Katherine sent up some gifts for the boys on Evan's birthday...  I couldn't get Evan to pose for a picture, but Conner got into the spirit.  A little photo-shopping later and we have "Conner the Kid"...  Okay, I'm a geek, but I'm a proud geek! 

Looking to have a common address book on all of your various devices? Check out myFUNAMBOL. This nifty little service lets you sync your email contacts between Thunderbird, Outlook, your Blackberry and pretty much any other device you may desire. Don't have a Blackberry? No worries, you can also use it just to keep your address books in sync across multiple PC's.

To sign up, go to:                                         http://my.funambol.com/
You can get the Thunderbird plugin here:         http://sourceforge.net/projects/sync4jmozilla
The Blackberry app is here:                            http://my.funambol.com/bb/plugin.jad (from your Blackberry browser)

Okay, so maybe it's animated, but who cares!? It's Star Wars... And it's out in 5 days!!!

How the hell did I miss that???

And the best part is, I've got a youngling of my own to take with me. :) Can't wait for Evan to see this!

With the change to a Google Apps server, there are a number of features you can now take advantage of. Here's just a few of the ones that I've found most useful:

1) Keep Track of Appointments:

Along with email, you now have access to a calendar where you can store and share your personal appointments.  Access the calendar at http://calendar.thesmarts.ca/.

 You can create sub-calendars for specific purposes. (Such as the Eskimos calendar you see to the right.) Click the Add button in the calendar list on the left-hand side of the calendar page.

You can share your calendar with friends and family.  Go to Settings / Calendars and change the Sharing settings for the calendar you want to share.

Sync you calendar in Thunderbird, by installing Lightning and gCalSync.  For a good tutorial on how to do this, check out: http://bfish.xaedalus.net/?p=239.

If you have an email address @ theSmarts.ca, there are some important changes coming to how your email works.  Read on for the details:

What:
Email for theSmarts.ca will be moving to a Google Apps server.  Only the email server settings will be affected, this wonderful website and (most importantly) your email archives and email address will remain intact.

Why:
This change will allow users to take advantage of Google's spam filtering services, reducing the amount of clutter in your inbox and improving the overall quality of service.

When:
NOW!  (Well, almost now.)  Your email is already being delivered to Google servers, and your new account is waiting for you.  You can continue to access your email (for now) at the old server address and on the old webmail system, but any changes you make *such as deleting a message or saving an important note* will not propagate across to the new system.

Within the next 48 hours, you will no longer be able to access your mail at the old server address and webmail will be moving to a Gmail interface.  Check below for instructions on how to set up your accounts.

What you have to do:
The changes required on your end are minimal.  In order to continue enjoying your theSmarts.ca email address, please update your email program to use the following settings:

If you use IMAP (recommended):

Account Name:  yourname@thesmarts.ca   (be sure to include the '@thesmarts.ca' part!)
Incoming Mail Server:  imap.gmail.com
Outgoing Mail Server:  smtp.gmail.com

If you use POP:

Account Name:  yourname@thesmarts.ca   (be sure to include the '@thesmarts.ca' part!)
Incoming Mail Server:  pop.gmail.com
Outgoing Mail Server:  smtp.gmail.com

Please note that you may need to log in and enable POP and/or IMAP for your account before these settings will work.  You can do this, by browsing to the new webmail interface. Once there, click on the "Email" link:

Then go to "Settings" and edit the POP/IMAP settings to enable access:

 

 

That's it!  You're all done, be sure to update your mail account settings now to make sure that you don't lose any changes you make...  If you run into problems, use the "contact us" link at the top of this page to get a hold of me, or give me a call at home.  Note that I have moved your old email to the new server.  If you think something is missing, please let me know and I'll do everything I can to retreive it!

Well the horde of caterpillars has finally left us.  I hear there are still a few swarms of them around Matt's place, but over here in Wood Buffalo it's pretty much down to the cocoons.  We went out for a walk the other day and I got a few shots of the river valley with no leaves.  Here's a few of the better ones after being stitched together into a panoramic shot...  Everything is green but the trees!

Well, the caterpillars are back. And this year is worse than last, from what I`ve seen in the last three days. After watching Kim obsess at the backdoor for a full two days, I went out and pressure washed the side of the house yesterday... After looking at it again today, I wonder what good it did.

 Tonight I brought out the chemicals. We`ll see what tomorrow brings...

Well done, but you've gotta wonder... Why?