Tired of Thunderbird

I swapped over to Thunderbird a while ago, from The Bat. There are times when I wish I hadn't. Despite numerous requests from myself and others. Thunderbird still does not have (even as an add-on) outgoing filters (that is, you can set up where to send copies of your outgoing mail instead of just SENT), nor tags for contacts (that is, you can have an on spec list of contacts based on one or more tags in their record)  which The Bat (and Outlook) had for a long long time. And this has mattered to me, but I just ignored the fact that nobody could be bothered to work on either in Thunderbird.

My original reason for swapping to Thunderbird was I wanted to have an email client that worked both in Windows and Linux, because I intended to have dual boot systems. That didn't effectively happen until the end of last year, and now all the PCs I have are dual boot. There's a new version of Thunderbird out (v10) and I dutifully installed it on the Studio PC, and lo and behold a major issue - can't actually see the message pane any more when I scroll through messages, and when I open it in in a new pane the header and message appear at the bottom of the tab with a huge open space above! No doubt there's a fix, but every time I've installed updates to Thunderbird I've had similar issues and problems, and the wankers who design it don't include updates for the features I want.

Nothing wrong with Firefox (though I have had similar ussues with its updates as well) and because it's one of two (the other being Explorer) browsers supported at the uni I shall probably continue to use it at home - but I don't see any reason why I should stick with Thunderbird when it continues not to meet my needs. So, as of now, I'm in the the market for a new cross-platform email client. It should have:

• Versions for Windows and Linux;
• I should be able to read the same set of messages and archive;
• Should be able to migrate those messages from Thunderbird to the client;
• Must be able to access/download POP3 and IMail;
• Both incoming and outgoing filters; and
• Reasonably stable updates and maintenance.

I am currently looking at OperaM2 (which comes with Opera web browser) and Evolution, but it seems there are others, as listed at Top 5 Email Client For Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows Users, and Cross Platform Email Clients. We'll see.

One year on

Kevin and Michelle moved out on 22nd January 2011. That means it is now  well over a year since they moved out. Do I have any regrets? The short answer is...

MOSTLY NO!

Those regrets I have had aren't about them moving out, but in the manner it was done. There were certainly loose ends when they left. The bathroom door still looks like this...

...because I never got around to fixing it. Living by myself, where I leave the door open, it wasn't urgent. Of course I never heard from Kevin again, and his taking the curtains without fixing the door first just serves to remind me one reason why they had to go. The other was Hallie and her pups - they were uncontrollable and I felt that sooner or later one of them would kill one of my cats, and I'd probably react the same way that Darryl next door did when the pups he got from K&M killed his cat (he killed them both). As it is, Xena the cat came back into my backyard after a 3 year absence, something I am really glad of. Darryl got a new cat, Toby, who sometimes visits. And next door a whole family moved in and had their fourth child a couple of weeks after doing so. Both their dogs do occasionally get in the yard (or at least Tucker used to until his tumor got so bad he had to be put down) but it's no great deal. I I really like Tim and Brook and their children.

I can imagine however what things would have been like had K & M still been here. The dogs would have continued to be a problem, especially if they'd kept jumping the fences and fighting the dogs two houses up in next door's backyard! Kevin used to play his music really loud and it was an issue for Darryl who was a shift worker. While I have occasionally done the same in the studio (which was where their old computer room) it just hasn't been an issue. And of course the new fence finally went up. Hard to imagine that would have happened if K&M were still here, and their dogs would have complicated things immensely. I bumped into Michelle at uni last year, and they seemed settled enough, though she told me that Bella had almost died twice (once when she cut her leg on the fence, and another time when Strip had her by the neck in "play"). And all I could think off was "thank shit they're no longer at my place"!

No, any regrets I have were how little I made of last year at uni with my studies. The assumption was that with them gone I'd be more focussed. I was, but  not to the degree expected. I got less work done than I hoped, but at least with them gone it was a lot clearer about why and what I might do. And I was able to save! Just before they left Kevin was paying $200 / fortnight rent, plus about 50% of the power and broadband bill. With them gone I initially had a period of expenses, but once that was over I was able to budget for my regulars (land rates, water rates, phone & broad bill, and power) and make fortnightly payments towards them. It's worked, because none of the outstanding bills when they come are very large, and I still have credit on the power. My power consumption dropped to 45% of what it had been when they were here (they used to wash their clothing and use the spin dryer daily)! I also started putting $50 / fortnight into an extra savings account and it pays off. Before, no savings, and constant arguments over bills and shared stuff.

Perhaps if I would have changed anything it would have been to have Kevin swap back the innards of the Media PC I had him build and the MythBuntu server he'd built to record digital TV. At one point he asked me if he could swap over the motherboards because the media PC ran faster than the server. I agreed, but when he asked whether to swap them back it all seemed too complicated and I said no. I might not have had the problems I did last month with it. But who knows? The one fear I had with Kevin gone was not being able to repair the PCS, and I did that without his help after all.

So over all I now have more peace of mind, less worry and and much more confidence, than I ever had while Kevin and Michelle were here. And that must be a good thing.

Rain gap

Between almost continuous showers, I was able to go down the road and pick up two hand made speaker boxes which might make excellent outdoor chairs, and also put some garden stuff out the front. So glad I mowed the lawn late yesterday!

Old Friends

I've chucked out two old TVs which I've had for years but will no longer be useful once there's only digital TV here, as neither can run from a set top box easily.

The Sharp three-in-one TV which I bought in 1979. I originally bought it as a monitor for my Dick Smith System-80 (which was a TRS-80 clone), but it worked better as a B&W portable TV. It was the first TV I've ever owned. In the past I've had this and my Lemair TV on a l-o-n-g extension cord running in the backyard. The cassette player stopped working in 1989 but the TV and radio still worked (after a fashion).

The Lemair colour TV which I bought in 1983. It still worked on three channels (NBN, ABC, and whatever you selected on the UHF dial) but on humid and wet days it would give you a shock if you touched it with your bare hand! I At age 26, I had measles when I bought this. Not a good state to buy something in!