The problem is that they all have some sort of requirement that makes them work for some people, but not all. Or maybe they get the email, but miss the labels. None seemed to work for everyone, all the time.

The good news is I found a way that should work for everyone using Mozilla’s Thunderbird.

To get started, download and install Thunderbird. It works on Mac, Window and Linux so everyone can take part.

Next, make sure IMAP is enabled in both of the Gmail accounts you’re working with. It doesn’t matter if they are free Gmail accounts or Gmail that’s tied to a domain name.

Once IMAP is activated, setup both accounts in Thunderbird and let Thunderbird fully download all the email in your current Gmail account. This could take some time depending on how much email you have.

After all your email has been downloaded, you can drag and drop your folders from one account to the other. Thunderbird will then copy the folders (aka labels) and all the emails in them to your new account.

With the inbox, sent, deleted, all mail and drafts, you’ll need to select all the emails in those folders, right-click, and copy them into the new account’s inbox, sent, deleted, all mail or drafts folders. Drag and drop won’t work for these folders as they are special folders.

Again, depending on how much email you have, this could take a while. I usually start it and then walk away. It’ll do it’s thing and by the time I get back hopefully it’s done.

Once all the email is moved over, give Thunderbird some time to ensure that all changes get re-synced back up online. The easiest thing to do here is to log into the new account online and see if all your mail is there.

And that’s it. You’ve now moved all your email from one Gmail account to another.

With this method, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a free Gmail account or a Google apps account. It doesn’t matter how many labels you have or how you organize your email. It just works, or at least it did for me.

Ohh and if you need to move your Gmail filters from one account to another, check out the labs section of Gmail and enable the ‘Filter import/export’ functionality.

How to move email from one Gmail account to another. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post How to move email from one Gmail account to another. appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

I’ve recently got a few comments from a visitor saying “hurry up and release the f**king theme” and “do your f**king job.”

Now I know that there is bound to be one jerk out of hundreds of users, but it’s comments like these that make me wonder why I continue to spend my time on themes.  It’s not my job and, the more negative comments I get, the slower my progress will be.  These things take hours to build and there is a lot to take into consideration.

On the other hand I’ve gotten a lot of comments recently about people who are so passionate about Miint that they’d switch back to Firefox 2 until it was ready for Firefox 3.  These kind of comments drive me.  They are not yelling at me but encouraging me to spend more time theming.  And the good news is, Miint for Firefox 3 has come along way in just two and a half hours.

What I’m trying to point out here is that when you don’t pay for something, you should not demand updates and start swearing at developers.  We do this because we want to, because we love to, not because we have to.

Give a little respect to those that create free addons, themes and free software in general.

Why I would quit theming today. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Why I would quit theming today. appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

1. Always online and availabe to me.
2. Doesn’t take up space on my webserver.
3. The labeling system is fantastic.  I didn’t really know this until I really started using it.
4. Integrated nicely with Mail.app or other email applications like Thunderbird and Outlook.
5. I can send and receive email from multiple accounts via one Gmail account.
6. iPhone ready.
7. Email is up even if website is down.
8. Google has the best spam protection I’ve seen.

So how did I move years worth of email to Gmail?  

1 – The first thing I did was organize my inbox.  This step is optional, but it helped me to have things in order.

2 – You either need to setup a Gmail account or Google Apps for your domain.  I did the Google Apps part as I didn’t want an additional Gmail account and it was free.

If you are doing Google Apps for your domain, make sure to move all your email into local folders in your inbox.  This includes your inbox, drafts and sent if you want to keep them.  Get them off the server so you don’t loose them when the MX records are changed.  Then go ahead and follow Google’s instructions on getting things setup and work with your host to get the email records updated.  Once that’s in place, continue.

3 – Go into your Gmail account and enable the IMAP settings.  
Settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP -> Enable IMAP

4 – Follow Google’s configuration instructions on getting your account setup in your email client.

5 – Once that’s done, you should now have two separate email accounts in your email application.  One for your old email and one for Gmail. 

6 – Setup Gmail labels to match your folder structure that corresponds with your email.

