Step 0 – Presumptions

For this set up I am assuming you do the same as I do and don’t use me.com for email. We need to edit the folder used for Drafts to get the Notes to work and  this would obviously interfere with normal usage if you actually wanted to save an email as a draft email and not as a note!

Step 1 – Add Your iCloud Account to Thunderbird

Create a new mail account manually using the following details:

Type: IMAP
Server: p01-imap.mail.me.com (you can also use p02... or p03...)
Port: 993
Username: first part of your me.com email eg for fishface@me.com enter fishface
Connection security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password

By now you should be able to see your Notes folder and any iOS notes will be shown as emails in this folder. If the Notes folder does not show up then right-click (or ctrl-click on Mac) the account in the left-hand pane and select ‘Subscribe’ then make sure that the ‘Notes’ folder is ticked (or ‘checked’ if you’re an American)

Step 2 – Make the Notes Folder Editable

By default, and for obvious reasons, you can’t edit an email that is already on the server. You can, however, edit Draft emails. If we set our Notes folder to act like Drafts then we will be able to edit the emails/notes within the folder.

To do this go to the account preferences by right-clicking (or ctrl-clicking on Mac) the xxx@me.com account in the left pane (as per Step 1, above, for subscribing to the Notes folder) but this time select ‘Settings…’ from the context menu. In the account settings select ‘Copies & Folders’ and then scroll down to ‘Drafts and Templates’. For ‘Keep message drafts in:’ you need to select ‘Other’ and then select the ‘me.com’ account and the ‘Notes’ folder.

This means that if you ever save an email (or note in our case) on this account then it will save it to the Notes folder. You can also double click any email/note in the Notes folder and Thunderbird will allow you to edit it.

You may also want to go to the ‘Composition & Addressing’ settings and untick (uncheck) the ‘Compose messages in HTML format’ option. This isn’t required but HTML in the notes can sometimes cause strange things to happen (see ‘Known Issues’ section near the end).

Step 3 – Enable the Apple-Specific Mail Header

For the Mac Mail app to ‘detect’ that they are notes and not emails the notes have an Apple-specific header in their source:

X-Uniform-Type-Identifier: com.apple.mail-note

The Mac Mail app then knows to show these as Notes and the iDevices check this folder then import the emails as notes in the Notes app in iOS. Having an email in the Notes folder alone is not enough for it to be treated as a note, it needs the special header. The simplest way to add this is to create a custom header option in the ‘to/cc/bcc’ dropdown area of the compose window. To do this go to Thunderbird Preferences then select the ‘Advanced’ tab and then ‘Config Editor…’. Accept the warning about dragons as shown below:

In the preferences list that is now shown enter ‘mail.compose.other.header‘ into the filter at the top.

Double-click the ‘mail.compose.other.header‘ line and enter the string value: X-Uniform-Type-Identifier and press ‘OK’.

Step 4 – Compose Your Note

Now, when composing a new email/note, you will have an extra option in the ‘to/cc/bcc’ dropdown box for ‘X-Uniform-Type-Identifier’ as below:

And enter com.apple.mail-note for the value. Note that you do not need a ‘to’ address and if you enter one it will be ignored in the Notes apps. Once written it will look something like this:

When you have composed your note you need to save it and NOT send it! Trying to send it will give an error anyway as there are no recipients. To save it either click the ‘Save’ icon and then close the window or click to close the window and you will be prompted to save it as a draft. Saving it as a draft will save it to the iCloud IMAP Notes folder – which is exactly what we want. You will then see the note in Thunderbird and, if you open your iOS Notes app, you will also see it there:

Step 5 – Editing Notes

If you edit the note in the iOS Notes app then the subject will automatically be changed to the first line of the note text, in our example the subject becomes ‘Here is a note, written in Thunderbird!’. This is shown in both the Notes app and Thunderbird below:

To edit a note in Thunderbird simply double click it to bring up the compose window again and close/save it to save it back to the Notes (Drafts) folder. If the note does not appear in the iOS Notes app then you may need to close and reopen the app or edit the note in Thunderbird again to make sure you have added the X-Uniform-Type-Identifier header value as com.apple.mail-note.

