Techodyssey

Join me as I explore, learn and have fun with technology.

Archive for March, 2009

Gmail Signatures

Posted by Jim on 28 March 2009

I have been using Gmail for a long time. You needed an invitation when it first became my default mail client. Not that that is anything unusual, I mention just so you know I am generally happy with it. It serves my purposes. I look forward to new features and try anything that interests me. I have Labs enabled so I can play with the things there.

However there is one feature I really wanted and it isn’t part of Gmail or even in Labs. That is different signatures for each account. Gmail is great in the way you can use several different accounts in the same screen just like a stand alone email package. I have my regular Gmail account plus my default account from the ISP (just for messages they send) and also an account for a local group I am the secretary of.

Gmail lets you set up a signature but it is used on every email. Not what I want. I have waited hoping this would change but no luck. So I decided to do some searching and found this great Firefox Add-On, as they call them now, “Blank Canvas Gmail Signatures”. Not only does it do what I wanted, different signatures for each account but you can have up to 4 signatures for each account and select the one to use when you create a message if you don’t want to use the default. One for family and one for friends for example.

It is a little unusual in that the options are set within the Gmail Create Message screen and not in the Add-Ons dialog but that makes sense when you think about it. There is a beta version but I am using the last stable version. It is working well for me.

Posted in Web Stuff, firefox | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Fedora breaks Mobile Broadband

Posted by Jim on 13 March 2009

I have blogged a couple of times regarding my 3g Mobile broadband from Optus. It is usually reliable at least recently but still the quality is variable. However a couple of days ago it broke completely and for once it wasn’t Optus’ fault.

Fedora is a leading edge distro and so regular updates are common. Sometimes these updates can be a bit buggy. Very occasionally something breaks in a big way. That is what happened with a recent update of NetworkManager.

Now I know NM has its critics but I have found it always works for me. I have used it with wired and wireless networks and with wireless broadband. This is the first time it has failed completely.Fortunately I only updated one computer. The desktop was still running the old version so I had a computer I could use.

I posted on the forums about it and although several others reported similar problems no one had a solution. So it was back to the earlier version. I downloaded version 0.7.0-1 and replaced 0.7.0.99 with it. Now back on line.

I have kept a copy of the rpms so if I update again by mistake I can fix it. It will let me test any further updates of NM too so I won’t be stuck again.

Posted in fedora | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »