Friday, September 28, 2012

Backing up Thunderbird mails on Company's server.

I use Ubuntu Linux on my office Laptop and download mails in Thunderbird. IT Department of every company dislike Linux users and find out ways to prevent them or complain to top management that they have this or that problem due to Linux user. Generally I am able to deal with such complaints.

I am working at Jharsuguda for over two and half years now and there are more than 10000 emails in my inbox and 1000 emails in the sent box. IT Department complained that it is not possible to back up my mails since they are doing back ups through Outlook Express in .pst format.

I installed Import/Export tools on Thunderbird and found that either I could export in .mbox format in one single file or individual mails in .eml format without attachments.

I proposed that Thunderbird on Windows could import the .mbox file but IT Department did not agree.

Then I found mbox2xml converter and told them that the IT Department could convert the mbox file into xml and read it directly in the browser but I had to do that conversion for them and convince that the mail was backed up in usable format.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Revisiting Ubuntu installation on Windows Desktop

I carry a boot-able pen-drive with Ubuntu so that it can be used for quick installation on Desktops/Laptops whose owners permit me to do so.

Yesterday I found a Desktop in Delhi where previous installation of Ubuntu done by me using Live CD was wiped out due to reformatting of hard disk. I tried booting with pendrive after changing the first boot device to USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP etc but could not boot. I will investigate the problem some other day.

Then I decided to download Ubuntu 12.04.1 iso and burn a CD. For cheking md5sum I downloaded WinMD5Sum   The iso failed in md5sum check. Then I downloaded Free Download Manager to download the iso and the iso passed the md5sum check. For burning the iso on CD I downloaded Infra Recorder. After making Live CD I could install Ubuntu 12.04.1 on the Desktop.

This post is just to record what software is needed on Windows ( WinMD5Sum, Free Download Manager, Infra Recorder) to install Ubuntu on Windows machine.

Air India direct flight to San Fransisco has flown through China today.

 My sister in law left for San Fransisco by AI 173 flight which flows over North Pole. I tracked that flight on flightstats.com till it land...