Stop the Yahoo Messenger Spam!

If you too use Yahoo! Messenger like me, you've probably received an awful lot of IM spam from random people on yahoo messenger. Turns out, I'm not the only one. A lot of other people are having the same problem. Why is the Yahoo network so prone to random messages from spammers? Probably because the spammer doesn't have to be on your contact list in order to spam you, any random person can send you a message without your approval. And although this feature might be a pain in the neck, it's not hard to use it to your advantage. Here's how.

The solution to the problem is simply allowing only the people you know to reach you. Sadly, its a feature that only Yahoo Messenger (for now anyway) has because the Yahoo network (well AIM and other networks also have this feature, but Yahoo's the only one that seems to suffering the fury of the spammers right now) allows anyone to communicate with everyone on the network. So once a spammer has your Yahoo address, this is pretty much your only option.

How to ignore people you don't know in Yahoo Messenger

1. Click on Messenger after you open Yahoo Messenger
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on Ignore List in the left column (this is the Privacy tab if you're using Yahoo Messenger on a Mac)
4. Then select the option 'Ignore Anyone who is not on my messaging list'
   
5. Click OK
   

The only downside here is that you have to add people to your contact list, and approve them before you can chat with them. But that's a small price to pay for being spam free.

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How to use Hotmail with Apple Mail

Update: If you're using HTTPMail with Leopard 10.5.6 - You'll have to upgrade to HTTPMail 1.53 for it to work! Click here to download HTTPMail 1.53. No wonder, my hotmail stopped working on Apple Mail after I upgraded to 10.5.6 =( ... But its all fixed now... =)

I absolutely love Apple Mail because of its simplicity and to an extent it's robustness (the To-Dos and Notes) and use it all the time when possible. I find that Entourage is a bit too bloated, and the same goes for Thunderbird. Plus, other applications don't have iCal integration, which is another application I have come to love. However, one big problem is that by default Apple Mail does not support Http accounts, so it's impossible to use mail if you use Hotmail or MSN (now apparently called Windows Live Mail). The solution was created by Daniel Parnell fit the bill. It's called HTTPMail. You can find it over at the Automagic Software downloads page.

Once you download and install the plugin, you should be good to go. Simple enough? Not really, it's Microsoft stuff, and as I've come to find out, Microsoft stuff isn't exactly simple. Yet. When I tried to send an e-mail through my Hotmail account in Leopard, I got an " *** -[NSURL initWithString:relativeToURL:]: nil string parameter" error. But, using Microsoft software for so long has taught me something - never give up. So I set out to find a solution, and finally after a couple of minutes of thinking I figured, it must be the URL, since the error had URL in it. Turns out, that you need to use some other URL to send the mail. The steps I took to solve the problem were as follows:

How to stop *** -[NSURL initWithString:relativeToURL:]: nil string parameter error

1. Open Mail
2. Click on Mail (in the menubar) > Preferences. Alternatively, you can press Cmd + , to open the preferences dialog
3. Click on Accounts and select your Hotmail Account
   
4. Where it says Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) click on the drop down menu. Then click Edit Server List...
5. Create a new entry as shown in the picture below. Make sure to use the server name oe.msn.msnmail.hotmail.com

1. Switch to the Advanced tab for a sec and make sure it says port 25
2. Then Click on OK
3. I recommend you check the box that says Use only this server under the Outgoing Mail Server drop down Box
4. Close the preferences dialog box. If you asks you if you want to save your settings, make sure you say save
5. Send your Mail (I'm guessing you already have mail in your outbox, or else you wouldn't know about the error) through the Hotmail (or whatever description you put in) server you just created.

Hopefully, you'll now be able to send your e-mails through Apple Mail. Now you'll be able to send and receive e-mails through your Hotmail account without having to use the inelegant web-mail interface.

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Fullscreen in Firefox on Mac OS X

Update: Finally, Firefox 3.6 (and onwards hopefully!) support fullscreen. Just Press the Command key + Shift key + F, or go to View > Full screen. Nevertheless, the method below might still be useful if you want to make the Firefox window a particular size, say 1024*768 or something like that for testing purposes.

_______________________

Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac. I look cool and interesting.
PC: And I'm a PC. I look ugly and boring.
Mac: Dude. You're so boring.
PC: I sure am.
Mac: I rock.
PC: Ya sure do.

- Some Apple commercial where Apple makes fun of "personal computers".

