HugoLarge

View Gmail Label Size in Mac OSX Mail.app

As you may know, Google Gmail gives it’s users ample space to store mail messages with disk space hovering around 7GB these days. And even though the Gmail web interface shows the total amount of space used you may still wonder how much space is being used by mail archived to Labels.

To view this information you will also need to setup the OSX Mail.app to retrieve Gmail via IMAP. I have my Gmail account setup in Mail.app so that I can use the account within OSX and so that I can use the Mail.app on the iPhone to receive, view and send emails with Gmail.

Once you have your Gmail account setup in Mail, all you need to do is either Control-click or Right-click the Gmail mailbox in Mail and choose “Get Account Info“.

Once the Account Info window is open you will see your Gmail account Quota Limits which will show the message count and size of each of the Labels as well as the total space allocated and how much is being used.

As you can see, I have a bunch of Labels setup in Gmail but within this window you can also sort the information by Label name (Mailbox), Message count or Size. The color bar graph is also a nice visual indication of how much of Googles disk space you’re currently using. As you can see, I’m not using very much even though my total message count is over 7000 and Currently used is 330MB.

Now, go give it a try!

How To: Replace the iPhone 2G with the iPhone 3G

I’ve had the original iPhone 2G for going on nine months now. I really didn’t plan on getting the 3G model until the other day when I took a look on eBay to see how much people were selling the 2G models and the sale prices. Final selling prices were well over $300 and even $400 dollars which really surprised me. So I decided to get the upgrade and sell my 2G on eBay to recover the price of the new iPhone.

So the journey began yesterday when I listed my iPhone on eBay. I’m not a big eBay user but I’ve got almost forty sales and purchases under my belt. I’ve sold high dollar items like my old PowerBook G4 this past spring after getting a new MBP. So I’m not too worried about getting a good sale price for the iPhone. I’ve listed the auction for five days and as of right now I have no bids. No biggie, they’ll come in. The big question for me was which 3G to buy.

The first choice was deciding which size I wanted? The 8GB or the 16GB model? I really don’t use my phone much for the iPod features as much as I do the web, email and social networks like Twitter. So space was not an issue.

After thinking about for a day or so I decided to get the larger 16GB iPhone since I feel it will have a better resale value if I ever sell it. Which is very probable.

So after deciding on the 16GB model, the second choice was which color would I choose? As you may have seen in an earlier post, I’ve recently bought a Flip Mino. I got the black model of the Flip but after using it I’ve noticed how bad you can see all the finger prints and dust. I took my experience with the Flip and did some other research as to what the iPhone community thought about to two colors.

After reading many forum posts and blogs I almost had my mind made up. The last thing I wanted to do was to see the iPhone in person. So instead of going to the local Apple store as I did for the first iPhone purchase, I decided to go to the closer AT&T store. I think it was a good choice since when I arrived, there was only one other customer in the store. I spent a few minutes comparing both black and white and decided to go with white.

Prior to this point I had two concerns; the first was how do I get all my data and settings off the original iPhone and onto the new one. And second was; how do I prep my old iPhone to be sold on eBay?

After a little reading I found an article on iPhoneHacks.com that explains how you can use the same iTunes backup of the old device and restore it on the new iPhone. So this is what I did to tackle the first concern.

1. First I synced the old iPhone to iTunes which like we all know takes forever to complete a backup. I did this earlier in the morning before I left home because I had planned on stopping by the AT&T store later that day. For those of you that use SMS a lot and want the most recent conversations saved and transferred then you might want to do a backup closer to the time you purchase the new iPhone.

2. Next I went to the AT&T store (since it was closer to my home) and purchased the new iPhone. One thing I could have done was turn the old iPhone off prior to buying the new iPhone since an in store activation is required but if was no big deal. For the heavy SMS users this might prevent any missed messages.

One thing I did not like was that the box had to be opened in store to activate. That blew any “unboxing” shots that I may have wanted to take. They also plug the iPhone into their POS (Point of Sale) Windows PC for some reason. I don’t know if they do all that at the Apple store but it kind of bothered me.

Once I left the store my iPhone was activated and could be used.

