Access Gmail POP via the command line

Since Google only supports connection using SSL, you can't just telnet to the relevant port (which is 995 instead of 110).

In order to connect, we need to make use of SSL.

In a nutshell, here's the command:

     openssl s_client -connect pop.gmail.com:995 -CApath /System/Library/OpenSSL/certs

I'm using the cert directory on Mac OS X. You'll need to put the path to your own cert directory depending on your OS (usually /etc/ssl/certs on linux).

Create Beautiful CSS3 Typography

Great post by Matt Ward over at the Echo Enduring Blog.

Create Beautiful CSS3 Typography

X11 Forwarding after sudo

Normally, you can do the following:

ssh -X user@host

However, if you need to su - root after logging in, the X11 forwarding setup by ssh will no longer be valid.
Do the following:

<as user> $ echo $DISPLAY
<note down the value>
<as root> # export DISPLAY=<the value noted earlier>

This will set the proper display. However, the Xauthority will not match. To fix that do the following:

# cp /home/<user>/.Xauthority /.Xauthority 
(or wherever the root home directory is)

Movist vs Quicktime

Movist

• automatically plays all similarly named video files in the folder (movie1, movie2, etc.)
• option to open at 2x size
• can turn volume up 4x past max
• no scroll-wheel scrubbing, used for volume instead like vlc
• double-click maximizes, like vlc

Quicktime

• scroll-wheel scrubbing

Yeah, Movist wins.

The Linux Experiment

I've been a fan of linux since it's inception, and I've watched as it matured throughout the years. At least once a year since about 2001, I've installed it and tried to see if I could use it as my primary operating system.

For the most part, I've always ended up going back to my original operating system (Windows XP/2000 up until 2007, and Mac OS X after that). There were always issues that made it impractical to use on a daily basis.

In recent years, linux has matured considerably, and Ubuntu in particular makes a strong case for a daily workstation.

So, I will attempt to see if I can use linux as my primary operating system.

I'm going to look at the following main areas:

• Web Browsing
• Email, Chat, and Skype
• Network Shares
• Movies, Music, and Pictures

Test Setup

For this test, I will be using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop, Lucid Lynx, running on VMWare. LTS stands for Long Term Support, so this is a pretty stable build to run.

I won't go through the setup and install since there's a ton of documentation on that already.

First things first

Before anything else, System updates. Total time: 5 minutes. 10.04 is relatively new, so there wasn't much to update.

But that wallpaper has got to go.

Also, I'll organize the desktop a bit.

Changes:

• Change desktop
• Change desktop resolution to 1024x768
• Remove multiple workspaces and remove the switcher from the bottom bar
• Remove Help from top panel and replace with Terminal
• Add Window Selector and System Monitor to the right side of the top panel
• Switch to Radiance Theme
• Set Terminal size and color

Web Browsing

Firefox on Ubuntu works pretty good, but it's pretty slow compared to Google Chrome. Getting Chrome is as easy as going to the website and selecting 32 bit .deb. By default, it opens with the Package Installer and the install was painless.

Browsing is nice and fast, but now we have to address the pain that is flash. But I was in for a surprise since Flash is already installed. In previous versions of Ubuntu, it had to be installed separately, so it's nice to have it out of the box.

Everything feels pretty snappy on Chrome and the browsing experience is great.

Email, Chat, and Skype

Setting up the Evolution email client was pretty easy, but there aren't any configuration guides specific to it. The only note was that in order to specify the port number, you have to suffix the server name with colon and the port. i.e. imap.gmail.com:993

Setting up chat on Empathy was similarly easy.

The good thing about using the installed clients is the integration with the status bar at the top.

Skype has to be installed from the website, but it's an easy install.

So far, things are looking good.

Network Shares

This is a category in which Ubuntu and linux in general has had problems, but 10.04 handled it pretty well. It found the shares and mounted them easily without having to install anything.

Movies, Music, and Pictures

My first test was an m4v file encoded with h264. Movie Player opened the file and then prompted to download the codecs. There were 34 package files on the download queue, so I decided to scrap the incumbent and go with VLC.

VLC opened up the file with no problems and everything worked flawlessly, as expected. Music files weren't a problem either.

For pictures, the Gnome picture viewer worked well and it didn't balk at browsing a folder with over 100 pictures.

Conclusions

So far, Ubuntu 10.04 is proving to be a worthy desktop replacement.

