Set Gmail as Default Mail Client in Ubuntu

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by dandavis

A year ago at the How-To Geek: Set Gmail as Default Mail Client in Ubuntu.

I just started using Ubuntu in the past few days and found this post useful. But, because I'm me, I had to make a minor change.

My version is based upon a version in the comments of the original post with additions to support Google Apps for Your Domain.

#!/bin/bash

[[ $2 == "" ]] && domain="mail" || domain="a/$2/"
uri=`echo "$1" | sed -e 's/subject=/su=/' -e 's/^mailto:\([^&?]\+\)[?&]\?\(.*\)$/\1\&\2/'`
firefox "https://mail.google.com/${domain}?view=cm&tf=0&to=$uri"Download open_mailto.sh.

To use it, reference the original post with one small change. If you need to specify a Google Apps domain, add it after the '%s':

/home/username/open_mailto.sh %s dandavis.com

Hope it helps.

google firefox referral widget for wordpress

Posted on May 24th, 2007 by dandavis

This is my first plugin to widget conversion. I found Justin Watt's Firefox Referral Plugin for Wordpress. And while, as you can see, I love ad and referral links over yonder in my sidebar, I hate having to modify core or theme code to do it.

Hooray for Widgets!

Using Wei Wei's code for Tag Cloud Widget for UTW as a base, I mashed Justin's code into a widget form.

Have fun with it.

/*
Plugin Name: Google Firefox Referral Widget
Version: 1.1
Plugin URI: http://dandavis.com/2007/05/24/google-firefox-referral-widget-for-wordpress/
Description: Adaptation of the Firefox Referral Plugin for Wordpress from Justin Watt
Author: Dan Davis
Author URI: http://dandavis.com/
*/

Download Google Firefox Referral Widget!

gmailthis, biatch!

Posted on September 28th, 2006 by dandavis

Check it out… some 365 days ago, there was a post on Lifehacker about a bookmarklet called GmailThis. They later followed up with this Hack Attack about getting the most out of the bookmarklet.

Well, I took the bookmarklet and expanded it a bit for my own uses… for example, mine automatically address the email to me… no need for me to type it in every single time I use it. Also, I like to prefix my subject lines so that I can filter on more than sender and/or recipient. Also, I wanted a place in the email body that was meant for keywords so I could use Gmail's search functionality to its fullest.

Then, after all that, I decided it was time to share…

what is orkut?

Posted on March 3rd, 2006 by dandavis

I have, quite obviously, been out of it. What is orkut? I mean, what is it beyond its wikipedia entry? All I know is that it is about social networking and it is invite only. I want an invite. Send me an invite and get your site linked on the right-hand side of this site. If getting linked doesn't tempt you, I would be more than happy to pass all rights and privileges to the EasyEat Banana Handle ™ to you. Just invite me and make it quick.

cool gmail feature

Posted on December 26th, 2005 by dandavis

Using a nifty feature in qmail, I am able to minimize my main email address's exposure to SPAM. Losing this feature was, I thought, a major drawback about switching to Gmail. Until I found a post out on the Interweb. (sorry, I can't seem to find the original post!) Gmail supports the same feature! Whereas qmail uses a '-' as the separator, Gmail uses a '+'. So, now when I sign up for accounts at other sites on the Interweb, I create a unique email address for that site.

For example, assume that my Gmail address is mygmailaddress@gmail.com. If I wanted to sign up for an account at Amazon, I could use an email address of mygmailaddress+amazon@gmail.com. Without making any changes within my Gmail account, any mail sent to mygmailaddress+amazon@gmail.com will automagically show up in my Inbox. Then, assuming that I have not used the email address anywhere else (on a 'blog posting, for example), if I start receiving SPAM to mygmailaddress+amazon@gmail.com, besides knowing that Amazon has sold me out to spammers, I can also change my email address at Amazon (to mygmailaddress+amazon2@gmail.com, for example) and then create a filter in Gmail to send email sent to mygmailaddress+amazon@gmail.com straight to the trash.

download vids from google videos

Posted on December 25th, 2005 by dandavis

Through digg's RSS feed, I found this 'blog posting talking about how to download videos from Google Video. And, sure, there are plenty of other ways to do it, but here is the method from the other blog posting with some enhancements:

* Bookmark this bookmarklet

* Go to Google Video and find a video.

* View the page source code and search for the keyword ‘googleplayer‘

* Copy the videoUrl parameter (all of the characters after the keyword ‘videoUrl=’)

* Run the bookmarklet you created and paste the URL into the dialog box.

* Download the FLV movie saving it with a .flv extension.

* Play it with a FLV Player.

google r0×0rz

Posted on October 8th, 2005 by dandavis

Just saw a posting this morning, or was it last night? Either way, Google now has a feed reader! It's pretty cool, but still a bit buggy. And, with the announcement that Google is going to make spreadsheet and word-processing software available online, we will soon need no more than a web browser installed on our desktops.

Question though. Is The Inquirer a reputable enough source to quote? It seems that Slashdot thinks so, I reckon that's good enough for me.