7 – Copy all your email from your old account to your new Gmail account.  Since it’s setup via IMAP, all the email will be copied to Gmail and available online.  This step may take some time if you have a lot of email.  It isn’t hard, it’s just time consuming to upload all those emails.

Really that’s all there is to it.  It’s quite easy.  It took me some time to complete, but that was because of the large amount of email I had.  

This will work on Mac or Windows or Linux; Thunderbird, Mail.app or Outlook.  The only real requirements are a Gmail account and an email application capable of IMAP.

Since moving my email over to Gmail, I’ve moved over to using Gmail as my email application via Mailplane. Google’s labeling system is just so smart!

How I moved my email to Gmail originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post How I moved my email to Gmail appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

Here are the top 5 reasons why I dropped Entourage 2008.

1. No Hyperlink Support – You can’t link a few words in emails. This was one that really gets me. I’m always linking phrases to tutorials or additional resources so that people know what I’m talking about.
   • Official Microsoft MVP Support Answer: This function is not available.
2. No Table Support – Entourage 2008 can read tables, but as soon as you hit reply, the table disappears and you are left with a mess of text. I get a lot of messages with tables in them (copied from Excel and pasted into Outlook) and so I do need to keep the formatting.
   • Official Microsoft MVP Support Answer: Entourage can *display* complex HTML such as tables but it can not *compose* messages with HTML. That’s why when you reply the formatted is gone.
3. No Strikethrough support. – Another basic HTML item that is just not available. You can’t strikeout any text and Entourage can’t read it. When someone sends me a quick update to a webpage, if I can’t see what they want me to remove, I can’t do my job.
   • Official Microsoft MVP Support Answer: Neither bugs nor features. Entourage is simply working as it was designed to work. Its HTML capabilities are limited. Strike-through is not one of its supported text styles.
4. Calendar Syncing is OK – I often had conflicts when I had Entourage automatically syncing to iCal. I’d open up iCal and it’d ask me which even was right; the one in iCal or Entourage? Then, trying to update my Google calendar online was another issue in itself.
5. Not so friendly help. – There is a good community of Microsoft Mac MVPs (MVPs are not Microsoft Employees) over at the official Microsoft site (also syndicated via Google Groups) and their answers are sometimes not so friendly. It made me feel bad just to ask questions.
   • Official Microsoft MVP Support Answer:
   (on the subject of inserting links into emails)
   Plain text is the preferred method for emails by people who know the internet. It is efficient, safe, virus-free, will be readable by any mail client at the other end, doesn’t impose your font, size, style preferences on others, and has far smaller risk of being filtered out by spam filters.

   HTML email is dangerous because it may contain links to external sites that will do malicious things. For instance, a spammer can include a link to an image, but this link contains a tag as data. The server at the other end will get that request when your *read your email* and based on the tag, will be able to confirm that you’ve read the email and not only flag your email address as active/good, but also use your IP with geolocation servers to assign a location code so that they can then sell your email address to other spammers along with your general location. If everyone stopped sending HTML emails, everyone would block it, and then spammers would be left with very few means to escape spam filters because their messages would have to b simple and without tricks.

   HTML email is wasteful, dangerous, and rude, IMO. It’s just plain evil.

Overall, Entourage 2008 is a decent application. But it’s missing so many small items that eventually, I just got frustrated and moved back to Thunderbird.

Entourage was unable to perform in a business environment for me. If your company never sends, or receives, HTML in emails, than it might work out OK for you. However, I strongly suggest checking out Thunderbird. It is an excellent email application and I’m very happy to be using it again!

Top 5 Reasons Why I Dropped Entourage 2008 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Top 5 Reasons Why I Dropped Entourage 2008 appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

There are a few reasons for my switch to Entourage 2008. The biggest one is the calendar notifications. I continue to get more and more Outlook invites and updates and, where as Thunderbird and Lightning do an OK job, they are not the best. With Thunderbird and Lightning I can accept calendar events, but I can’t send an acceptance email that records my response in Outlook. It also doesn’t currently support updated events. Instead of moving the event, it just adds a second one to my calendar. And then there is the formatting issue. You open the invite in Thunderbird and it’s one big block of text. Entourage 2008 works with calendar events much better and I hope that some day, Thunderbird can match that.