Yup. The Apple commercials sure are right. There is huge different between the Mac and PC lifestyles. I've been a switcher recently. And one big problem that I ran into recently is that a lot of things on the PC side aren't quite available to the Mac users.

Usually, when I'm on the PC, I hit F11 and Firefox goes into full screen mode. However, when I'm on Tiger or Leopard for that matter, hitting F11 will only show you your desktop. You can change that however through system preferences, but there's no way of going fullscreen on a mac :(. For other cocoa applications, Ian Henderson created a really lightweight and useful app/plug-in called megazoomer, but Firefox isn't exactly a cocoa application.

So, after searching the inter web for a while, I came across this lifehacker post. I then searched a bit more to find out what you can do with javascript and a bookmarklet. Turns out, you can do a lot.

To be honest, it's not possible to maximize a firefox window completely on a mac. However, it is possible to maximize the window to fit in the whole screen. To do this just follow these steps:

1. Create a new bookmark by right clicking on the bookmark toolbar. If you don't see the bookmark toolbar just go to View > Toolbars > check Bookmark toolbar.
2. Give the bookmark a name like Fullscreen (something that you can remember) and then paste the code below in the Location box. Make sure you paste all the code in 1 line only though, or else it won't work.

javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight);


3. Click OK, and then just click on the Fullscreen button to maximize Firefox.

Then once you click on the Fullscreen Button, Firefox should then take up all the space that OS X allows an application to take up, depending on the size and position of your dock. Sometimes, when I'm viewing pictures, I like to minimize the dock by pressing Cmd + Option + D and this will allow Firefox to take up more space.

Do let me know if you find other ways of going Fullscreen in Firefox or any other Mac app for that matter.

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How to export Firefox Bookmarks to Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us! Ever heard of it? If your answer is no, then I highly recommend to take a look at del.ico.us. It's a really cool website where you can store your bookmarks online, and then access it from anywhere. But the best part is that you can tag them and make them public so the rest of the world can see what you're really into.

This post is all about how to export Firefox bookmarks into delicious, so that you can access them from anywhere. And if you're anything like me then you probably have a lot of bookmarks in Firefox, so you might want to back them up first.

The easiest way is to use the del.icio.us plugin. Once you install it just go to del.icio.us in the menubar > del.icio.us website > import bookmarks. You will have to be logged in to do this step.


If you don't wan to use he plug-in it is possible to upload the bookmarks that you have in Firefox manually as well.

Once you are done backing up your Firefox bookmarks, you are ready to export them into a HTML file. To do so

1. Click on Bookmarks in the menubar
2. Click on Organize Bookmarks
3. Click on File and then on Export

Then a window should pop-up prompting you to choose a file name. Just choose a file name and remember where you saved it.

Log into your del.icio.us account and click on settings in the upper right hand corner of the window. Then click on import / upload.

Here, browse for the HTML file that you just created, and then choose your desired settings. Once you click on the import now button, delicious will automatically start importing all the bookmarks. Once its done, all you're bookmarks will be stored on delicious forever, and you can access it from anywhere.

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Back up Firefox and Internet Explorer bookmarks and settings

The highly digital lifestyle that we live in today requires us to constantly back-up, update and maintain our computers. One of the most important applications that we use today is a web browser. And backing up the data in it is just as essential as backing up the files in your computer. It's impossible to know when disaster is going to strike and the next crash is going to happen.

Here are a couple of ways you can back up your web browser of choice.

How to back-up Firefox bookmarks, profiles, extensions etc.

If you use Firefox as your main browser, and I highly recommend that you do, and you're on Windows, the tool you'll most likely want to use is called MozBackup. It's a nifty little tool that backs up all your settings, profiles, history and bookmarks. It even allows you to back up your cache and cookies. Very handy if you ask me. You can download it here.

If you're on a mac, you're kinda going to have to do a bit more work. First, you're going to want to download the firefox environment backup extension. Then you can save your bookmarks, if you still have it on your browser, by going to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > File > Export. Then save the file to a safe location. Exporting it to Del.icio.us would be a wise decision.

How to back-up Internet Explorer bookmarks, settings and history

If you use Internet Explorer, then I highly recommend you switch to Firefox. It's better, trust me. And its most likely going to save you a lot of grief and trouble. However, if you are looking for an application to back up Internet Explorer, then I recommend Internet Explorer Backup. It's going to do the job for you without the hassle. If you do decide to switch to Firefox, it will automatically import all your Internet Explorer bookmarks and settings, and then you can back those setting up through the applications listed above.

