The post Hello world! first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

This post gets a lot of attention, so I rewrote part of it. It will give you step-by-step instructions to take all your old email (in my case over 10 years worth) and upload it into Gmail. Over the years I have used several different email clients: Pine on Unix, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Yahoo Mail, and Gmail. I am currently pretty comfortable with Gmail and have been using it since it was released. Like many people I am a data pack-rat and have kept all my email files (well, almost all – sadly I discovered a 6 months gap). My vision is to put it all into Gmail so I can leverage the great search and tagging features they provide. So here are the steps.

Overall Strategy – get everything converted and loaded into a local server, then sync it to Google.

Why do it this way? There are many advantages. First, if your just moving 100 to a 1000 messages with no attachments, then you can just skip all this and use the IMAP interface found in Googleâ€s FAQ. That method allows you to “see” you gmail account in outlook (or thunderbird or lotus notes) and then just drag or copy messages from one box to the other.  But if your moving more than 1000 messages (or in my case 20,000 messages) with lots of attachments, that will take you days, and you have to sit there are watch it because you can only move about 200 messages at a time. In this method, we consolidate first to a local email server (Iâ€ll show you how to set it up below) running on pc, then let the two accounts (your local one and gmail) sync on their own. Any other way and you are stuck sitting there, dragging and dropping or copying and pasting 200 messages at a time from one folder to another. Second – this keeps all dates in tact. It is really nice to see message you send in 1995 in your Gmail account. Third, once we do this, we can use it as a local backup of our Gmail – just incase the unthinkable happens to Gmail. (I said donâ€t think of it!)

Ready? Let’s get started

Here is the over all process – you will notice that I installed a email server on my computer called Mercury. This allows us to set up a IMAP and POP account locally that is much faster and will serve as a local backup of all email.

Step 1) First find all your email

I dug through all my old hard drives and consolidate my mail into one location. As you can see, I have outlook (pst) files, lotus notes (nsf) files and files from an old Unix (pine) account I had at school. The zip file (all 2.7GB of it) is the finished product – all my email from 1995 though 2005 (2006 and 2007 are in gmail already).

If you are looking at my files, you see a lot of overlap, thatâ€s ok, better safe than sorry…we can delete the duplicates once they are in Thunderbird using an extension.

Step 2. Download the Software

• Thunderbird (free email client) – http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
• Mercury (free email server) – ftp://ftp.usm.maine.edu/pegasus/mercury32/m32-452.exe (read about it)
• Lotus Notes (free trial) – http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/downloads/
• Outlook (free trial) – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/default.aspx

Why Thunderbird – because it is open source with a large developer base. This means there is a good set of tutorials for writing extensions if I to want later on (for those visualizations). Also, I’m making a long term bet that 50 years from now, there will still be tools that import these files – (since they are just text files with no encoding and no database) – plus Thunderbird is really fast and can read 6gb of email quickly (lotus notes and outlook tend to slow down). So Thunderbird will be the final destination on my computer and I will upload from there.

Step 3. Install the software

• Thunderbird – just default everything
• Mercury – Make sure you set it up for both POP and IMAP when you get those options in the wizard
• Lotus Notes – Default
• Outlook – Default

Step 4. Import Unix files to Thunderbird

These are the easiest because Thunderbird will read these natively. All you have to do is copy the files in to the local folder and reopen Thunderbird.
A) Find out where thunderbird is storing your local files. To do this go to Tools > Account Settings. (note I renamed the local account to Ben Shoemate (all mail) but what your interested in is the “Local Directory” copy that and go there in windows explorer. This is where you need to copy the Unix files (they are files with no extensions). Just copy them to this “local folder”, close and restart Thunderbird. Your old mail will be there! That’s it!

Step 5. Set up a local Email account in Mercury.

Open Mercury – if it is all ready running you will see down in the windows toolbar by the clock.

Otherwise , Start > Program Files > etc..

Once Mercury is open, go to Configuration > Manage Local Users > Add User
Because there is so much mail, I am going to set up a different local account per year. Gmail.com can import from 5 accounts at a time, and this will save a lot of time later on. So just make up an account name – I use my initials and the year and a simple password.

It should look like this when your done.

Each of these accounts are real email addresses. When you are local (in lotus notes and outlook) you can map to them with bs1999@localhost
In gmail, you can add them as bs1999@youripaddress (i.e. bs1999@111.111.122.11).