Known Issues

Editing in Thunderbird is where some anomalies can occur. We set the iCloud account to use plain text (we turned off HTML email as an optional part of Step 2) and Thunderbird does honour this – if you view the message source you will see the content type header says:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1;

So double-clicking on a note to edit it will bring up the plain text editor without all the HTML formatting options such as bold and text colour etc. But notes that are either created or edited in the iOS Notes app are marked as being HTML emails with the header:

Content-Type: text/html;
	charset=utf-8

This means when you double-click to edit the note in Thunderbird you get all the HTML editing options. It also means that HTML headers are added to the message itself. For the note itself this is not an issue – it displays correctly in both Thunderbird and in the iOS Notes app. The issue relates to the subject header. Because the iOS Notes app insists on using the first line of the note as the subject i means it also copies some of the HTML code. While the HTML code itself is not shown in the subject it does show blank characters in its place making the subject indented as below:

If this happens to one of your notes then the quickest way to fix it is to open the note in the iOS Notes app, tap in the note to bring up the keyboard, tap and hold on the text, tap Select All, tap Copy, then tap the ‘delete’ key. This will have copied the text for the note and given you a blank canvas. Now you need to put the text back, which you do as follows: tap and hold the text area, tap on Paste and then tap Done. Now, go back to the list of notes and the subject should be back to normal.

Any Other Issues?

I’ve not come across any yet… But feel free to comment with any issues you have if you use this method (surely there can’t only be me that uses Thunderbird and iCloud Notes?!) or if you have any tips & tricks to add!

In 2003, a couple of years after I finished uni, I started using a little-known browser called ‘Firebird‘ – this was at version 0.6. By the time it went public with version 1.0 it had been known as ‘Firefox’ for some time. It has, since then, been my browser of choice. I’ve grown up with Firefox and even remember the excitement of it hitting version 1.0!

So in late 2003 when I discovered that the same team who made Firefox had been working on an email client, known as Thunderbird, I jumped at the chance even though it was currently at version 0.5. Again, I feel like I grew up with Thunderbird and it’s been my email client of choice for the best part of a decade. When I switched from Windows to Mac for my day-to-day work in late 2008 it was stupidly simple to shift all my history, settings and plugins for both Firefox and Thunderbird from my Windows machine to the MacBook Pro – oh the joys of cross-OS software! Because it was so easy to transfer I stuck with both Firefox (for web browsing) and Thunderbird (for email and newsgroups).

I’ve used both for almost a decade and, as such, I’ve got used to them. While I do use Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer to test websites, my day-to-day use is powered by Mozilla. I just don’t get on with the Mac Mail app either although I can’t quite put my finger on why…

So, going back to the Notes on iPhone/iPad, these were recently shifted over from me.com to iCloud but worked in the same way – they could be synced across devices. These last few months I’ve been using Notes more and more and wanted to be able to edit them on my MacBook Pro (and possibly even my Windows computer). The Mac Mail app handles Notes as part of the email account so it got me wondering if I could do the same but using Thunderbird. Thankfully, after a lot of fiddling, trial and error and some lost notes, I have got a working solution. This works on both Mac OSX, Windows and Linux (basically any OS that you can run Thunderbird on).

So, how is it done? Put simply, the Notes are essentially emails stored in a specific ‘Notes’ folder in the me.com IMAP mail account on Apple’s servers. These need to be ‘detected’ as being Notes (rather than regular emails) and need to be editable. The next post will detail how you can achieve this in Thunderbird:

How To: iCloud Notes in Mozilla Thunderbird

They are all in very good condition and mostly punk/rock. The 2 ‘All’ CDs were American promo’s so have a hole through the barcode. If you want any more info then please search for the album at http://maft.co/music as this will give you all the info like packaging etc.

The CD’s are:

I do like to think though that because of me wasting their time for 12 minutes it means one less person today will have been tricked. I provide a public service, don’t you know?!

Listen to it here:

Dearest one,

PLEASE STOP DEALING WITH THOSE PEOPLE/OFFICE….

My name is Mrs. Mary Susan Derrick. I am an US citizen,  I am one of those that
were scammed by Nigerian scam artist 4 years ago and i received a compensation
notification from the Joakin compensation house earlier last month for the sum
of $1.5M but i felt it was all the same group of scammers because i have paid
over $36,000 trying to get my payment all to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, And I
was directed to meet Rev Dr Garry Davies, who is the member of COMPENSATION
AWARD COMMITTEE, and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said
whoever is contacting us through emails are fake.

