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MsgViewer views .msg files

MsgViewer

Occasionally I save an email message from Thunderbird to a file, and when I do that the file has an .eml extension. For those new to this concept, the .eml file extension is usually applied to files in the MIME RFC 822 standard format used by email applications. You can open that .eml file using Thunderbird (which is available on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux) or using Mail.app on Mac OS X, and I’m sure using many other applications that adhere to the standards. I can even open .eml files in a text editor and easily read the text/plain portion of a multi-part email message.

Unfortunately I recently came across some emails with a .msg extension. It seems that Microsoft Outlook saves emails files to disk as .msg files, which is probably not the MIME RFC 822 standard format, and is some weird format you can’t easily read without Outlook… (It’s actually based on the “Compound File Binary Format” and require a MAPI-aware application to view them.)

Luckily MsgViewer is an application (well, a JAR file) which (as long as you’ve got Java installed) can open these .msg files. You can grab MsgViewer from SourceForge.

And seriously, why does Microsoft do this kind of stuff??

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*nix is the new *nix

*nix

Hey there… Dan Gillmor moved to Linux and it’s even better than he expected!

As for me, I’ve been using Mac OS X pretty much since it came out, and before that I used System 9, 8, 7, etc… Operating systems created by Apple. I’ve also used FreeBSD in the past (though mainly on servers) and I’ve been using Linux in some form or another for close to 20 years. Along the way I’ve also used Windows, though always for work, never for fun.

I’m going to call out a few things Dan mentions, just so I can comment on them.

…here I am, writing this piece on a laptop computer running the Linux* operating system and LibreOffice Writer, not on a Mac or Windows machine using Microsoft Word. All is well.

Luckily you can use LibreOffice on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. You can also use OpenOffice on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. And hey, you can also run NeoOffice on Mac OS X (sorry Windows and Linux users) which is what I did years ago before OpenOffice ran on Mac OS X.

This brings up a point I’d like to expand on, that even if you run Mac OS X (or Windows) you can almost always lean towards the open alternative that is available. This might mean LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, and it may mean Thunderbird instead of Mail.app, or Firefox instead of Safari.

Other software I use includes jEdit, Arduino, Processing, Fritzing, Inkscape, Audacity, OpenSCAD, and yes… those are all available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. You might also notice that (almost) all of the websites listed end with .org, which is telling.

The applications you use all depend on what you do with a computer, and what you use a computer for. I tend to use computers to make things, and luckily the specific things I like to make fit in well with the software I use.

Some of the applications listed above rely on Java. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Java, but it does help a lot of software run on multiple platforms. One of the applications listed relies on an X11, or more specifically, XQuartz. X11.app used to be distributed by Apple, but they abandoned it, but that’s okay because XQuartz exists.

One application I use that is not available for Linux is Evernote. I should say “not officially available”, since there is Nevernote and Geeknote. Yeah, often you can find an unofficial client for Linux that might work.

Of course if your work demands you use specific software, you may not be able to exclusively run Linux. Oh well…

Now…

No one should ever have to open a command-line window and type “sudo apt-get update” or other such instructions.

I tend to cringe when I see things a computer user should never have to do. I mean, if you want to do X, you may have to learn Y, right? Now, personally, great power comes from being able to open a command line window and type commands. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, though sometimes it is the easier thing to do, if you have the knowledge. If you don’t want to open a command line window and type things, chances are good you won’t have to. (But you should anyway, if you really want to harness the power of your computer. As long as it’s running *nix, I mean. Sorry, Windows users!)

And then…

It’s almost certainly too late for Linux to be a hugely popular desktop/laptop operating system, at least in the developed world.

Maybe, I don’t know… I have seen Linux change over the last two decades, and I’m still excited about what I see.

Dan did say “desktop/laptop operating system”, but let’s look elsewhere. Linux is used on servers, and appliances, and things. What do I mean by “things”? Well, every Raspberry Pi project runs Linux. Here’s 400+ projects running Linux. Here’s a few more projects and some tutorials, all using Linux. I even use Linux computers at work (building exhibits) that just play sounds. Using Linux on a Raspberry Pi makes sense for this, and lots of other things.

Anyway, Dan’s post is good (though it’s strange it’s posted on Medium instead of his own web site, because, freedom and all that) and I’d urge anyone who is not familiar with Linux to take a look at it. It’s pretty awesome. So is open source, and freedom, and the command line.

