HomeNewsWeb Technology Spicebird: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About MS Outlook and Uninstalled Office
Spicebird: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About MS Outlook and Uninstalled Office
Written by Administrator
Tuesday, 08 April 2008
I did something recently that I'm quite proud of. One day a few months ago, MS Word suddenly started refusing to open or save documents, complaining constantly about not being able to write to my Temp directory. After a couple of weekends of fruitless troubleshooting, the problem had spead to MS Outlook, making the situation critical. I was so fed up with trying to troubleshoot my MS Office installation that I finally just uninstalled it all and installed OpenOffice.org as my general MSOffice replacement and Mozilla Spicebird as an Outlook replacement. I'd been casually using OpenOffice.org for a couple of years, so it was no surprise to me that it could easily replace most of my MS Office apps, especially since I don't generally care about using or maintaining any custom formatting in my Word or PowerPoint docs. Spicebird however, has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
After several weeks running Spicebird 0.4 beta to handle all my Google IMAP accounts, I am happy to say that the Spicebird beta ROCKS! It has easily replaced most of my Outlook functionality. There are a few glitches, annoyances and crashes, but overall, this beta release is stable enough for me to use full time, and it's actually MUCH faster than Outlook. I honestly don't even notice not having my MS apps. Recently I built my girlfriend a new PC and didn't even bother putting any MS Office products on it. She loves the OpenOffice.org suite and uses it for her classes and prefers to use the GMail web interface for her email. So fear not my non-early-adopter friends, there is a true alternative on the horizon. For those of you willing to get your feet wet with a little beta software, definitely, definitely, definitely, check out Spicebird .
Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of the War On Terror 2001-2008
My favorite comic is getting ready to be relased as a single volume. You can preorder now. If you hate the war and love to laugh, do yourself a favor and order this. You can also read all the GYWO comics online for free here.
BBS The Documentary
This is by far the most comprehensive and entertaining documentary I have ever seen regarding the early BBS system. If you're serious about knowing your internet history, or you just want some extra geek-cred, this is your new favorite documentary.
The Nada Chair "BackUp"
The best alternative I have found to overpriced ergonomic office chairs, especially for very low pain around the sacral joint. Works better than my Aeron chair ever did. Also, it comes in navy blue and black, in case you're not into the whole pregnant woman aesthetic (pictured).It's really not meant for sitting on the floor, it's really better for seats that offer poor back support, and works great at sporting events to make sitting in bleachers much more comfortable.
Antec Quiet PC Case
At just under $120 including a 500 Watt power supply, this "quiet pc" case has worked great for me for over 2 years. In fact I now own two great Antec cases/PSUs. For the money, it's hard to beat this combination.
