Thunderbird and Google Apps Address Book Sync

Thanks to a listener’s Comment!:
All references to GCONTACTSYNC in this article are obsolete, Use CARDBOOK Plugin

This article assumes you use a [email protected] Email address or Google Apps or Google GSuite (can be Free for Non Profits)

That you use free THUNDERBIRD Email already set up using IMAP but realize your Contacts are not part of the clever syncing your Mail Folders use (Warning: Will NOT work with anything but Google!- No Yahoo!, Earthlink, etc!!)

So. your online http://www.gmail.com Contacts will not appear within Thunderbird’s own Address Book,
or at least not be In Sync…
You CAN see them at: http://contacts.google.com
But they are NOT the same in your Tunderbird Contacts.
Well, Thunderbird will collect the addresses of people you write or reply to, but this will NOT be the same set as the web based Contacts. SO! :

-0) If you ever Replied or Wrote to someone within Thunderbird, most likely they will end up in the address book called
“Collected Addresses”.
Start typing some part of the name on the To:, CC: or BCC: Line,
and the whole address collected should come up…
No?

0) In Thunderbird,  Search for, and reply to whoever it is you need to contact:
use: View.. Toolbars.. Quick Filter toolbar to be certain it is ON
(It’s incredibly useful anyway)
– Search for the Name of the person as Sender that you want to write to
– assuming they wrote you at least once, they will be there and you can use REPLY!

No? OK!

1) Just use gmail.com website anyway : )

2) Best of Both Worlds:
Use Thunderbird alongside: https://contacts.google.com
to get the best of BOTH worlds- Copy & Paste from that list into the TO: line, etc…

3) I use the GContactSync  CARDBOOK add on Application to pull contacts
FROM GOOGLE into THUNDERBIRD and merge them up.
You MAY and up with duplicates this way so an additional plugin is then used to remove the duplicates. A bit messy but ideal when complete. DO NOT install it from there– that’s just for Info.
In Thunderbird, click
Tools… Addons… Extensions..
And search for:

GContactSync No! since ver 78 it’s CARDBOOK

Then permit its use on your Google account
Be Vewwy Vewwy CAreful where you Go from here as you are likely to end up with Duplicates (for which there is a separate Fixer Extension).
Best is to look carefully at the GContact  CARDBOOK Sync settings on your Toolbar (after you have Re Started) and see offerings for which directions the sync is to go: BOTH ways is probably NOT a good idea at first- Set it to copy FROM Google TO Thunderbird first?

you have Backups, right?

Within Thunderbird, click Tools > Address Book.
Select the desired Address Book (s).
Note: Make sure that you are selecting a specific address book.
The selection by default is set as “All Address Books”
and exporting this way will result in a blank file.
Select Tools > Export…
Note: If you do not see the Export option, click View > Toolbars to turn this option on.

Select “LDIF” (Industry Standard that will allow you to re import)
from the Format drop-down box.
Choose where you want to save the exported file, give the file a name, and click Save.

Comments Welcomed!

Set Video File Name to Date Made

Using: Linux, exiftool, mediainfo
Requires- Intermediate LINUX skills and Google.
Further Reference: https://exiftool.org/filename.html
You MAY want to clean up file naming with DETOX

I have lots of small MP4 video files with arbitrary sequence numbers like:
dji_001.mp4, dji_002.mp4.. etc etc- making it hard to divide them into folders later for particular filmed events with maybe a dozen files with similar time stamps… The file dates themselves are unreliable as it may be much later and the date of the copy not the filming.
These video files contain realistic  internal metadata of all sorts tagged when the video was made that’s VERY interesting including GPS info, altitude and way more:
Hey, try it yourself!
exiftool myfilename.abc
or
mediainfo filename.xyz
for any movie
Note: that EXIF Timestamps are very reasonably in UTC so consider that when you wonder why your videos are tagged hours off–
Unless you are near 0 longitude (Western Europe..) ; )
My exif data DOES store lat/long but that’s another Project : )

To batch rename an entire folder of arbitrarily named files and recursively, everything below::
(No Line Break, BTW!)

exiftool “‘-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y_%b_%d_%a_@_%I:%M_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
Result:
2018_Aug_13_Mon_@_07:49_PM.mp4

(I fear Spaces so tend to use the Underbar _ character)

exiftool “-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y-%b-%d-%a_@_%I:%M:%S_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
gives:
2014-Jan-01-Wed_@_12:00:56_AM.mp4

(Note: If meant for Windows these filenames contain things like Colon “:” which it May NOT like)

exiftool “-filename<CreateDate” -d %Y_%b_%d_%a_%I.%M.%S_%p%%-c.%%le -r -ext mp4 *
gives: 2018_Aug_13_Mon_07.44.08_PM.mp4

the DATE/TIME variables can be studied by using:
man date
and:
man exiftool
will remind you the “-r” option is to be Recursive, which you may not want… and more.

exiftool can also work on still images. Very useful!

Linux RAID

  • This guide is a “nutshell” (Brief guides) script that assumes a reasonable level of Linux proficiency & understanding & is not geared to a particular Linux or specific instructions
    Lots of Googleable Entries such as green COMMANDS should help : )_
  • I am assuming an already running LINUX system of recent origin (I use MINT, an Ubuntu/Debian derivative) on a drive all its own, NOT RAID, possibly a small SSD of 64GB and the addition of 2 EMPTY identical drives to be put in RAID1 formation (Mirrored, that is 2 identical drives ‘combined’ redundantly into one for DATA use)
    NOT for Operating System Boot use in this guide.
  • Do not use BIOS RAID or  Hardware Raid this is all Software Raid done by LINUX
  • TEST ALL THE DRIVES that will be used including any Operating System drives using their S.M.A.R.T. facility. IE: GSMARTCONTROL GUI
  • If the drives are over 2TB in size (and perhaps even if they are not) they must be configured, partitioned and formatted using GPT not old style MBR (Master Boot Record) This works even on old PC architecture without EFI else you will not see outside the 2TB boundary : )
  • Using “PARTED” utility (Do not use FDISK) 
  • “label” the disk “gpt” as per instructions. Create conventional ext4 partition on EACH drive using the whole partition ideally,
  • Check whether you have RAID utility: “MDADM” and if not, get it.
  • Check What You Have Got: lsblk AKA: “LiStBLocK”
  • Check whether something raid like is around yet (Not as silly as it sounds while we are experiment:)
    cat /proc/mdstat
  • Know the Device Names then use this command:
    $sudo mdadm –create –verbose /dev/md0 –level=1 –raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdb
  • above assumes devices were /dev/sda, /dev/sdb. But you knew that..
  • on another console, run : cat /proc/mdstat
  • This will show you the ongoing Mirroring Process-
  • a new ‘device’ will now exist: /dev/md0 as specified above. You can mount this like so on an existing Mount Point:
  • mount /dev/md0 /mnt/raid
  • I use no Options as things seem to get Auto detected nicely. 
  • TO make it auto mount add entry to /etc/fstab- Use “blkid” to find its UUID which is the correct way to Mount stuff in Linux
  • YOu can use the device IMMEDIATELY after issuing the last “mdadm” command above and mounting the array- It can simultaneously be written to while mirroring but the drives will be VERY VERY BUSY and in my case, overheated while doing so!
  • I use the “HDDTEMP” utility to check drive temperatures:
    Example: sudo hddtemp /dev/sd[a-b]  
  • Use advanced  features of SMARTMONTOOLS to Email or Notify you if SMART monitoring notices drive degradadtion,
    Not Covered Here
  • Use “NETHOG” to watch how the server is being used by the Network
  • To Be Continued. Enjoy!
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