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Firefox Version 2.0.0.11?

Am I the only one noticing the fact that Firefox version 2.0.0.10 was just released a couple of days ago? Or is every Firefox lover out there wondering if the Mozilla team screwed up something, or is just working overtime. Now, first off, I must mention that I am a Firefox lover. I absolutely can't do without the really cool add-ons and features this amazing browser has. But why would someone release updates so quick? My first thought was that it was some kind of wierd virus/malware thing. However, Macs don't have viruses! Silly Me.

After thinking for a while, I've came to the conclusion that it was probably for a couple of reasons why the back-to-back updates were released.

• Some one in the Mozilla Team screwed up some code so they had to fix it
• A really really big security bug was discovered
• They wanted to introduced some new features (I didn't see anything new though)
• The FireFox team was bored to death and decided to release something new
• Some one noticed a bug in FireFox

Turns out, they did make firefox more stable. And although previous versions of Firefox used to crash on Leopard (Mac OS X.5) they don't anymore. Now I can get back to using the recipe editor on Tech-Recipes, hopefully. If you're want to know more about the recent update... you can mosey on over to C-Net, and they'll update you on it.
So now, rest assured, no one else needs to worry about the quick release of updates. I hereby confirm that Firefox is still the browser that you should use the most. Why? Because it is updated frequently, has great features and is still the fastest of the bunch. At least, I find it to be fastest.

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Make VoIP phone calls for free

Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that I find to be still in a stage of infancy. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that we cannot take advantage of the benefits it provides us with. One of the most prominent benifits of VoIP is that it's cheaper than traditional phones, especially international calls, because essentially one simply uses the internet to call other people. However, although it might be cheap to call through VoIP, it almost always isn't free. Here are a couple of websites/applications that offer free VoIP services.

1. Gizmo Project - The guys over at Gizmo Project seem to offer a great deal for people who wish to try out VoIP, and allow you to call about 60 countries for free. Of course, they only give you about 40 minutes of time to take, and I presume that the actual time they give you is going to be a lot less but it is free if you wish to give it a go. I'm guessing the business model here is to get people to try it out, and then when they like it, charge them for their premium services.
   
2. Jajah - This is a pretty cool website where you type in your phone number, and then you type in your friend's phone number and the websites enables you to talk to your friend/who ever you want to talk to for free. You might want to take a look at the rates list to verify if the call is free or not.
   
3. Jaxtr - Works just like Jahjah. It connects you to the person that you want to talk to throught the web. Jaxtr also has a web widget which you can use to talk to other people
   
4. Jangl - Works just like Jahjah and Jaxtr, but it's more private and you first have to provide Jangl an email address of the person you wish to reach instead of a phone number. Jangl will then let you send them a voice mail, and if the person accepts it, it'll give that person a local number and send you a local number. You can then use that number to talk to each other.
5. The Pudding - Although this service is in beta and only open to beta testers, it allows you to talk to anyone in the US, completely free. The way they plan to make money is by showing relevant advertisements to you using speech recognition technology. I'm not sure if this would be a successful start up or not, but it will definitely be interesting to use this service.
   

So there you have it. 5 great ways to talk to most people around the world, totally for free! If you know any other services like this, do let me know.

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Excellent Blogging Tips from the Doc

Cory Doctorow from boingboing shares some of his thoughts on how to blog better to Thomas Crampton in this extremely cool video for anyone who wants to get into blogging.



Here's what I got from the video. It's pretty much the last part of the video but I'd like to summarize anyway, so that may be I'll remember it better.

1. Have descriptive headlines and at the same time make them interesting (although it needs to be informative, I take it that it doesn't always have to be dull and would much rather prefer writing a headline that has Oomph. Like "The B@sturds of Sep 11" instead of "Sep 11" or simply "Basturds")
   
2. Simplify the reading process for the reader - state what the article is about in the first paragraph, so that the reader can skip it.
   
3. Every post should be only 1 page instead of a bazillion pages
4. Respect the reader, and don't bombard them with ads and extra other unnecessary info
5. Don't sell yourself and be honest

After listening to Cory, I feel as though I should remove the read more link on the homepage of the blog.

The main reason I have a read more link is so that the home page and the archive pages load up quick, and people (especially those with dial-up) can only read more if they are interested in the post. But I guess I might have to switch the template to display full posts on every page instead of just the excerpts if a lot of people start complaining.

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