Step 6. Lotus Notes NSF files to your local email with IMAP

Once lotus notes is installed, you can simply double click the nsf files to open them, or you can click File > Database > Open > browse

You should see your old mail now. Ahh the memories….But don’t stop to read everything again or I’ll never finish this tutorial! Now, in lotus notes we are going to map to the local email account you set up in mercury. (Note: Gmail now has IMAP so you could just map directly to gmail if you want using the same procedure – but again, it will take a 100 years if you have this much email).

Go to File > Preferences > Client Reconfiguration Wizard

Check Pop or IMAP and click next.

Select IMAP, enter your new email account you set up in mercury, and type localhost, click next.

enter your account name again, and enter the password you gave yourself.
Click next, enter localhost as the server and your email address again – this doesn’t matter since you will not be using this email address for very long and it won’t show up on any of the mail that goes through it.
next, next, next your done.

To open the view of this in notes, click the “Databases” icon on the left panel and open your new account (this might take 2-3 minutes while notes creates a new nsf file etc.)

Now you should have you local account open. Now simply open the old nsf file, go to the “all documents” folder, select all, copy (I think it will only let you copy 2500 at a time) and then switch to you new email account and paste. Once you have all the messages for that year in the local IMAP account, close the nsf and repeat for all nsf files, and all years.

Step 7 – Outlook to your local email with IMAP

The same as in lotus notes – open your pst, then add the imap account and copy and paste.

• To open the pst go to File > Manage Data files and click Add.
• To open the local IMAP account go to Tools > Account Settings > New email account

Check the box that says “Manually configure server settings”.

• Select Internet Mail
• Enter your Name, Email address (bs1999@localhost) and password, select IMAP, the server is localhost for both incoming and outgoing

Once you have mapped to this account, simply copy your old mail from the PST to the new account.

Step 8 – Clean it up in Thunderbird

Connect Thunderbird to you local email server (mercury) and download all your mail. Just like in outlook and lotus notes, we are going to add an account to Thunderbird and let it download all the mail you just put into it from lotus notes, pine and outlook.

• Open Thunderbird
• Click Tools > Account Settings > Add Account
• Enter Account Name (for me its bs1999@localhost), Name, email address (bs1999@localhost)

• Click Server settings

• Click OK.
• The next thing I did was organize copy them down into my local Thunderbird account and used an extension to delete duplicates
• Then I spent some time looking for gaps…oh well

Step 9 – Upload to gmail

By now your local account has a lot of mail. Let’s start pulling it into gmail. I set up a new gmail account to test it first. From there I can pull it into my main account.

• Log in to gmail
• Click Settings > Accounts > Get Mail from other accounts (Pop3) > Add other accounts
• Add your accounts from your local account. Note: you need you IP address. If you have a router you will need to route ports for pop3 (port 110) to your local computer. Log into your router to do this. While your there, get the IP of your router (ITS NOT the one that starts with 192. or 10. those are always local addresses)

(that’s NOT my IP address btw)

Next – gmail gives you some great options to tag the mail as it comes in, do it. Even if your not a tagger – do it.

You might also want to leave the message on the server (your computer) if this is a trial run.
Click Add account. If you get a problem, make sure your firewall is open, you port is mapped, and your password is right.

Next I’ll show you how to upload all those old chats…

If you liked this post, check out my other greatest hits:

• Words Einstein never said (but everyone thinks he did)
• Rewriting the Star Wars Prequels (they need it)
• Pimp your Credit Card
• The story of the bear and the big dipper

The post How to upload all your old archived Email to Gmail from outlook, lotus notes, and Unix (pine) first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

——-

THE PLAN

In the beginning was The Plan.
And then came the assumptions.
And the assumptions were without merit.
And The Plan was without substance.

And darkness was upon the face of the workers.
And they spoke among themselves, saying, “It is
a crock of shit, and it stinketh.”

And the workers went unto their supervisors and said,
“It is a pail of dung, and none may abide the odor thereof.”

And the supervisors went unto their managers, saying, “It is
a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that
none may abide by it.”

And the managers went unto their directors, saying,
“It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”

And the directors went unto the VPs, saying unto them,
“It promotes growth and it is very powerful.”

And the VPs went unto the Prez, saying unto him, “This plan
will actively promote the growth and vigor of the company,
with powerful effects.”