Another downside to Thunderbird is message fonts. If I were to select a font for my messages, it’d either look tiny in my Thunderbird or it’d look big to Outlook users. It also didn’t carry the font through bullets and links and it just wasn’t fun. I had a hard time using the default font settings in Thunderbird as I knew that all the recipients were seeing a font like Times New Roman. So not pretty.

And then there is the luster of one application to replace four others. Not only is Entourage my email application, but my calendar, todo list and notes application all in one. I know that Thunderbird can do these too, with addons, but it’s just not as polished and integrated. Not yet anyways.

I do have high hopes for Thunderbird and hope that it continues to grow and become a real Entourage/Outlook competitor. But, for business purposes, Entourage looks as if it may be a better fit.

As I work on the transition from Thunderbird to Entourage, I’ll post updates and info along the way. I’m excited to try Entourage as I’ve never really used the application before. Entourage 2008 looks like a well designed and integrated application and I hope this is a good move.

If you have any Entourage tips, addons (or whatever they are called in Entourage) or thoughts to share, please do.

Goodbye Thunderbird, Hello Entourage 2008 originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Goodbye Thunderbird, Hello Entourage 2008 appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

Outlook to Thunderbird
This is actually really easy. The first thing you need is all your email in Outlook. Then, when you setup Thunderbird it will ask you if you want to import your Outlook email. Say yes and it does all the work. No, Thunderbird doesn’t have an import function for the PST file, but it can import anything that’s in Outlook on the same machine. It’s as easy as that.

Thunderbird to Outlook
This process is a bit more complex . Outlook doesn’t directly import Thunderbirds email, however with the right tools, and some time, it can be done.

The first thing you’ll need is a program called IMAPSize. It’s a free Windows application that has a built in tool called mbox2eml. This handy program is used to convert Thunderbird’s mbox email files into eml files. The mbox files are found in your Thunderbirds profile folder (usually in the mail -> local folders). If you don’t see any files with the extension mbox, then it’s the ones without an extension.

The downside here is that each folder you have in Thunderbird is a seperate mbox file. You have to convert each one. Anything in a sub folder will have to be converted too and you may start to loose your folder structure. Oh well, you can always put it back together later.

Once everything is in eml format, you must now startup Outlook Express! That’s right, Express. No need to setup an email account in there, but you should setup all your folders to mirror what you had in Thunderbird. Then, open the folders on your computer that were created from the mbox2email tool and drag the individual eml files into the corresponding Outlook Express folders. You can drag and drop as many eml files as you want, but you can’t drag in a folder. Once you’ve copied all your emails into Outlook Express, you can now import them into Outlook.

Startup Outlook, create your profile and once that’s all setup, go to Import/Export, import from another application and choose Outlook Express. If I remember correctly, it first said it couldn’t import the email then it asked me if I wanted to import all the email. I said yes and all the folders and emails were imported into Outlook.

So there you have it. Importing email from Outlook to Thunderbird is pretty simple and importing email from Thunderbird to Outlook can be done. Depending on how many emails and folders you have will determine how much time it will take. Defiantly going from Outlook to Thunderbird is easier and quicker!

For a much more detailed process of moving from Thunderbird to Outlook, check out this great tutorial: Export Thunderbird to Outlook.

From Outlook to Thunderbird and Back Again originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post From Outlook to Thunderbird and Back Again appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

In my daily use, I’ve tried many extensions and uninstalled most. However, here are 8 that I love:

• Lightning – Having a calendar right in your email client makes it easy to see your schedule and what you’ve got to get done. Plus it brings along the ability to accept Outlook meeting requests which is needed in a corporate environment.
• Provider – What’s better than a calendar? Well a calendar that synchronizes back and fourth with Google Calendar. And for free!
• QuickText – This little buddy saves chunks of text like bookmarks. You then choose the bookmark and it inserts the text to go along with it in your email. Works great for any repetitive items that you find yourself typing over and over again.
• Growl Notifications (Mac) – Get notified of new mail messages without bring Thunderbird to the front. Windows has its own notifications, but Mac users were left out until now.
• GMailUI – This handy extension takes searching your inbox to the next level by allowing expressions to work with searches. Take the 5 minutes to learn it and you’ll love it.
• Nostalgy – Another brilliant extension that makes filing emails, or navigating to other folders, a snap via a shortcut and a quick search. Huge time saver.
• Mail Redirect – Just because the email came to you, doesn’t mean you are the best recipient. Forward emails as though they were specifically sent to someone else. This is handy for me as I build a lot of forms, and sometimes forget to update the ‘to’ email when they go live.
• AttachmentReminder – This handy extension reads the email you’re composing and reminds you if you said you were going to send an attachment, but didn’t attach anything. Very handy!

Yes, there are lots of other extensions out there, but not many that I’ve come across that really bring additional functionally and usefulness to Thunderbird.

Do you have others that you find quite helpful? Post them below in the comments as I’d love to check them out!

My Top 8 Thunderbird Extensions originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post My Top 8 Thunderbird Extensions appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

GotMail is the Growl notification style that I came up with. It’s simple in nature, but does have a bit of added flair at the bottom as a plain black box didn’t suit my needs.

The background of GotMail comes from BittBox.com and the email icon comes from Jonas Rask Design. Thanks to those that make graphics and give them away for free.

Download GotMail today and let me know what you think.

To Install, just download, unzip and click on GotMail.growlStyle.

Requirements:
- A Mac
- Growl

GotMail – Email Growl Notification Style originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post GotMail – Email Growl Notification Style appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

It’s really easy, just head over to the Mozilla Addon site and sign up for a free account. Once you are logged in, click on the ‘sandbox’ link next to the search box and you can then browse though the sandbox looking at many brand new & updated themes or extensions. Some of which you may have never seen before! Find one you like, install it and try it out for a few days. Then, head back to the addon’s page in the sandbox and write a review. That’s all there is to it.

You see, all themes & extensions are tossed into the Mozilla sandbox when they uploaded. The developer then has to wait for a reviewer to approve or deny the addon. The sad part is is that a lot of themes & extensions are getting denied because they don’t have enough, if any, reviews. With your help, you can not only check out some great addons before everyone else, but you can also help them get out of the sandbox and on the public site.

I also have a tip for developers. Did you know that if you have reviews of your theme or extension from outside sources, you can use them to help push your addon live faster? It’s true. Just drop a link to the blog post or forum post where you have users testing out your addon in the notes to reviewer box when you nominate it. That just may help the reviewer approve it.

In the end, the sandbox is a great idea, but it’s causing a bit of concern as themes and extensions are getting in, but not getting out. Don’t let a good addon get stuck, review items in the sandbox and help save a Firefox theme or extension!

Help Save a Firefox Theme or Extension! originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Help Save a Firefox Theme or Extension! appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

// Image lost. Sorry. Zooomr ate it. //

Currently iV is in beta mode and this is the first public release. Seeing as I’ve never themed Thunderbird before, there are a lot of issues. It’s funny, I can now create a sweet Firefox theme in just a few hours, but with Thunderbird, I’m fumbling left and right.

iV beta 1 includes all toolbar buttons, basic Lighting support (it works), custom buttons, folders and all sorts of icons.

This all started when Vitae was released. It’s a very beautiful Mac theme that impressed me so I decided to create a Thunderbird theme to match. Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as good. However, it is a decent start and I’ve been using it for a few weeks with only a few oddities.

The beta warnings.

• It’s only been tested on the Mac. Let me know if others have success.
• It’s not complete, but it works.

Feel free to report bugs below and I’ll try and squash them as I find them.

Without further ado, download iV beta 1.

To install, you must first download the theme. If you are in Firefox, you may need to right click on the link above and save it to your desktop. Then open Thunderbrid and go to Tools -> Addons. Click on the Install button and choose iV-Beta1.jar. Don’t forget to activate the theme too.

iV – Beta 1 – My First Thunderbird Theme originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post iV – Beta 1 – My First Thunderbird Theme appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

Then I thought that it’d be a good Thunderbird theme. You know, something to match Vitae’s Mail.app theme. So I emailed the author and asked permission to use his elements and starting toying around with a Thunderbird theme. Talk about no fun.

