SouthSideFlash's Subconscious

Solving the GMail Desktop Client Issue

jselser — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:42:48 +0000

I am one particular somabitch when it comes to working on my computer. My computer is my home and I want everything to be perfect. As a matter of fact, I’m likely to spend hours making my computer “perfectly nestable” while spending much less time on actually fixing things around my house (I’m way better with technology than a drill… insert joke here).

That being said, I *have* to believe that there are other people out there who are in my same particular predicament with Google Mail. I use Google Hosted Applications, which means that I’m using GMail from Google running on the backend of my own private domains. For example, this domain that my blog is on right now, southsideflash.net, has dozens of email addresses running on it, all utilizing GMail provided by Google. If you love GMail but don’t want a generic @gmail.com address, this is the way to go for sure (it’s free and takes literally minutes to set up).

The problem is, I’m also a “sophisticated user” (yeah, that’s what we call ourselves anyway). I have several accounts on this domain that I need to check constantly, in addition to other domains, accounts, and aliases across the internet (luckily, *all* of them use Google Hosted Applications’ GMail).

Here’s the problem: Google provides such a powerful suite of applications (mail, calendar, tasks, contacts, voice) but almost nothing except their own web clients actually provide the full service. Yes, I use Chrome-As-Applications, but it’s just not the same. As of this writing, *nothing* provides *full* service for Google’s Hosted Applications suite (to some degree, even Google’s own interaction with itself fails a little at times, but it’s gotten so much better lately with the unified login, combined TOS and services, and multiple signon implementations — these have really allowed it to become a much more unified experience).

So what I’ve never been able to find is a desktop suite that really lends itself to the power of the Google Hosted Applications. Sure there’s Outlook, but man we could go on and on and on (please don’t blow up the comment thread with *just* comments about Outlook flamewars) about it’s features and shortcomings. If you purchase the Enterprise version of Google Hosted Apps, you of course can connect Outlook to Google’s application servers as if it was Exchange, and therefore make it much more native. That’s a great idea, unless you have a ton of email accounts and don’t want to pay for each across multiple domains (imagine if you were paying $300/mo for your email — might as well get a Hosted Exchange implementation from GuaranteedVPS [yes, I'm unabashedly touting my own company in an unrelated blogpost] for that price!). There are excellent programs out there that work almost flawlessly — gSyncIt is one of them I’ve used quite a bit and it’s worth every penny. But then you get into using new versions of Outlook (Outlook 2010, for example) for neat Google-esque properties such as message grouping, but Outlook tends to fail if your IMAP store gets huge.

ARGH! See? We could go on for pages and pages and pages about problems, their solutions, and the nested problems those solutions cause.

So here’s what I’d like:

A desktop application that
Connects with Google Hosted Applications, at least from the email side of things
Allows basic Google functionality, such as the ability to “archive” messages
Syncs without a lot of fuss

And you know what? I found applications for both MacOSX and Windows that fit the bill. For the Mac we have Sparrow, and for Windows we have eM Client.

Before I get started on Sparrow and you get the wrong idea, Sparrow only does one thing: email. And you know what? That’s just great and is no problem at all, because it does it *awesomely*. It’s a super-lightweight appliance that is literally just a small vertical pane of your email list… and that’s it. While you can optionally add a preview pane like most other email clients, without it (actually even with it, but moreso without it) it stays super clean and doesn’t junk up your experience at all.

With Sparrow, email on GMail “Just Works (TM)” without even thinking about it. And the best feature, in my opinion, is the integrated “Archive” button. I’m a huge believer in organizing my inbox into three categories: Important, Needs to be Done, and Done. I do this by making messages either Inbox/Unread, Inbox/Read, or Archived. No other email client lets me use the GMail Archive button like Sparrow does (at least, not that I’m aware — if you have an email client that utilizes GMail’s Archive button, please leave it in the comments!).

