Sabin's Blog

Ever since Thunderbird updated to version 6, its default theme has used transparent Aero effects that look pretty. Unfortunately, if you're on a PC (say, at work) that doesn't have a very good video card, these transparency effects really slow you down. How do you fix this?

Well, there is no way to disable it in Thunderbird. Apparently they've decided everyone with slow PCs that want to use their email client needs to upgrade to better hardware. So we're forced to go with 3rd party theme creators.

I had been using the "Silvermel" theme, available here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/silvermel/?src=cb-dl-users. It looks nice and gets rid of the transparency effects. Unfortunately, it still hasn't been updated to work properly in Thunderbird 8, resulting in very weird formatting issues as you scroll up and down your email list.

That's why i was very happy to find "Ignore Aero", available here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/ignore-aero/?src=api. This theme makes Thunderbird look how it did in Thunderbird 5, with no transparency effects and works with Thunderbird 8.

Now if only the author had a normal looking name, "rsjtdrjgfuzkfg" isn't the most "oh it's safe to download something from this guy" inspiring moniker.

So I was an early adopter of the 3DS. Bought it on day 1 and thought it was fun to play with. I enjoyed the light tactical RPG Ghost Recon Shadow Wars and I felt Street Fighter IV 3D was really technically impressive, though I never play it (anyone ever want to play that with me? Let me know let's exchange friend codes and get on that).

Now that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D is out I'm really loving the system. It's making me appreciate this Zelda classic that I really resented back when it was released (even though I had preordered it at the time and got the golden N64 cartridge). The look on 3DS is upgraded enough that the ugliness of the N64's graphics isn't getting in the way and I can actually appreciate the game now.

Unfortunately, it turns out that I'm one of the few who picked up the system early. So Nintendo is offering ten free games to people who bought the system early as compensation due to the fact that they're going to drop the 3DS's price by $80. Here's the details: http://neogaf.net/forum/showthread.php?t=438816 I don't know that these games are really worth $80, however I'm really excited to get Metroid Fusion and Super Mario Advance 3 for free cause those are games I've always wanted to play. The frugal part of me wants to be upset over missing out on saving $80, but I'm more excited to play with the 10 free games I'll be getting. Especially as it seems the Game Boy Advance ones aren't officially confirmed to ever be something people will be able to buy (though really, it's inevitable).

So yeah, Nintendo, this is a good way to compensate me for the early price drop, I'm digging it.

Note: I'm going to try posting this on my blog, Facebook, and Google+ just to see how comments go. I may try some other long posts in the future to see how they go too.

So if you are a google chrome user, and you are happily accessing your company's IIS9 sites that use NTLM authentication, and you just so happen to update to Windows Live Essentials 2011 to get the latest version of Windows Live Messenger, you may be in for some frustration.

Here's the error message:

Error 9 (net::ERR_UNEXPECTED): Unknown error.

Installing the 2011 build of Live Essentials essentially breaks Google Chrome when it tries to access those corporate intranet sites. The easiest solution is to just uninstall Windows LIve Essentials 2011 and find a copy of 2010. The other option is to update Google Chrome to the beta of 7.0. That also fixes it. Personally, I went with updating Google Chrome, that worked best for me.

Hope that helps people.

UPDATE: Looks like moving to the Chrome beta doesn't fix it completely. After more testing it's working on some internal sites and not on others. I guess the best strategy really is to just uninstall Live Essentials for the time being.

UPDATE 2 (10/8/10): Looks like Google Chrome Beta just updated today and resolved the remaining issues! I love Google Chrome, they fix stuff in days that it takes Firefox two years to get around to.

So I've been doing a terrible job of blogging now that I tweet so much. But that said, I suppose the best thing I can do is just do a tweet style blog post and work up from there. So this post is to plug the fact that I installed Windows Live Writer (which easily found and configured itself for my blog, once I remembered to use the special XMLRPC password instead of my normal one) and am hoping it makes making blog posts easier to do. I see it plugged an awful lot by people, so I'm expecting it to make my toast and butter it as well, but we'll see.

Okay, I just hit the preview tab and saw a perfect representation of how this would look my site. This is pretty cool indeed. Time to publish.

enTourage eDGe
http://www.entourageedge.com/
So check this out. This thing folds open like a book and on the left is an e-reader that you can draw on, and on the right is a netbook running Linux with Google Android. You can drag notes from the left and drag them into the netbook on the right. It's got wifi and will have 3g. All this for 490$, the price of a Kindle DX. It's aimed at students, would be a great notetaking or classroom device.

iWallet
http://iwalletusa.com/
Available for $299 in fiberglass and $599 in carbon fiber with kevlar. Good luck breaking into this wallet. This thing has a fingerprint reader to allow you to open it. It can also sync with your cell phone via bluetooth. Why? So that if you walk away and leave your wallet behind, it'll set off an alarm on you wallet and your phone. Awesome.