Author: Chris Ilias

Newsgroups automatically updating in Thunderbird

Chris Ilias

People using Mozilla Thunderbird to read newsgroups may like this one.
Notice how when you expand the list of subscribed newsgroups in the folder pane, Thunderbird automatically connects to the server, to update the unread/total messages count on each subscribed newsgroup? Then, when you click on a newsgroup, Thunderbird automatically downloads new messages. Both actions can be disabled.

In Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General.
Click on Config Editor.
There are two preference settings to look for, in the Config Editor:
news.update_unread_on_expand and news.get_messages_on_select.

To prevent Thunderbird from updating the unread/total messages count, when you expand the list of subscribed newsgroups, search for the preference setting news.update_unread_on_expand, and double-click on it (setting the value to false).
To prevent Thunderbird from automatically downloading new messages when you click on a newsgroup, search for the preference setting news.get_messages_on_select, and double-click on it (setting the value to false).

I’ve discovered SSI

Chris Ilias 5 Comments

Back in November, I posted about a problem I’ve had with my Mozilla and Netscape help sites. They had become too big to have all FAQs on one page, and were laborious to update. It was obvious that I needed to give each FAQ item its own page, but that presented a different problem. If I ever want to update the schema of the site, I’d have to manually edit hundreds of pages.

Frames, as any good webmaster will tell you, is out of the question. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time learning/experimenting with content management systems, but every one I’ve tried is overkill (Not to mention the ugly URLs, they create).

Finally, unlike Bono, I’ve found what I’m looking for. It’s Server Side Includes (SSI). “As its name implies, its primary use is including the contents of one file in another.” In other words, I can create a file containing the HTML of my site header, and have all pages use that file, for the header. If I make any changes to that file, it is reflected on all pages.

I can’t wait to start using it. I feel like I’ve been walking to work everyday, and have just learnt how to drive a car. My life is about to get much easier. 🙂

Outlook and OE address book support in Thunderbird

Chris Ilias 48 Comments

Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey (and even the Mozilla Suite and Netscape 7) can actually be set up to use your Outlook Express address book, and/or your Outlook Contacts list. It’s just another one of those features that are not in the user interface.

To make Thunderbird use your Outlook Express address book, close Thunderbird, and add the following lines to your prefs.js file:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.description", "Outlook Express");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OE.uri", "moz-aboutlookdirectory://oe/");

For Outlook Contacts, use these lines:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.description", "Outlook");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.dirType", 3);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.Outlook.uri", "moz-aboutlookdirectory://op/");

One important note: in order for it to work with Outlook, Outlook must be set as the system default mail client.

Interestingly enough, it appears this feature goes back to Mozilla 1.0.

Is your email address safe from spam on news.mozilla.org?

Chris Ilias 5 Comments

One of the most frequently asked questions regarding the new Mozilla news server is whether or not people will need to munge their posting addresses, to prevent spammers from getting their addresses, like they do on Usenet newsgroups. I’ve never been able to answer that, because I just don’t know. News.mozilla.org is not propagated to Usenet, but is archived on Google; so the question is: How much of that spam is a result being archived on Google, and how much is a result of being propagated to other Usenet servers?

The Good:
I’ve created an email alias specifically for news.mozilla.org, which I only use on news.mozilla.org. If/When I get spam, I can look at the headers, to see if it was sent to my news.mozilla.org address. Currently, 1 month after the server went live, 207 of my news.mozilla.org posts are on Google. I have not received any spam sent to my news.mozilla.org address.

The Bad:
Just recently, it appears one independent news administrator decided to work around the lack of usenet feed, by copying the articles right off news.mozilla.org, and mirroring them on his/her own server. Potentially, he/she could feed the groups to usenet.

The Ugly (profanity ahead):
Any news administrator who decides to do this, is an asshole for doing so. People post messages on news.mozilla.org with the impression that their posting addresses are not going to be propagated to usenet. The Mozilla Foundation consciously decided not to propagate to usenet; and this(these) news admin(s) are completely disrespecting that decision, and being inconsiderate to those using news.mozilla.org. All because one or two people are too spoiled and lazy to set up a second news account in their newsreader (which can easily be done).

February 24, 2006 update: I have just received one spam message sent to my news.mozilla.org address. Probably due to bug 326759

How to upgrade Firefox 1.5

Chris Ilias 10 Comments

As I’ve been reading various discussion groups, it occurs to me that when a user reads that Firefox 1.5.0.1 is out, he/she rushes to the Mozilla website to download it. Sorta puts all that hard work on the update system to waste .

Yes, I know the majority of Firefox users probably don’t hang out in technical discussion groups; but still, wherever you see an announcement, let them know that 1.5 users can use Help -> Check for Updates.

SeaMonkey and Firefox/Thunderbird share more than I thought.

Chris Ilias 5 Comments

Some of you may be aware of my webpage that compares the differences between Mozilla Suite versus Firefox and Thunderbird. With the impending release of SeaMonkey 1.0, I decided to create an equivalent page comparing SeaMonkey against Firefox and Thunderbird. Because SeaMonkey uses the Mozilla 1.8 codebase, I figured the list of differences would shrink; but I was surprised by how much it shrank. This is specifically because one product may have a user interface for a feature, while the other doesn’t.

For instance:
– Scam detection: In Thunderbird, you can go to Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Email Scams, and check mark the box. There’s no menu for it in SeaMonkey, but all you need to do is enter about:config in the browser location bar, and search for the pref mail.phishing.detection.enabled. Double-click on it, to toggle between on (true) and off (false).

– Anti-Virus support: In Thunderbird, you can go to Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Anti-Virus, and check mark the box. Again, there’s no menu for it in SeaMonkey, but all you need to do is enter about:config in the browser location bar, and add the Boolean pref mailnews.downloadToTempFile. Setting the value to true enables the feature, while setting it to false disables it. (The default is false.)

– Marking Junk as read: In SeaMonkey, go to Tools -> Junk Mail Controls, and for each account, you’ll see a check box for “Mark messages determined to be Junk as read”. The check box isn’t in Thunderbird, but the feature is there. Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General, and click on “Config Editor” (finally, a user-friendly term for aboutconfig). Search for a pref called mail.server.default.markAsReadOnSpam. Copy the name of that pref, and clear the config search field. By looking at your other preference settings, you should be able to determine the server number of the account you want to set the preference for. Once you’ve done that, add an edited version of the Boolean preference you copied, replacing “default” with the server and number of the account you are editing. (eg. mail.server.server2.markAsReadOnSpam ) (Restarting Thunderbird is required)

It’s Alive!!

Chris Ilias 3 Comments

news.mozilla.org has now been switched over to Giganews.
Just a quick reminder: The article sequence numbers won’t match between the old news server at AOL and the Giganews server. This means that you will have a wrong count of which messages are read. (Most likely, all messages will be marked as read, as well as many new ones after that.) It would be best to re-subscribe to your current netscape.public.mozilla.* newsgroups.

Luckily, newsgroups that don’t have a counterpart on the netscape.public.mozilla* hierarchy didn’t have to wait. This means the user support newsgroups are up and running. For the first time ever, there are user support forums on a server actually called “mozilla.org“. -)

For more info, read the News Migration FAQ or my Unofficial New Mozilla News Server Information Centre.