So with having some extra time this weekend I looked a little deeper into Thunderbird and some of the new features that you can add to it.  One nice new thing is that you can install a plugin called Lightning which will add an Outlook type calendar to your Thunderbird install.  After installing Lightning as an add-on you can then download a Google Calendar plugin.  This plugin will allow you to select Google as an external calendar.  From there you re-launch Thunderbird and go to the calendar menu and add an external calendar.  Tell it you want to add it from your network then add the private calendar address you can get out of Google’s calendar settings.  This is a nice feature and brings Google calendar to Thunderbird and is always up to date.  Plus with Plaxo now syncing my work calendar and my personal calendars it is a very powerful addition to Thunderbird.  My only complaint is it is a bit slow.

Filezilla has been around for a long time and probably the application I use the most for my daily FTP needs.  It is super easy, light, portable and runs on any platform.  It also comes with a server part so that you can run your own FTP server super easily.

WinSCP is a new application that I have been using and comes with a PortableApps version as well.  The only difference is that WinSCP supports SCP file transfers while Filezilla does not.  So typically I use Filezilla unless I need SCP.  And oddly enough WinSCP is Windows only but will run under Wine in Linux.

As I am trying to write down all the applications I use on a daily basis I almost forgot the most important one.  I use Notepad++ probably every day and it is great for quick easy changes to just about any type of file.  I use it a lot to make quick changes to php files and stuff like when I don’t want to wait like 10 mins for this awesome dell laptop to boot up Dreamweaver.  It is a great time saver and super light and easy to use.  There is also a PortableApps version that is helpful to carry around on your pen drive.

Thunderbird has a default setting to hide remote images for emails that are not ‘trusted’  Since my email does all my filtering all emails I will download are trusted.  You can go into the configuration editor and change the setting for: mailnews.message_display.disable_remote_image to FALSE and that will turn this feature off.  To get to the configuration editor, go to Options -> Advanced -> Config Editor (its a button)

This plugin is great it allows you to upload a file using WLW which comes in handy just for posts like this one.  It has a small footprint and is easy to use.  There are a certain list of files that you can automatically upload via XPI before you have to jump to FTP but it is a pretty comprehensive list.  To be safe just always upload a .zip file.  The list can be found in the file at /wp-includes/functions.php at line 1069 or so, you can add to this list if you want to.

Mozilla released the new version of Firefox in beta today.  If you are interested in what exactly is in the release they have a full listing at Mozilla.  Some of the nice new features include:

• Added security including phishing filters and Anti-Virus integration
• Easier password management
• Easier add-on installation
• Resume-able Downloading
• Full Page Zoom
• Faster
• Less Memory
• Ability to star items and dynamic favorites menu is automatically created as your browse
• Improved graphics and font rendering

For your average user they may not spot these updates immediately but just playing around with it for a while I noticed that there was a significant pickup in speed and its nice to see some of the options that drive me nuts be addressed (password management)

This program is great, my webhost has this built in but for sites that don’t this is a must have.  With the Windows version you can download it and unzip it, then put the .log file in the same folder and then jump to command prompt and type Webalizer [log file] and it will generate your log stats in almost no time flat.  To view the results you just go to that folder in the web and look at the index.html file. 

Of the many portable apps that I keep installed on my pen drive and use on a daily basis I love Keepass probably the most.  This one is great because it easily organizes and stores you passwords, usernames, and URLs for all the accounts that you have.  It then encrypts these all into a local file.  Only thing is you must remember the original password to unlock the file!  This is great for remembering the 500 email accounts you have as well as everyone in your family’s wireless information that you setup and all the web hosting passwords and usernames I have to remember.  Some other portable apps I tend to use a lot are: PuTTY, WinSCP, Open Office, Firefox, and Thunderbird.  All are light weight and fit on a pen drive no problem.

Well today my favorite blogging tool is out of beta and ready for the prime time.  This application has let me increase my blogging ability by oh say 500% because it is just so much easier now.  Also it lets you manage multiple sites.  There are very few major differences in the beta and the final other then a heap of bug fixes and some extra features that well I just don’t use that much.  So go out and grab the latest version today!

Well looks like FastStone has decided after version 5.3 to make this software shareware and lock up after 30 days.  This is version 5.3 which is free for private use according to their rules.  I use this program a ton and love it because it is super light and always running and allows users to select exactly what they want to copy to the clipboard.  You can have it copy to the clipboard or you can have it create a .jpg or open an editor, it does just about everything you could think about.

Click here to download the zip file