3. After I got home I hooked up the new iPhone to the MBP and was prompted to either setup the iPhone as a new device or do a restore from backup. I choose the restore option but was prompted that the iPhone could not be restored since it had an earlier software update. My old iPhone was running version 2.0.2 and the new iPhone came with 2.0.1 software.

At that point I went into the iTunes prefs and disabled all devices to auto sync. Just in case it tried to sync before doing the software update and restore.

After the software was updated I was able to do a complete restore to the new iPhone from the old iPhone backup.

4. During the restore process I noticed my old phone still receiving emails. This was due to the phone being connected to my WiFi. So I turned off WiFi. Problem solved.

5. Once the restore was complete, which took some time, I verified all the iPhone sync settings in iTunes were correct (from screenshots I took earlier). After all were verified I performed a sync, which also took a long time to complete.

6. After the content sync was complete it was time to verify all the settings and data restored properly. Everything looked good with the exception of two items.

One was that visual voicemail was not setup and therefor did not restore my saved messages. This may have been my fault. Maybe if I would have gone through the setup prompts, the old messages would have been restored. If anyone knows please leave a comment. I’ll have to research that one later.

The only other thing that needed setup was the passcode required by policy for my employers Exchange server.

Once those two items was straightened out, the iPhone was back to the original state.

The second concern I had was how to erase all personal data from the old iPhone prior to selling it on eBay. After more research I found another article on iPhoneHacks.com that explains how Apple includes a secure reset and erase of all data in the 2.0 software.

To do this you go to Settings > General > Reset and choose Erase All Content and Settings from the list of options. This is supposed to do a secure write over all data and reset the iPhone to factory new setting, ready to be activated (or jailbroken) and synced. The process can take up to two hours to complete so you may want to plug it into the USB power adapter.

So here I am, new iPhone all restored and synced up, using the mobile WordPress app.

I have to say, I was concerned that the rounded plastic back of the 3G iPhone would bother me as I really liked the aluminum look and feel of the 2G. But after using it for a few hours it actually feels really nice in my hand. The iPhone 3G seems to be a tiny bit wider than the 2G as well but not noticeable.

I was also unsure about the color white but it doesn’t bother me and I’m getting used to the refreshing change from all those other black cell phones out there.

So in conclusion, I’m very pleased with the new 3G iPhone design and upgrade process. And with a little planning, you can reduce the pain factor to very low.

Now let’s see how well the new 3G speeds work out.

Tropical Storm Fay: Fay, Fay Go Away!

I wanted to post a quick update on Tropical Storm Fay, which at the time of this writing is hitting us the hardest it has all day.

I took some video with the Flip Mino so I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a little of what the video looks like. Right now I’m uploading the video files to Viddler and then they have to encode before I can embed the video into this post.

So here they are…

This is a view of my back yard and the Fay wind.

This is a view of my front yard and Fay wind.

MobileMe Update: 60 Day Service Extension

Apple has again given every MobileMe user another service extension. This extension is for 60 days and is in addition to the 30 day extension Apple already gave its users back in July. Even though the MobileMe service has been a bit less then stellar since it’s update, Apple has done a great job at making good by extending the service contracts of it’s users, twice now.

What other company do you know that would do this across the board?

iPhone 2.0.2 Update, What Did it Fix?

I still have the 1st generation (EDGE) iPhone and for the most part it’s been working fine. Apple released firmware update 2.0.2 today via iTunes and as usual I promptly installed the update.

So far I can’t really tell if anything on the surface has been updated or fixed. I can tell you that prior to this update, going into Contacts seemed a bit slow, slow enough to make me think the app was hung. Scrolling within Contacts at times was also slow and jerky. Now, with the 2.0.2 update, Contacts seems to launch faster and the scrolling seems to have improved. 

The App Store still has discrepancies between available updates within the iTunes interface and the App Store app on the phone itself. Right now iTunes shows I have four apps that have updates but the iPhone says I have one. Which one do I believe?

