just sitting here playing around with Mozilla's Sunbird calendar software...

i was trying to export my calendar from Microsoft Outlook into Mozilla Sunbird but every time I did Sunbird kept getting all the appointments mixed up with all the times being jumbled up and appointments appearing on the wrong days! big pain in the butt!

here's one solution I just "nutted" out... It may be a bit of stuffing around for some people but it seems to work (it did for me!)

1. export your calender from Outlook into a .CSV file
2. import it into your Google Calendar account.
3. then export it from here using the .iCal format instead of the .CSV format
4. then go into Sunbird and import the .iCal file and it should all work fine!

** if you know of any others ways of doing this please email me at techjunkie.in.cyberia@hotmail.com and I will post it here **

a quick tip! got 2 hard drives in your pc? sick of having "My Documents" on your C: drive?

if you don't want "My Documents" on your C: drive go to "My Computer", look for "My Computer" on the left hand side, RIGHT click on it, then select "properties".

the first screen you are presented with has a tab called "Target". From here you can select a new location for your "My Documents" and XP will do the rest, moving all your files to your second hard drive!

news in today from OpenOffice.org (OpenOffice is the leading FREE software competitor to the Microsoft Office group of programs) is proposing to team up with Dell Computers to possibly have open office installed on every new Dell system sold in the future!

not bad for an open source company! if you use Microsoft Office at work and want an entire office suite to use at home without the hefty cost then OpenOffice is the way to go... it is compatible with Microsoft Office and allows you to edit Microsoft documents and SAVE them in the Microsoft Office format also so you can take them back to work and edit them there.

check out this email that i received this morning...

Text of the letter:

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Michael S.Dell, Chairman and CEO
Dell Computer Corporation
One Dell Way
Round Rock, Texas 78682

Dear Michael

Dell Computer Corporation has become one of Fortune's “America’s Most
Admired Companies” by providing great value, high quality computers and
peripherals, but most of all, by listening to your customers. Your
recent “IdeaStorm” initiative is the latest example of this. Here at
OpenOffice.org, we were delighted to see that the second most requested
feature by Dell customers was to have our office software pre-installed
on Dell systems. This request attracted more than 25,000 votes in two
days.

We believe that OpenOffice.org 2 software perfectly matches Dell’s
values. OpenOffice.org 2 is high quality office software, the result of
over twenty years’ continuous software engineering. It runs under all
common operating systems. It offers everything users expect from office
software, plus some bonus features that may pleasantly surprise them.
It’s easy for customers to use, with a familiar look and feel, and can
read and write a wide range of file formats, including Microsoft’s. On
top of all this, being licenced under open-source terms, it represents
outstanding value for money for you and your customers.

Let’s have a conversation about how we could build an “OpenOffice.org
supplied by Dell” product to give your customers what they are asking
for. We’d also be happy to accept any financial contribution that Dell
might offer to help ensure that OpenOffice.org continues to evolve in
the future.

Sincerely

John McCreesh
Marketing Project Lead
OpenOffice.org

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

if you want to create a secure password for anything to your internet banking account or just for every day websites then take a visit to the site of our good mate Steve Gibson (https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm) where you will find a completely random password generator. If you are not happy with the password displayed just refresh the page and you will be presented with a new, unique password.

setting up your internet banking can be an absolute pain in the butt when it comes to passwords! some banking systems allow you to create a secure password using any character you like, others have a maximum number of characters their systems are able to handle. Some can only handle numbers and letters, and, what i find more disgusting is that some can only handle numbers!

as you can imagine, this is VERY insecure!

if your bank uses one of these highly insecure systems then protest to your bank in writing and if things don't change perhaps even think of switching banks - I realise this sounds harsh but let's face it, it's your money at stake!

PASSWORD PROGRAMS

I currently use a program called Password Agent which I run from my iPod, then sync to my usb key and backup to my pc! I personally reckon it's great and have used it now for about 14 months with no problems (there is a fee for the full version but you can use it for free with a limited number of passwords). You can sort out your passwords into groups and create passwords using options you choose so if your bank says your password can be 16 characters long with numbers, letters and symbols then you can set this up when you generate a password.

If you are after a free alternative try KeePass Password Safe which is a FREE open source program from a great site called SourceForge.

i don't know about you but i reformat my pc about once a month as i spend a lot of my time testing beta software just for the fun of it ... yes, it's a pain in the butt, but it's a necessary evil...

i came across a beautiful piece of software a few weeks ago called Acronis True Image 10 Home .

as i reformat so often i was getting sick of reinstalling all my "normal" software so i set up my system with Acronis. i installed all the applications i frequently use, downloaded all my windows updates, even went in to all the options menus of EVERY program i use, made everything perfect!

after installing Acronis True Image Home i then rebooted my system (you can run it from windows but i believe it is better to use it at boot up), keep an eye out for the Acronis text on the screen and press F11 when prompted. it will then run the Acronis software in DOS where you can get a true image of your hard drive.

Acronis sets up a hidden partition (about 6-8GB in size) where it stores your image of your hard drive. once completed you then boot into windows and use your system as normal.

bugger up your system, install some dodgy software or just find your system is slowing down to the point you can make a coffee between hitting the enter key and getting a response? all you need to do is reboot your system, look for the Acronis prompt and press F11...

hey presto! an amazingly sexy system just as you had left it "oh so long ago!"

**remember - the image you create will also contain all your data so if this is the only drive you have on your system then YOU NEED TO BACK TO UP!!**