danny’s space

The woe when Sydney University central IT decided to migrate everyone to the Microsoft Exchange server! Migrate is too kind a word - it was more of an uprooting. As Angela put it, it was a case of outright computer molestation!

We like using Thunderbird for email. It’s open source, free, and flexible. But unfortunately, Thunderbird only manages to talk to email servers using POP or IMAP, and not Exchange. ICT said that we had to use Outlook. HAD TO. The line was basically, “Tough luck, everyone’s migrating, you have to do it as well”. Read: “We love Microsoft and have no idea how to work with other software. The university has decided to install buggy proprietary software so that the vice-chancellor can read your email and share your calendar and personal contacts so bananas to you”. So kicking and screaming, my email was migrated from the good ol’ POP3 system to the dreaded Exchange. I fought it as long as I could, even ignored the emails reminding us to contact the IT team responsible for migration.

But last Friday they came.

And after my email bounced for a few hours while the ‘migration’ happened, I was on the new system. Another case of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I must say the Outlook web interface was half decent compared to the mediocre horde interface, although it rendered much better in Internet Explorer (bleh, Microsoft) than in Firefox. But the issue was how to get mail onto my computer to read offline, amongst other concerns?

To cut a very long story short, I spent 5 hours this morning trying to make Exchange work with Thunderbird, so that it was as if I was back to the old system of email. I hope the instructions posted here will help others in similar positions. For Thunderbird to be able to read Exchange emails using this method, your Exchange administrator must have Web Access enabled and you need to be able to access it. For me, thankfully this was enabled as POP and IMAP for Exchange were both disabled by the very kind admins.

First, you need to download and install the WebMail extension for Thunderbird. Restart Thunderbird, and install the helper extension OWA Webmail, which stands for Outlook Web Access. Basically this method hinges on an extremely useful Thunderbird extension that logs in to Web Access for you and downloads mail from there. After the two extensions are installed, restart Thunderbird again.

Before continuing, you need a few pieces of information: (1) the username that you use to log into Web Access (e.g. jsmith1234), (2) your password (e.g. outlooksucks), (3) your complete email address (not aliases!) (e.g. jsmith1234@mail.company.com) and (4) the URI of the Web Access interface (e.g. http://www.mcws.company.com/exchange).

Start Thunderbird and create a New Account (Tools -> Account Settings -> Add Account). The account type is Web mail, and the Incoming User Name is jsmith1234@mail.company.com, for example. Hit Finish when done.

Then get to the settings for the WebMail extension. Go to Tools -> Add-ons, and click the Options button for the WebMail extension. Make sure the POP server is running (green light showing). Close this dialog, then go to the Options for the WebMail - OWA extension. Access the Domains tab, and click Add. For Domain, enter the part of your email address after the @, e.g. mail.company.com in John Smith’s case. For Uri, enter the URI of the Outlook Web Access interface (e.g. http://www.mcws.company.com/exchange). Click Ok, and select the Accounts tab, and you should be able to see the Web Mail account you created in a drop-down box. You need to fiddle with these settings depending on your Exchange set-up. The Screen Ripper option works for me, as does unchecking Use domain in login request.

Oh, and another thing. Windows Vista doesn’t seem to recognise the alias ‘localhost’. This means that in Account Settings, in the Server Settings for your newly created account, you need to use 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost as the Server Name.

After all this is set up, try getting your mail. If all is working, your password should be requested, and your mail should start being downloaded. It was an immense relief that 5 hours of ‘work’ finally paid off.

If this method doesn’t work for you, you may be interested in other methods to access Outlook Web Access. These other methods are, in my opinion, a bit convoluted, besides the fact that they didn’t work for me on Exchange Server 2007.

When is fruit not a fruit? When it’s an apple.

After watching Border Security a few days ago (painful though it is - the pace is slower than Grey’s Anatomy) I thought the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service was actually doing Australia some good.

But after trying to legitimately import some biological material from the US, AQIS is more of a disservice than a service. Protecting what matters my butt. If I had tried to import the material illegally, it would have made it through fine. But no, I had to go the legal path, and declare everything. And just because there isn’t a word perfect match between “Arabidopsis clones” and “Genetic material” (scientists out there would understand that they are the same thing), my import permit was rejected and my parcel is scheduled to be destroyed tomorrow.

Great. Now my research will be further delayed, trying to communicate with the sender in the US to convince them to write the correct thing on the packing slip so that AQIS doesn’t chuck a spaz and reject the import of apples when the import permit allows all fruits. Some knowledge would come in handy, instead of “duhhhh, I tink dis isn’t same same”.

Thinking of a title is such a pain.

My security card stopped working this morning suddenly. The card reader wouldn’t let me into the building so I had to trek to the other end of campus to go to the security office where they destroyed my card and encoded my student card. Problem is there’s no place on the student card to put a hole in so I can attach it to my retractable key holder. I’m so going to lose the card or get locked out. What a dumb design!

In other news (haha as if this is news…), there was a funny guard on the train home. “This train terminates at Gordon, the next train to Hornsby is on platform 3. It goes to Turramurra, and Hornsby… [pause] I think… and then Gosford? Whatever.”

• Look up immuno protocols for trichomes, tobacco, arabs
• Remove Angela’s keyboard from oven
• Check out how to grow tobacco

Ah, science…

So, that Office 2007 Ultimate student offer was the real deal! Office 2007 is pretty cool on first impressions. This ribbon thing (the revamped toolbar) could take a bit of getting used to. I like Outlook 2007 - the ability to have multiple colour-coded calendars is great because I can plan my experiments on one calendar and my life on another, and only sync the life calendar with my phone without getting reminders to do PCRs all the time. I urge you all to go forth and buy Office 2007 for $75. Bargain!

In other news, our Canon IXUS digicam broke at 180FM after it took a tumble which surprisingly wasn’t my doing. Took the camera to Canon in North Ryde this morning, and was quoted a whopping $295 for replacement of the lens structure. And this camera is only a couple of months old. Late last year, I took our old IXUS to 180 and that broke as well, costing $220 to fix. So the lesson is either (1) don’t buy an IXUS camera because they’re really quite fragile, or (2) don’t bring things you don’t want broken to youth group. Perhaps the second, because there have been many breakages, not just of my stuff.

• Plastic water pistol: $3
• Pool noodle: $8
• IXUS 50: $220
• IXUS 800: $295+
• Various laptops: $unknown
• Seeing the youth grow in Christ: priceless

My goodness. Has Microsoft gone nuts? Got an email from a friend of mine about the Microsoft offer, which is selling Office Ultimate 2007 to uni students for $75! Is it legit? Would Microsoft sell something that’s worth $935 retail for more than 90% off?

Try it and find out: http://www.itsnotcheating.com.au

I reckon the URL seems dodgy. But a genuine Microsoft site has information about it, and so does the SMH.

I’m a sucker for these things so I went along with it. They’ve sent me a product key via email and I’ve downloaded the 502mb installation file. There was a warning during purchasing, however, where Firefox said that information was being sent over an unencrypted connection, so I hope my credit card details haven’t been haxored.

The good ol’ US of A style with turkey! Apparently these start in the early afternoon; and there I was thinking it was actually like a traditional Asian ‘dinner’ which started around 7. But it was great of Michelle (from Penny’s lab) and her husband, both relatively fresh from the US, to host an early thanksgiving dinner for the associated labs today. Nice to get everyone together in an out-of-lab setting for food and chat. Only problem was that it was in Quakers Hill, which is about as far west as Prospect Reservoir. A few observations about westie roads:

• Everyone drives at the speed limit.
• Roads are very wide. A two-lane ’surburban’ road easily trumps the Pacific Highway in width.
• Pedestrian users of westie roads are scary. They come right up to your car while walking past (ever heard of the footpath???) and stare at you.
• There is an unbelievable amount of road-side parking.

So anyway, back at uni tomorrow to do some follow-up work on my project. Hopefully won’t be too long. Sara finishes tomorrow which is good. Many movies to catch up on, like Da Vinci Code, X-Men III, Bridget Jones’ Diary II (I didn’t just type that…), High School Musical… Fun!

Also, another thing about being on ‘holidays’ is that you actually don’t get much holidays because people (who are still going with exams and whatnot) pile things onto you. I’m not complaining, it’s great to be able to help; it’s just an observation. Today after church was a bit crazy - Nuggy and I were running around trying to recruit people for ministry teams next year while trying to organise the signing of Ernie’s farewell book and also trying to entice people to go to Ernie’s farewell BBQ. Not a big list so far which is disappointing.