He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment.Right now
I am the most happiest woman on  earth because I have received my compensation
funds of $1,500,000.00 Moreover, Rev Dr Garry Davies, showed me the full
information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw you as one
of the beneficiaries, and your email address,names and address and also your
telephone number that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those
people, they are not with your fund,they are only making money out of you. I
will advise you to contact Rev Dr Garry Davies. You have to contact him directly
on this information below.

JOAKIN COMPENSATION HOUSE
Name : Rev Dr Garry Davies
Email: revdrgarry.davies1989@hmail2.com
Phone: +234-7094484709

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and
telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are
only taking advantage of  you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money I paid after I met Rev Dr Garry Davies was just $600 for the
paper works, take note of that.

Once again stop contacting those people, I will  advise you to contact Rev Dr
Garry Davies so that he can help you to Deliver your fund instead of you dealing
with those liars that will be turning you around asking for different kind of
money to complete your transaction.

Note: Without the office of Rev Dr Garry Davies you will never receive your
payment, contact him he will let you know the situation of things those who
scammed you because he told me those who scammed me but no where to get them. He
knows about the people you are dealing with right now, but he will give you more
information’s upon your contact with him.

Thank You and Be Blessed.
Mrs. Mary Susan Derrick

This time I’m doing “No-Beer November”. I generally don’t drink tea or coffee and the cupboards are usually stocked with Pepsi Max, which is too fizzy. How anyone can drink that rubbish is beyond me!

I noticed recently, however, that I would happily drink 2-3 cans of lager 3-4 nights a week mainly because it was there and, as mentioned earlier, I don’t ‘do’ tea, coffee or Pepsi Max. There were no plans to get drunk, nor did I even get drunk, on such a regular basis; I didn’t (and still don’t) class myself as being alcohol dependent or an alcoholic.

So why am I forcing myself to not drink beer for a month? I suppose a part of it is to prove the above point – that I don’t need beer to get me through half of the week. However, if I’m honest, the main reasons are that Wii Fit told me I was overweight and both Mini-MaFt and Mrs-MaFt told me I have a fat belly. It turns out I am vain afterall!

So, wish me luck – I look forward to losing a few lb’s and gaining a few £’s too.

NB – there is one pre-planned day off later in the month for the PocketGPSWorld.com Christmas Bash. It’s not a failure if it is pre-planned!

Now, I’m not going to post my results here because there is one close family member who doesn’t want to know plus you’re probably not that interested anyway! But in the days before getting my results it got me thinking…

What if I DO have the gene defect…? Well, for one thing it would mean I would have an 80% chance of getting bowel cancer between age 40 and 60. It would also mean I could be put onto a screening program where every year or two years I would have a camera shoved up my back-passage to look for any signs of tumours. So while the risk of cancer would be dramatically increased, the risk of coming to any harm from it would be equally reduced owing to the screening process that I would be entitled to.

What if I DON’T have the gene defect…? Life would basically continue as normal. I would not have an increased risk of bowel cancer. I would be just like every other person, taking the same day-to-day risks and having the same risk of getting bowel cancer as everyone else. I could still get bowel cancer though, but it may not be known about until it’s too late as I wouldn’t be on a screening programme.

So,would it be better to have the gene defect? While the likelihood of getting bowel cancer is increased, there is a much better likely outcome if it did occur as it would be spotted early on. Or is it better to not have it to avoid having to worry about ‘when’ I may get bowel cancer?

Regardless of the outcome there is nothing I can do to change my genes, I guess the real issue will be how I will handle the knowledge I now have and how it may or may not affect myself and the people around me… If my brothers get a different result to me will there be any form of ‘jealousy’ between us? Would *I* be jealous of those with different results? Thinking of it this way makes me realise perhaps just why the ‘close family member’ may not want to know the results!

Apparently though, this response was incorrect so the BBC Editors set out to make an official statement of how they deal with such situations. You can read it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/08/use_of_photographs_from_social.html

So, what was I shocked and appalled by?

In terms of permission and attribution, we make every effort to contact people who’ve taken photos we want to use in our coverage and ask for their permission before doing so.

