four forces

Connect to an Exchange server without using Outlook

fourforces — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:20:34 +0000

If you don’t want to use Microsoft Outlook and your Exchange server does not support IMAP, there are a couple of options:

DavMAil Exchange Gateway
DavMail is an exchange gateway allowing users to use any mail/calendar client (e.g. Thunderbird with Lightning or Apple iCal) with an Exchange server through Outlook Web Access.

It works on Windows, Linux and MacOS X.

Evolution
Novell Evolution connects to Microsoft Exchange (including Exchange 2007) via the web interface and has support for mail, calendar and address book. More information can be found at the Wikipedia entry.

Unfortunately, the MacOS version is outdated and the Vista version is buggy. It should run fine on XP and Linux.

Do you use any other way to connect to an Exchange server? Please leave a comment.

Filed under: Linux, Mac, Software, Windows Tagged: davmail, exchange, imap, microsoft, mozilla, outlook, server, smtp, thunderbird

Hotmail Free POP3 Access

fourforces — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:24:35 +0000

POP3 is now available to Hotmail users.

Settings:

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
POP SSL required? Yes
Username: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

Posted in Linux, Mac, Windows Tagged: hotmail, pop3, webmail

Add line numbers using lineno.sty in RevTex 4

fourforces — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:35:13 +0000

Download the lineno Latex package.
Unpack it (unzip lineno.zip) and copy all lineno/*.sty files into the directory that contains your Latex document.
In the Latex preamble include the line
\RequirePackage{lineno}
before the \documentclass{...} command.

Note: this is necessary due to incompatibilities between the lineno package and RevTex. If you are not using RevTex to prepare your document you can also use the standard way: \usepackage{lineno}
Line numbers can be activated by adding the line
\linenumbers
after \begin{document}

Convert eps files to jpg in Linux

fourforces — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:58:58 +0000

To convert from eps to jpg using ghostscript:

gs -sDEVICE=jpeg -dJPEGQ=100 -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -r300 -sOutputFile=myfile.jpg myfile.eps

This produces huge files. You can trim and resize them in image magick:

mogrify -trim -resize 800x600 myfile.jpg

Remove Ads in MSN Live Messenger

fourforces — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:59:59 +0000

To completely remove the ads in MSN Live Messenger, download ResHacker and use it to open msgsres.dll (found in the Live Messenger install directory) after you create a backup.

Resource Hacker^TM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files.

Then, to remove the annoying flashing ads in the buddy-list window browse to 4004/923/ and find and edit the line

to

You can also just block these ads as in the previous post.

To remove the text links in the chat windows browse to 4004/920/ and change
element id=atom(adbannercont) layout=filllayout()
to
element id=atom(adbannercont) layoutpos=none layout=filllayout()

Update: This seems to no longer be working for the latest version of Messenger Live. If you have a solution please post it in the comments…

Block Ads in MSN Live Messenger

fourforces — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:58:35 +0000

To block the ads in the buddy list window of MSN Live Messenger:

Go to the Control Panel
Double-click on Internet Options
Select the Security tab and click on Restricted sites
Click on the Sites button below and add rad.msn.com to the zone. Click on Close and the ads should disappear.

Alternatively, you can completely remove the ad elements.

Setup Mozilla Thunderbird to work with Microsoft Exchange Server

fourforces — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:13:51 +0000

1. Setup a new account under Tools/Account Settings/Add Account…
Select “E-mail Account” and add your details.
Use IMAP and input your incoming exchange server (Try port 993 and SSL encryption).

2. Subscribe to all required folders by right clicking on the account name and choosing ‘Subscribe…’.

3. Change the trash folder’s name to ‘Deleted Items’:
Follow the instructions in the Mozilla Zine.

4. Go to Tools/Options/Advanced/Config Editor:
Set boolean mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new to true.
Set boolean mail.imap.expunge_after_delete to true.

5. Go to Tools/Account Settings for the IMAP account:
Have it place a copy of sent mail to the ‘Sent Items’ folder.
Also have it save drafts and templates in the ‘Drafts’ folder.
Go to Junk Settings and have it send all junk to ‘Junk E-mail’.

6. If you are not using the Thunderbird default SMTP server, go to Tools/Account Settings/Outgoing Server and configure your outgoing SMTP server.

And that should be all…