The first few takes at theming Thunderbird haven’t been successful. I’ve tried and tried and things are going at such a slow pace. Issues everywhere and I finally contacted Brett, another themer, and asked him if I could use Cobalt as the base of my theme. He said yes and I felt like I was finally getting somewhere.

However, after hours of work today, I feel like I’ve got nothing done. It’s not amazing, it’s barely started and my excitement for it is wearing thin. I’ll probably keep working on it a little bit here and there but it’s really eating up my time. I lost 2 hours this afternoon that I had hoped to do so much more with. Yikes!

If I get permission to use some of Vitae’s elements, and if I continue hacking Thunderbird, I think the theme will be really nice. But, don’t be expecting anything anytime soon.

Trying my hand at a Thunderbird theme. originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Trying my hand at a Thunderbird theme. appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

I guess it all starts with Netscape back in 1998 and possibly even before that when Netscape decided to make a technology to power their browser. It’s come a long way and here are a few applications taking advantage of this open source technology.

1. Firefox* – The most popular and most wildly used Gecko application. It’s the little web browser that’s trying to change the world. With hundreds of extensions and themes, customizing it to fit your needs is one thing that makes it so popular.
2. Thunderbird* – Much like Firefox, Thunderbird is a very popular email client that’s trying to get into office places and computers everywhere. With hundreds of extensions and themes, customizing it to fit your needs is one thing that makes it so popular too.
3. Flock* – The social media browser that is really looking good. It a clone of Firefox that is integrated into services like Flickr and del.icio.us, has a built in blog editor, nice feed reader and works with most Firefox extensions. Really a cool up-and-coming browser.
4. Netscape* – Yep, Netscape is the latest Firefox clone. Seriously, it is. It’s got a different theme, a few Netscape services built in but other than that, it’s exactly the same. Great to see it still alive and kicking though.
5. Camino – Mac only browser that was built to be lightweight and look more like a Mac native application. It may not be a direct spinoff of Firefox, but it’s close. No extension support though which is a major downfall but the small application size and great graphics help make up for that loss.
6. K-Meleon – Windows only web browser. From the sounds of it, it’s like Camino for Windows maybe?
7. SeaMonkey* – The all in one browser/email client/web editor. Formally known as Mozilla. The browser functionality is pretty much the same as Firefox and email just like Thunderbird. It’s just in a bigger, and not as nice, package. Extensions are hit and miss when it comes to compatibility.
8. Correo – Mac email client that aims to bring the power and speed of Thunderbird in a more Mac like package. Think of it as Camino only for Email.
9. Eudora/Penelope (soon) – The popular email application is going to switch over to use Gecko in the next major version. Not sure if it’s going to be a Thunderbird spinoff, but it’s a great step forward.
10. Nvu* – HTML editor (like Frontpage or Dreamweaver) that was stripped out of Mozilla (SeaMonkey) long ago as a stand alone application. It has a lot of potential but the development has slowed to a crawl. I guess KompoZer would be a better download as it’s the development version of Nvu.
11. Epiphany – Web browser for the GNOME desktop environment.
12. Liaison* – Novelle Groupwise client.
13. SongBird* – Media player that’s kind of like iTunes with a built in web browser.
14. SunBird* – Desktop calendar application much like iCal. Works with Google Calendar too.
15. Minimo – A small, simple, powerful, innovative, web browser for mobile devices
16. FireFTP* – Not a stand alone application, but a Firefox extension that integrates an FTP client. Very impressive.
17. Extensions* – And then there are the extensions. All the little programs and scripts that really make Firefox and Thunderbird stand out. Need to block ads, investigate HTML issues or get the weather? These are just a few of the many many items extensions can provide.

Most, if not all, applications above are completely free to use. No strings attached. Those marked with a * should run on Windows, Mac and Linux. Talk about cross platform love.

I’m sure there are probably more applications that I’m missing, but those listed above are a great example of what the open source community is all about. It’s also a good indicator that the Gecko technology is going to be around for a long long time.