And so they should when using other people’s work! But that part is fine; now, read on…

However, in exceptional situations, where there is a strong public interest and often time constraints, such as a major news story like the recent Norway attacks or rioting in England, we may use a photo before we’ve cleared it.

Sorry, what?! You would happily use a copyrighted image without permission?! No, that’s just wrong! If you don’t have permission then you should not use it! It’s very simple.

We don’t make this decision lightly – a senior editor has to judge that there is indeed a strong public interest in making a photo available to a wide audience.

I think that makes it even worse. Whether you commit a crime without any care in the world or if you spend a short time deliberating over it, it is still wrong. Just because a “senior editor” says it is OK to steal, that doesn’t make it better. If a “senior mob member” said it is OK to steal I guess that also excuses the rest of the mob?

Imagine if I took that stance. There are a lot of British ex-pat’s that live in Spain that would probably love to see the current series of Dr Who (one of the BBC’s finest televisual outpourings). However BBC’s iPlayer does not work in Spain (it requires a UK IP address for obvious license-paying reasons so these people cannot see it). There are a lot of them so it could easily be argued that it is in the public’s interest for these people to watch Dr Who. So, I will email the BBC to ask permission to rip the video and post it online, publicly, for free for any member of the public who wishes to see it. I will give them a couple of hours, maybe a day at most, to let me know whether or not I can. It’s quite important, and in the public’s interest, to see Dr Who as soon as possible after broadcast as there are many online discussions that may provide spoilers for these viewers. If I don’t hear back from them then that would mean it is OK to act in this way.

I presume you can see the idiocy of this stance? I wonder if the BBC will…

The 2nd half of Dr Who starts again in a couple of weeks. I have plenty of spare webspace and bandwidth…

OFFICIAL LETTER FROM FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
FBI.WASHINGTON DC.
ROBERT MUELLER III.
Email: Info888@federalbureauinestigationsoff.org
FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET

ATTENTION: 

FROM: ROBERT MUELLER III EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION  WASHINGTON DC. FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET

The federal bureau of investigation (FBI).Through our intelligence-monitoring
network has discovered that the transaction that the bank contacted you
previously was legal.Recently the fund has been legally approved to be paid
via Central Bank of Nigeria. So, we the federal bureau of investigation (FBI)
Washington Dc, in conjunction with the United Nations (UN) financial
department have investigated through our monitoring network noting that your
transaction with the Central Bank of Nigeria legal.

You have the legitimate right to complete your transaction to claim your fund
US$65.7,000,000.00 (sixty five Million seven hundred thousands United States dollars)
 Because of so much scam going on in Nigeria.We the federal bureau of
investigation decided to contact the Fedex Courier Service Company in Nigeria
for them to give us their procedures on how to sent this money to you without
any further complain or delay. We just got an information from the Central
Bank of Nigeria and they have loaded your US$65.7,000,000.00 in ATM CARD and
submit to the Fedex courier service company for immediate delivery to your
doorstep.

You are required to choose one option, which you will be able to pay and also
convenient for you, for quick delivery of your parcel containing your ATM CARD
and other two original back up documents.

Service Type | Delivery Duration | Charges/Fees

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Premium Express (24hrs Delivery)
Mailing $200.00 00.00
Insurance $150.00 00.00
Vat $100.00 00.00
TOTAL $450.00
$450(Four Hundred and fifty US Dollars Only).

......................................................................
Special Express (2 Days)
Mailing $180.00 00.00
Insurance $50.00 00.00
Vat $150.00 00.00
TOTAL $380.00 00.00
$380(Three Hundred and Eighty US Dollars Only).

............................................................................
Economy Express (3Days)
Mailing $100.00 00.00
Insurance$?150.00 00.00
Vat (5%) $50.00 00.00
TOTAL $300.00 00.00
$300(Three Hundred US Dollars Only).
....................................................................

You are hereby required to advice us, on your parcel delivery option by
filling in the required form stated above. Please note that the deadline for
claiming your fund is exactly one week after the receipt of this email. After
this period, your fund will be return back to the ordering costumer. That is
the instruction given to us .So take note.

We request that you reconfirm your mailing address to ensure conformity with
our record for immediate dispatch of your parcel to you. Only valid
residential/Office address and postal address are certified OK.

