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How to Maintain (Gmail) Threaded View in Thunderbird

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 05:02:40 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Maintain threaded view in Thunderbird

One way to make Mozilla Thunderbird more like Gmail is to turn on the threaded view of your email. However, by default Thunderbird does not maintain the threaded view when you sort by a column (such as sender, date, etc.). Chris Ilias' Blog explains that you can configure Thunderbird to maintain a threaded view even when you sort your email by column.

What if you want to keep threaded view on? Go to Tools->Options->Advanced->General, and click on "Config Editor". In the Config Editor, search for the preference mailnews.thread_pane_column_unthreads. Double-click on it, which should change the value to false.

To add Gmail-like search capabilities to Thunderbird, check out the Gmail UI extension

Tags: thunderbird, gmail, internet, email

Why Gas Won't Get Cheaper

Mon, 14 May 2007 06:29:27 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.fivecentnickel.com

The May 9th issue of Time magazine had an interesting article on why it is that gas prices won’t be getting any cheaper (you can also read it online; subscription required). Nothing terribly new here, but there are some interesting statistics, as well as a bit of investment advice.

So what’s driving the boom in demand? Aside from economic growth in the US, along with our affinity for gigantic automotive monstrosities, countries such as China and India are experiencing tremendous economic booms. And this growth has been accompanied by equally tremendous increases in oil usage. Elsewhere, Great Britain will soon transition from being a net exporter of oil to being a net importer. Bottom line: while worldwide oil production increased last year, demand increased even more rapidly.

If you’d like some additional background, as well as a historical perspective, you can visit the Time magazine archive of oil industry stories. As with the article referenced herein, a subscription is required.

Tags: gasoline, hybrid, economy, profit

Tagging Addons for Thunderbird

Tue, 01 May 2007 18:02:55 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

Stylish Thunderbird message tags

Thunderbird user Thomas McMahon whipped up an attractive style for email message tags in the 'bird.

To try it out, install the Stylish extension and copy and paste Thomas' custom style, which changes the background color of messages depending on the tag. This looks a lot nicer than the default bold text coloring, though it doesn't handle multiple tags as well as say, the Gmail label colors script does. (To Thomas' credit, neither does the default look.) Still, a nice tweak for tag-loving T-bird users. —Gina Trapani

Tags: message, tags, thunderbird, internet, mail

The Best Freeware

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:05:13 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: computershopper.com

These 50 top freeware applications will do everything from improving your PC's performance to helping you create killer crossword puzzles.

PRODUCTIVITY
From helping you create a business plan to teaching you to type faster, these programs will boost your personal efficiency.

INTERNET SECURITY & UTILITIES
Applications that make surfing the Web faster, easier, and safer.

DESKTOP UTILITIES
Everything you can't find in Windows—but that your system can't do without.

FUN & GAMES
Whether recreating vintage computer games or working with your iPod, this software will provide PC pleasure.

IMAGE EDITING
These programs will help you manage, edit, and store your digital images.

Tags: freeware, software, utilites

Reduce RAM Usage in Firefox

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:20:50 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: vistarewired.com

After the release of Firefox 2.0, the memory leak has become an even more notorious problem than before. On average, Firefox should take up no more than 80MB of RAM. Any more than that and you can consider yourself a victim of Firefox’s memory leak. I’m sure you’ve probably already seen a ton of guides on how to fix the memory leak problem in Firefox already. The reason why I’m writing another one on Vista Rewired is because none of those have worked very well for me. This one will be a little different because I’ve added a few of my ingredients in.

Just to give you a heads-up, this guide is going to be quite long but it’ll cover everything you need to know.

Before we do anything, make sure you have the newest version of Firefox. If you don’t have the latest version, you can download it

) Check your extensions and themes:

2) Start Firefox in Safe Mode

3) Plugins:

4) Clear your Download History

5) Additional Settings

6) Close Firefox periodically

7) Get Portable Firefox

Tags: memory, firefox, reduce, usage

Privacy Groups ask FTC to Block Google-DoubleClick Merger

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:32:51 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

Three U.S. online civil rights groups have filed a complaint asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block Google Inc.'s planned $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. unless the company agrees to stop tracking its users.