The Flavors of Gecko Technology originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post The Flavors of Gecko Technology appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

• Adium – The all in one, completely customizable instant messaging program. It absolutely rocks!
• AOL Radio – I love this because I can get nearly commercial free streaming music from all genres.
• AppFresh* – Only free while in development, AppFresh keeps me up-to-date on what installed programs are not up-to-date.
• Butler – Applications & Folders in the menu bar are so handy. Plus it can do so much more.
• ByteController – I just found this sweet menubar iTunes controller.
• Chicken of the VNC – Connecting to a PC across the room has never been so easy.
• CleanArchiver - Because Windows users get confused with .ds_store files.
• CocoaMySQL – It’s nice to be able to connect & manage MySQL databases from the desktop.
• Correo – Up and coming email application. I can’t wait to see where it goes.
• Cyberduck – Excellent FTP program. Not sure why I purchased FTP programs in the past.
• Fish – Virtual fish tank!
• Firefox – My browser of choice. I can’t live without all the extensions.
• Flip4Mac – Yes, .wma and .wmv can work on a Mac.
• Gizmo Project – When Skype’s success when to their head, Gizmo reminded me how great VoIP can be.
• Growl – Customizable system notifications without system interference.
• Journler – Great scrapbook/junk drawer/whatever application.
• iTunes – My digital jukebox. It’s probably one of my most used apps.
• Licensed – Great app for keeping serial numbers of those programs I do buy.
• Mailplane* – Free for now.  This is a great desktop Gmail application.
• OnyX – System maintenance made easy.
• Quicksilver – Well designed and presented system search.
• TextWrangler – The best do it all text application around. From HTML to pretty much any text format.
• Thunderbird – Not used as much at home, but the only email application I use at work.
• VirtueDesktops or Desktop Manager – Sometimes one desktop just isn’t enough.
• WeatherDock – I love the weather so having it in the menubar is a must.

All applications can be found on MacUpdate or are just a Google (or Yahoo or Ask) search away.

If you have any you’d like to add, post them in the comments below or on your site and link back here as a reference point.

My ‘Best Free Mac Applications’ List originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post My ‘Best Free Mac Applications’ List appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

Hosted on Zooomr

Install is extremely simple, just install the extension. That’s it. You can configure how it displays though the main Growl system preference just like any other application. It’s simple and sweet. I’ve been using them both all day and they are a great addition to the Mac platform.

Get Growl for Thunderbird or Firefox!

Growl Notifications in Thunderbird & Firefox originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Growl Notifications in Thunderbird & Firefox appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

What you’ll need to do is add the following lines of code to your CSS file. The code below accounts for one label/tag color, which, in this example, happens to be orange. You can see where the orange color is represented by the orange HEX colors. The lighter orange HEX number is for the background of the un-selected, labeled message.


treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(lc-FF9900) { border-bottom:1px solid #FF9900 !important; background-color: #FFCC99 !important;}
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(lc-FF9900) { color: #000 !important; }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(lc-FF9900, selected) { background-color: #FF9900 !important; }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(lc-FF9900, selected) { color: #FFF !important; }


Of course you’d need to find the label colors before you know which HEX colors to put in. I’ve listed all of Thunderbirds colors below with the 50% opacity, lighter, colors next to them. You’ll have to pull out the colors yourself. I thought about coding all possible label/tag colors but that’d take me forever.

If you are on a Mac, you can load up the DigitalColor Meter application (inside the Utilities folder) and you’ll be able to quickly sample the color above and get it’s HEX number. Windows users can check out Color Cop and see if that works. Really, I have no idea what’s best on Windows, I just Googled something. If you have a better suggestion, post it in the comments below.

This tutorial should get you well on your way to creating custom tag/label colors with my custom style. If you code a few yourself, post the code below so we can all enjoy it.

Make Custom Thunderbird Labels Stand Out originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Make Custom Thunderbird Labels Stand Out appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

It’s very easy to setup thanks to bfish.xaedalus.net’s instructions. I tested it out this morning and it worked flawlessly. Ok, maybe one minor issue. It seems that it ‘automagically’ populated my Google username and it wasn’t correct. I had to switch it. But other than that, the directions are dead on and easy to follow.

