I’ve been using iFolder for a few years now and am now in the process of switching my desktop from SuSE 10.1 to Kubuntu Gutsy. I was a little saddened that I couldn’t find a native ifolder package for ubuntu, so I had to compile it myself.

I found these instructions and my own are almost identical. I found a few things that I had to do differently.

1. Install dependencies - These are the dependencies I found were required.
   sudo apt-get install libmono-dev mono-xsp mono-gmcs libflaim-dev libflaim4.1 liblog4net1.2-cil build-essential automake libxml2 libxml2-dev libtool gtk-sharp2 gnome-sharp2 arch-buildpackage gtk-sharp libeel2-2 subversion gettext libstdc++5 libgtk2.0-dev
2. Make a directory for all the source code (I used ifolder-src in my home dir.)
3. Download the source code - from within your new directory, run:
   svn co https://forgesvn1.novell.com/svn/ifolder/branches/ifolder_3_4_sled10sp1/ifolder
svn co https://forgesvn1.novell.com/svn/simias/branches/ifolder_3_4_sled10sp1/simias
4. Build Simias - I like the idea of putting all this custom compiled stuff into one location (to make cleanup easier if necessary.)
   cd simias
./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/ifolder
make
sudo make install
5. Prep to build iFolder - There are a few things you need to do to get ready
   cd ../ifolder
   edit src/LinuxClient/application/iFolderApplication.cs and change “TrayIcon” to “Egg.TrayIcon” on (or near) lines 68 and 144.
   add a symlink for the arch command
   sudo ln -s /usr/bin/setarch /bin/arch
cp /usr/share/gettext/config.rpath .
6. Build and install iFolder
./autogen.sh –prefix=/opt/ifolder
make
sudo make install

Done!
iFolder can now be run with this command /opt/ifolder/bin/ifolder
If you want to make pretty link to the application on your desktop, you can use the iFolder image found here: /opt/ifolder/share/ifolder3/images/ifolder128.png

Do you want to buy a cool laptop for less than $400? This thing is durable, easy to use and can be charged with a hand crank or solar panel (it also looks kinda cute.)

The One Laptop per Child project is one that has interested me for a while. Not only have they worked hard to make these laptops inexpensive and durable, but they run Linux and are easy to use!

There is a ton of stuff that is cool about how these laptops can interact with each other. They seem to be ideal for any classroom environment. Currently, they have a special “Give One. Get One.” program running. Between now and November 26, you can donate $399 to the program ($200 of which is tax-deductible) and they will send you a laptop as well as send one laptop to help children in a developing country. As an added bonus, “For all U.S. donors who participate in the Give One Get One program, T-Mobile is offering one year of complimentary HotSpot access” (normally $39.99/mo.)

Two big things in the news about Gmail…

1. Storage Increase
2. IMAP support

Gmail Storage Increase
It looks like there’s been a slight jump in the amount of email you can have in Gmail. Reports are that the limit was somewhere below 3GB earlier this month, and now it’s at 4379 MB for me.

IMAP access to Gmail
This is one thing I’ve been waiting for for a long time. It isn’t currently an option for my account, but I’m told it will be soon. They’re rolling out IMAP to everyone. What is IMAP? Well, it lets you access your email and the entire directory structure (which I assume will be your filter structure in Gmail) from a client application, like Thunderbird, Outlook or VersaMail(palm.) This is especially helpful if you have multiple computers that you use to access email, such as at home and work.
I assume it will even allow you to upload email to Gmail too, since you can normally just drag and drop email into your IMAP folders. I’m excited to test it out!

This is interesting timing for this article to come out about Comcast blocking traffic.

Comcast is messing with TCP handshakes

Just yesterday, one of my clients contacting me saying that everyone in their office couldn’t get email. I manage the server which hosts their email. I quickly checked my email to see if it worked for me (it did.)
Eventually in the troubleshooting process, I had them hit the website which resides on the same server. No dice. I have quick access to 2 other systems which use Comcast, so I logged in and tried connecting. One worked, one didn’t. I also got reports of some sites not working from other people on Comcast connections yesterday.

In analyzing the problem, I found that connections weren’t being established from these “problem” locations. The filtering was happening with the handshake. A 3 step handshake goes like this:

1. Computer1: “Hello, Computer2 are you there?”
2. Computer2: “I’m here. Computer1 are you there?”
3. Computer1: “I’m here.”

Then things start to run over the connection. Here is a more technical description of TCP connections. Yesterday I watched the network traffic coming and going from my server and found that Comcast was filtering step 2 so that the first reply never got back. What a bunch of jerks.

I’m guessing that the cause of this is that their peer-to-peer filtering monster that went out of control and started blocking legitimate traffic (I don’t run any P2P software on any of my networks.)

I signed up for an Internet connection, not a Comcast-filtered Internet connection. I wish I had other options where I live. I’m rooting for Utopia and will research my ISP options thoroughly if we ever move to a different house.

For a while now, I’ve been getting this error when I try to put music on my mp3 player from Rhapsody: “This computer has not been authorized to play Rhapsody subscription tracks. To authorize, select My Account -> Authroize Computer from the Rhapsody menu.”

I would do what it said and keep getting that message every time.
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