Those guarantees include a promise to destroy all cookies and other persistent identifiers resulting from Internet searches that are or could be personally identifiable once a user terminates a session with Google.

Such a move would seriously affect many of the services Google offers, which are built on storing the entire search or transaction history of its users.

"Neither Google nor DoubleClick have taken adequate steps to safeguard the personal data that is collected. Moreover, the proposed acquisition will create unique risks to privacy and will violate previously agreed standards for the conduct of online advertising," the groups wrote in the complaint filed today.

Tags: internet, privacy, security, google

View/Update Google Calendar via Thunderbird

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 16:33:05 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew
clipper's remarks: Oops, sorry I left the "T" off "Thunderbird," sorry.

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

hunderbird user Jonny offers a detailed tutorial on how to sync and update Google Calendar with T-bird using the previously-mentioned Lightning calendar extension.

Tags: sync, google, calendar, thunderbird, lightning

Journey to the 248th Dimension - String Theory

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:12:38 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.nature.com

A map of one of the strangest and most complex entities in mathematics should be a powerful new tool for both mathematicians and physicists pursuing a unified theory of space, time and matter.

The creation of this map, which took 77 hours on a supercomputer, resulted in a matrix of 453,060 ? 453,060 cells, containing more than 205 billion entries — "all related in intricate and complex ways", says Jeffrey Adams, the project leader and a mathematician at the University of Maryland.

This represents 60 gigabytes of data, enough data to store 45 days of MP3 music files, or fill a piece of paper the size of Manhattan (about 60 square kilometres). The human genome takes up 1 gigabyte.

"It's probably one of the most complicated pure mathematical calculations anyone's ever done," says Stewart. "Each entry is difficult to calculate — it's amazing they managed to do this."

The map will be included in the Atlas of Lie Groups and Representations, and will be available online at www.liegroups.org.

Tags: mathematics, physics, string theory

Burrowing Dinosaur Discovered

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:07:15 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Oryctodromeus cubicularis' head (Image: Lee Hall at Montana State University)" />

A dinosaur family has been discovered which apparently lived and died in an underground burrow. Palaeontologists say it is the first solid evidence that dinosaurs lived in burrows and that adults cared for juveniles long after they had hatched.

Varricchio says the sandstone formed 95 million years ago when sand washed into a burrow measuring more than 2 metres in length, 30 centimetres in width, and nearly 40 cm high. The dinosaurs inside had apparently already died of unknown causes.

"The find is utterly stunning," says David Fastovsky at the University of Rhode Island in the US, because it convincingly demonstrates a behaviour previously unknown in dinosaurs. It also bolsters the case that dinosaurs gave their young extended care, like their distant descendants, modern birds.

Tags: dinosaurs, prehistoric, burrow, discovery

Doubt Cast on PTSD Definition

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:03:09 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

Many patients suffering from severe depression "test positive" for post-traumatic stress disorder, regardless of whether or not they have actually experienced trauma, a new study reveals.

Based on this finding, researchers say that psychiatrists need to identify more specific criteria for PTSD. Doing so, they suggest, will "save the diagnosis" from becoming too general and therefore misleading.

Bodkin says there is a lack of solid evidence that post-traumatic stress is biologically different from depression not triggered by a specific event. "I really don't think we know" what distinguishes them biologically, he says.

Tags: psychiatry, post traumatic stress disorder, research

Shell commands to Access Shell Folders in Vista

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:10:07 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew
clipper's remarks: See the full article for the list of commands

Clip Source: www.winhelponline.com

The shell: command can be used to open a special folder directly from the Start, Search menu. For example, the command shell:sendto opens the SendTo folder (%userprofile%\sendto) of your user profile. To launch the Documents folder of your user profile, you'd type shell:Personal. Below is a complete shell: commands listing for Windows Vista. The entire listing is stored in the following registry key in Windows Vista:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ explorer \ FolderDescriptions

Credits to MS-MVP Keith Miller for this tip.

