Author: Paul Gurney

Paul Gurney is a web architect and web developer based in Maine in the USA.
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Mac OS X: Removing information about completed print jobs

In Mac OS X v10.5 and later, it’s impossible to remove (clear) information about completed print jobs without this tip.

Products Affected:   Mac OS Printing/Fax (any version), Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, OS X Lion

If you would like to clear the list of completed print jobs for any print queues (which will also clear any pending or active print jobs), Apple says to: Delete the printer, then add it again.

 

Wow, that’s a bit of a hassle. Instead, you can Clear the entire print queue in OS X with a Terminal command. Launch Terminal and type:

cancel -a -

Preventing future print jobs from appearing in the completed jobs list (advanced)

If you would like to prevent all future print jobs from being included in the list of completed jobs, open Terminal and execute this command:

cupsctl PreserveJobHistory=No

You can later restore the default behavior of retaining a list of completed print jobs by resetting the printing system, or by opening Terminal and entering the command:

cupsctl PreserveJobHistory=Yes

Too bad Apple didn’t make the Delete button actually work in the Printer Manager!

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CSS 3 – Box Shadow properties

The box-shadow property in CSS3 allows a comma-separated list of shadow attribute values.

These specify, in order, the horizontal offset, vertical offset, optional blur distance and optional spread distance of the shadow);

Then,  an optional color value and an optional ‘inset‘ keyword.

Inset lets you create an inner shadow, rather than the default outer shadow.

Examples:

  box-shadow: 5px 5px;
  box-shadow: 5px 5px 15px #888;
  box-shadow: inset 2px 2px 2px 2px black;
  box-shadow: 5px 5px #666, -12px -12px #f4f4f4, 0px 0px 15px 15px #cc6600;

These are supported in newer browsers.

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Mac Users: Configuring new Mail Accounts in Thunderbird 3

Creating a new Account for which you want to use the Global Inbox

When you create a new POP mail account in Thunderbird, the Account Wizard may ask if you want to use the Global Inbox for that account. If it does that (and you want a global inbox), check that feature. If it doesn’t ask (recent versions don’t) then you need to select “Global Inbox (Local Folders account)” in Preferences -> Advanced -> Config Editor .

Try to do that before Thunderbird checks for new mail to avoid complications.

 

If you often create new accounts, you can set the default in the Account Wizard by setting the preference :

mail.accountwizard.deferstorage

to

true

(to check the box by default), or false (to clear the box by default).

 

In a new Thunderbird profile this preference does not exist initially, so you must create it as a new Boolean preference.

On the Mac, right-click in the editing window, and choose “New…”

 

Changing the Global Inbox setting for an existing account

To change the Global Inbox setting for an existing account, you need to follow three simple steps.

 

Change the destination Inbox

Go to “Tools -> Account Settings -> Server Settings” and click on the “Advanced” button. A dialog box will then pop open.

To set the account to use the Global Inbox, select “Global Inbox (Local Folders Account)” and click “OK”.

Important: if the account already has messages in the Inbox or other folders, you should copy or move these messages into Local Folders before setting the account to use the Global Inbox. If you don’t copy or move the messages into Local Folders and you set the account to use the Global Inbox, the account will no longer be displayed in the folders pane and you will not be able to access those messages unless you go back and undo the Global Inbox setting.

To set the account to not use the Global Inbox, select either “Inbox for this server’s account” or “Inbox for different account” and click “OK”.

Check settings for other folders and filters

After you have changed the account’s setting for which Inbox to use, see if any of the following need to be changed:

  • Go to “Tools -> Account Settings -> Copies & Folders”, and look at the destination folders for Sent, Drafts, and Templates. Make sure that the messages for each will be stored in your preferred folder locations.
  • If you are using junk-mail filtering for the account, go to “Tools -> Account Settings -> Junk Settings” and verify that the folder selected for Junk messages is the one you want to use.
  • If you have set up any filters, go to “Tools -> Message Filters” and make sure that they will work properly with your new Inbox configuration. Especially important if you are changing an account so that it will start using the Global Inbox: if you have set up any filters that sort messages into any of the folders for the account, you should disable/delete those filters or change the destination folders.

Exit and restart Thunderbird

Important: exit Thunderbird and restart before downloading mail into any account whose Inbox/Global Inbox setting you’ve changed. If you do not exit and restart, messages might continue to download into their “old” locations (e.g., into the individual account Inbox rather than the Global Inbox).

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Human Costs of an iPad

From a NYTimes article titled “In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad”

http://nyti.ms/Adv0Kp

“You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards,” said a current Apple executive.

“And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China.”

Important exposé.

Photograph by Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

Aluminum dust from polishing iPads caused the blast at Foxconn’s plant in Chengdu.

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Gradually, then suddenly

The latest hot discussion on the internet is the author Larry Downes versus Best Buy.

http://onforb.es/y1nkxI

To compete successfully against new online retailers, traditional retailers would also need to find ways to transform the expensive liabilities of physical locations with limited hours and high labor and inventory costs into assets that complemented rather than competed with the online experience.

There’s a great line from the column:  From Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” novel, one character asks another how he went bankrupt.  “Two ways.  Gradually, then suddenly.”

Larry has a great summary of why Best Buy is dying slowly:

I’m not shilling for Amazon or any other successful online retailer here.  My point is much more basic.  Amazon neither invented nor appropriated its basic strategies from Best Buy or anyone else.  It simply does what consumers want.  Best Buy does what would be most convenient for the company for consumers to want but don’t, then crosses its fingers and prays.  That’s not a strategy–or not a winning strategy, in any case, now that retail consumers aren’t stuck with the store closest to home.

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Good News! AT&T withdraws its $39 billion bid to acquire T-Mobile

Analyst Tero Kuittinen said that T-Mobile “must now explore more creative opportunities — for instance, seeking partnerships with media giants like Amazon, Facebook or Google. T-Mobile’s spectrum, not its customer base, is its most valuable asset.”

A commenter on a forum noted:

As a long-time T-Mobile customer, I can only say I am relieved to read that this is over, at least for now. The mere thought of one of the highest-priced carriers with the lowest customer service rating would be taking over the one carrier with the lowest rates and best customer service made me shudder.

Too true!

T-Mobile is not “damaged” as AT&T claims… besides being four billion dollars richer, many T-Mobile customers were opposed to this deal, and are relieved that the company can once again focus on its customers.

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Copyright Purpose

Copyright, CopyLeft.

Control of one’s creative works is complicated in the era of YouTube, rapid expansion of computing power, the shaken music industry, and Open Source software.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor once wrote:

“The Framers intended copyright itself to be the engine of free expression. By establishing the marketable right to the use of one’s expression, copyright supplies an economic incentive to create and disseminate.”

Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539 (1985). O’Connor was joined in the decision by Chief Justice Burger and Justices Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist and Stevens.

A new book, “Free Ride,” by the journalist Robert Levine, discusses copyright, the Internet and the impact of digital piracy.

Copyright often encourages free speech. It sometimes inhibits free speech. The idea that copyright is the be-all and end-all of free expression is simplistic. The idea that it inhibits free speech is simplistic. I think this is true of politics in general, but everyone argues about stuff like a 4-year-old.

Read an interview with Levine by Salon.com.