HTML Signatures in GMail

I always wanted an HTML signature in GMail but could never get it right. Now with some Firefox magic I can.

BlackCanvas has a plugin that does just that.

So now I can have this as my signature

Ubuntu 8.04

So Windows Vista kept on complaining about me not buying it yet, so I decided to get legal and get rid of Vista. My previous experience with Ubuntu on my laptop was good but I had to do a lot of tweaking.

I decided that this time around if it does not install out of the box I am not installing it, will get Vista or XP instead then. Much to my surprise it worked out of the box first time. Even Compiz works in Ubuntu 8.

So all in all a very good experience.

Winter gloves

Commuting to work and back with the motorcycle gets very cold now that the winter is starting. So I invested in the IXS Mirage gloves. Swiss made apparently and hopefully it helps. I do not want to invest in heated grips, not at 10x the price of the gloves, so here's hoping it works.

Kawasaki Z750

I currently own the Kawasaki 250cc baby Ninja, but I went to look at the Kawasaki Z750 in real life and I am convinced this is the bike I want. The thing is awesome, and with the optional extras the bike is really going to rock. Unfortunately I will only be able to buy it in April 2009 or even later, which really sucks.

MPEG2 sound sync problem

The Pinnacle Studio software I am using to encode my movies to MPEG2 always seems to have a sound sync problem. Apparently it is a known problem so this tool might help.

I will give it a whirl today and see if it works.

Speedtraps

I had the great fortune today to drive 120km/h in a 60km/h zone with my new motorcycle. There was a retarded cop with his radar gun and I thought damn! That is when I remembered my motorcycle does not have a license plate in the front only the back, so these retards with their radar guns can keep on coming I do not care anymore, they can't catch me. Maybe they will start doing some real work now instead of just sleeping under a tree with the radar gun pointing to the oncoming traffic.

Detecting the screen resolution in Ubuntu

To detect your monitor's correct settings to allow the correct resolutions just run this command from the console: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Install Ubuntu 7.10 in Virtual Server

I need to install Ubuntu 7.10 onto a Microsoft Virtual Server VPC and this post might be a good place to start.

Samsung DVD-R Sucks

So in my previous post I talked about my new Samsung DVD Recorder. What a piece of junk it turned out to be. The thing broke after just 6 weeks of use. I had to fight with Makro for almost 2 months to get my money back I paid for this piece of junk.

Makro's policy on electronic replacements are horrible to say the least, but I suspect all the retailers in South Africa has the same type of return policy, so I am between a rock and a hard place with this.

I took my money and went to HiFi Corp and bought myself a standard cheap Philips DVD player that support DivX playback.

Searching for comics online

This Tech Recipe shows how to search for electronic versions of comics using Google.

Video streaming wirelessly

I previously contemplated using VLC to stream video wirelessly around my house, but I recently discovered that Ellies already has the hardware available at a very affordable price.

The AV sender / receiver combo uses standard WiFi to transmit incoming audio and video. All I need to do is just hookup the sender to my PVR and the receiver to my monitor and magic starts.

I am also considering the USB2800 or the Pinnacle Studio 500 video capture devices. So in conjuction with the Ellies AV sender, I can play videos on my PVR / Camcorder / VCR and record it on my PC using the USB video capture devices.

Windows Vista

I decided to format my laptop's hard disk and install Windows Vista. Gone was my Windows XP and Ubuntu dual boot setup. The reason? I gave up the fight with my tech. department regarding their network which is very unfriendly to any OS except Windows. I could not VPN into work from my home using standard VPN protocols, I needed to boot Windows XP to enable the use of some Microsoft propriety software just to get into the VPN.

So I decided it is too much hassle to get it working, so I installed Vista and now everything should go smoothly and if it doesn't at least I can log a call at the tech. dept. to fix the problem.

PowerToys

My company bought me a 22" Acer LCD monitor the other day. Unfortunately my fonts didn't seem quite right with the new monitor. I forgot about the PowerToys utility from Microsoft and my boss mentioned to me that PowerToys has some ClearType tweaking tool. I downloaded it and now my fonts are all clear and smooth again, definitely recommended for any LCD monitor user.

Comic book subscription

My Spider-Man subscription with Sci-Fi Genre was less than ideal. I subscribed with the understanding that my comics will only be shipped once my basket was worth $20, what I did not know was that the will ship my comics every two months regardless, so now my first shipment is on its way but the comics are worth $6 and my shipping costs are $13, so my shipping is double what my comics are worth. So I unsubscribed from the service.

What I will test next is the possibility of using the back issue order feature to order my comics in bulk but in arrears, basically I will order 12 issues at the end of the year and it will be shipped to me in one shipment.

My DC and Marvel subscription has been going strong so far without any hiccups, so I am considering just using the direct subscriptions again and just backorder the issues I am missing.

GSpace

A colleague I work with mentioned the GSpace service to me a while back but I never thought it will be of any benefit to me. The idea behind GSpace is simple, it allows you to upload files to your GMail account as if it was just another off site storage medium.

I have my own always online off site server so I never saw the need for yet another. What I did not know was that GSpace not only uploads the files to GMail but it simulates standard email, thus I can use the standard GMail features to manipulate these files.

The benefit only came to full realization when I used GSpace to backup my Excel and Word documents from my new Palm Treo 750 to GMail. I can now access any of my Word or Excel documents anywhere plus I can edit them using the standard Google documents feature, so updating my documents via the web is easy and when I sync with my Palm I just download the latest versions of the documents from GMail onto the Palm again.

It is a bit manual at this point in time but it works surprisingly well.

Spb Software

I have been using my new Palm Treo 750v for a while now and I bought a few applications already. I will not be able to use my Treo without these applications anymore.

Most of my applications were developed by Spb Software but I did buy a simple list manager from PDA House. My current list of must have software is

• Spb Diary
• Spb GPRS Monitor
• Spb Mobile Shell
• My Checklist

I am investigating Spb Phone Suite but my Palm Treo 750v has most of the functionality it offers so $20 just for the profile management is a bit steep. I mailed Spb Software to find out if they could re-package Spb Phone Suite into a Spb Phone Suite Lite version for $10.

MMS support on the Treo 750v

So I received an MMS but my phone refused to download the MMS from the server. My MMS settings was not setup out of the box. Very disappointing for a Vodafone branded phone, I am definitely not impressed.

I phoned Vodacom SA to try and get the correct settings from them but they failed to give me the correct information to setup my MMS.

Luckily a friend of mine had the same problem with his HP PDA Phone so I mailed him and he pointed me to this forum post.

Unfortunately it still did not work but luckily I only needed to make one small change, the gateway server IP and port needs to be supplied for the Treo 750v to work. Thus 196.6.x.x became 196.6.x.x:9201.

A bit of a headache just to send and receive MMS messages.

MIDP 2.0 Support on my Treo 750v

The first thing I noticed of my new phone was that it is missing J2ME support. Luckily other people had the same problem than me and I quickly found the solution in Intent Midlet Manager for Windows Mobile.

So now I can use my standard GMail client as well as Opera Mini.

My baby is 12 weeks in the making

Images of the latest sonar scan is available.

Palm Treo 750v

It seems Vodacom SA is Vodafone obsessed lately. I asked Vodacom SA to supply me with a Palm Treo 750 and they insist on giving me the Palm Treo 750v. Unfortunately for me the only way to get the Palm Treo 750 is to switch service providers, so I took the Treo 750v.

Lucky according to the comparison between the two Treos the only lacking thing on the 750v is HSDPA. That and the fact that my default theme is red and gray.