Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Thursday, April 14, 2005

A Thursday Stew

Posted by Mickey Z on 04/14 at 04:56 AM

I maintain four Macs and I’ve taught a bunch of people how to use them. If you have any troubles, jot down notes on them, fire up the dinosaur and email me. I bet you get at least half a dozen offers like this

If the internets hold true to form, there may be a Mac vs. PC argument here and possibly a flame war. If the Linux people jump in, it’ll be a bigger melee.

I’m not a Mac-evangelist, by the way. They just happen to be the computers I know how to use and fix.

Posted by Harry on from 04/14 at 07:44 AM

Thanks, Harry. You can be sure I’ll be sending you a question or three.

As for the potential Mac-PC war, I guess I’ll just sit back and watch.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/14 at 07:47 AM

woof

Posted by Ficky on from 04/14 at 11:16 PM

MZ:

If you are into freedom, try a copy of ubuntu on
that old mac!

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

Peace

--
Wishing you well.

Posted by J Byrd on from Eureka (like the vacuum) CA 04/15 at 04:09 AM

Thanks for the tip. I’m wondering if this free software will impact my writing work, e.g. I’m often sending manuscripts via e-mails and am always told to send Word documents. Are these free versions compatible?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/15 at 04:32 AM

AbiWord allows you to make Word documents on every software platform. http://www.abisource.com/ I haven’t had any problems with it.

Compatibility across platforms depends an awful lot on the people involved being able to communicate clearly. The snafus I usually encounter come from people in the business world thinking they understand their software, but in reality only knowing how to bully others into guessing what mistakes they, the business people, have made, and compensating.

Part of the open source and free software philosophy is open standards. So while software and platforms might vary widely, the standards are all clear—i.e. everyone agrees that apples are in fact apples, and not oranges.

This is good place in the comment to praise the Linux people, open source advocates and the free software developers. They are the ones trying to get everyone to be able to communicate on the same wavelength. The discussions aren’t always pretty and not all the participants are saints, but more good things get done in this anarchic stew than anywhere else. J Byrd has linked to two of the best.

Posted by Harry on from 04/15 at 11:18 AM

I’m planning to try some freeware, Harry.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/15 at 12:53 PM

I hope you don’t mind if I get a little pedantic. Freeware isn’t always the same thing as free software.

Free software’s only restriction is the obligation to make whatever modifications you’ve done to the source code open to the community. The “free” part refers to the absence of restrictive intellectual property rights. You’re also free to make money off it, provided you attribute the work of others properly and keep the source open.

Freeware isn’t always open source. It simply doesn’t cost you money. Something can be both freeware and free software, but they don’t always go together. Something can also be open source—Apple’s operating system, for example—but still have restrictive intellectual property rights.

Here is an example of software that is free in every way.
http://www.pims.math.ca/knotplot/download.html

Posted by Harry on from 04/15 at 05:11 PM

I don’t like my current feeling of ignorance about my big computer switch. So, “pedantic” works for me. I need information that will de-mystify the process.

I’ve got tons of writing to switch over...not to mention thousands of saved e-mails in my Outlook Express 4.5. Making sure all that material transfers from the dinosaur to the new computer is my top concern.

Then I need something like MS Word so I can read the transferred files.

Pedantic is fine.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/15 at 05:34 PM

AbiWord and the included Appleworks (which I detest, but keep around just in case) have been able to handle all the MS documents I’ve come across.

The thousands of emails, however, sounds like nightmare. If they’re still online in an account, you can access them easily enough through the built in email program. If they’re all saved onto your computer, the best thing I can think of offhand is to export them to a text format.

There is a program to move from PC to Mac, but it has lousy reviews. The few times I’ve done a migration, I burned all the PC documents to CD or used a USB portable drive and moved everything manually. That’s a hell of a task for a writer.

Another option, if you have a broadband connection, is to put everything you want to transfer in a zip archive and send it to yourself using YouSendIt, a free service.
http://www.yousendit.com/howdoesitwork.aspx

Posted by Harry on from 04/15 at 08:57 PM

The e-mails are saved in Outlook Express 4.5 folders. Do you think I can connect the old and new computers with an ethernet cable and try to export them?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/15 at 09:12 PM

I looked for information on exactly that a little while ago. Outlook has a proprietary format which is not friendly. To the best of my knowledge, it would require a specialized adapter and a format converter. The use of ethernet for this gets into cross platform networking. For that, you want someone who is more than just a savvy amateur.

One site I visited suggested selecting all the email and using the forward function to send it a large email account. I can give you one of those if you want it. It’s part of the Google network, called Gmail, and there’s a search function so you can locate or relocate email based on keyword searches. There are privacy issues with that as Google services are supported by keyword ad servers that scan the text in the hopes of serving up something you’ll buy.

Posted by Harry on from 04/15 at 10:24 PM

Just before I saw your latest comment, I had a similiar thought. What if I forwarded the most important e-mails to an online account? So, you suggest I sign up for a free Gmail account? I’ll try it...although I’ll have to play around to figure out how to “select all” from Outlook.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/16 at 06:57 AM

Sending all the vital ones is a good idea. I wish I knew more about Outlook.

The online guide says to click on the first of the series of messages you want to send, hold down the shift key after it’s highlighted and then, while still holding the shift key down, click on the last in the series. That will select an entire block.

Posted by Harry on from 04/16 at 07:17 AM

What I did was click on the first message in a particular folder and I went under edit to “select all.” As a test, I hit “forward” and the pgoram proceeded to open every single message in that folder at the same time. I’ll have to make some revisions to that plan.

