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Wed, 22 Jun 2005

[03:48] Sunbird Calendar
Date: 6/22/05 at 11:48AM

I finally caved yesterday after all of my meetings moved about three times and my diary (written on paper) ended up looking like some kind of cryptic treasure map. I'm using paper because I don't have a tiny mobile computer yet (they're all too delicate and expensive) and I can't use the work calendering system (Lotus Notes) because I still don't have access due to some administrative bungles.

So, I headed for Sunbird. I looked at Sunbird a while back and it seems to have moved on quite a bit since then. The 0.2 release was set free on Friday, February 4th 2005 and it's slowly developing into a useful app.

The problem I have is that I want it accessible from multiple locations (hopefully I can get online from wherever I am) to deal with the lack of portable device to keep it on. Sunbird provides the ability to publish your calendar to a remote server via HTTP. It uses the iCal file format. Searching for iCal on google provides a link to iCal Exchange. This is a free service that will host your calendar, password protected if you wish. Obviously if you are going to be putting private/secret information (ie 1630 - Dominatrix Appt.) in your diary you don't want it out there on the internet so it's up to you to decide if you can utilise this service. If you have the luxury of a home server then you can host it yourself - there's an Apache module, mod_dav, that will do the job for you. From what I've seen the website that Carlos provides is pretty slick - the interface is simple and data transfer is quick!

I had to get it to go through my work proxy and as the interface is still lacking polish there is no proxy option. To get it working I had to do the following:


  1. Download Sunbird 0.2. This is the ZIP package, just unpack it somewhere
  2. Run sunbird.exe from wherever you unpacked it.
  3. Shut it down again, now all of the initial preferences have been set.
  4. Locate your prefs.js file. It will be somewhere like: C:\Documents and Settings\
    YOUR_USER_NAME\Application Data\MozillaSunbird\Profiles\A_RANDOM_STRING\prefs.js and open it in Notepad
  5. Add the proxy settings:
    user_pref("network.proxy.autoconfig_url", "http://your.proxy.url/proxy.pac");
    user_pref("network.proxy.type", 2);

    I stole these settings from Firefox, I use an automatic proxy so if you have a single proxy these settings might not be correct. I'll look up the other proxy settings and post them here later.
  6. Start up Sunbird again
  7. Go to the Tools menu and select Options
  8. Add your remote URL. If you're using iCal then it will be something like http://icalx.com/private/USER_NAME/CALENDAR_NAME.ICS
  9. Press OK
  10. Over on the left hand side there's a little tabbed menu. Click on the second tab, Calendars and right click on the calendar listed there. Select Edit Calendar from the menu.
  11. The Remote Calendar URL should be populated now but you should tick the Automatically publish your changes tick box down the bottom. Press OK
  12. Last step, right click on the calendar and this time select Publish Entire Calendar from the menu
  13. A window will pop up with the URL you entered before, press the Publish button. If you've selected a private calendar then you will be prompted for the username and password you entered on the website. Press the Close button.

That's it!
It works but it's a no-frills service so far. Obviously Sunbird has a long way to go, maybe it's time I finally pulled my finger out and did something useful for the Open Source community.....

category: /modblog | permalink | Comments suspended due to spamwhores

[01:10] Painting London : Your Options are Bumpy or Sticky
Date: 6/22/05 at 9:10AM

I've been doing a LOT of walking in the past two weeks in the search for a place to live. Whilst on these adventures I've been observing London and the way it's different to home.

I'm one of those annoying people who like to tap on fences/railings whilst walking past them. If one has a stick, all well and good; If not, hands will do. So anyway, I was walking along a road (after a failed attempt to get into BT Tower) and I turned onto Euston Road. This road is quite large so the powers that be have built a fence along the side to stop you wandering into the traffic. I automatically stuck my hand out to tap-tap-tap on the railings as I went by and - and this is the exciting bit - nearly stripped all the skin from my fingers. This was my first encounter with the Bumpy Paint.

I stopped and investigated the railings. Although they were painted matt black the paint was impregnated with what can only be described as 'stuff'. Some of the stuff was quite large and protruded from the surface about 6-7mm, other pieces were smaller like sandpaper. Looking around I noticed that every other council owned object was painted with the same substance, lightpoles, traffic signal boxes, fences - anything that hadn't moved while the painting team went through I think. Since then (that was last weekend now) I have come across it in several places and I'm still not 100% sure what it is.

My initial theory that they'd heard I was coming over and wanted to force me to sand my own arms off doesn't realy seem all that likely and the only other thing I can think of is that it's an anti-graffiti measure. It would probably stop Magic Marker activities but I doubt spray paint would have any problems, it's also possible that the nodules would prevent bill posters from sticking their wares as there wouldn't be enough points of contact for the glue to hold. I've search for anti-graffiti products and there are none that match what I'm seeing here. I decided to send an e-mail to the London Mayor (it was the only e-mail address I could find) and ask him. The mail was received and they replied:

We will look into all of the points you have raised and get back to you as soon as possible.

So they obviously haven't read it :) If they ever do I shall pass on the information here: watch this space.

The sticky paint is easier. I came across it about two days ago and I thought I'd actually found an answer to the bumpy paint. Whilst walking along Vauxhall Road I saw a big yellow sign (see a lovely selection here) saying Anti-Climb Paint. I rushed over thinking that it was going to be the bumpy paint and found that it was actually some black goop that they smear on stuff to stop vandals/burglars from climbing on or over them. Theoretically you can't climb downpipes because you'll slip off and you can't climb other things because you won't want to get dirty. I'm not sure just how effective this actually is. I think some gloves would make it quite easy....

I like an industry that covers all angles. The paint industry brings us non-slip paint for pool surrounds and slip paint for everything else!

category: /modblog | permalink | Comments suspended due to spamwhores