Lastly, there’s one more feature that I *love*, and that is the use of email aliases. See, what I haven’t mentioned until now is the email client I check is a “master account” that also checks all other email accounts I have in GMail. So, when I use a client to access my email, I am frequently at a loss to reply from the account the email was originally sent to. account1@southsideflash.net is also checking account2@example.com, but can’t reply from account2@example.com without either the inherent ability to add an alias, or without a *lot* of hoops to jump through (yes, I know there are ways to do it, and I even did it in Outlook, but *man* talk about a giant ass-pain).

eM Client, on the other hand, does just about darn close to everything else on my list. eM Client syncs perfectly with my Google Mail, Calendar, Contacts, even Tasks and Chat. Everything except Voice, for that matter. I don’t have to worry about third party syncing utilities (sorry gSyncIt, I love you very much but this is probably a deal-breaker it’s so good), and it’s super fast and lightweight. The only thing it doesn’t have is the Archive button. It even lets me (sort-of) use aliases so I can reply from the email address that I’m actually trying to reply from. It’s just all-around great, except for the archive button. And you know what? I can live without it, provided that every other feature is there, which it is.

I’m not going to post a screenshot of eM Client, but I am *strongly* going to advise that, if you are a Windows user, you visit their website to check out their product. They have no screenshots at their website, and I’m not going to steal someone else’s screenshot. The problem is, if I post a screenshot of mine, no matter what screen I’m on, it syncs so seamlessly with Google that I’d have to blur nearly 90% of it, and I’m not going to post a giant mess like that. Go visit their website. Go on, go!

What’s my biggest complaint? Well, it’s the same for both: neither of these clients has a linux platform. My actual primary computer is linux, it just runs VirtualBox instances of MacOSX and Windows (*sigh*, yes it’s true, I have WinXP, Win7, and Win8). So basically, I’m always utilizing an email application in a virtual OS and never in my host OS. Ubuntu has so many great features, and I’m even getting to love Gnome3 (yes, again with the flamewars in the comments) especially with Cairo Dock installed (it’s the best of both worlds). But I cannot find a good desktop client that interfaces relatively seamlessly with Google for linux, try as I might, nor can I get eM Client to run in Wine for linux, so I’m kinda out of luck. Oh well, it runs fine in my XP instance, so since that’s the smallest footprint client in the smallest footprint OS, I pretty much just leave it running for now.

My goal is to soon be able to say that someone has finally come up with the linux equivalent to either Sparrow or eM Client! Coders/Porters, help me out!

How To Get Out Of Debt

jselser — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 07:31:47 +0000

If you’re a piece of shit, stop being a piece of shit. Most people don’t realize that being a piece of shit is extremely fucking expensive. You hang around with destructive people that cause drama and coerce you into non-optimal choices like wasting your money on drugs, alcohol and awesome tats, get you in trouble with the law, steal used condoms out of the trash and get themselves pregnant so they can stake a claim to your future paychecks, etc.
Track all your expenses for a month. Identify everything you dont absolutely have to have to thrive. Reduce your cable service to basic, and keep the digital box ONLY for UFC ppv. NO PORN, you lazy dipshit. Get off your ass and get porn free on the internet, not $14.95 on PPV. Everything else you dont need? Stop buying that shit.
Carefully go over your food purchases. Any food that doesn’t contribute to optimal nutrition, stop buying it. Look for ways to buy in bulk for cheap, healthy, home cooked meals. You don’t need those potato chips, fatass. Stop eating out.
Park the truck, drive the Escort. You’ll look like a faggot, but you’ll save on gas. At $3.50 a gallon, that shit adds up quick.
If you have extra, liveable space, rent it out. This can be as easy as putting a trailer in your back yard and letting one of your degenerate family members rent it. He can come inside to shit during appointed hours, but he should be warned to never make eye contact with anyone else in the house. If he follows these rules, you’ll barely even know he’s there.
Sell that piece of shit car you’re never going to rebuild. What the fuck made you think you were smart enough, and well financed enough to restore that rusting hunk of metal back its former glory? You were drunk, obviously. Sell it to another drunk, and put it behind you for good. While you’re at it, find anything else in your garage that you can convert to cash.
Gather all your bills up. Make only minimum payments. But find the smallest debt, and pay it down to zero as quickly as possible. Take the next smallest debt, and pay that one down to zero. And so on and so on. This is similar to a plan promoted by a dude named Dave Ramsey.
Work any extra hours you can / find side jobs.
Profit.

