So perhaps you have used a web-interface to create new subfolders on an IMAP server. The problem is that thunderbird doesn’t show them, and no amount of clicking on things seems to solve the problem or show these subfolders.

The answer is to click on the account in question (i.e. one level up from your Inbox), then click “Manage Folder Subscriptions”. From there on it should be obvious - find the folders, and tick the boxes. Job done.

This is the latest in my series of “I spent so long searching on google for this, trawling through out of date nonsense to eventually twig the right answer to this problem” blog posts.

If you are running Ubuntu linux 7.10 (also known as Gutsy Gibbon) and are trying to get the Wacom tablet functions of an HP 2710p tablet to work, then hopefully you won’t waste about 6 hours trying. Or if you’re lucky, you also spend 6 hours of your employer’s time trying to figure it out, and it won’t seem so bad. Ahem.

Alternatively, to get the digitizer working quickly, simply edit the xorg configuration by running “sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf”, scroll down to the bottom, and where it says “Uncomment if you have a Wacom tablet” simply remove the # signs from the next three lines. It’s really that easy. I would say annoyingly easy.

Maybe you followed all the other stuff and got as far as trying to run “wacdump -f c100 /dev/ttyS0″ or “wacdump -f c100 /dev/input/wacom” or “wacdump -f c100 /dev/event0″ but they are all wrong. Variations on the wacdump theme might get you “WacomOpenTablet: Connection timed out” but that’s a red herring too. It’s actually “wacdump -f tpc /dev/input/wacom”, and you don’t actually need to setserial or compile tc1100ts.c or anything else. Hopefully the Ubuntu guys will figure out how to detect that there’s a Wacom tablet and do the uncommenting automagically for Hardy or later, but if not perhaps this’ll help. I’ve no idea if this will help for Fedora or SuSE or anything else, but if it does, feel free to let everyone know in the comments.

Update: Hardy 8.04

For anyone who is trying on Hardy, it works fine too. At the time of writing you just have to copy some stuff into /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restart the X server. No recompilation or anything like that. Add three more input devices, and then add the activation within the section ServerLayout. So actually marginally more difficult than it was in Gutsy, since the code used to be there ready and waiting.

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “stylus”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “stylus”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “cursor”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “cursor”
Option “ForceDevice” “ISDV4″# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Default Layout”
Screen “Default Screen”
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
EndSection

If there was anywhere I thought would have more sense than to pass on email addresses, it would be the 10 Downing Street petitions system. But no, they too have leaked my address - the tell-tale method of mine to use a different alias for every website points the finger again. Now don’t get me wrong, I have almost no respect for any arm of the government, but the system is run by MySociety so I’m quite surprised.

Dear webmaster at PMO.gov.uk,

As the owner of the gravitystorm.co.uk domain, I frequently choose different email addresses to use on different websites, so that I can trace who is providing my email addresses to third parties. The email address petitions@[redacted].co.uk has been used exclusively on the “petitions.pm.gov.uk” website. I’m sure you can see how I can be certain that it is only you, and I, who have knowledge of this alias.

Can you please inform me as to whether you, or your contractors for the site (”MySociety”) are responsible for passing on my address to the fraudsters who emailed me (see below). I can provide the full messages that I received today if this helps in any way.

Please note that I am fully aware that you have nothing to do with the spam itself, but you are quite obviously leaking my email address to third parties without my permission.

Many thanks,
Andy Allan

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: LOTTERY WINNING NOTIFICATION{CONGRATULATIONS}
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:32:37 -0800
From: UK COVENTRY PROMOTIONS <coventrylotterypromotions @coventrylotto.com>
Reply-To: covpayer34@aim.com
To: petitions@[redacted].co.uk

I doubt this will get anywhere, but I may as well fish for an apology (and who knows, it might even prod them into fixing whichever hole these email addresses are leaking from).

So there’s a page on MyBook or SpaceFace or somewhere trying to get me to sign up for one of these newfangled website thingies. It’s like being sociable but without the beer, talking or seeing anyone, apparently. And I read in an industry magazine last week that employees spend an average of 58 minutes a day (62 in London) on these websites, so I must be missing out on something really good. Like as good as EastEnders and Coronation Street back-to-back, perhaps? Lo, I hark the olden days when I was mocked for being a geek.

Even today’s xkcd is in on the trend:

…although I find the forum discussion on just what being “it’s complicated” means more interesting - does everyone need to jump through all these hoops when marking relationships? Is “somehow known to me” insufficient? Am I the only one happy with a certain bit of ambiguity, even as to who is a friend? I model myself on the bit in Donnie Brasco, where ‘a friend of mine’ is a completely different relationship to ‘my friend’, but I don’t think anyone notices much.

So just to prove I’m not an Internet dinosaur (yet), here’s Yet Another Stupid Web 2.0 Video embederised herein:

(Bonus points if you spotted the pun…)

It’s probably about time I plugged a website that I like to keep an eye on - The Skye Guide. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice what draws my interest… no, not specifically the creative commons license ( ), but it’s a website that my Dad runs in his spare time.

I’ve only been to Skye once, and that was many years ago, but I have to agree with the comment on the Quiraing - one of the most awesome places I’ve ever been. Don’t miss it if you’re nearby. I can’t remember much else about my visit - other than a very, very talented busker in one village who we listened to ad-libbing about what was going on in the town in an amazing cross between folk guitar and observational comedy.

I’d love if he could link to openstreetmap instead of the ordance survey, but the coverage of Skye is somewhat lacking at the moment!

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that Mike is the first person in a long time to make it out of the Hall of Shame in the sidebar - which is where you end up when you don’t post on your weblog for six months. Mike’s recent posts on cash versus cards and his day at Wimbledon were enough to convince me that it wasn’t just a reinstall of his website - although it’s a pity he seems to have lost all his previous work. Not as much of a pity that he spotted when Dave vandalised his website last year…

Mike’s recent reappearance and Ed’s not-so-recent conversion to wordpress reminded me that my weblog needed upgrading once again - and I then spent two days fiddling with the new widgets in the sidebar. Wordpress just keeps getting better. Finally, I can show where the recent comments are lurking - and it’s not always on the most recent posts - along with who’s posting what in the nearby circle. With all the new widgets though I’m considering adding a second sidebar!

Anyway, enough meta-talk for now.