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Only on the rare occasion do I find myself actually getting excited about software. Today is one of those days, and what is the instigator you may ask. Well it’s FinchSync.

FinchSync is a tool for synchronizing contacts, appointments and tasks from Mozilla email and calendar products with a Pocket PC or SmartPhone.

Contacts are synchronized with the email client’s address book. The build-in applications of the Netscape- and Mozilla Application Suite are supported as well as the standalone Mozilla Thunderbird.

As a devout user of Thunderbird and Sunbird I’ve been unable to truly get 100% out of my Axim. I’ve had to settle for copying contacts, tasks and appointments across manually, a laborious task as you can well imagine, and a total productivity inhibitor.

And then Finchsync hoves in to view with it’s absolute simplicity. A small java server on the pc and a small sync cab on the axim. The setup was straightforward, server and client, the documentation perfect. I simply chose the Thunderbird and Sunbird files that I wished to be sync’d and then setup a user and server account, hit the sync button and hurrah, 250+ contacts zoomed over to my Axim.

If you’re an Outlook abstainer like myself, get this now !

I’m in heaven, thank you, oh thank you, finchsync !!

UPDATE:

I did have one problem, but more related to Sunbird than Finchsync. They changed from ics files for the calendar and tasks so you’ll need to follow this sunbird v3 how to if you are using the latest Sunbird.

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 Beta 1 is out and about.

# Message Tags: Create your own tags for organizing email. Messages can be assigned any number of tags. Tags can be combined with saved searches and mail views to make it easier to organize email.
# Visual Theme:Thunderbird 2’s theme and user interface have been updated to improve usability.
# Session History Navigation: Back and Forward buttons allow navigation through message history.
# Folder Views: Customize the folder pane to show favorite, unread or recent folders.
# Improved Support For Extensions: Extensions can now add custom columns to the message list pane in addition to storing custom message data in the mail database.
# Improved Offline Management: Thunderbird (Linux and Windows) automatically adjusts the offline state based on current network connectivity.
# Improved New Mail Notification Alerts:New mail alerts include information such as the subject, sender and message text.
# Folder Summary Popups: Mouse over a folder with new messages to see a summary of the new messages in that folder.
# Saved Search Folder Performance: Search results for saved search folders are now cached, improving folder loading performance.
# Find As You Type
# Improved Filing Tools: Recent folder menu items for moving and copying folders to recently used folders. Move / Copy again functionality.
# Updates to the extension system: The extension system has been updated to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions.
# New Windows installer: Based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System, the new Windows installer resolves many long-standing issues.
# MacOS X Univesal Binaries

Been waiting for the new version of Thunderbird for a long while. I always assumed they’d run firefox and thunderbird releases alongside each other but better late than never.

I know the greasemonkey extension has been around for a good long while but I only really took any notice of it when I started using Flickr on a more regular basis. The main instigator was the script to add referer comments automatically on photos, it basically puts a footer in your comment telling the recipient of the comment about where you discovered their photo.

The author of the script Pierre Andrews also has a stock of other great Greasemonkey scripts which i’ve now almost all installed. They’re well thought out and add quite a bit of extra functionality to Flickr, sometimes I wonder why the Flickr guys don’t just add these features in to the application for everyone to enjoy.

So here’s to an easier life in flickr! Check them all out if you’re a regular.

On booting this morning, had the windows upate icon appear. A quick click to see what this mornings upgrade is…

Sly buggers! Now that’s a clever way to push Firefox aside! The browser war is getting underhand!

Firefox really has to keep up in this respect, Microsoft has handed itself this great delivery channel for just about all of it’s products!

I’m quite surprised that they have changed this into a channel for delivering paid content to the desktop. ‘Vista upgrade’ click to enter your card details and upgrade!

(Just incase you’re wondering… I unticked the box )

Some great Firefox 2 config tweaks, to add that bit extra to the great browser.

One of my faves is to put back the single tab close button from v1.5, I’m just not happy with having a close button on each tab, I prefer being able to keep my mouse stationary and just click to close tabs.

Just popup about:config and change the following:

# Key: browser.tabs.closeButtons
# Modified Value: 3 (revert to Firefox 1.5 behavior)
# Alternate Modified Value: 2 (don’t display any close tab buttons)
# Default: 1 (display close buttons on all tabs)

Also, the latest recommended extensions…

Mozilla Corporation secretly posted its Firefox 2.0 browser today— an official announcement and publicly available links are not expected until tomorrow. You can go here to see the changelog or just go download it!

Always nice to have the latest firefox on your machine, now where is 2.0 for Thunderbird?

tip: langablog