Crazy Matrix Guy

jselser — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:53:24 +0000

So this video isn’t new, but it’s cool and deserves some play. I mean, damn!

Watch this video on YouTube.

Manchester Park

jselser — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:58:21 +0000

Not very far away from us today, Casey and I discovered a little gem – Manchester Park. Manchester Park runs along the bay and has some really great hiking trails. While it cost us about an hour’s worth of time to get into the park (you must pay to drive in, but they made it incredibly complicated and there was no gate attendant — I’ve already written a short note to them about it), it was worth it.

There are several areas of the park we didn’t get to explore, but when we found a parking space we literally started hiking off the first trail we came to. The pictures below are of the hiking trail.

Of special interest, however: there is a “fort” that was just a series of stairs and a cement foundation at the end. I’m including a separate photo gallery just for that — we ended up calling it “Crazy Stairs” because, well, that’s what it was.

Manchester Park Hiking Trail:

[Show as slideshow]

Manchester Park’s Fort – “Crazy Stairs:”

[Show as slideshow]

Exploring Port Orchard

jselser — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:44:36 +0000

So on my way to do just this-and-that, I was able to stop to take a moment in Port Orchard. It’s really beautiful here.

Just as a side note, Casey took the picture of the starfish. The water is so clear that he was able to see it, despite the fact that it was 12 feet deep into the Sound water. The starfish was at least 2 feet long – it was the largest either of us has ever seen.

[Show as slideshow]

Seattle Downtown Trip 1

jselser — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:29:49 +0000

So today we took a trip to Downtown Seattle. We started from Bremmerton where the Seattle Ferry picks up. I didn’t get a ton of pictures once we hit downtown, because it turned out to be close to 4pm. Because of this issue, I didn’t even get that many good pictures of the Pike’s Place Market or downtown.

However, the pictures are still fairly decent, and I’ll have an opportunity to get many more.

[Show as slideshow]

DirecTV Epic Fail

jselser — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:48:53 +0000

I’m not sure exactly where this comes from, but someone shared something with me today that I must repeat in its entirety. Read it; it’s really hilarious.

Today a representative of the DirecTV Corporation explained to me that my DVR has not been playing video back correctly for the last 6 weeks because it is snowing out today. When I expressed skepticism that snow today could cause problems for the six weeks before today, she said I’d be surprised what snow could do.

Internally, this caused me to wonder, can snow on a satellite receiver somehow reverberate through time? If as she suggested, clearing any snow from my dish would solve the problem, would it solve the problem now, or would removing the snow actually solve the problem for the last six weeks, causing my DVR to have always worked correctly? Wouldn’t that create a paradox, because then I would never have called and learned that I needed to remove the snow? Perhaps removing the snow would create a new reality where my DVR had always functioned. I wanted to pursue this further, but I doubted she had the needed understanding of quantum physics. So I asked to speak to her supervisor.

Her supervisor, however, simply said that no, snow on my dish had not echoed back in time and cuased six weeks of problems. But for a brief moment, my universe had been full of wonder and mystery at the magical possibilities of snow on a satellite dish. Or maybe I was just kind of annoyed. Get a better script for your call center, DirecTV.

[Update: this came from here.]

Is Unemployment Really At an All-Time Low?

jselser — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:33:01 +0000

So I’m just wondering, is our national unemployment really at an all-time low? US Labor Board has our unemployment at a low, 8.5%, since the great national shit-pants crash of 2008. However, every time I read these statistics, I always read the fine print and notice that they measure this percentage by the number of people who are still collecting unemployment.

Let me reiterate: the 8.5% unemployment means the number of people vs. the national total who are collecting unemployment. Have you noticed that gobs of your friends, neighbors, and relatives, are complaining that their unemployment has ended, meaning that they’ve been on it since 2008, haven’t found a job, and now their grace period has run out?

So, to recap: the reported unemployment rate is going down, not directly related to whether or not it’s actually going down, but directly related to how many people are actually collecting unemployment.

I’m not suggesting that it isn’t going down; I am suggesting that this figure isn’t accurate based on how much of the nation is now officially worse off than they were in 2008 because they have both no job, and no unemployment benefits anymore. I do believe the economy is getting better, but I don’t believe it’s really at 8.5%. Really, all this number is good for is celebrating that there’s less draw on state and local government funding (Republicans, rejoice!).

