Tough times in Moscow for internet search engines

With the economy in its current state and increased competition, Rambler is facing tougher times this year. This seems to be due to several factors: "poor performance to increased competition, the emergence of social networks and growing Internet penetration."

Read more about it at this Moscow Times article.

Happy reading!

Design changes to Worldwide Challenge

"Worldwide Challenge" magazine is undergoing some graphic design changes. You can read more about their changes at their blog: http://worldwidechallenge.wordpress.com/

This magazine has won numerous awards over the years. Here is an excerpt from their site:

The mission of Worldwide Challenge is to show how God is directing the hearts and hands of Campus Crusade for Christ staff members around the world and to challenge our readers to join with us in making Christ known.

Happy reading!

Jim Masterfield: 1994 Mr. America Bodybuilding Champ

Sunday at Moscow Bible Church Jim Masterfield spoke. He was 1994 Mr. America Champion bodybuilder. He has a brain tumor and is dying of cancer. He made the journey all the way to Russia to visit some church friends and long-time missionaries here. You can listen to his powerful testimony here: http://biblechurch.ru/audio/?ID=288 (Note that the actual translation of his sermon starts at 3:45 into the podcast. The translator is overdubbing a short bodybuilding video which you can see below on Youtube.)

Also is a blog about his other visits to other churches here in Moscow. It also contains a Youtube link with an early 1994 interview: http://www.jimandlynetta.blogspot.com/

Update: added the Youtube link for Jim Masterfield: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVRYHM6GUd8

Microsoft Word 2007 vs. Word 97-2003

When Office 2007 came out, Microsoft introduced their XML file format for documents. Generally, these end in an X, such as .docx, .xlsx, etc. Here are some useful links to know be aware of when mixing older and newer versions of Office:

1. users of older versions of Word (97-2003 .DOC) can download a free Microsoft import utility that can read and convert the newer Word 2007 files:
   
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en
   
   
   
2. users of Word 2007 can download a free export program to save DOCX files in PDF format so almost anyone can read it (PC, Mac, Linux, etc.). This inserts into the File > Save As menu:
   
   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en

Happy file importing and exporting!

Export Hotmail Messages to Gmail

This link describes how to import Hotmail messages into Gmail.
(Export Hotmail messages into Gmail?)

The main principle is that you are using one email client on your computer to manage two email accounts. For Windows users that means using something like Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail to manage Hotmail and Gmail. After reading the post above here are my suggestions:

1. If you already have Outlook Express installed on your system, there is no need to install Windows Live Mail. (To install Windows Live Mail you need Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista.)
   
   
2. Either way, using Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail, you can then setup your Gmail account using IMAP and just copy and paste messages from one email account to the other.
   
   
3. There are some good comments, suggestions, questions in the comments section of the post above. Some good ones to consider are:
   
   
1. setting up auto-reply on Hotmail to let people know about your new Gmail address
   
   
2. using Thunderbird instead of Outlook Express (good for Mac OSX users; you may need to search for Thunderbird Extensions for this)
   
   
3. more helpful hints from Mozilla Thunderbird here

Outlook 2003 to Gmail

There are several steps: Outlook 2003 to Outlook Express to Thunderbird 2.0 to Gmail. I used Mark Lyon's Gmail loader on the final step. The steps below are only for Windows (XP is what I used).


Things to be aware of before you start:

• Try and use Gmail to grab your new messages using POP3. This is a good way of getting new mail and gets you familiar with Gmail. You may want to set up Gmail so that it labels incoming messages with a key word from your old account (ATT or Earthlink) and then Archives the messages out of the Inbox.
  
• Spam - When uploading your mail into Gmail sometimes it gets marked as spam so you need to clear out your spam filter beforehand. As Gmail Loader is uploading messages you can see on your Gmail account which ones are marked as spam. About every 50 uploaded messages or so I would mark my mail--the unread spams--as Not Spam and they would be moved into the Inbox on Gmail.
• Size - I uploaded about 100-200 messages at time with Gmail Loader. I did not want to have to do all at once and have it mess up and need to do it all over again. I thought it was better to do a few steps at a time.
• Make sure that your ISP allows you to login and use Gmail's SMTP servers. Some ISP's will block SMTP services preventing spam and forcing you to use their SMTP server. I could not connect to Google's SMTP servers at first (was getting timeout errors from Google) and so I needed to VPN to my company's ISP and upload the messages that way.
• Overall, Gmail did a great job of handling message threads ("conversations"). I was impressed with its organization of this. Also, even though old messages are timestamped with the date of upload, you can still use Gmail to search the message body for older dates with something like "label:ATT 2001".
  

Here are the steps I took:

1. Outlook 2003 to Outlook Express - this converts the proprietary Microsoft Outlook .ost file format into the proprietary Microsoft Outlook Express .mbx format. This is a necessary step. When you start Outlook Express (OE), go to File > Import > Messages > Microsoft Outlook. OE will look at the current profile in Outlook and give a choice to import all or "Selected" folders. It does not seem to offer the capability to import .pst files so you must have your folders in your current Outlook profile. Next, OE will import the Outlook mail folder you selected into your OE mail account.
   
   
2. Outlook Express to Thunderbird 2.x - this converts the proprietart OE .mbx format into mbox format needed by Gmail loader. Download and install the free program Mozilla Thunderbird; you can choose different languages or systems (Windows, Mac OSX). In Thunderbird go to Tools > Import > Mail and select Outlook Express. This will import ALL your email from OE into Thunderbird into a folder called Outlook Express. (You can delete any unneccesary folders such as Drafts, Junk, etc.)
   
   
3. Thunderbird to Gmail - download and install Mark Lyon's Gmail Loader. Follow the instructions carefully. You will need to choose an updated SMTP server for Gmail, type in your Gmail account and password for the SMTP server authorization, choose the Thunderbird folder you want to upload (this could be in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profile\XXXYYYZZZ\Local Folders or some location like that). Next choose if you want this to go into your Inbox or your Sent mail folder, depending on if it is your incoming or outgoing mail from your old account. Finally, enter your gmail account. This will then begin to upload your email to Gmail. You can monitor the process by refreshing Gmail. You can periodically move messages out of t the Inbox by "Labeling and Archiving" and also marking messages as "Not Spam" moving them into the Inbox.
   
   
4. I did not try the option yet of uploading messages to the Sent items folder. This would be a nice way to upload all my Sent messages but there is not a pressing need for that now.

Observations: As far as I know, you can use this procedure to upload old Hotmail mail into Gmail. You would need to setup Outlook Express to access your Hotmail account. Next, you would import your messages into Thunderbird and then upload them into Gmail as in steps 2 and 3 above. You may also want to configure Gmail to send messages as a Hotmail user.

Good luck trying to run Outlook and Outlook Express in WINE on Linux! And I have no idea if this is possible with Entourage to Thunderbird on the Mac...

Secure access to Gmail

You can always be certain that you are reading Gmail securely when on the road or at an internet cafe if you always access Gmail using the following link:

https://mail.google.com/mail

Notice the s in https: that means a secure connection! It is "end-to-end" secure meaning there is a secure connection between the computer which is being used to access Google's mail servers.

So, if you are on a public WIFI system using your notebook, login ONLY at the https site because that means your username and password are not visible to hackers. Also, all of your email is encrypted and hackers can not read your email traffic. On the other hand, if you are at an internet cafe using their machine, then there is the chance that they have a keylogger installed and are capturing all of your physical keystrokes on their keyboard. Beware of public machines where you are not certain of the security!