Tags: shell commands, windows, vista, operating system

Huge Vista Drivers Database

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 03:12:08 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: vistarewired.com

if you head over to Radarsync (http://www.radarsync.com/vista/) , they’ve got a huge directory of drivers that can come in handy.

Their site can be a pain to navigate without a search feature so I guess I’ll teach you guys a google trick. If you want to search for a specific driver on that site, head over to Google and type:

NameofDriverVendor site:www.radarsync.com/vista

So for example, if I was looking for a driver for my ATI Radeon 9200 video card, I’d type :

ATI Radeon site:www.radarsync.com/vista

If you don’t find a specific driver there, there’s a good chance that there’s no support for that device in Vista. Alternatively, you would have to visit the hardware manufacturer’s website. But you will probably find most of what you are looking for at Radarsync.

Tags: drivers, hardware, vista, windows, operating systems

Top Firefox 2 Config Tweaks

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:03:40 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: lifehacker.com

How to modify Firefox's configuration (about:config)

Session restore

Key: browser.startup.page
Modified Value: 3
Default: 1 (open your specified homepages)

Tab width before scrolling kicks in

To disable tab scrolling entirely, set the value to 0.

Key: browser.tabs.tabMinWidth
Modified Value: 75 (fit in more tabs before overflow enables scroll)
Alternate Modified Value: 0 (disable scroll entirely)
Default: 100

Tab close buttons

Key: browser.tabs.closeButtons

Modified Value: 3 (revert to Firefox 1.5 behavior)
Alternate Modified Value: 2 (don't display any close tab buttons)
Default: 1 (display close buttons on all tabs)

Fetch only what you click

Key: network.prefetch-next
Modified Value: false

Limit RAM usage

Key: browser.cache.memory.capacity

Modified Value: Depends on your system's total memory.

Turn off chrome tooltips

Key: browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
Modified Value: false

Tags: firefox, browser, internet, config, tweaks

Quick Fixes for 5 Nasty Vista Problems

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:00:26 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

A great deal of the problems we've encountered aren't really fixable. It's more a matter of finding a workaround or waiting for a patch or a driver, either from Microsoft, a hardware company, a game developer, or some other third party. No surprise there—Vista is a new operating system and glitches in core code, feature code and driver code are to be expected.

After spending a few hours surfing around, we pinpointed five rather prominent problems that actually have solutions, or that aren't really problems at all. Want to get your AMD Cool & Quiet drivers to load? Care to prevent your iPod hard drive from going corrupt with a few clicks of the mouse? Having trouble installing Adobe Reader?

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

Why isn't there an easy-to-find Vista driver for C&Q features? Simple—it's built in! Windows Vista contains full support for C&Q from the onset, and it even gives you a bit of control over how it runs the CPU.

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

VPN DOA

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

Can't Read Reader

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

Wire Won't Fire

Clip Source: www.extremetech.com

iFried

Tags: vista, operating system, windows, fix, tweaks

Tainted Pet Food Recalled after Illness & Deaths

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 17:32:37 GMT

clipped by: twokatmew

Clip Source: www.columbiatribune.com

Menu Foods, the Ontario-based company that produced the wet pet food, said yesterday it was recalling dog food sold under 48 brands and cat food sold under 40 brands, including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.

An unknown number of cats and dogs in the United States suffered kidney failure, and about 10 died after eating the affected pet food, the company said.

A complete list of the recalled products along with product codes, descriptions and production dates was available from the Menu Foods Web site, www.menu foods.com/recall.

The recall covers the company’s "cuts and gravy" style food, which consists of chunks of meat in gravy, sold in cans and small foil pouches from Dec. 3 to March 6.

The company said it makes pet food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers. It is also a contract manufacturer for the top branded pet food companies, including Procter & Gamble Co.

Tags: pets, food, recall, death, tainted