Don't Back Down

For a very long time I was a faithful Outlook user. Well, that's not true. I wasn't really loyal to Outlook specifically or Microsoft generally. I just used Outlook at work and so I used Outlook at home. It was what I knew and I was used to it. So I stuck with it. But then I decided that it was time to really make the switch to IMAP and Outlook really bites at IMAP.

You know it does. If you try and use IMAP with Outlook you'll get a message that says something like Your IMAP server has closed the connection. This may occur if you have left the connection idle for too long. Sure, you can change the timeout error, but it doesn't matter what you set the value to, you still get the error. So that was a no-go. It was time to look elsewhere.

Read "How to Totally Replace Outlook (in Windows)" »

I have been a user of WS_FTP for a while - years, in fact. I can't even tell you when I started using it. I'm sure that it was in the 1990s sometime. But at one point, I started getting this error - Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings and I just couldn't figure out what the problem was. Eventually, I noticed that the error did come up on the Ipswitch forums, but not until I had already solved it (more than once).

The problem, you see, has to do with the fact that I change computers. A lot. But it can even happen if you don't change computers - for instance, if you upgrade your computer (perhaps to Vista). What is happening is that the location of your keyring - even if you don't use one! - isn't pointing to the same place. So you need to tell the application that it's moved. It's not a difficult change to make either. Here's how.

Read "Failed to Load OpenPGP Keys From Keyrings" »

Though Microsoft would probably wish that things were different, these days we come across the ubiquitous PDF almost constantly. The wonderful thing about the PDF is that just about anyone can read it, which isn't always the case with documents created in a word processor. While a lot of people have Microsoft Word, not everyone does, and not everyone that does has the same version.

Creating PDF files can get expensive if you choose to do so with products from Adobe, howver, which means that getting documents that everyone can read isn't alway cheap. Fortunately, there is a solution. Using one piece of software, you can easily create PDF files from any application, and using another application, you can even edit them as well - without a huge investment!

Read "Easily Create and Even Edit PDF Files" »

It's somewhat rare that I work with Cisco equipment these days, but it does happen from time to time. Those days that I do, I almost always end up glad that I don't do it more often. Of course, if I did it more often, I would probably be better at it, in which case I wouldn't have quite the problems that I do. So it's sort of a catch-22 - if I did it more often, I'd not run into all the issues I do, and since I don't, I have problems. But that's not really the point here.

I was working on a Cisco 1721 Modular Access Router - this is something like a Linksys Router on steroids, and you can even find them on Amazon (this one came from eBay, I think). There are two primary differences, however - one is that, barring some utilities from Cisco, you have to configure them from the command line and two is that it's modular, meaning you can plug in all sorts of access cards.

One of those cards, the WIC-1ENET, provides an Ethernet connection for the WAN, making it even more like your standard home router. The problem is making this card work like a typical home router.

Read "Configuring a Cisco 1721 for Use as a Broadband Router" »

It's not often that I use new software. Of course, new releases mean that I have to do so from time to time, but it's fairly rare that I will actually use entirely new software - it's just that I'm fairly set in what I use, and I barely have enough time to keep up with what I do now (no comments on posting frequency, please), so installing new software just to play doesn't happen often.

But every once in a while, I will come across something that I need to do, and at that point, I have to find a tool that becomes a bit of a lesson in just how difficult it is to find something that works and works right to do the job. These days, it seems like everyone wants to put every bell and whistle possible into their applications. Witness the growth of software over the years to see what I mean. That's why it's a pleasure to find two simple applications that do their jobs - and do their jobs exceedingly well - that I'd like to tell you about: FastStone Capture and FastStone Photo Resizer.

Read "FastStone Capture and Photo Resizer" »

VLC (initially VideoLAN Client) is a pretty full-featured media client that offers a ton of features, including one really useful one: Being able to play protected AAC files without the need for iTunes. Yes, you have to have your keys, but you don't have to have iTunes. Find your iTunes keys, copy them to your computer, and the content plays. As simple as that. Is it perfect? No, it doesn't seem to be perfect. But it's a start.

Update: It doesn't seem to work on songs purchased with iTunes 6. Sorry, didn't mean to give you false hopes.

While the ruling out of France that Apple must open iTunes continues to rumble, and some celebrate, you just have to wonder - how much is France worth, anyway? Will it even matter? Just what happens if Apple doesn't comply? They aren't allowed to offer a French version of the software, perhaps? No more iPods for their citizens maybe? I don't know.

But it seems to me that the government - and by that, I mean any government, and not just the US - to decide that Apple isn't playing fair isn't likely to make a bit of difference, unless they can get a whole lot of other counties to follow suit.

I mean it isn't like France is isolated or anything. How long can it take someone in France to get to, say, England, Italy or Spain, pick up an iPod, and get back? Or maybe they'll hop on down to pick up some alternative player instead and Steve Jobs will miss out on a few stock options. Does it really matter so much?

I recently mentioned that I had been working with BaseCamp. I also mentioned that I liked it. The product - even the free product - has a lot to like. But then, like so many other times, I hit the wall. I wanted to do this or that, and it just didn't do that. Or this. So I started searching again.

Read "Sometimes You Feel Like a Tool" »

Denise and I were talking just yesterday about trying to get our projects more organized. What do you know - the answer fell right in our laps with Basecamp. Actually one of my customers started using this during one of our projects, so checked it out. Thus far, I'm impressed.

Read "Online Project Management" »

All of the extensions and plugins that I've written (I think) are licensed under the Open Software License. Heck, the site itself is too. This means, in a nutshell, that you can do whatever you want with these things, and I'm not responsible for the outcome. Even if I happen to use something copyrighted - which I wouldn't do intentionally - it's your problem to figure that out, not mine.

In exchange for not being held liable for what it does to your system, you get the right do do what you want with that product, whether it is a plugin, extension or just some random thoughts. I've "washed my hands", as they say. And in general, I have no problem with that whatsoever. It just isn't an issue.

But in recent days, weeks, months or some other indeterminate amount of time, I've decided that perhaps this isn't the best idea.

Read "On Open Source Licensing" »

I've been using the GIMP for a while now. Part of it is that I don't really want to spend a ton of money on something like Photoshop when I really don't need to do image manipulation that often. GIMP has worked wonderfully for me. But yesterday, I needed to read in a PDF file, make some changes, and save it back out (as an image, not a PDF). The problem? When I tried to open it, I received an error saying something like "Error starting ghostscript: Failed to execute child process (Invalid argument) ". What to do?

Read "Reading PDF Files with GIMP" »

I just can't. Sure, the interface is pretty. The keyboard navigation is slick, but who really cares, since you'll end up grabbing the mouse on the next page anyway? I'm sure there are reasons to like the integration with Gmail and Blogger, but I don't use either.

Unfortunately, they missied on one important issue: It just takes so long to read!

Read "I Want to Like Google Reader" »