I’ll play around with it and see if I can get it to also Sync in iCal but I’m not sure if that’ll work. I can subscribe to a Google Calendar in iCal, but not do two way edting unless I buy a third party app. And with Thunderbird in the mix, that’s more like three way editing.

But, back on topic, syncing Google Calendar and Thunderbird is now as easy as pie and I’m very impressed!!

Sync Google Calendar & Thunderbird originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Sync Google Calendar & Thunderbird appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

Besides performance, security and bug fixes that come with any upgrade, Thunderbird 2 has more labels/tags with better organizing options, multi paned sidebar, universal Mac binary, better Vista support and a Firefox like search bar in each message. I’m sure there is more, but until I can really dig into it and use it for a while, I won’t know.

Thunderbird 2 Launches originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Thunderbird 2 Launches appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

To update your labels in Thunderbird follow these simple steps.

Install Stylish in Thunderbird – Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108 and download the Stylish extension. Open Thunderbird and go to Tools -> Extensions (v1.5) Tools -> Addons -> Extensions (v2) and click the install button. Browse to where you saved Stylish on your computer. Then restart Thunderbird. Note: If using Firefox, make sure to right click on the Stylish install link and choose Save Link As… because we don’t want to install it into Firefox.

Create a New Stylish Style – Open Thunderbird, click on the Stylish icon in the status bar, choose manage styles, click write and in the description field add TwisterMc’s Labels.

Get the Code – Click here and copy the code into the big Stylish input box. Make sure that the Enabled checkbox is checked and hit Save. Then close the Manage Styles window.

Refresh – In order for the labels to appear, close the main inbox window and re-open it, or just restart Thunderbird.

That’s it.

The new labels code has been tested in Thunderbird 1.5 and 2.0 on Mac and works great. It should work fine under Windows and Linux too. Let me know if you have any issues.

Ohh and for advanced users, you can add the labels code into userChrome.css if you’d like without installing Stylish.

What about the labels/tags that I created?

Make Thunderbird’s Labels Stand Out originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Make Thunderbird’s Labels Stand Out appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

The great thing about the sandbox is that once you are in, you can view and install any theme or extension that has been uploaded. There is no waiting for approval which is good news to developers. One can upload their item right away and send users to it.

There are a couple of downsides though. First is that you have to create a free account, be logged into your account and click on the ‘sandbox’ link to see any sandboxed items. If you’re not logged in, you can’t see them. The second is that a developer could create an extension (knowingly or not) that did harmful things to your browser or computer. The sandboxed items have not been tested in any way. That doesn’t mean they are bad, just proceed with caution if you don’t know the developer.

All sandboxed items should eventually make it to the light of day. Once they’ve been looked over, tested and approved, then they will be made public. So if you are nervous about a sandboxed item, just wait until it gets approved and goes public before installing.

The sandbox is a great addition to the Mozilla Addon’s site and one that will hopefully help get themes and extensions out a bit faster.

What is the Mozilla Sandbox? originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post What is the Mozilla Sandbox? appeared first on Blog on a Stick.

I’m now an official AMO (addons.mozilla.org) tester. I volunteered for the job so that I could test themes and help get more of them out to the public faster. So far I’ve done a few themes and a few extensions.

The upside is I get to see all the coolest new addons before anyone else. I can also give direct feedback to the authors in order to help them along. The downside is that there are so many waiting in the wings at times that I wish I could just do them all. Most of the submissions are extensions and I’m not quite up to testing many of them yet as I don’t know what they are suppose to do. I do try and test the ones that sound like something I’d install.

I can’t fast track my submissions either. They don’t allow one to approve their own stuff. I wonder why?

I’m very excited to be an Addon volunteer. Now I just need to find a bit more time to put towards it. If you want to be an addon tester, check out the Mozilla volunteer page.

Official Firefox Addon Tester originally posted at http://www.twistermc.com

The post Official Firefox Addon Tester appeared first on Blog on a Stick.