Jon Nalewajek

Earlier today, I realized that the Provider for Google Calendar add-on that I use with Mozilla Lightning does not add events in my Google Calendar with the “SMS” notification option. In fact, no matter what settings you have in your Google Calendar, Lightning will always add an event with the “pop-up” notification.

I google’d for a bit, and found this blog post, which described editing a java script file in the Provider for Google Calendar add-on so that events added to Lightning would set up a SMS notification on Google Calendar. However, the problem with this is that it will only set the notifications for SMS. Some people might want E-mail, SMS, and a pop-up notification.

After looking at the Google Calendar API, I realized that there is an “all” reminder setting, which will cause an event to have all of the default notifications you have setup on your “Notification” settings in Google Calendar. This does not mean that you will receive pop-up, e-mail, and SMS notifications, but rather, you will receive all of the notifications you have set under “default notifications” on your google calendar (for example, I have it so it is pop-up and SMS notifications only).

Getting Set Up:

(Note: If you want to manually do this, open the Provider for Google Calendar .xpi using an archive program, go into the folder “js”, and edit the file “calGoogleUtils.js”. Goto line 508 and change “alert” to “all”)

If you currently have Provider for Google Calendar installed, you do not need to uninstall it. Installing my modified version will simply replace the version that is already installed. I have tested this several times, and have not experienced any issues.

My modified version of Provider for Google Calendar: http://jonnale.org/apps/CUSTOM%20-%20provider_for_google_calendar-0.5.1-tb+sb.xpi

To set up which notifications you wish to receive on all events, go to your settings page in Google Calendar, and add all reminders you wish to have.

Note: The only downside to my modification is that EVERY event you add in Mozilla Lightning with an alarm will have all of the default notifications set for its reminder (if there is no alarm, no notifications will be set). This should not be an issue if you want every event sent via your default notification methods. I personally want all events sent via SMS + pop-up, so this is not a big deal for me, but I realize this might be a concern for others.

jonnale Tech-stuff e-mail, gmail, google, lightning, mozilla

One common argument against the use of Linux is that is usually requires the user to have to edit some file manually to get something to work. I never liked this argument because although this might be true (it very well may not be, depending on the user), the steps required to get programs to work are usually very well defined, and can be found on the Ubuntu Forums.

However, in terms of the desktop environment, it seems like Linux has many features that every day users find appealing:

For those that are not familiar with Linux, the above video shows people’s reactions to KDE 4, one of the various Desktop Environments available for Linux users. The users are unaware that they are seeing KDE 4 or Linux and believe it is the new version of Windows, Windows 7.

If you don’t like the looks or features of Windows 7 or KDE 4, Linux users have a variety of desktop environments. My favorite, and the one I currently use, is GNOME.

jonnale Open Source, Tech-stuff kde 4, linux, windows 7

Last month I bought a Samsung T220HD from newegg. My friend also got the same monitor but in the 25 inch version as a gift for Christmas.

After hooking it up, I immediately noticed that the top of the screen was darker than the bottom of the screen. Folders on the top of my screen were dull and dark, while the folders on the bottom of my screen were very bright and vivid. I played with the settings for over an hour, and was not able to fix the problem.

After noticing this, I called my friend and his monitor also suffered from the exact same symptoms. Someone else that I knew who also owned the monitor said his had similar problems, but it did not bother him that much.

My friend returned his monitor for a refund, and I sent mine back to newegg for a replacement. I just received the new monitor, and it also suffers from the brightness/darkness issue. It is so noticeable! The top of the screen is clearly darker than the bottom. Solid colors show a gradient if they are full screen.

I am not sure how this monitor is getting such great reviews. On most sites, it has 4 or 5 stars. However, if you google the name and the problem, you see many forum and blog posts complaining about the same issue.

I always thought that Samsung made high quality products, but they really dropped the ball on this one. I am returning mine for a full refund (thankfully, Newegg has excellent support).

jonnale Tech-stuff Samsung monitor, T220HD