″ and velvet.

The total cost of this project was around $3. I first cut my scrap into into approximately 5″ lengths. Sand down the edges of the 2″ x 4″, eliminating the possibility of damaging the record. Cut the velvet and wrap the 2″ x 4″ with it. Now, I’m no upholstering guru, so I looked at the 2″ x 4″ as if it were a present and wrapped it that way. Using a staple gun, fasten the cloth to the wood. Repeat this process twice as it gives enough cushion not to damage the record.

Then take the 1″ x 2″ and nail it to the to creating a handle. And that’s it, you’re done.

In terms of cleaning solution, I use distilled water which is available at grocery store. It works fantastic and won’t damage your precious vinyl. Make sure that your albums are completely dry before playing them. If played wet, you’ll grind any remaining dirt farther into the grooves permanently damaging the records.

Corporate Energy Reducing Idea

Matty B. — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:58:01 +0000

If you’re part of the corporate world, or any bigger business for that matter, you know that you’re told to leave your computer on all of the time. This is to allow your company’s IT department to push updates to your computer as necessary. In reality, how often does a business do this. I’m pretty certain that it’s not terribly often.

If updates are done at regular intervals, having people leave their computers on once a week for example would be more than sufficient and would dramatically reduce the use of energy and in turn, save the company a boatload of money. But, at times, the company must push important fixes to computers and trying to coordinate this with thousands of employees would be a nightmare. So what else is there?

Wake On Lan (WoL). It’s a feature that is built into almost all motherboards built after 2002. In short, it allows your computer to hibernate, and wake up when it receives a Magic Packet telling it to turn back on. So I propose using something like WoL. The IT department can set all computers to turn off after say 45 minutes of non-use and then wake up when updates need to be implemented, thus saving millions for the company. Not only does this save money, but it also saves the use of fossil fuels which are becoming more scarce every day. A little change like this can go a long way in my opinion.

Have your own idea on how to reduce energy? I’d love to hear it.