What do you think? Log into Facebook and leave a comment below.

Idiots Offering Free Advice

jselser — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:18:27 +0000

So today, I had to experience absolutely useless attempt at “advice.” You will notice here that I am , and the user known as is attempting to help me, but then later goes completely back on what he says. Here was the transpiration of what happened:

00:17 -!- Irssi: Join to #vbox was synced in 0 secs
00:18 < netninja> I’m using Ubuntu 11.10 host and Windows7 in vbox, and no matter what I try to do, when I connect a USB device and then select it inside the windows vbox, it won’t install/work. I’ve added myself to the vboxusers and installed the Utilities I’m supposed to… any thoughts?
00:19 < Jetchisel> extension packa installed?
00:19 < netninja> yes, sorry, that was what I meant by Utilities. badly worded.
00:20 < mr-rich> I was going to suggues the vboxusers thing … that’s what worked for me …
00:20 < netninja> and I’m hesitent to try and install it again, because I always end up fighting with the video portion of extensions pack to allow it to go into seamless mode afterwards.
00:20 < netninja> yeah, added to vboxusers (even when I did this initially it kept failing, I had to fight that too)
00:20 < mr-rich> did you install guest additions?
00:21 < netninja> is there a difference between the extension pack and guest additions?
00:21 < netninja> I loaded the ISO as a virtual drive. I have the vbox icon in my windows notification area. that’s to what you’re referring?
00:21 < mr-rich> you install guest addions on the guest …
00:21 < netninja> for things like USB, video, etc.
00:21 < netninja> yes
00:22 < Jetchisel> netninja: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/USB
00:22 < mr-rich> Click on Devices->Install Guest Additions …
00:22 < netninja> Jetchisel: the only thing on that page relevant to my install is adding myself to vboxusers as I’ve said I already did.
00:22 < netninja> For Oneiric Ocelot 11.10
00:22 < netninja> Add yourself to the user group vboxusers, then log out and back in, to make use of available USB devices. To do this via the graphical interface, click System Settings/Users and Groups/Manage Groups.
00:23 < netninja> mr-rich: again, I’ve already done this.
00:23 < Jetchisel> which version of virutalbox and where did you get that package?
00:24 < netninja> from the virtualbox.org website
00:24 < netninja> um, 4.1.2 I believe
00:25 * netninja checks
00:26 < netninja> Virtualbox4.1.2_Ubuntu38459
00:26 < netninja> thanks to everyone that’s helping btw
00:29 < Jetchisel> vbox website has virtualbox-4.1_4.1.8-75467~Ubuntu~oneiric_
00:30 < netninja> I remember I had some problems on install
00:30 < netninja> perhaps I had gotten it from Ubuntu Software updater
00:30 < Jetchisel> netninja: your package prolly is from the your distro package
00:30 < netninja> perhaps
00:33 < netninja> however, I would have thought that, if that is the case that I did use my distro’s version, wouldn’t that have better support for my distro?
00:33 < Jetchisel> !editions
00:33 < erstazi> Jetchisel: Editions – http://virtualbox.org/wiki/Editions
00:33 < Jetchisel> see editions for that matter
00:35 < netninja> ok, well, that page doesn’t really tell me anything
00:35 < netninja> does that mean that this is a problem with my edition?
00:35 < Jetchisel> yup it eas change
00:35 < netninja> “eas change?”
00:35 < Jetchisel> i cant help with ubuntu specially if it is package by your distro
00:36 < Jetchisel> you can try the vbox website package and see if usb works
00:36 < Jetchisel> its change*
00:37 < Jetchisel> for example in opensuse the distro package does not allow usb to work by default you will have to edit some udev files from vbox itself to enable usb support and without the extension pack it is only usb 1,
00:38 < Jetchisel> dunno about *buntu but alot of folks here is using your distro maybe some of them are awake ^^
00:39 < netninja> I see
00:39 < netninja> would you recommend that I uninstall and then reinstall from the website, keeping my vhds?
00:39 < Jetchisel> yes the vdi is not remove
00:40 < netninja> but I mean, do you recommend that I reinstall the program to correct this?
00:40 < Jetchisel> yes remove the distro package and use package from vbox website
00:42 < netninja> ok, I guess I’ll try that
00:42 < netninja> thanks much for all your guidance
00:42 < netninja> I’m sure I’ll be back when/if this assplodes :P
00:43 < Jetchisel> good luck
00:43 < netninja> thanks :)