Another annoyance has been a delay in typing that has been present since the original 2.0 update. The 2.0.2 update does not appear to fix the problem and it’s too early to tell if the update has at least helped. One really annoying typing delay (for me) is when entering my Passcode after the iPhone has been locked. This is a policy requirement for the company I work for to use Exchange support. The first few characters always delay in both typing response and tick sounds as I type. I’ve also noted some early typing delays when using both Mail and Twitter apps.

One thing I’ve done prior to installing firmware updates is to reboot the iPhone with the two finger reboot. This seems to clean up any running processes prior to applying the update. I’ve also disabled crash reporting to Apple (via LifeHacker) during iPhone sync which seems to have increased overall sync and firmware update speed. I know what some don’t agree with disabling this “feature” but until Apple makes the process faster, I’ll keep mine disabled.

Only time will tell if the update has improved the usability of the iPhone or corrected “bugs” as Apple says. Please keep in mind that I still have the EDGE iPhone and 3G iPhones may experience different results.

How To: Upgrade Wordpress with the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin

Gone are the days of upgrading WordPress manually. Thanks to Keith Dsouza of the Techie Buzz web site, you can now upgrade your WordPress blog with a few simple clicks of the mouse, all from the wp-admin console with the help from WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin.

The plugin installs just like any other plugin, in the wp-content/plugins folder on your WordPress install on your web server.

Once activated you will see the following message at the top of the Dashboard when an upgrade is available:

Once you click the link you will be presented with some dialog that will guide you through the upgrade process as show by the following screenshots. The dialog is broken down into three sections describing, what task has been done, the task status and what task needs to be done next.

Here you can see that some old WordPress files are backed up and ready for download to your system in case something goes wrong. The next step is to backup the database.

Here the WP database has been backed up and is ready for download. Next will show options for uploading the latest WP files.

I always choose to let the plugin get the latest version from wordpress.org.

The latest files have been successfully downloaded and unzipped to my web server. Next we go into maintenance mode for the site which is a very nice feature to let your readers know things are OK and why the site is down.

Now the site is in maintenance mode and you can verify by clicking the link. Next we de-activate all plugins, but not Auto Upgrade of course.

The plugins are de-activated and next the upgrade begins.

The upgrade install is complete but here you can check if a database update needs to be completed. The link opens a new window with the WP database upgrade button.

Here’s the Database Upgrade button.

We see that the WP database upgrade is complete.

Here we see that the plugins have been re-activated which was the next step after the database upgrade.

We’re almost done. Here we can see the WordPress upgrade has been completed and the plugin wants to do a bit of house cleaning from all the zipped and unzipped updates.

All files have been cleaned up and the upgrade is complete.

While there seems to be a lot of steps to complete a WordPress upgrade using this plugin, the alternative of doing a manual upgrade takes a lot longer to complete.

I’ve been using this plugin for some time now and I’ve had no issues. But, like anything, you may want to do a manual backup of your WP files and database prior to first using this plugin, just in case it doesn’t work as advertised for you. After you test and find it works… go for it. It’s truly a time saver. Easy button anyone?

Unboxing: Flip Video Mino

So for the last few months I’ve been debating on which portable video camera to purchase and I finally decided on the Flip Video Mino in black. I wanted something small that used internal flash memory for capturing video. I also wanted something that was easy to use not only for myself but for my wife and daughter. The fact that I can capture video direct to the device, plug it in via USB to my MacBook Pro and upload to YouTube is exactly what I have been looking for.

I plan on using the Flip Mino for capturing my daughter as she grows up, family times, quick happenings I may encounter and for my upcoming speech class.

The Flip Mino arrived today from Amazon and I was curiously intrigued with how “Appleish” the packaging was. So I’ve taken some photos of the Flip Mino unboxing along side the Apple iPhone box. One of the small features I like about the Mino is that it has a tripod mount on the bottom which will come in handy for those speech videos. 

Here are some pictures that show off the packaging and some of the hardware features of the Mino.

Flip Mino and Apple iPhone Box

Flip Mino and Apple iPhone box inside

Flip Mino Front View

Flip Mino Back View

As you can see the box and packaging has been inspired by Apple design. The front and back of the Mino is very clean and I can’t wait to test it out.

