How To | Thunderbird/Android Calendar Sync

Have you been wondering the best way to sync your Android calendar with your Thunderbird calendar (via Lightning). Well, you’ve come to the right place!

I personally know that I’ve been looking for this tool. Here’s how I like to sync my Android calendar with my Thunderbird…

Step 1: Download Provider for Google Calendar

Step 2: Open Thunderbird and go to the add-ons menu. (Tools > Add-ons)

Step 3: Click Install and then locate the newly downloaded add-on, after Thunderbird has restarted, go to your calendar

Step 4: On the left side, where your calendars are listed, right-click and select “New Calendar,” click “Network Calendar” and then “Google Calendar.” Stop here and proceed to Firefox

Step 5: Open your calendar that is associated with your Android phone and in the upper right corner click Settings > Calendar Settings

Step 6: Click the “Calendars” tab and then click on the email address associated with your Android phone

Step 7: Near the bottom you will see “Private Address,” click on XML and copy the URL shown on the screen and go back to Thunderbird where you stopped on Step 6

Step 8: Paste the URL of your “Private Calendar” here and click Next

Your Android calendar should now appear in your Thunderbird calendar. They will sync in both directions making it nice and easy to add/remove/edit your events.

New Adobe Flash “Squared”…64bit Users Rejoice

I’m sure we all remember when Adobe was actively working on a Flash plugin for 64bit Linux users, and that it was a beta version. I’m also sure you all remember when Adobe pulled that version from their site… Bummer…

Well now we get to rejoice once again! Adobe has announced the release of their newest Flash plugin, dubbed “Square.” The best part is that they have included Linux versions in both 32bit & 64bit!!

I’ve only been using it for about an hour, but thus far I’ve had no problems with it at all. Here’s how you can install it:

• Visit: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html
• Download the 32bit or 64bit version.
• Extract the .so file to your desktop.
• Open Nautilus and navigate to ~/.mozilla/plugins/ (Create the folder if it does not already exist).
• Delete your existing Flash plugin and copy/paste the new one from your desktop here.
• Restart Firefox and you’re done!

Note: These steps will also work for Chrome users since Chrome pulls it’s flash plugin from the .mozilla folder.

Also, 64bit users can open Synaptic Package Manager and search for “nspluginwrapper” and Completely Remove it.

How To | Fix Firefox Speed Issues (Ubuntu 10.04)

Open your Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and hit enter. To make a False into True, select the line to change, right click on the “value”. Select Toggle or Modify

• network.http.pipelining > True
• network.http.pipelining.maxrequests > 8 or 10
• network.http.proxy.pipelining > True
• network.dns.disableIPv6 > True
• network.http.version* > 1.1
• network.http.proxy.version* > 1.1

*Your system may already have this setting as default, but it’s worth checking, since pipelining only works on http 1.1 connections.

Credit goes to UbuntuGeek.com and user Brian T

Firefox Fields

If people are anything like myself, they like to change the default theme that Ubuntu uses. As much as I appreciate the hard work that the art team does, I’m not that big a fan of the default theme. Personally I prefer darker themes, most of my electronics are black and I feel comfortable around a darker theme.

However, there has always been a “flaw,” at least in mine and my wife’s eyes, with using a darker theme in Ubuntu. This flaw is with Firefox. You see, by nature Firefox for Ubuntu incorporates the theme of the environment into itself. Meaning, if you change the desktop theme, Firefox will follow suit. Sometimes when a darker theme is used, Firefox will have dark entry fields to type into. For the most part the text color will be something of the lighter nature and it’s ok, but once in a while I will stumble upon a website that has a dark entry field and dark colors for the entry field text. Needless to say, in my case this causes a lot of typos.

I’m getting tired of highlighting what I typed… Here is my solution for fixing this “flaw.”

Navigate to /home/username/.mozilla/firefox/~/chrome

Replace username with your computer login username.
Replace ~ with the crazy folder name that’s located in your firefox directory. For example, mine was 5ts89n7i.default

Now open userContent-example.css

Replace everything in the file with this: (Note: If you already have a custom userContent.css file, this will not work for you.)

/* Smooth Scrolling Workaround: Disable Fixed Background Images on Pages */

input {
border: 2px inset white;
background-color: white;
color: black;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

textarea {
border: 2px inset white;
background-color: white;
color: black;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

select {
border: 2px inset white;
background-color: white;
color: black;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

input[type="radio"],
input[type="checkbox"] {
border: 2px inset white ! important;
background-color: white ! important;
color: ThreeDFace ! important;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

**::-moz-radio {
background-color: white;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

button,
input[type="reset"],
input[type="button"],
input[type="submit"] {
border: 2px outset white;
background-color: #eeeeee;
color: black;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

body {
background-color: white;
color: black;
display: block;
margin: 8px;
-moz-appearance: none !important;
}

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */

Now save the file as userContent.css

Restart ALL sessions of Firefox that are running.

Your entry fields should now look like this…
I am still working to tweak a few more things, but this should definitely get the ball rolling for you as it has done for me.

What I’d like to tweak still:

• Check box background color
• Upload file entry field
• Radio buttons

If anyone else has a fix for this already, I’m all eyes…