Daily Archives: Monday, 21st March 2011

Letterbox: a WideMail Alternative…

Monday 21 March 2011 22:33
Updated update: New version of WideMail now available – see the WideMail site for your update.
And I’m back to WideMail – see this post for details. Thanks to gravesit for the comment. Letterbox is OK, but not quite as good at displaying longer subject lines.

While I generally prefer the behaviour of WideMail, in its current absence, I’m giving Letterbox another try. I’m sure I tried it a long time ago, and for some reason or other didn’t like it, but so far its latest version seems to work, and is definitely 10.6.7 compatible.

If you prefer your mail client in a three-column layout, it’s worth a look…

WideMail ReMutter

Monday 21 March 2011 21:59
Updated update: New version now available from the WideMail site. Please go there for your new version.
And we have a fix! See this post for details. Thanks to Michael and Boris for the helpful comments.

Oh bother. Just updated the MacBook to the freshly released Mac OS X 10.6.7 and the essential WideMail has died again. The last update was designed to cope with 10.6.5, but survived the upgrade to 10.6.6, which lulled me into a false sense of security.

If you had WideMail installed before updating to 10.6.7, you’ll more than likely find that you have a lack of the Subject column in Mail. Fortunately there is a quick fix for this which won’t break anything else[1]. I found this after a bit of googling led me to this post and this discussion. Any, to save you searching, here’s what to do. Close Mail if it’s running, start Terminal and type this command:

defaults delete com.apple.mail TableColumns

then press Enter and restart Mail. Woo, hoo, the Subject column is back. You’ll need to adjust column widths and add or remove columns to suit your own requirements, but that’s a lot less hassle than recreating accounts (or hoping MobileMe will sync them without getting confused).

I hope there will be a fix soon. I think I’ll hold off updating the iMac for a while. Mail in its non-wide version isn’t nearly as pleasant to use.

[1] Other suggestions that have been around for previous versions involved trashing all of Mail’s preferences, which could involve a lot of work to get things (accounts, rules, you name it) back the way you had them.

Tyne Bridge Tower Demolition – 1

Monday 21 March 2011 19:48

Tyne Bridge Tower is an unloved, and generally unattractive disused office block that’s been squatting at the Gateshead end of the Tyne Bridge for many years. It was formerly occupied by the Tax Office, and once they moved out about five years ago, it’s been gradually decaying, with the help of people breaking in to strip out all the copper wires, and carrying out other bits of vandalism and theft.

Over the years, there were several proposals to tart it up and turn it into fancy apartments – and with a bit of re-cladding, and a lot of improvement, that might have worked. Given its commanding position over the Tyne, the view from the upper floors was quite spectacular. But no investor could be persuaded, and so the decision was made to remove it so that it would stop cluttering up the skyline.

The first step was removing the walkway that led from the Tyne Bridge to the building. Once that was done, it was time to start stripping out the building. It will be another one of those top-down jobs, but before they can start tearing the structure apart, they’re having to completely clear each floor. The following pictures show the progress so far:

Subject to tuit supply, I’ll be following up with more pictures as the demolition proceeds.

Weight and Stuff Report – 21 March 2011

Monday 21 March 2011 19:00
Weight: 227.6 pounds (16 stone 3.6 pounds, 103.2 kg)

And back down again today! Isn’t this fun?

The purple bird of motivation[1] visited me today, and persuaded me to walk to work with the Canon 5D MkII along for the ride. Having noticed something on my way home on Friday, I had to get some pictures, which I did[2]. And would you believe it, I went out for a walk at lunchtime and took some more. Here’s my route for today:

A moderate walk

A moderate walk

Click the image to see the bigger version, or play with the interactive version at Gmaps Pedometer.

And here’s a taster of today’s photography. A bit of Hamlet stuck on a traffic light pole:

Will S was here?

Will S was here?

[1] I may have just made that up
[2] All will be revealed later[3]
[3] Oooooh, the suspense!