Google Chrome for Mac

Likes

• animating tabs
• themes
• speed
• the video is cool: http://www.youtube.com/googlechromethemes
• child tabs open next to parent tab, grandchild tabs open next to child tabs, new child tabs open between child and grandchild tabs
• status tabs popup on the bottom when loading or mousing over a link

Dislikes

• opening lots of tabs shrinks them. Much better in safari
• The website icon takes up a lot of horizontal space. Safari's centered text is much better.

Dropbox

Shawn Blanc recently put out a Twitter request on how people are using Dropbox and wrote a great article on it. I replied to his request with about 5 tweets and read his article, and while it was good, Shawn's coming in as a new user and I've been using it for over a year. So, I though there were some things missing and rather than just email, I'm going to write a blog about it.

What is Dropbox?
Dropbox was started by Drew Houston in early 2007 with capital provided by Y Combinator, which is basically a firm of investors that provides seed funding for startups. In fact, you could learn everything you needed to know about Dropbox by reading it's Y Combinator funding application.

In Drew's own words,

Dropbox is kind of like taking the best elements of subversion, trac and rsync and making them "just work" for the average individual or team. Hackers have access to these tools, but normal people don't.

And that's basically what it is. Dropbox takes a folder on your computer and syncs it with the Dropbox service and any other computers you install the application on. And, well, yeah there's an App for it too. (iTunes Link)

So what is it good for?
Obviously, you can use Dropbox to sync your files across several machines, but this is only the most basic use case. But let's think about that for a moment. Files aren't just your spreadsheets and reports. You can sync any file that resides on your hard drive.

The basic plan has a maximum of 2GB of storage, but you can upgrade 50GB for $9.99/month or $99/year or 100GB for $19.99/month or $199/year.

With that much storage, you can sync your entire iTunes directory and have your media sync seamlessly across machines. You can even start using it as an offsite backup.

They also added the ability to share folders publicly or between Dropbox users, which is great for collaboration. Although, the contents of the shared folder apply to all the participants quotas.

Beyond that, you can also email temporary public links to any of the items in your Dropbox.

So what am I using it for?
Personally, I like the free plan and prefer the simplicity of having a limit. My motto is if it doesn't fit in the limit, then it doesn't need to be synced. But, full disclosure, I actually have 3.5GB due to referrals. They now have a 3GB limit on extra space gained from referrals.

One of the ways I use used to use it is to sync my notes. I use the crap out of Notational Velocity, and I saved the notes as flat text files saved in a Dropbox folder (instructions here). Recently, Notational Velocity added the capability to use SimpleNote syncing, and I'm now using that. Just don't use both at the same time.

Besides that I sync:

• my .vimrc file synced between my laptop and all my linux servers
• all my work documents
• a copy of MacDrivec in case I need to use my Mac OS formatted external on a Windows box
• my Hazel rules
• whatever eBooks I'm reading
• shared folders with different departments within the company

That last one is especially useful. If I've got a project that I need to pass off to another engineer, I can just drop all my documentation into the shared folder for that department. Or I can collaborate on projects with other people within the company and share documents with the added bonus that all of the work is available online if I need to access it outside of the office.

The iPhone App even saved my ass once. I was leaving for vacation, and work called about a file that they needed from me. So, I used the airport WiFi to email them a public link to the file through the Dropbox App. In addition, I saved the PDF files of my flight confirmation forms in Dropbox so I used it check-in shortly thereafter.

I also use the App to take pictures on my phone that I need immediate access to on my laptop. Take the picture within the App, and it shows up in the folder on my laptop. You can imagine the number of steps that saves.

Game changer

These words get bandied about quite often, but they are incredibly apt in this case. My workflow has changed significantly, and I'm still figuring out new ways to use it. I can't remember what I did without it.

Paraphrasing John Gruber, Dropbox is what MobileMe's iDisk should have been.

Facebook Chat now using Jabber (XMPP)

Facebook is now using the Jabber (XMPP) open messaging protocol for it's chat services. This is great news since desktop clients have had to use workarounds to get Facebook chat working.

Most clients will probably roll out support in an update, but until then there are instructions on how to set it up as a regular Jabber account on the Facebook chat page.

Dell Mini 5

I just came across news of a "tablet" prototype released in early Janurary: the Mini 5.

Gizmodo has a short video of the device as well.

The funny thing is, I see this aimed at at iPhone users rather than iPad users.

Regardless, it looks like a pretty cool device.

HTML5 Video Player - SubLimeVideo

This video player is all HTML5, and it looks amazing.


This bullet point under "Features We Plan to Add" is telling:

• IE support by falling back to Flash

Internet Explorer is tacked on as an afterthought. Nice.


via daringfireball.net