d0rkorg

I’ve been using IMAP over Gmail since the kind folks at Google enabled it for all of us.  This is exactly what I wanted in a Gmail IMAP interface.  Here’s how it works.

There is a special folder called [Gmail] that has the following subfolders: All Mail, Sent Mail, Spam, Starred, Trash.

These map directly to the folders as you see them on gmail.com.   To mark something as spam from my iPhone, I just have to move it to the Spam folder.  To add a star to an item, you just flag it.  Brilliant.

Along with those special folders, you also have a Drafts folder and a folder per label.  I use many labels to stay organized so this is great.  You can copy an item to multiple folders to apply multiple labels or if you move an item from your inbox to a label it has the same effect as labeling it and archiving it on the website.

When configuring the account for the iPhone, here are a couple things you should do in the advanced settings for your account:

1. Your Drafts Mailbox should be the Drafts mailbox on the server.  This way, all your draft messages are synced in every mail client.
2. Your Sent Mailbox should be on your iPhone.  When you send a message using Gmail’s SMTP server (smtp.gmail.com) it will auto-magically create a copy of the message in your special [Gmail]\Sent Mail folder.
3. Your Deleted Mailbox should be on your iPhone.  Since deleting a message from the inbox archives it when you’re using IMAP, you probably don’t want to do without that feature.  To actually move a message to the Trash on your gmail account, go ahead and move it to the [Gmail]\Trash folder.  To archive, just tap delete.

My Mail.app setup is very similar except I don’t use Gmail’s Drafts folder for my drafts.  There is some kind of Mail.app/Gmail bug where the auto-saved drafts that are created as you type each create a new message on Gmail.  This is super annoying… if you type a longer message you may have a dozen messages on the server by the time you’re done.

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Okay I guess since I mentioned Jess’s new site, here are a couple more:

• Ryan just got mrawes0me.net.
• Diddy got pkasper.com. 

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Jess got her own blog last night: Jessie’s Space

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After a few months of no official stance on an iPhone SDK and trying to convince us that web applications were enough of a SDK, Apple has announced that they will release an official SDK for native iPhone/iPod Touch applications by February ‘08.

Here’s the statement from Apple:

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

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This is a super-fast completion of the challenge stage #13 in Portal. This is easily my most-anticipated game ever and it has lived up to my expectations. After beating it in only a couple hours, I hope they release more maps/content soon.

The Portal-fu is strong with this one.

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This has been around the gaming blogs for a bit, but I had to post it here because its so damn cool.

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Last Saturday night Jessie and I went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  She put our name in and the hostess told us to watch for “213″.  I thought that was a little strange and we sat down.  There were a couple LED screens with room for up to six three-digit numbers.  I didn’t know what to think.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that has treated their customers so impersonally.  Does this bother anybody else?

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Jess has her own Xbox Live Gamertag now:

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So I went out over lunch and bought a copy of Halo 3 Limited Edition. A couple coworkers went with me and bought the same editions. We came back to the office and one of them decided to open it up and start looking through the bonus stuff. His game disc was scratched all over (in the inner third of the DVD). This may have still been playable, but I expect better from a brand new $70 game. After he showed us his scratched disc, we headed out to our cars and brought in our copies to check them out. Mine was scratched just as bad and my other buddy’s was okay.

The case design is horrible. There isn’t much to keep the disc from sliding off of its spindle inside the case. Once it does slip off, it just rubs against the plastic that is supposed to keep the disc secure. The over all case quality was much worse than the limited edition version of Halo 2. The metal enclosure just feels cheap and some of the black paint actually rubbed off on my hands when I was handling it.

I took my copy back to Best Buy to see what they could do about Microsoft’s mistake. The guy told me that they’ve already had a bunch of people swap them so I decided that I didn’t even want to mess around with getting another copy with a shabby case. The customer service guy let me swap it for the normal edition of the game, so I ended up walking out of the store with a disc that wasn’t scratched, a case that I know won’t let me easily scratch the disc, and a $10 refund. I guess that is about as much as you can ask for Best Buy to do in this situation as Microsoft really screwed the pooch here.

My coworker didn’t have the same luck at Best Buy as I did. He wanted to keep the limited edition version so he had the customer service guy at Best Buy open three new copies looking for a disc that wasn’t scratched. Understandably, after the third he said that there was nothing he could do. He left with the same scratched disc he went in with.

Here’s some pictures of the case, demonstrating how easily it scratches the discs. Also, Microsoft has announced that they will be replacing the scratched discs for free. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be without your game for two weeks while you ship it in and they ship you out a new copy. I guess it is better than nothing though for those stuck with a scratched disc.

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I just got my new MacBook Pro and needed to figure out how to tether my phone to it so I can get on the internet when I travel this weekend. I ran across this article, appropriately titled “How do I use my Blackberry Pearl as a bluetooth modem with a Mac?”.

Everything is pretty simple, you just need to download the BlackBerry 8100 modem script and then setup the device as your Bluetooth modem.

Using it from the office I downloaded files in excess of 300kbps, which isn’t too shabby for a makeshift internet connection. It sure beats the hell out of dialup.

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