How to Video Chat and Send Video Email Using the Free Web Based Appilcation Tokbox: Brief Tutorial

Recently John LeMasney brought the amazing web application TokBox to my attention. What does TokBox do? Well you can chat via live video with anybody. All you need to do is sign for an account and give the other person your TokBox link. You can also send video mail through TokBox. You can check on online via the Tokbox site or receive an email. This application is free and web based, no need to download anything! The quality was good when we tested it out. To sign up for an account, go here: http://www.tokbox.com/

Here is a brief tutorial to sign up for TokBox:

1. Go to http://www.tokbox.com/

2. Enter your first name, last name, email, and password.

3. Click the Start Now button.

Once you received a confirmation email, you can share your link with others to chat with them.

To send a video or voice message:

1. Click on the Click to Start button inside the black screen.

2. You will be asked if TokBox can have access to your video camera and microphone.

3. Click Allow for video and audio (you may be recorded), click Deny for just audio.

4. You can either call your Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, or AIM buddies OR you can send them your TokBox link.

* At the bottom, there are buttons for embedding TokBox into HTML, sending video mail, or inviting your friends.

This is a great tool that has limitless possibilities. Check it out today!

-Angel Brady

How to create custom reply headers in Thunderbird.

Have you ever wanted to customize the way that your email replies introduce the quoted part of the message you’re replying to? Thunderbird calls this the ‘Reply Header’.

For instance, let’s say you wanted your reply message to a recent email from your friend Jimmy to look something like the following:

The entity known as jimmyjones@verizon.net wrote to John LeMasney, on the date and time 10/13/07 9:44 AM, the following message:
“Hi, John, how are you?”

With Thunderbird, it is easy to make this happen. Here is some information about the preferences that we’re going to change. Below that, I’ll give specific instructions on how to change the settings.

// Change the reply header
// 0 - No Reply-Text
// 1 - wrote: - Netscape 3.xx/4.xx style
// 2 - On wrote:
// 3 - user-defined string. Use the prefs below in conjuction with this.
user_pref(”mailnews.reply_header_type”, 3);
// If you set 3 for the pref above then you may set the following prefs.
// The end result will be
user_pref(”mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote”, “%s said the following”);
user_pref(”mailnews.reply_header_ondate”, “on %s”);
user_pref(”mailnews.reply_header_separator”, ” “);
user_pref(”mailnews.reply_header_colon”, “:”);

Source: Hidden Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird Prefs
Address : http://www.geocities.com/pratiksolanki/
Date Visited: Sat Oct 13 2007 14:39:45 GMT-0400 (EDT)

These changes are made in Thunderbird’s configuration preferences, known better to Mozilla hackers as about:config or prefs.js

Let’s make the changes:

Open Thunderbird, open your preferences (options/preferences menu in Windows or Thunderbird/Preferences menu on MacOS) and choose the advanced tab.

Click on “Config Editor” to open a convenient GUI to edit the about:config file.

In the search bar labeled ‘Filter:’, type in “reply_header” and wait a moment for the list to filter to just show reply_header related preferences.

We’re interested in editing 4 values. You edit a value by double clicking on it, which opens a dialog window with a text box containing the existing value. Enter the new value and click ‘OK’ to make a change, or ‘Cancel’ to cancel. In these exampes, %s indicates a variable that will be replaced with the sender, date and tme, etc. Make sure it’s present as %s in order for this to work.

open mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote and edit it to say The entity known as %s wrote to me

open mailnews.reply_header_colon and edit it to say , the following message:

open mainnews.reply_header_ondate and edit it to say on the date and time %s

open mailnews.reply_header_type and edit it to say 3

This last one is very important - it indicates that you want these edited values to be used instead of none, the default, or a preset alternative (0, 1 and 2 respectively) - look at the blockquote above for a better explanation of what each of these are.

Then, restart Thunderbird, start a reply, and enjoy your new custom reply header!

Close your eyes and smile. Then, reflect on the idea that it’s only because this application is open source that you can make this level of modification to the way your information is displayed.

John LeMasney

How to Change the Default Application that Opens a File on Your Computer: Brief Tutorial

I recently wanted to change the default application for a file type on my computer. Say you wanted your .svg files to open in Inkscape and not the GIMP. Here are 2 simple ways to change it. One way is for Mac OS X users and the other is for Windows XP users.

Mac Users:

1. Click on the file you want to change the default program for. Control click on the file and select Get Info (or Apple key + i).

2. Under Open With, click on the drop down menu and select the program you want to use.

3. To apply this to all files with the same extension, click on the Change All button.

4. A textbox will pop up asking “Are you sure you wnat to make this application the default?” Click OK.

Enjoy!

Windows XP Users:

1. Right click on the file you want to change the default program for.

2. Click on Open With.

3. Click Choose Program.

4. Select the program you wish to open that file in. if it’s not listed, click on the Browse button to find it on your computer.

5. Select the Always use the selected program to open this type of file checkbox.

6. Click ok.

This should set your default to the new application you chose. Enjoy!

-Angel Brady

How to convert a .docx file to .doc file

Some instructors and students have been encountering some issues with the new MS Office 2007 .docx file format. They can not open their files in older versions of MS Office or Open Office. If you need to edit or read your .docx file in an older version of MS Word, try converting the file to a .doc by using the tools and directions below.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
–Brief Description:
Open, edit, and save documents, workbooks, and presentations in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

Download: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Works 2000 Converter for Word 97/2000 Users
–Brief Description: The Works 2000 converter allows you to open a Works 2000 .wps file in Word and to save a Word document as a Works 2000 .wps file.

Download: Works 2000 Converter for Word 97/2000 Users

Office File Converter Pack–Brief Description
This download provides file converters and image filters for Microsoft Office programs, from Microsoft Office 97 to Microsoft Office 2003.

Download: Office File Converter Pack

For Mac OS X users, you can download the following converter tools to convert a .docx file into a readable format:

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter 0.2

This will convert the file into a rich text format.

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.1.1 (Beta) This will convert the file into a rich text format.

–Robin Lu