Pandora plugin for Rhythmbox

For US-based Linux users who listen to Pandora streaming radio, Romanian blogger Andrew from WebUpd8 posted news about this neat little Pandora plugin for Rhythmbox (including for version 0.13.2) at http://www.webupd8.org/2011/01/pandora-plugin-for-rhythmbox.html a couple of months ago. I don't use Pandora quite so much any more, and more often use Grooveshark for streaming music. With the plugin, you can create and delete stations, and love, ban, tired or bookmark songs as well as get song info from Pandora in your default web browser.

Evolution signature editing

I don't use the Evolution mail client in Ubuntu very much, except when a web page generates an e-mail for me and doesn't let me use GMail instead. I figured, while I was 'tweaking' under the hood, I'd experiment with the Signatures. I created one, but didn't like it, so I wanted to open the Signature editor. But wait! There isn't one. Evidently it has been this way for many years. Instead, you have to go to your ~/.evolution/signatures directory and manually edit the HTML in the files there.

Whilst on the subject of GMail and Evolution, I had to configure the outgoing mail server, since mail wasn't leaving the Outbox properly. I had to use

smtp.gmail.com:587

for the smtp server (I tried port 465 too, but it didn't work for me??), and make sure to use the @gmail.com after your user name in the user name field.

The Register

If you work in IT then you undoubtedly keep up-to-date through industry publications, etc. The Register is the one of the world's biggest online tech publications, covering software, hardware, networking and IT security among other topics. The thing I like about it (having started in London, England) is the great British sense of humo(u)r. I'm particularly tickled by their use of the word "fondleslab" to describe any portable touch screen device beloved by its user and incessantly fondled in public, as in "Sir Elton wants fondleslab for Skyping". Check it out at http://www.theregister.co.uk.

Netflix words of wisdom

This is what I said back in April of 2009,

"On a side note, $NFLX would have been a great investment if you could have got some action last October when the share price was below $18. At over $40 right now, I wouldn't buy at the moment, but in the long term I'd say it's a solid investment. They have an EXCELLENT service that fulfills a need at a very reasonable price".

When I checked the share price just now, it was at $235.50, so $1,000 invested two years ago would be worth $5,887.50 now. I won't give up my day job just yet.

Firefox Extensions that I use in Feb 2011

Since my last list of Firefox extensions that I use, in April 2009, Firefox has evolved quite a bit. Some of the old extensions are obsolete or no longer needed. My own requirements may have changed. Here is my latest list.

• Adblock Plus
• Faviconize Tab
• Firefox Sync
• FoxClocks
• German Dictionary
• Google Shortcuts
• Novell Moonlight
• Password Exporter
• Ubuntu Firefox Modifications
• Zotero
• Zotero OpenOffice Integration

Adblock Plus is my perennial favorite. I can't imagine surfing the web at home without it. It's only when I get to work (where I'm forced to use and support IE) that I get to see just how ad-sodden the web has become.
Get it for FF3.5 - 4.0, from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

Faviconize Tab is a recent addition which does what Firefox 4 does natively, as is the case with Firefox Sync. Between home and work I used to snyc between four laptops. Rarely, there were sync issues, but nothing a good restore from the previous day's bookmarks didn't take care of.
Get Faviconize Tab (for v. 3.0 - 3.6 - not needed in FF4) from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/faviconizetab/  and
Get Firefox Synch (works with v. 3.5 - 4.0b8) from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/firefox-sync/

My second favorite extension of all time. FoxClocks lets you keep an eye on the time around the world by putting small clocks in your status bar. I use mine to know what the time is in London, England and Chico, California. Andy McDonald, the developer, has promised a Firefox 4 beta version soon. Not having this extension available was the only thing stopping me from making the switch to FF4 earlier.
Get it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/foxclocks/

I still have the German Dictionary installed, even though I don't write much in German these days. Entschuldigung an meine Verwandten in Deutschland.
Get it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/german-dictionary/

Google Shortcuts provide a quick way for me to access the many services of the non-evil corporation that I use so much. Much less resource-intensive than Google's own toolbar.
Get it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/google-shortcuts-all-google-se/

Moonlight is the Ubuntu alternative to Microsoft's Silverlight. Built by Novell in collaboration with Microsoft, I don't use it much. Netflix didn't work with it, which is why I canceled my Netflix subscription. I know, I can (and did, for a while) use Silverlight with Windows in VirtualBox.
Get Moonlight from http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/download.aspx

Password Exporter hasn't been used much lately, although I will use it before I upgrade to FF4.
Get it from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/password-exporter/

Extension Package For Firefox provides Ubuntu-specific configuration defaults as well as apt support for firefox plugins/extensions. I haven't had any problems with it, so I haven't disabled it.
Comes with Firefox for Ubuntu.

Zotero and Zotero OpenOffice Integration are relatively new extensions that I came across thanks to a fellow blogger. It's an easy-to-use research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research. It works REALLY well, and I'm sure I haven't learned to use HALF of its useful features yet. The one limitation worth noting is that it requires/uses up a LOT of vertical screen space, so if you have a netbook with 600 pixel height - good luck!
Get it from http://www.zotero.org

In another post I will write about my adventure installing the Zotero OpenOffice Integration extension. It integrates with the new LibreOffice and Microsoft Word too, but configuration can be tricky.

If you value your privacy, don't install the coupons.com printer

Valuing my online privacy, and being highly suspicious of third parties wanting to install software on my laptop, I looked in to the Coupons.com coupon printer again today. Many large corporations use this service, and (rightly, as it turns out) I've always resisted installing the printer software in the past. After re-reading these articles by Professor Ben Edelman and John Stottlemire, it seems that not only can Coupons.com not be trusted, but also that web watchdog TRUSTe has a less than stellar record as far as compliance testing is concerned. They don't go far enough to punish seal holders that break TRUSTe’s own rules and they are not quick enough in revoking the seal on companies that violate privacy standards.

I won't repeat all the arguments here. Read the articles linked to above for yourself.

PDF Creator - beware of expensive RIP-OFF imitations

PDF Creator is an program that converts documents into PDF format on Windows systems (the newest version even supports the unreleased Windows 7, as well as Vista). Once installed, it lets the user select PDF Creator as their printer, which means that ANY application can print to PDF. Plus, you can merge multiple files into one PDF, encrypt the resulting file, and adjust other settings, such as disallowing printing.

I originally had some reservations about recommending this latest version, since it would be easy to accidentally install the potential-spyware 'toolbar', AND it offers to change your default search engines to Yahoo, neither of which I wanted. As it happened, it was actually easy to prevent both options from being installed.

PDF Creator is so highly regarded, having won several awards, that other companies are deliberately trying to mislead people into buying THEIR expensive commercial versions. The REAL PDF Creator is GPL-licensed free open source software, even for commercial use. This means that you have the freedom to examine the source code and extend the software for your needs, remove unwanted features, and make it look nicer in your environment (free as in freedom). It's also available at no cost (free as in beer). That's one of the beauties of the open source model. The consumer (the little guy - i.e. you and I) wins all round!

Just make sure that you go to the correct web site to get it: http://www.pdfforge.org