Stuff doesn’t just stop after hand-in. Neither does stuffing of the face. During writing, I was sitting at home eating Kettle chips all day, 8am to 2am and typing. Now that it’s all done, the celebratory meals are in full swing.

Last Monday and Tuesday the honours bunch had late lunches at the Taiwanese place, Sunflower, on George St. Highly recommended! Quaint, cosy atmosphere, great Taiwanese food. Wednesday had lunch at Wok Station on Glebe Pt Rd with Poker. Bit pricey but tasty nonetheless. (I don’t have a very developed food vocabulary. It consists of ‘yum’ and ‘yuck’ basically). Thursday was lunch with Litty and Shereen, who handed in Friday before last, at Thai La Ong on King St in Newtown. Great to catch up with people I haven’t seen in ages. A quite time at home on Friday, then a filling dinner with Sara on Saturday when we attempted to cook pasta. Then dinner with Nerd Con last night at Cafe de Macau in Eastwood, which was surprisingly, erm, yum. And today, lunch with people from the various labs at Forestor’s Lodge in Glebe. And sometime this week, lunch with the honours bunch (who have now all finished!) somewhere in the city.

My scales aren’t going to be happy!

It is done. Phew. Up until 4am this morning printing out stuff, and then wake up today to collage, lug it all to uni and hand it in. Unfortunately a few other honours students are still going. I guess it’s okay, you only lose 0.5 marks per day it’s late, not like the crazy 10%/day thing.

So what to do now? Don’t know. Sleep? Who knows. But I think a copy and paste of my acknowledgements page is in order…

I am indebted to many people for their invaluable assistance, helpful advice, and kind guidance rendered this year.

Immense gratitude is owed to my three supervisors, Robyn Overall, Penny Smith, and David Day, who have spent countless hours supporting me in my struggle with biology. Thanks go to Robyn for being, amongst other things, a smiling and reassuring constant with a fantastic ability for lateral thinking; to Penny for her eagerness and vast knowledgebase; and to David for his clever ideas and meticulous appraisals.

Much appreciation is also extended to Angela Ho for her friendship, skilful guidance and eagerness to share, as well as for supplying vectors, competent cells, an Arabidopsis cDNA library, and other lab paraphernalia. I am grateful to Jing Ji, Michelle Barthet and Emilie Cameron for their unceasing and uncomplaining help in vector construction, supplying competent cells, and general lab assistance. Thanks go to Debbie Barton for her patient teaching of tricky immunocytochemistry techniques and for her help and advice on microscopy. Thanks also to Errin Johnson for her self-sacrificial attitude when giving assistance and advice in anything from PCRs to confocal microscopy. I am also indebted to both Errin and Debbie for their highly demanding, last-minute efforts trying to divulge the secrets of protein aggregates using electron microscopy, which was nothing short of heroic. I look forward to studying this in greater detail with them. Christine Faulkner, now living in Scotland, was indispensable in setting up half the project, donating vectors and providing encouragement. I am grateful for the help offered by John Gardiner in searching microarray databases as well as for his kind concern for me. Laurence Cantrill provided much valuable assistance with the Zeiss confocal microscope and other cell biology matters, as well as being open and approachable. I also owe a great debt to Dave Collings from Australian National University for conjuring up half the project and for helpful discussions and encouraging comments on artefacts and over-expression. Thanks to Leila Blackman, also from ANU, for her constructive observations and for vectors. Thanks also to Rosemary White and Craig Wood, both from Canberra, for supplying dyes and vectors. Louise Cole must also be mentioned for her helpful advice. Thanks to Ellie Kable and the Electron Microscopy Unit for allowing the use of the Nikon confocal microscope; to Jan Marc for allowing the use of his particle inflow gun; and to the Skurray/Firth lab for kindly allowing the use of their equipment.

This list would be incomplete without mentioning the rest of the honours students, whose friendship and support have made this year much more enjoyable.

Finally, I am greatly thankful for the support and understanding of my family and Sara, who have undoubtedly borne the majority of my stress this year. Last but not least, I am thankful that God has given me this wonderful opportunity to study this world in such detail and be continuously amazed at the intricacies of biology.