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3D Printed Shim

OpenSCAD

Shim

I needed a few shims to make something fit just right and I grabbed a piece of 3mm acrylic that was sitting on my desk, figuring I could easily cut it in the shop, but 3mm was just too thick. I could have tried to sand it down to the proper thickness, but at this point I would have had to cut three shims to the proper size, and get them all down to the correct thickness. (I didn’t want to use wood, as something would be sliding against the shim, and wood wasn’t the best choice.)

OpenSCAD

I took some measurements with digital calipers, launched OpenSCAD, typed in the dimensions, and had a 3D object ready to be 3D printed in just a few minutes. While I did have to wait for the 3D printer to heat up, and print the pieces, I could easily do other work while I was waiting for the prints. I didn’t spend time cutting and sanding things to get them the exact size.

Sometimes 3D printing is the right answer, and sometimes 3D printing doesn’t have to be revolutionary or solve big problems, sometimes it can solve the (little) problem you have, quickly and easily, and that’s enough.

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Mac OS X & Windows

Mac OS X & Windows

It’s been a long time since I had to use Windows servers, probably ten years and six operating system versions. Back then I dealt with Windows shares not as an admin, but a normal user. I ended up writing utilities in bash or Perl that would delete .DS_Store files and “dot underscore” files being written to Windows shares by Mac OS X. Now that I am again dealing with Windows shares (again, not as an admin) I thought I should dust off my old scripts (one of which is dated 2002.)

But it seems the world has changed in the last ten years, and now I can deal with “dot underbar” (the proper name) using dot_clean, which is built into Mac OS X. I’ll also be using dot_clean on DOS formatted thumb drives and SD cards that are going into other operating systems.

There’s still those pesky .DS_Store files, which I do not want littering any of the Windows shares at work. It seems you can prevent .DS_Store file creation on network volumes by using the following command: 

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

That should make for neater volumes and file shares when I move things around… Now if only I could deal with the other annoying Windows server stuff. Often I cannot rename or delete a file or folder on a Windows share. Sometimes I’ll try it from a Windows machine instead of from Mac OS X, and occasionally it will work, but often I’m only able to move all the files out of a folder and then can’t delete a folder. If I can rename an empty folder, I end up renaming it “delete me” but I still cannot delete them. Does everyone have these sort of Windows issues? (Again, I am not an admin, just a normal user.)

Sometimes I really miss of the Mac OS X-based servers I used to run. (Well, every time I have to use a Windows server, actually.)

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Screen Printing Demo

ground tracking station

I did a screen printing demo class at Milwaukee Makerspace, so that other members can make use of the awesome equipment we have available…

I grabbed this fine piece of art titled ground tracking station from OpenClipArt a while back, and figured it would come in handy…

Krambo Industries

After a number of edits to make it “cut-friendly” and adding my own text, I used the Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl to use for the mask…

Vinyl prep

Since we’re going to stick the vinyl on the back side of the screen, make sure to reverse your image before you cut it! (You can do it right in the Silhouette software.)

screen back side

The vinyl gets attached to the back of the screen. I don’t have a photo of the transfer paper, but yes, I needed to use transfer paper. Getting the vinyl to stick to the screen can be tricky! Go slow, very slow, and make sure it transfers ok. It may not stick very good (yet) but it will work.

Once the vinyl it in place, tape it good on at all four sides, and then add more tape. (It’s clear packing tape, hard to see in the photo.)

screen front side

Flip the screen over, and press down on the screen, so it will stick to the vinyl better. Add more tape. Really, preparing screens involves a lot of tape. (The white thing on the screen is just the backing of the vinyl, which I used to save a bit of tape… It’s taped in place. Yes, more tape!)

Printed shirt

It was the first time screen printing for everyone who attended. Usually at least one or two people have had some experience (usually in high school) but this time no one had done it before. Here’s the shirt Asim printed. It turned out good!

Printed shirt

While I only talked about printing light ink on dark shirts, Andrea brought a black shirt, which we printed with dark red ink. She said she wanted to do a bleach treatment on the shirt, which should lighten up the fabric but not the ink. Hopefully I can get a photo of that when it’s done.

Sample print

I did a print on paper as well so I could add it to the “Wall of Stuff” at the Makerspace.

After I cleaned everything up I had a member ask when I’d be doing another demo/class. As usual, I don’t know the answer yet! Usually when enough people ask about it I do it. So, yeah, I’ll do it again, at some point.

(Here’s a blog post about a previous printing that I did.)