If you want to see some additional unboxing photos go to my Flickr page where I’ve posted the rest of the photos I’ve taken. Then be on the lookout for videos to follow!

Apple Vs. Dell

Ok, So The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW.com) posted an article this week about an article from Tom’s Hardware regarding the misconceptions on price between Apple and other PC manufacturers. I’m not here to argue their point in either direction although I do like and own Apple products. I also work as a Windows Server admin so I get my fair share of both Intel Servers, PC’s and Apple.

Both articles contain many comments from both sides arguing their agreement or disagreement with Tom’s Hardware and how they’ve compared Apple and PC manufacturer products. The one thing missing from this whole debacle is this… Let’s compare the Apple Mac Pro and the Dell XPS Tower in this way:

The Dell XPS:

And the Apple Mac Pro:

Need I say more?

How To: Strip DRM from Audio Files Using iMovie HD

In this How To I’ll show you a method of removing the DRM protection from purchased music from the iTunes music store. I have not tried this on any other DRM protected media but I don’t see why it would not work.

In order to remove the DRM protection from purchased music in iTunes you will need iMovie HD 6, which is a free download on the Apple web site. Once you have iMovie HD 6 installed on your system, follow these steps to remove the DRM:

1. Open iMovie HD and create a new project. The project name can be what ever you’d like since the project can be deleted once the process is complete.

2. Select the Media tab in iMovie and then click on your iTunes Library in the Audio browser window at the top of the interface. You can search for the song to make it easier to find.

3. Once you’ve found the song you want to convert, drag it to the audio time-line at the bottom.

4. iMovie will now import the file.

5. After the import is complete you need to add an image to the time-line or else the project will not export. To do this click the Photos tab above the media browser and select an image from either iPhoto or Aperture. The photo does not matter as it’s only used to allow the project to export. Disregard the Ken Burns Effect pallet as it will go away once the photo is rendered in the time-line.

6. Now the project is ready to be exported. To do this, click the Share menu and choose Quicktime. In the Compress movie for: drop down, select Expert Settings and then click the Share button. This will open the Save exported file as… window. From here you can choose where you’d like the exported file to be saved, I use the default Movies folder in my Home Folder. You’ll want to select the Export: drop down and choose Sound to AIFF as the export format. All other settings can be left at default. Then click Save and the project will save and compress the project.

7. At this point you can browse the Finder to the location you’ve saved the file and drag the .AIFF file into your iTunes Library.

8. Once the file is in your iTunes Library, you can change all the file info to match the Artist, song title, album and so forth. You can even drag the album art from the original file in iTunes out to your desktop and then drag the same file into the newly created DRM-Free file. You’ll also want to convert the new file to AAC by selecting the file and control-click or right click the file and choose Convert Selection to AAC in the context menu.

9. At this point the original song file has been stripped of it’s DRM and converted back to an audio AAC file that can used by GarageBand to create a ringtone for the iPhone.

Stay tuned for a How To on creating ringtones in GarageBand.

Disclaimer: The sole purpose of removing the DRM from purchased iTunes music in this How To is to allow the file to be used to create ringtones for the iPhone. These files are not being redistributed in any way.

What’s in a Name: Server Naming Standards

OK, so what’s the big deal with server naming standards? Can’t you just think of a name like “Bubba” and use that for the server name? Sure you could but what if you have quite a few servers, say a few hundred or thousands that are geographically dispersed? Then you might want to come up with a decent naming standard that will incorporate not only site locations but server function and numbering system.

At my current employer, we’ve done just that and here’s a breakdown of what we came up with for our Windows Server naming standard.

Our current standard name consists of seven sections or “Classifications” that together comprise the server name and it goes something like this:

CC | T | XXX | 123 | F | NN | O

• For the first classification, CC, we define the city or location based on a two letter code that has been standardized by my employer.
• The second classification, T defines the type of server whether it’s a physical piece of hardware or virtual machine. For example we use P for physical and E for an ESX virtual machine.
• The third classification, XXX defines a descriptor that could be the three letter initials for the software company who’s software is running on the server. Purely discretionary.
• The forth classification, 123 defines a numerical identifier and this section has been somewhat controversial for me and other co-workers. More on that later.
• The fifth classification, F defines the actual function of the server. So a domain controller would be designated with D, or a SQL server would use a Q for example.
• The sixth classification, NN is only used for cluster nodes and would indicate the node number as 01 or 02 for example.
• The seventh classification, O defines a remote administration card or heartbeat NIC for a cluster node. We use HP servers which include an integrated lights out card (or iLO) which we designate as R.

