Thursday, May 13, 2004

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Diversified Systems Group, Inc. - Media & Services - CD-R/DVD-R - Bulk CD-R/DVD-R - Mitsui

Diversified Systems Group, Inc. - Media & Services - CD-R/DVD-R - Bulk CD-R/DVD-R - Mitsui

Sell "gold" and other longer lived Matsui media.

Issue 12 - Which Brands of CD-R Discs are Best for Long-Term Data and Photo Storage?

Issue 12 - Which Brands of CD-R Discs are Best for Long-Term Data and Photo Storage?
6. Typically, Japanese made CD-Rs tend have better quality control, IMO.

Once they move production to Taiwan/Mexico, forget em.

Top Quality Name-Brands, in order of preference:

A. Mitsui Gold CD-R & Kodak Gold Ultima - Phthalocyanine dye + Gold.
B. Kodak Gold Silver+Gold - Phthalocyanine dye + Silver & Gold.
C. Mitsui Silver, Ricoh Platinum - Phthalocyanine dye + Silver.
D. Mitsubishi/Verbatim - Azo + Silver.
E. Taiyo Yuden - Cyanine + Silver.

Last updated in 2001, but little seems to have changed. There's new interest in longer-lived CD-R so maybe we'll learn more.

Ultimately we need Google to go into the off-site backup business.

NAV on OS X deletes entire Eudora mailbox files

MacInTouch Home Page: "Notes and Tips

Alan Claver offered some good tips for avoiding Norton AntiVirus's bad habit of destroying entire mailbox files:

The problem is that the virus signature appears in clear text within the mailbox file and/or spool files of Eudora. This text is matched by NAV and depending on your options the file is either deleted or quarantined (with predicably bad results).
Not every definition file appeara to have these signatures but when they are downloaded and incorporated into NAV, these issues occur.
The fix for this is to exclude the folder which contains the IMAP and/or SPOOL folders from NAV real-time and scheduled scan configurations. For the standard Eudora 6.x installation on OS X:

* POP mail folder: {home}/Eudora Folder/Mail Folder
* IMAP folder: {home}/Eudora Folder/IMAP Folder/{mailbox folders}
* SPOOL folder: {home}/Eudora Folder/Delivery Folder

Don't just exclude the entire IMAP folder because the Attachment folder for the particular IMAP account is located there and that folder must be scanned (since that's where the virus files are dropped)."

Monday, May 10, 2004

resolving iPhoto blurring?

iPhoto 4, Macintouch

Terrell Smith

Indeed, iPhoto does do far too much blurring. It can be corrected simply by clicking on one of the brightness/contrast sliders in Edit. You will then see the picture snap into focus."

Outlook's propensity to lose custom views

Text of a usenet post -- I'll link to the thread when it's published ...

Ok, I'm sorry for the multiple posts from this am, but I hope you'll agree that in sum they're useful. I'm thrilled someone else is working to track this down.

I may have a workaround for the bug. Others can test this out. I think it only works with Outlook 2003 and exchange server.

First -- what we know & speculate:

1. This is an old bug. Custom views have been disappearing since Outlook 98.
2. It doesn't happen to everyone! It probably requires Exchange server problems or some other oddity. I use multiple PST files, for example.
3. Custom views USED to be stored in views.dat. So pre-2003 users of Outlook can happily back up views.dat and be fine. Lucky dogs!
4. The problem MAY be related to synchronization between the multiple locations of custom views, including PST files, OST files, Exchange server etc.
5. If custom views have "folder scope", rather than being "PST scope" or "All folder scope", I wonder if they're less likely to vanish?

Now the new thing.

Outlook 2003 has a new feature -- one can "copy" folder design. The help file text for this is incoherent. I don't know if it really works. This is what I'm testing to backup and restore my custom views. I'm trying to create the views only with "folder scope".

1. Create a new PST file called "ViewsBackup" and create empty folders in it for Calendar, Tasks, etc.
2. Click on my empty Calendar folder. Then chose File:Folder:Copy Folder Design. Select the SOURCE folder for the Views. In theory this should copy Views to the "ViewsBackup" folder. Repeat for each of the main folders (Calendar, etc)
3. Exit Outlook and backup (I zipped it) the "ViewsBackup.pst" file.

Next time I lose my custom views, I'll try restoring them from either ViewsBackup.pst or ViewsBackup.zip (whichever works).

meta: outlook, bug, defect, exchange, synchronization, data loss, custom views, custom view, filter, disappear, vanish, lose, disappearing, outlook 2003, gone, jfaughnan, jgfaughnan

update

This June 2000 article describes how older versions of outlook stored custom views.

update II

Ok, this is interesting. There's a LOT of broken stuff in this part of Outlook. Playing with this domain I broke views in many interesting ways, including varying views appearing from click to click, parts of the views list disappearing, etc.

1. /cleanviews is a command line option that's handy to get the views working again.
2. The only views I can copy from one folder to another (using the method outlined above), are views created with scope of "this folder, visible to everyone". I think "All xxx Folders" causes odd conflicts when copied, and "This Folder, Visible only to me" doesn't work at all.
3. The Copy Folder Design / Views & Forms doesn't do a full overwrite. I'm not sure what it does when names collide, or if it only matches on names. If a view name does not exist at the target it adds the view name.

Using Command lines with Outlook 2003

Using Command lines with Outlook 2003

Very nice reference, some handy troubleshooting solutions.