Thanks for everything, Harry. I deeply appreciate it.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/16 at 07:21 AM

Mickey - you can make a backup of your Outlook Express mail quite easily by copying the folder and files that contain your mailbox:

To find the location of that folder, open Outlook Express, select Tools, Options, click the Maintenance tab, and then click the Store Folder button.

Then copy that folder and any files in it to a CD or memory stick or zip drive, and then copy it to your new computer. If you have Outlook Express on the new emac, you should be able to import this mailbox. I would also recommend a new email program - I love Thunderbird. In order for thunderbird to be able to import your mailbox, you will need to have Outlook Express on the new computer.

Posted by nancy on from 04/16 at 09:15 AM

Nancy, you rock. I haven’t even started this process but I’m so lucky to have great people like you and Harry taking time to offer help.

I’ve had a sneaking suspicion that I might need to load Outlook onto the new computer to get this to happen smoothly. Is it something I have to buy or is it like a free download like IE?

Thanks again, Nancy.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/16 at 09:27 AM

Outlook Express is free. I presume it could work on your new Mac. I would recommend using Thunderbird. But , like I said, you need to have OE to get Thunderbird to import your old OE mail.
Outlook Express for Mac

Thunderbird:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Have fun and good luck.

Posted by nancy on from 04/16 at 09:43 AM

Someone gave me a disk for Entourage. Do you think if I load that onto the new computer, it will allow me to import from the old Outlook Express?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/16 at 09:49 AM

The Entourage product page says yes.
http://tinyurl.com/4s4eu

Posted by Harry on from 04/16 at 11:24 AM

Thanks again, one and all. The eMac is connected and running (and I must admit I prefer OS9...but that’s another story). I tried a bunch of the free word processing programs but I’m likely gonna find someone who has MS Word on CD. I’ve been writing in that program for 14 years. More words than I could imagine. Switching makes little sense for me right now.

I’m using the Apple default “Mail” program and it’s lame compared to Outlook Express. Biggest problem is this: I can’t transfer thousands of saved e-mails and hundreds of contacts. Until I solve that, I can’t switch computers.

I am using Safari instead of IE. It seems to load sites much faster but it wouldn’t allow me import my favorites so I did that by hand. Everything is a trade-off. Upgrades are nice but sometimes you prefer the old way.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from 04/17 at 07:12 AM

I wish I had checked back earlier on this post to you MZ.

First the Email issue: I used a gratis copy of Eudora Lite and it seemed to import outlook email quite well. This was circa 1997 before I gave up on MS, even before I had acquired the zest I feel for Freeness that Gnu-ness offers I think that Thunderbird might be able to natively import your Email/addresses into a portable format that would enable you to both archive and move your Email easily from one system to another, and it’s also available for both MS and Mac OS’s.
Potentially helpful URL:
http://support.real-time.com/tbird/oe_import.html

Abiword is a really neat, fast editor, however, I wouldn’t write a book with this tool. Serious writers should use serious tools. My brother helped the author, Piers Anthony, a few years ago and they decided on OpenOffice.org. The goal is to keep the user from being chained to one particular tool, whether free or proprietary. Here are two links that I think you might find useful:
http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200210/200210.htm
http://www.openoffice.org/

Also, I would ask around for tips from other authors’ experiences in this regard. There is emacs and other tools that will help you rip out text without distracting you with animated talking paperclips! I’ll try to dig around some of my old geek haunts since I recall reading some very good stories about using book authoring tools well. The thesis was taking a week to really learn the software then begin using the software for your work. Here’s the URL to one of Piers’ musings--use your browser FIND tool (usually Ctrl+F) and search for “MoNsTeR”
http://www.hipiers.com/02oct.html

Please understand that I was teasing you with my first post--I had no intention of trying to convert you to Free (Libra) Software ideology, but now that the thread has gone this far . . .

I did like what you said above about using some “freeware.” The point is repeatedly made that people who speak English (or its American equivalent) translate the word “free” as “no cost, leave wallet in pocket” which I think speaks volumes regarding at least one regional paradigm. I also love the post by nancy that Outlook Express is “free,” since to me at least, it is absolutely non-free or unfree but can be obtained at no monetary charge.

Lastly, please try out Firefox web browser on that old (and new2you) beast of yours. I think you will quickly learn to love it and its extension support (tiny pluggins.) Once you have used tabbed browsing, there is no going back. For me, I need dictionary support when I right-click on a word and I also use Flashblock to eliminate the worst bandwidth wasting website advertisements, and of course many people love Adblock which simply eliminates all advertisements from websites that you visit--a must for dial-up Internet users I suppose. I forgot how crazy it is trying to surf the Internet with tools like MS_IE and its pop-up happy quirks that was recently highlighted during an intense meteorology class. Firefox stops pop-ups by default and it’s not bolted to the Operating Systems’ heart to provide instant digital death to its unwary users like that other browser and Email client. Two really wonderful things about these tools is that 1) they are completely portable--Linux, MS, Mac, *BSD, etc, and 2) were designed by the coders to share freely because sharing is considered A Good Thing(TM) and not a crime (pirate my eye!). . .
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

PS--do make sure you archive all data that you feel is important. I can never stress this issue enough. Back-up and then back-up again. For books, documents, address info, think about a safe deposit box. I finally convinced my partner to keep monthly back-ups for all her business accounts. It’s too easy for something really awful to happen within our fragile domiciles!

Peace

--
Wishing you well.

Posted by J Byrd on from Eureka (like the vacuum) CA 04/19 at 04:04 AM

Thanks, J. I truly appreciate all your input and wish I had time to reply at length. For now, let me say that I resolved the e-mail issue, got someone to provide a CD for MS Office (will install it later), and yes, I back up my files on flash drives.

I will return to your latest comment later and give it the time it deserves.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 04/19 at 06:32 AM