Tutorials

When I changed web hosting, my emails couldn't be copied (curse you, PowWeb!). I had to back them up myself.

I do most of my work on the web, so that I have the same data everywhere. To back up the emails, I needed to copy them locally.

I knew that Thunderbird keeps its emails in the Unix-standard mbox format, and I thought that might be helpful for restoring. A quick survey of other email clients (a dying breed, by the way) didn't discover anything better, so I installed T-bird despite its impending end-of-life.

Backing up and restoring was surprisingly easy. Here's how I did it.

We recently purchased a used 1996 Geo Metro Sedan (in the forum parlance, a "4/5"). It was cheap, and mechanically sound (so far as we could determine), but it had a lot of minor problems: cosmetic, trim, and electrical.

One of the biggest problems was that the driver's door didn't open from the inside. It doesn't sound huge, but coupled with the frequent Florida rain, and the driver's window not seating properly when rolled up... well, it needed immediate fixing. I had thought the problem was just a slipped actuator rod, but it turned out that the latch mechanism was borked.

Locks online were $70 and up. Junkyards didn't have much in the way of Metros. I eventually found a '96 Metro Hatchback with a working lock; it looked the same to me. 30 minutes of swearing, 1/8 teaspoon of blood, and $20 later, I was ready to fulfill my wife's fondest wishes.

In part 1, I explained how key-based SSL authentication works. In part 2, I intend to explain how to implement a certificate authorized SSL connection in Java.

If you haven't read part 1 yet, you might want to check it out. I'll still be here when you get back.

Working (as I do) with secure equipment, it was inevitable that I'd eventually have to connect to a server using SSL. I didn't even get to write my own code; I had to use a Java client library that was provided to me.

The programmers of my client library weren't exactly forthcoming on where I could change its configuration, but at least they had provided me with the certificates I needed. I had to do a lot of research to find out how to use them, and I'm recording that information here.

After all, isn't learning supposed to be cooperative? Read on, and I'll show you how to work with SSL sockets in Java.

I haven't added my app to the Facebook directory or even told anyone about it yet; nevertheless, I somehow wound up with more than 1000 users in my database! (And oddly, Facebook only mentioned 299 "monthly active users"; I wonder how they got that number?)

The app is nowhere near ready, and I don't anyone seeing my plans, since stealing Facebook app ideas is rampant (just look at anything by Zynga)! So I shut it down.

But I still need to develop. And I'd like to let my friends visit, since they'll give me good feedback without causing me trouble. What to do?

Program them in, of course. Read on for my three-step approach.