To the death of Outlook Express DAV protocol

So today I got a rather interesting email from microsoft (I snipped some out because it is long and boring).

Dear Microsoft Outlook Express customer,

Thank you for using Microsoft® Outlook® Express. Our information indicates that you use Outlook Express to access a Windows Live™ Hotmail® e-mail account via a protocol called DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol). DAV, like POP3 or IMAP, is the way that a mail client communicates with a web-based mail server.

As a valued customer, we want to provide advanced notice that as of June 30, 2008, Microsoft is disabling the DAV protocol and you will no longer be able to access your Hotmail Inbox via Outlook Express. As an alternative, we recommend that you download Windows Live Mail, a free desktop e-mail client that has the familiarity of Outlook Express and much more. This next generation of free e-mail software will allow you to easily manage multiple e-mail accounts—including Windows Live Hotmail, plus other e-mail accounts that support POP3/IMAP. Better yet, Windows Live Mail integrates well with other Windows Live services, and downloads in minutes. After you provide your user name and password, you will automatically be linked to your Hotmail account, providing continued access to your email and contacts.



Frequently asked questions:
Why are we disabling DAV?
DAV is a legacy protocol that is not well suited for client access to large inboxes. Over time, as we’ve provided more e-mail storage to our users—and now offer 5GB inboxes for free—a more efficient access protocol is needed.

What are we replacing DAV with?
We have developed a new, much more efficient protocol called DeltaSynch that is far superior to DAV especially for large e-mail inboxes. It enables email clients to only download changes since the last time the client polled the email server for changes. This is much more efficient and high performing than having to download all the headers in every folder as is the case with DAV.

Is there a different or new mail client I can try that uses DeltaSynch?
Microsoft is providing Windows Live Mail, a free e-mail client that has the familiarity of Outlook Express and much more. This free, next generation email client enables users to easily manage multiple e-mail accounts including Windows Live Hotmail and other e-mail accounts that support POP3/IMAP. Windows Live Mail also integrates well with other Windows Live services, is optimized to work with Windows Live Hotmail, and offers:

To which I firmly wrote back (and quoted exactly)

I’m sorry guys, but I’m going to have to rock the boat on this one.

Years ago you created your own protocol to deal with mail problems. Now it is obsolete.
So you go and make another one. Does this not sounds like a bad circle to get into?

You say that Windows Live Mail is the new software that will connect to hotmail using the new protocol. You also state that this software will connect to other, standard IMAP/POP3 email accounts. That is a good thing because my client needs to connect to more than one account. If there is validity in the need for your software to connect using these protocols, why don’t you provide an IMAP/POP3 connection to the hotmail servers? I understand that you want to be able to sync more than email (contacts, notes, pictures etc) and I understand the benefit of providing a service that does that for some people.

But I just need my email.

So, I have been unable to find any details on the implementation of the new protocol.
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeltaSync) does not provide any information about the use or other clients that may support this protocol.

Please get back to me with what my options are. If you are happy to provide the spec for the protocol I will be happy to write software to integrate it with my current setup.
I will not be backed into a corner.

Regards,
Russell

ps.
This email was generated in Opera - M2 (http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/m2/)

I’m so not looking forward to getting a way around this.
I will also be dissapointed if I have to leave my email addresses behind and just use the one at gmail.

-= Comments
1. Xavier | April 23rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
oh jesus when will people learn that making your own protocols is generally a Bad Thing? IMAP may have its flaws, but at least it’s a starting point.

Java on the eeePC

So after Lucien asked about java on the eee, I thought I’d do him a favor (I think it is a favor) and test it out.
apt-get install sun-java5-jdk after setting up apt to use a standard debian repository (I use “deb ftp://ftp.netspace.net.au/pub/debian stable main contrib non-free” in my /etc/apt/sources.list) and it downloaded install and then caused some errors :(
But I thought I’d try to run java and javac but they both seg faulted. More :(
So I uninstalled and did a quick google. Came up with http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=64687 which was informing me to install it straight from the sun site. One of the comments stated that the second time you run the java or javac command, it works for some strange reason.
So I re-install the jdk and this time it doesn’t error on installation.
java and javac run fine.

Hope that helps :D

teee heee, my new eee PC

So today I walk into Harvey Normans and see the little eee PC sitting next to all the other standard laptops and I think “oh, how tiny”.
I went and had a play with it to find out how small the keys actually feel. They are tiny. Probably a little too tiny for fingers like mine.
On the way home I was thinking that if I was still working, I probably would buy a toy like that…
… after some more thinking, I thought that I really should support something like a quality build and doing a good job of providing linux.
So I stopped off at the Good Guys and bought one for $457

Issues:

• I don’t like laptops suspending when I close the lid. If I want the machine to stop functioning, I will let it know. So I edited /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh and commented out the line that called suspend2ram.sh
• I don’t know how close the machine is too full charge. The icon in the tray only states the unit is plugged in. There is also a light on the unit that lets me know that it is charging. I have cat’d /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state and /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info but there is no obvious answer as yet. Once it is charged I may be able to deduce it is full based on some information.
• I’m used to NetworkManager configuring the wireless network for me. Need to get myself adjusted to the KDE way of doing things or…
• I’m tempted to find out how well ubuntu or fedora runs on the box just so I can get my gnome life back.

Still to fix:

• I need to turn off the display when the lid is closed. I know the script I need to edit but I don’t know what command to issue.

-= Comments
1. Lucien | April 4th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I am jealousy. I saw a guy at Swin with one the other day which he had installed WinXp on and was very happy with. Anotehr guys I heard about (also at Swin) is trying to install os X on it.

I’m just trying to figure out how to justify buying one for myself. I only just got my new MacBookPro a few months ago, yet…

2. pimaster | April 4th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
os X would be an interesting experiment.

How to justify. That is really a hard one. The only thing I had to justify was “Do I have the cash on me right now”. Supporting Linux and vendors who are going to support Linux (open drivers and community support) was what I wanted to achieve. What I do with laptop now that I have it. I don’t know.

3. Lucien | April 4th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’m right there with you. I can think of one thing to do with it: since it has the VGA plug, I can run a lecture from it. Now if it will just compile java, it could be my complete “java lecturer in a box” solution.

Printing from Windows to Linux (sharing a linux printer)

When I first setup my server in my room (Yes, I finally got there from this post on 30th June last year), printing was high on the list of todos.
After getting the printers to work locally (worked a lot smoother on fedora 8 compared to fedora 6), I got working on how to print from another linux box. After trying to manually edit some of the printers, I got frustrated and deleted them all to start with a fresh slate. Closed the printer dialogue and re-opened it to find that cups had automatically detected them for me. Fantastic.

The next step was to print from windows. I thought this was going to be easy since I had already enabled smb shares. But I couldn’t find settings that would work in the config file /etc/samba/smb.conf. So off to google I go.
http://www.petersblog.org/node/726 has simple working configuration.
I’ll copy the configuration setting just in case the original ever disappears.

# add to [General] section:
printcap name = cups
printing = cups
security = share

# make sure [printers] section looks like this
[printers]
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
create mode = 0700
guest only = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /tmp

And bam, Windows picked up the shares, I installed them and am happily printing test pages :D

Truck me

Finally, my search for a 4×4 is over.

Just got to get it registered, get some sort of a cb radio, tire mount and possibly new tires and I’ll be ready to go bush with my brother. He has had his patrol almost 12 months and I have enjoyed going 4wding with him.

-= Comments
1. Mark | February 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Cool as.

There’s some great 4×4 tracks up where I live in the Yarra Valley.
I crashed my car not long ago.. I’m driving my sisters old little yellow astra’s at the moment.

Keen to get a new one, but i’m poverty sticken.
Remember not to speed - you’ll stand out like the dog’s proverbial. My patrol driving friend has lost hist license twice now.

Long time no fly

It has been bothering me for about two and a half months, that I haven’t flown my helicopter.
For a while I was looking for the right material to repair the skids with but gave up and just used some super glue.

I have tried to do some hovering indoors to see if I could get the hang of the controls but it doesn’t want to hover. It’ll bounce on the floor or it will take off.
I can’t let it take off for obvious reason inside and you learn very little from bouncing.
I fear the next time I fly it I will make it fly a fair way off the ground, zoom around for a little while and crash it spectacular fashion :|

iTunes fun

I was just wondering if there was someone out there with an iPod video that would be willing to do a test for me.
* Find an mp4 file that plays fine on the iPod.
* Rename the file so that it has -.mp4
* Import into iTunes and try to sync your iPod.
I spent a couple of hours transcoding a file and ended up frustrated when it wouldn’t sync. I noticed that no other video I had previously had a - in it so I tried removing it and everything was happy again.
I really can’t believe that this could be a problem in software today and I would love for someone else to confirm this problem (or if it is just my machine).