Mutt 365: using Mutt with Microsoft Office 365

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office-365-pop-imap-settings

If you have access to Microsoft’s new cloud-based productivity suite, Office 365, you can get your e-mail with a web browser through the Outlook.com web-mail interface. Or, you can use a great command-line e-mail client: Mutt. When setting up a third-party e-mail client with Office 365, it’s not immediately obvious which settings to use. But if you log in to your Office 365 web-mail, Microsoft will tell you what your POP and IMAP server settings should be. From the Outlook Inbox page, select Options > See All Options > Account > My Account > Settings for POP, IMAP, and SMTP access. A pop-up window will appear, and you can copy and paste the server names into a non-Outlook e-mail client’s Continue reading →

Force new windows to open in the middle of the screen

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putty-under-taskbar

Microsoft Windows lets you move the Start menu and task bar onto any edge of the screen, and I’ve always preferred having it on top. This makes it easy for me to switch between Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, as my clock and system tray icons are then always in the same place: the top-right corner of the screen. The downside of having the Start menu and taskbar at the top of the screen is that some Windows programs do not seem to take into account the possibility that the top of the screen may be in use before drawing a window. Yes, I’m looking at you, PuTTY. New PuTTY windows draw themselves at the very top of the screen, Continue reading →

Scroll window content without focus

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katmouse

One especially nice usability feature in OS X is the ability to mouse over a background window and use the scroll wheel to scroll the content in that window. If you’re reading an e-book or following instructions on a web page, it’s very useful to “mouse over and scroll” without the need to constantly switch back and forth between different different windows. So I used to quietly curse at Microsoft Windows for making me switch the focus between windows in order to scroll. Even Linux lets you scroll windows without setting the focus these days. But I recently discovered KatMouse, a tiny, free, Windows utility that allows you to scroll background windows in Microsoft Windows. After running KatMouse, it quietly Continue reading →

TortoiseSVN suddenly stops working

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putty-default-settings

I use TortoiseSVN to integrate a Subversion client into Windows Explorer. It feels strange at first, not having a dedicated client window, but the power and simplicity of Tortoise SVN has won me over. TortoiseSVN even automatically picks up my PuTTY SSH keys from pageant. However, recently TortoiseSVN stopped working, and started giving me the following the message when I tried to update: Error Unable to connect to a repository at URL And: “To better debug SSH connection problems, remove the -q option from ‘ssh’ in the [tunnels] section of your Subversion configuration file. Network connection closed unexpectedly.” The problem turned out to be a recent change to the Default Settings profile in my PuTTY client. TortoiseSVN uses PuTTY and Continue reading →

Toggle Dvorak and Qwerty keyboard layouts in Linux terminal

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ASDF or AOEU.

I use Ubuntu Server on virtual machines, and regularly switch back and forth between Dvorak and Qwerty keyboards. Occasionally, I find myself on a host system with a Qwerty layout and a guest with a Dvorak layout, or a host with a Dvorak layout and a guest with a Qwerty. To make things easier, I set up the following aliases in my .bashrc file, so I can easily type the same command to switch layouts regardless of which is currently enabled. First, create an alias for a Qwerty layout to switch to Dvorak: alias asdf=”sudo loadkeys dvorak” Next, create an alias for a Dvorak layout to switch to Qwerty: alias aoeu=”sudo loadkeys us” Now, regardless of whichever layout is enabled, Continue reading →

How to repair prescription Orthotics

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Repaired prescription orthotics.

I wear prescription orthotics, but the upper layers had worn out after several years of daily use. I didn’t know what to do to fix them. The podiatrist I saw asks $150 to have a pair of orthotics re-covered, it takes two or three weeks, and involves the mail service. I contacted the original manufacturer, International Orthotic Labs, but was told that they don’t deal with the public directly. Not wanting to pay $300 plus tax, shipping, and time (I have two pairs), I started to think about ways to repair them myself. If I could find suitable materials and glue, it should be straightforward enough. However, after some time with an internet search engine and telephone, I found a Continue reading →

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Alternative to USB-to-DVI video adapters on Mac

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Triple-screen Mac with ScreenRecycler and Synergy.

I have a 2009 MacBook Pro with a single Mini DisplayPort video port, but wanted to connect a second monitor, for a total of three displays. A variety of USB video adapters are available, so I picked up a DisplayLink USB-to-DVI adapter for around $60. It worked wonderfully for two weeks, until I upgraded from Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Despite downloading the latest beta driver releases, it still doesn’t work in Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and I doubt that it will ever work again, as DisplayLink can’t (or won’t) keep up with Apple’s changing APIs. Fair enough. A USB video adapter has a very slow refresh rate, and I can Continue reading →

Switch Ubuntu Desktop from Gnome screensaver to XScreenSaver

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ubuntu-logo14

I use Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS, but don’t care for the default screen saver (gnome-screensaver). To get more interesting screen savers, install X11 XScreenSaver, which is a wonderful collection of hundreds of free screen savers for Linux, Mac, and iOS. Install XScreenSaver with the following command in a terminal window: sudo apt-get install xscreensaver Unfortunately, after installing the xscreensaver package, the Gnome screensaver still runs when a user logs in, and you need to open the Ubuntu Screensaver app to stop gnome-screensaver and start xscreensaver. This is inconvenient. To fix this, first remove the gnome-screensaver package with the following command in a terminal window: sudo apt-get purge gnome-screensaver Next, configure the Ubuntu Desktop Startup Applications app to start the xscreensaver Continue reading →

Fix frozen clock in Mac OS X Mountain Lion

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Screen Shot 2013-01-21 at 16.48.47

I’ve used Macs since 2000, when OS/9 was the latest and greatest. My wife is also a long-term Mac user. When we upgraded to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, we both noticed that our system clocks (in the menu bar at the top-right corner) would occasionally freeze. This has never happened before. It’s curious that we both experienced the issue a few weeks apart when running OS X 10.8.2. Research with various popular web search engines dug up a smattering of people with similar issues on various versions of OS X over the last decade. While there doesn’t seem to be a definitive fix, resetting the machine’s PRAM helped – at least, temporarily. As the time between PRAM resets shortened, Continue reading →

Install Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS on 2007 Mac mini

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I have a 2007 Mac mini that can’t run OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, so I decided to turn it into a  web server with Ubuntu Server 12.04 TLS. It’s more than powerful enough to serve web content, and it has an 80 GB SSD drive that should make for snappy server response times. In addition, the Mac mini’s tiny footprint makes it an ideal home server that can be stashed away in the garage, next to the router, and left to do its thing. The first problem I had was getting it to run the Ubuntu installer. I scoured the web looking for tips on getting USB and CD installers to work on a Mac, but the Mac refused Continue reading →