Out with Thunderbird, in with Google…

So when I finally post my new ‘installing ubuntu’ blog, you will know that I am unhappy with how Thunderbird is behaving. This is unfortunate timing for Thunderbird, because lately I have been looking through all the ‘new’ google apps.

I’ve always like Gmail, and to be honest, was a little sad when I switched to TB, because it meant I wasn’t using gmail on the web anymore. Google Reader is the RSS feature of google, and what with all my switching computers and rebooting etc. I thought that it made sense to start using that. It’s all online, and easy to access, which for me is a big plus.

Reader is VERY easy to use, and I like that I can put feeds into folders. For example, I have Luke’s blog feed, and his del.icio.us feed in one folder entitled ‘Luke’. When I view that folder it doesn’t discriminate  between any of the feeds, just shows me what the latest published thing was.

I like that everything is online, easy to use, and fits together. I’ll continue to use Google online for my emails and RSS, until I get sick or it, or want a challenge and try to fix whatever the problem is with Thunderbird.

Until then, feel free to ’stalk’ me on twitter: www.twitter.com/Sunshinetalia

 

Pandora Music Player

I recently found this great new music player for Pandora. Pandora is an online music player, go here for more details.

The only problem is that you have to run it in your web browser, well, not anymore. A new app has been created, and here’s a little note from it’s creator, Luke:

Here’s a little app I created to fix that problem:

Pandora Player

 

Pandora Player will put pandora in it’s own application, so you can keep it aside from your regular browsing experience.

 

Windows only at this stage – the mac versions a little buggy and the linux version hasn’t been tested.

 

Haven’t tried it in Vista, just XP.

 

So please, feel free to redistribute!

 

CSS

Luke is teaching my cousin, JP how to write a web page. I’m picking a few things up as I go. Here’s some in this document: css-and-html.doc.

 

How To Make A Signature In Thunderbird

If you Thunderbird you will know that creating a signature in it isn’t as easy as File, Propeties, Create Signature. It’s easy enough to do, just hard to find…

Step One: Open any text edit program and write in your details. Make sure you save it as a plain text file.

Step Two: Click on local folders, then view settings for this account.

Step Three: Click on the email address you want to add the signature to (with the + or – sign next to it). The second last option is a tick box saying, add a signature, tick it.

Step Four:  Click choose, next to it, and locate the file you’re after. Press Open. Click save, and you’re done. Compose a message to check that all the settings are right.

 

“Wow”

According to Microsoft, “The Wow Starts Now”, but not everyone agrees. I’m sure they’re talking about their new operating system, Vista, but I can’t help but look at their ads and think to myself, “Wow”. For those of you who’ve seen one of the ads you’ll know what I mean, here’s one word to sum it up: corny.

On my recent trip to Melbourne I saw one of these ads at a tram stop.

I don’t know who thought of the slogan, but the should be fired.  It sounds like something Steve Ballmer would say.

I hate to say it, but some things will just never be cool.

 

The Wedding Dress

I’ve heard that shopping for wedding dresses can be one of the most stressful, tiresome, heart breaking and expensive times of your life. So today when I went on my first day of ‘real’ wedding dress shopping and managed to fall in love with the perfect dress, I was a little surprised.

A few weeks prior my friend had bought a wedding dress, off the rack, only a week or so after she got engaged. When I had heard this I was surprised. “How could you find a dress that you liked, just off the rack!?” I thought.
Obviously my expectations for the trip weren’t that I would find a dress, or even that I would put on a dress that day that I liked, I was merely there to get designs and ideas so that Mum and I could create our own, or, I could speak to someone about getting one ‘made to order’.

So when we walked into Elizabeth de Varga, a designer store, and saw a whole range of beautiful dresses, and loved one in particular, I was surprised at myself. My mother on the other hand was more surprised at the $3080 price tag, and that’s not including the extra sleeve bits that I wanted. ‘Rosemary’ was it’s name, and it was simply stunning. I might scan a picture of the sketch for you to see…

The next three hours were spent looking through bridal shops and dress shops finding nothing that compared to the one that I wanted. I scared my fiancé by telling him how much the one that I LOVED was, and my mother gave me unsure, telling looks that I might have to raise some of the dosh myself. A little hard with no job. :-(

After meeting my fiancé for lunch, and returning to a store that we hadn’t finished in yet, my mother showed me a dress, that I had previously dismissed, again. I tried it on, and viola, I was in love. I wore the dress for the rest of the afternoon, prancing around in it, holding different bouquets, different veils, etc. I’ve got it all worked out now, and this baby was only $1500, excluding the veil, and obviously bouquet.

So was the experience traumatic? No. Was the experience expensive? Not for me… Was the experience tiresome? I was tired by the end of it. Mostly, was the experience worth it? Absolutely! I found my perfect dress.
It will be need to be taken up and the bodice altered slightly to create a ’sweetheart’ neckline, as opposed to straight, but it is perfect and fitted and slim and lace and pretty and not white and just… perfect! I can’t wait to get married now! Woo hoo!