DELIVERY DESTINATION INFORMATION:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Receiver's Name :..............................................
Address:...............................................................
Tel/:......................................................................
Delivery Information/ Parcel Description

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivery Terms: .............. .......International Delivery
Condition Of Delivery..............Priority Delivery
Consignment Note No: ........... MI 49866-2110
Color of Parcel: ..................... Brown.
Total Weight: ..........................36.2 kg
Total Net Weight: ...................1.7 kg

We are here to protect you from any problem till you receive your package .You
can as well get in touch with the FedEx delivery company assigned to deliver
this financial package to your doorstep.

Below is the delivery companies contact information:
Companies Name: Federal Express Courier Service.
Directors Name: MR. ALLEN WHITE
Email: allenwhite.off@hotmail.com
Telephone Number:             +234-703-372-0754      

Looking forward to hear from you as soon as you receive this message
Best Regards,

Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
20535-0001, USA.
PHONE : 309 504 8079
Email: Info888@federalbureauinestigationsoff.org

I mean, do they really think people are this stupid?

@bettakultcha @racinghippo follow @bdjesusman – cannot believe I only just found this and site! As a Bradfordian, get Mr Jesus or site ppl!

to which @bettakultcha later replied:

@bdjesusman would love you to come and present about bradfordjesusman at #bettakultcha #Bradford

A few things struck me from these and a few other messages that were sent:

1. Random people were starting to find my Bradford Jesus Man website which means word is getting around without me having to whore it on The Facebook or The Twitter so much.
2. People actually loved the idea of the site.
3. I was being complimented on the design and functionality of the site.
4. I had no idea what BettaKultcha was…

Now, I was in Chorley at a friends wedding at the time with limited mobile data so couldn’t really look up that much on BettaKultcha at the time but when the data signal came back for a short period I would get PUSH messages through from the awesome TweetBot so I could still see what people were saying. However, as I was Des that night I was able to look at it all with fresh eyes in the morning.

The whole idea of BettaKultcha is, quite simply, to learn about new stuff – to get betta kultcha’d (better cultured, in case you couldn’t work it out!). This is done by way of numerous presenters each doing a five minute presentation with a few simple rules. The most prominent rule, and the one in CAPITAL LETTERS, is that the presentation must not contain pitches. There’s nothing like going to a fun, social event and it turning into a business networking event… The other three rules are what make it fun. Actually, it’s one rule but I think they wanted to expand on it somewhat!

The rules are:

• ABSOLUTELY no sales pitches
• 20 slides must be used
• Each slide must last for 15 seconds exactly
• After 5 minutes, the presentation is over

So I, perhaps stupidly, said I would do a presentation. Now I have a few things to try and work out. Mainly why I agreed to do the talk – I hate public speaking, I’m not a public speaker. One of my lowest marks at uni was when I had to give a five minute talk in front of 6 fellow students. This doesn’t bode well for the same length talk but in front of 100 people…

For a bit of comfort I dug up a bunch of YouTube videos filmed at previous BettaKultcha events. The themes varied wildly; Why Manchester is Better Than Leeds (amusingly this was at a Leeds event!), Magic & Conspiracy Theories, How Star Wars is based on Mills and Boon, How to Get Thrown Out of University, Ghosts, Dementia; each carried out with varying degrees of ability from the presenters. This is a good thing. I will no doubt be considerably lower down on the ‘ability’ scale than some of the presenters but the reviews and blog posts I’ve read confirm that this is probably fine anyway as the people who attend are pretty friendly and unlikely to start heckling. If a presentation is really terrible then they can at least sit safe in the knowledge that it will be over within five minutes. It’s hardly worth getting worked up about!

So, now I need to sort out what I want to talk about. Usually people ask to be a presenter at the events but in my case I was basically nominated, for which I am truly flattered! I think I will talk about a few different aspects of the whole Bradford Jesus Man thing; why I made the website, what the website does and, perhaps most interesting, as much as possible about the legend that is Geoffrey Brindley – the Bradford Jesus Man.

If you want to come along either to see me battling my inner demons or to hear the (no doubt fascinating) other presentations then you need to book yourself a ticket via BettaKultcha’s EventBrite page – tickets cost £5 and the event takes place at the Midland Hotel in Bradford on Thursday 11th August 2011.