And the Prez looked upon the plan, and saw that it was good.
And The Plan became Policy.
This is how shit happens!

——-

Let me share my personal take on this…

I have been involved enough with corporate strategy and governance (as it relates to intranets, portal, and other web related stuff) to know how it works. You do something, it works, they ask you to document it, and that documentation becomes law. Until one day, you come back for another project and you try to do something, and someone tells you can’t do it.

“Why not?” you ask, reminding them that you are a consultant, that most honorable and noble of office creatures, “Who are you to say what I can and can not do?”

“I enforce the policy” they say.

“Give me that!”, you say as you snatch the printed policy boldly from their trembling hand, the 3-ring binder crashing to floor as pale faces peer over the stained, cubicle cloth.

“What?!” you laugh, “This? I wrote this 2 years ago, it doesn’t even apply any more.” And then you realize, your logic and reason mean nothing here. The only defense against corporate policy is powerpoint!
I am in the process of moving 15 years of email online from various formats to gmail so I can’t help reminiscing a little. I let you know if find any other gems like this in the archive.

The post How corporate policy works (joke) first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

Oh, I know. The snow. The effective snow
Stars, the last day, endless and centerless,
The purest form is always the one
II. List of Franklin Search Parties
People might see to be the opening
From point to point of meaning—open? closed?—
Not so much of place as of renewed hope,
And beyond, the same sound of bees
Left and right, and far ahead in the dusk.
to matter, for the flushed boys are muscular
What is there in the depths of these walls
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
at balls hit again and again toward her offspring.
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
He is harsh, dismal, ice—that is, exiled;
Bronze the sky, with no
The mortal architect had brought to life,
shaded by live oaks and bottlebrush trees
The pain of being born into matter.

Update: After Googleing (or is it Googling?) the first line, I found that all the lines seem to be randomly selected from this page at the University of Chicago. Nice.

The post Here’s to you, robot spam poet first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

So, I am here to tell you, that as of right, now, there is no way to:

• Add yahoo or google users to you Sametime list at work
• Add sametime users to you home google talk of yahoo IM.

Why no one is saying this is a product of the uncertainty caused by being unable to confirm a negative. It’s not just me either, there were at least 2o questions about this in Yahoo Answers. Including the one I added.

So here is my promise – if someone says it can be done, I will document it, and update this post. Also, if you can tell me it can not be done, because IBM has not set it up yet, that is good to. It is the uncertainty that kills us.

The post Google Talk and Lotus Sametime – does not work first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

People search for terms like “full moon” with the clockwork regularity of celestial events like, well, like full moons.

The holidays also show a steady heartbeat in search. I thought it was strange that “Earth day” would be more popular than Easter.

But then i remembered two things. First people are still working on Earth day, so they are at their computers, and second, google skews the results with those cartoon logos they put on their main search page. When you click it, it searches for that term. So bottom line, this just means more people are using google on Earth day than Easter. It makes sense but also reminds us that we have to take these graphs with a grain of salt.

Other things that follow a pattern: American Idol, which is apparently very popular in the Philippines.
IBM’s star is falling (its as popular now as summer is in the winter) and Lenovo’s is rising.

Point A in the graph is where Lenovo bought IBM’s PC business. One last graph, this one ties into both IBM and portals. Since I spent a lot of time helping clients get value from their portal investments, lets look at where the market interest lies.

This may be apples and oranges since Sharepoint is used for collaboration more than portals (and I’ve always felt it creates silos for information more than it tears them down, but thats the subject of a later blog.) Tell me about the interesting trends you discover in the comments.

The post Google more popular than sex (at least according to google) first appeared on Ben Shoemate.

Consolidate because I have 34 domains hosted with half a dozen ISPs. This is great for playing the feild and comparing level of service (except they all pretty much suck the same with 1 notable exception), but it is very poor for having any kind of focus. The fact is,  I do a little bit of work online each week outside of my client paid activities.  But since it is  spread out across so many different projects, it is lost.

Simply because my old site, while cool, was based on a cold fusion platform I build my self with several different web services integrated into it. Half of these were down half the time. Well see how well this new approach works. Fingers crossed. (by the way, if its 2010 and this is the only thing up here, you will know it failed.)

The post A new site, again first appeared on Ben Shoemate.