Using Thunderbird for email

Being someone who has a lot of email addresses, I am constantly on the lookout for the “best” email program to help me manage my accounts.  With the advent of Windows 7, Microsoft decided not to include an email client in the base installation, forcing users to download “Windows Live Mail“.  I’ve used WLM for a while, but it seemed to give me the dreaded “Program not responding” error messages a lot.

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of FOSS, (Free and Open Source Software), so I thought I would give Mozilla’s Thunderbird a try.  I’ve been using Thunderbird on my MacBook for over a year now, and it is so much better than the stock email client that comes with OSX.

(Side note:  Over the last 6 years, I’ve either used a Linux computer running Thunderbird, or now my MacBook as my primary email computer.  Doing this eliminates the effects of Windows based email viruses.)

I like Thunderbird’s ability to manage multiple email accounts, when correctly set up, it sends email to the appropriate inbox, not lumping everything into a global inbox.  Years ago, when I used Outlook Express, I would have to set up different “identities”, and also run Mailwasher to deal with the SPAM.  Thunderbird does a wonderful job of dealing with the “tons” of SPAM that I get from 3 of my oldest email addresses.  These email addresses probably show up on all of the spammers marketing lists that are sold everyday.  Although you have to “train” Thunderbird as to what SPAM you want removed, it does a great job of keeping my inboxes clean.

Give Thunderbird a try by downloading it here.  There are versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

Emerge Desktop

If you are looking for a way to customize the “look and feel” of your Windows Desktop, try downloading and installing the Emerge Desktop.  It supports Windows versions from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, (in both 32 and 64bit versions).

Emerge Desktop is a replacement for the Windows explorer window manager.  It provides a system tray, a taskbar, and virtual desktops.  It replaces the start button with  a desktop right-click menu for accessing all your programs.  Emerge Desktop features can be enabled or disabled optionally for complete customization.

It certainly gives the traditional Windows desktop a look that is more consistent with a “linux-like” look and feel.  Give it a try and see what you think.

More Malware Scams

I saw a new TV ad today for a website called maxmyspeed.com.  This is yet another website giving away a “free” antivirus/antispyware scan sponsored by CyberDefender.  Don’t fall for these scams!  I absolutely hate these websites that try to trick unsuspecting customers into downloading their software and and then try to extort money from them to remove the imaginary viruses and malware.

If you are still unsure about CyberDefender, (the software that you have to download and install), then just Google “Cyberdefender scams” and see what happens.  Seems like CyberDefenders’ new tactic is to go after anyone that writes a bad review.

Stay away from these guys at all costs.  Make sure that your system is protected with valid antivirus/antispyware software.  We highly recommend using Vipre, (see the banner ad below), a lean and mean AV solution for your PC.

Updating your Software

Whether you are using Windows, Mac, Linux, or Unix based operating systems, you must keep them current with the latest updates.  Security holes, (re: vunerabilities), are in every operating system.  For Windows users, you must not only keep up with the latest OS updates, but you must also keep updated antivirus and antimalware software.

As though keeping the OS and antivirus software updated is not enough, you must also keep all your other software updated and patched.  Using any software that is out of date, just gives the “bad guys” one more place to enter your system.  The list of software that needs updating just keeps growing.  From browsers, (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, or Safari), to media players, (Windows Media Player, VLC,), to chat clients, to office software, (MS-Office, OpenOffice).

One of the advantages of most distributions of Linux is that there is a central updating system for all software, operating system and all other software.  This makes is a lot easier to keep your system secure.

Note:  As I’m writing  this post, WordPress is prompting me to install an update!

Antivirus Scams

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials on TV for “MyCleanPC.com”, “Double My Speed”, or a similar product, with glowing “testimonials” about how it restored their PC to better than original state.  Don’t believe any of the claims for one second.  Almost all these “free trial” products use a known malware program called “CyberDefender“.  These scam artists have all kinds of variations, a product named AntiVirus 2010, is just one of the newest.

If you get “infected” with any of these rouge programs, try downloading , VIPRE (a legit company).  I use Vipre on all my Windows PC’s and laptops, and have been virus and malware free for over 3 years now.  Vipre will even let you try the fully functioning version for 30 days, which is plenty of time for you to get your system clean.  Vipre is a “lean and mean” antivirus product, unlike Norton, Trend Micro, or McAfee products which really slow your computer down.  I also like the fact that I can purchase an unlimited Home site license for only $50 a year.  That’s perfect for my situation, as we have 4 computers running Windows 7.

VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware

Vacation Rental Website Development

In addition to our own websites,  BITS specializes in creating websites for the vacation rental home market.  An example of our work is Tree House Hot Springs.

We would be happy to create any website, (from one page to many pages), for your vacation rental house or cabin.  We can even “host”, (store) the webpages under one of our servers.  Hosting costs start as little as $99 a year, (1 year minimum), and includes 2 email accounts.

Contact us for more information, anytime.

WordPress Theme Design

Even though our most recent update to the CentralColorado.com main website is done with Dreamweaver, we are slowly transitioning all of our websites over to WordPress.  The mobile version of CentralColorado.com is done with WordPress and a theme downloaded from the WordPress.org website.

Although you can download numerous free WordPress themes from all sorts of websites, we decided to create our own “Themes”.

We are creating “FREE” WordPress templates that anyone can download and use, (as long as they give BITS the credit for the design).  Check back often for new templates.

Windows 7 “Upgrades”

Over the last few months, I have been transitioning our production computers over to various Windows 7 configurations.  Currently we have two desktop production computers, both running 64 bit versions of Windows 7.  One is running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit and the other is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.  Both of these systems had Windows XP on them, but with the security issues of running an “old” OS, we decided to upgrade everything running Windows XP.  I “upgraded” both desktop computers to 4GB of RAM, prior to doing a clean install of Windows 7.

In addition to the two desktop production computers, we also have two Windows 7 laptops, one running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and the other laptop running the 32bit version.  Both run Windows 7 with 2GB of RAM on board very smoothly, and I think better than they did on Windows XP.  All of the computers were “upgraded” doing a clean install.

I upgraded our Acer netbook from Windows XP Home to Easy Peasy today, so that we don’t have to worry about Windows XP security issues on it anymore.

Easy Peasy

A couple of days ago, I was on Distrowatch and noticed a Linux distribution called Easy Peasy.  It’s a distro that’s specifically written for netbooks using Ubuntu 8.04.  Since we have a netbook laying around, I decided to give Easy Peasy a try.  After downloading the ISO and downloading the installer for a USB stick, and I booted the netbook, ( an Acer 8.9″, about 1 1/2 years old, with an Intel Atom 1.6ghz cpu and 1GB of RAM).  It ran fine straight from the USB stick, even finding our wireless network, so I thought about installing it on the hard drive.

Today, I backed up some pictures that Carolyn had stored on the netbook, (it was running Windows XP Home).  I stuck the USB stick back into a USB slot, and booted the OS up, and installed it to the hard drive.  Easy Peasy has an extremely smooth install process, and I was finished in about 10 minutes.  I rebooted the netbook, removing the USB stick, and was really impressed by how fast the boot times off the hard drive are.  After customizing the “look and feel” of the interface, I surfed my favorite websites using the preinstalled Firefox.

Easy Peasy has done a great job remastering Ubuntu to run on a netbook.  I give this distro a solid 2 thumbs up!

Living with RA

I was diagnosed in June of 1996 with Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I don’t pretend to know how everyone with RA feels, and will only tell you about my own experiences with this disease.  My RA started out with a stiff and swollen finger. This came and went without concern for more than two years.  An episode with the swollen finger progressed to several fingers being involved and lasted for several weeks and spread to my wrist and other joints becoming stiff or sore.  I went to the Doctor and was diagnosed with a blood test.

In the summer of 2004 my husband was replacing some shingles on the roof of our detached garage and when he finished he complained about his feet really hurting. I thought the pain was coming from his toes being bent, standing on the pitched roof,  but after a day or two his feet were OK.  A couple of months later he start complaining about his wrists hurting.  At the time, Walt was building a lot of custom computers for our business, (ICE Computer) and used his hands in a twisting manner.

After repeated flareups with his wrists he went to the doctor several times and asked if it was arthritis, thinking it was osteoarthritis from wear and tear.  In his younger days he was an ASE certified mechanic and had also done construction work for a long time, but the doctor was convinced he had carpel tunnel syndrome.  After six weeks of self paid hand and wrist therapy he had no improvement.  Finally it dawned on us that maybe he should be tested for RA, so he insisted on the RA factor blood test and lo and behold it was positive.  Not all people with RA will show positive on the blood test, but all people with a positive test do have RA.

I now tell everyone I meet that has similar complaints to have the RA factor blood test as a precaution.  The moral of the story is sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands and become more pro active in your own medical care.