[short break while netninja reinstalls]

01:43 < netninja> Jetchisel: still having exactly the same problem
01:44 < netninja> with 4.1.8
01:44 < netninja> no usb sticks working, no usb printers working, no iphone working (when selected from Devices)
01:44 < netninja> just epic fail every time
01:46 < Jetchisel> sorry you have to wait for some folks that uses your distro
01:46 < netninja> I’ve googled this problem, and every instance of the problem I seem to find has “add user to vboxusers” or whatever and that’s not it
01:46 < netninja> but I’m not using that distro now
01:46 < netninja> why do I have to wait for said “folks” when I’m not using the Software Center distro, I’m using the one from the virtualbox.org website?
01:47 < netninja> I mean, is this still assumed to be a distro problem, now that I’m not on the newer (unsupported) distro?
01:47 < Jetchisel> i dont use ubuntu so i cannot trouble shoot your issue ^^
01:48 < netninja> ok
01:48 < netninja> well, thanks for trying
01:49 < Jetchisel> mostly europe is sleeping right now and its a week end ^^
01:49 < netninja> so it *IS* still a distro problem despite the fact I used the version from the website?
01:50 < Jetchisel> as i said i im not an ubuntu user sorry
01:50 < Curly_Q> Is there a way to disable write protect from a Guest OS install?
01:50 < netninja> I’m not trying to be an asshole, but you’re not answering my question
01:51 < netninja> I’m not asking if you’re a ubuntu user, I’m asking if you’re still considering this a distro problem when before you said it was a distro problem because I installed an unsupported/unofficial version from Ubuntu’s Software Center and *NOW* I have a version installed straight off the website
01:52 < Jetchisel> i did not say anything about unsupported/unofficial, in only said that for some distro specific version you have to edit some things manually.
01:53 < netninja> um, yes you did:
01:53 < netninja> 00:40 < Jetchisel> yes remove the distro package and use package from vbox website
01:54 < Jetchisel> and? is ther anything there that unsupported/unoffical?
01:54 < netninja> you said that I should uninstall the version which was not the official version on the website, which I had gotten through Ubuntu
01:54 < netninja> now I’m on the version which you recommended
01:55 < netninja> I totally get it that you can’t help with this, and that’s fine, but I’m confused why you appear to be saying you didn’t say what you said
01:55 < Jetchisel> you can try the vbox website package and see if usb works
01:55 < netninja> riiiiight… which is what I did
01:56 < Jetchisel> there is no unsupported/unoffical in there so get it straight
01:56 < netninja> my understanding was that, in using the Ubuntu version, I had installed a distro-specific/non-official release
01:56 < netninja> so, I installed from the website
01:56 < netninja> exactly like you said
01:57 < netninja> and now I’m confused because you’re saying I have the same problem I had before, when I already corrected what you said to correct
01:58 < netninja> the version I’m NOW running is straight off the website, and not the software center (remember my previous version was NEWER than what was on the website?)
01:58 < netninja> I’m also amazed that you would say “get it straight” when I’m asking YOU to clarify
01:58 < Jetchisel> righ, good luck with your issue
01:59 < netninja> thanks

Hopefully, I’ll be able to solve this problem.

Eight Votes

jselser — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:41:54 +0000

So for those of you watching the Republican Caucus primaries today in Iowa, you know what happened. It came down to eight votes. That’s it. Romney beat Santorum by eight votes (Romney with 30,015 and Santorum with 30,007), in a Caucus where over 122,000 people voted.

A lot could be said for what this will mean for the race, what this means for the country, what this means by demographic area (say, the Mid-West or so-called “Evangelical Republicans”), but before I get ahead of myself and into future blog posts, I just wanted to reiterate: it all came down to eight votes.