So based on the above information, a typical server name would be as follows:

BFPAAD001D which breaks down this way, Bum Fuck (BF) Acme Active Directory (AAD) server number 001 which is a domain controller (D). Since the server is an HP and has an iLO which has it’s own IP and DNS name, the iLO designation for this server would be BFAAD001DR with the R for remote card.

Now if you noticed, this post is also categorized as a “Rant” as well so here it is.

Overall the naming standard is pretty close to perfect, for our environment, but the one issue I have is that some want to name servers with a numeric designation starting with 000. For myself I don’t agree with this practice and a great example of this would be when you have 10 servers that are all identical in function, like a Citrix farm. The numeric designation for these servers should begin at 001 and end with 010. That makes sense. It’s like if someone wanted to borrow five dollars (in one dollar bills) from you and you started your count at zero (0). So you would count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, there’s your five dollars. That does not make sense!

So my question. What standard do you use for your server names and would you use a 0 numeric identifier?

Have You Considered Renting a Lens?

Have you ever wanted to test that new lens before you bought it? Or how about that vacation where you wished you could have brought a new lens for the SLR/DSLR with you… Well look no further, I have two lens rental web site for you to check out.

The first is RentGlass.com and they have just what you need. This was the first lens rental company that I found a couple years back when looking for a lens for a family vacation. They feature both Nikon and Canon lenses and will ship out the lens to you via USPS. Rental periods are from 1 to 3 weeks and prices start at around $13 a week.

Another lens rental site it LensRentals.com and they boast about having the largest stock of any rental company in the business and the fastest shipping. They do offer reservations, which RentGlass does not but these extras come at a price. Both lens rental fee and shipping are both higher at this company but the ability to reserve a lens may outweigh the extra costs. The rental periods are from 7 to 30 days and the site also offers an iPhone version where catalog and order tracking information can be seen.

While I have not yet rented a lens, the thought has crossed my mind. Especially when I’d like to take the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR Zoom with me on vacation but the $1900 price tag prohibits the purchase. That’s where renting a lens is appealing. It’s also a good idea to rent a high dollar lens first to test it out before making a big purchase.

UPDATE: Reader “Keira S.” recommended two other lens rental sites that offer shorter rental periods and visual reservation systems. Take a look at the following sites if interested:

ProPhotoRental.com

BorrowLenses.com

Creating a HugoLarge Logo

I’m really not that proficient in Photoshop but I’ve created a very basic logo for the blog. I’ll probably stick with it for a while until I come up with a better design. I really don’t want anything flashy, just something with a clean look to it. Let me know what you think.

First Look - Wordpress App for iPhone

The new iPhone app for Wordpress was released today so I wanted to give the new app a try. This post was written using the Wordpress app and I have to say the interface is really nice and easy to use.

Since this is a new blog for me, I don’t have all my categories in place. But no worries, you can add new categories right from the iPhone Wordpress app.

Overall, typing out and submiting a blog post is pretty easy with this app. If you write for a blog and use the iPhone, this is one app you need to try for yourself.

Check out some of the iPhone screenshots taken and uploaded with Wordpress app.

Main screen

Write Post

Posts

For some reason a screenshot of the photo upload page would not capture. I guess you’ll have to check it out for yourself.

My Little Piece of the Web

Alright, I’ve decided to start a personal blog using my own name. I know the blog URL is hugolarge.com but Scott Russell was taken. So HugoLarge is just a pen name I’ve created for my own enjoyment and this blog.

My goal for the blog is to post about my interests and experiences in daily life. I’m a Windows Server administrator by profession but use and love Apple products like my MacBook Pro and iPhone.

I also have a pasion for digital photography, which I’ll share from time to time.

Other than that, I just a normal guy.