How to fix Pidgin issue connecting to AIM, ICQ – receiving ‘unexpected response’

It was recently brought to our attention that the popular open source IM client Pidgin — and potentially Adium in the Mac — are having trouble connecting to AIM and AOL messaging clients receiving a “Received unexpected response from http://api.oscar.aol.com/aim/startOSCARSession” error. There is a simple fix that has been confirmed to work from one of our staff members:

1. On the top menu click on Accounts
2. Modify your AIM or ICQ account
3. On the Advanced tab, untick the ‘Use clientLogin/Use SSL’ checkbox
4. Save and you’re done

The source of the problem is still unknown, however this fix seems to be working for everyone. BTW, going back and forth with previous versions of Pidgin will not work, so just try the above.

A fix for Java applets not loading in Firefox

Although I’ve been running Windows 7 betas on and off periodically since the release of build 7000, it wasn’t until I used the x64 RC more extensively as my primary OS that I realized Java wouldn’t load in Firefox. Intriguingly, however, it appeared to be working just fine in both IE and Safari. I can’t say for sure how widespread the issue is, coming straight XP, however, my girlfriend’s laptop running Vista Ultimate x64 also faced the issue.

There were no manifestations of an actual error, in fact, Java applets were as blank as could be, and trying to interact with the Java console in Firefox caused the text to gray out with absolutely no result. All the while, Java’s plugin was listed in the browser’s add-ons, just as one would expect it to be.

My initial instinct sent me hunting through Firefox’s options to ensure that Java was enabled – which it was. I checked the Java control panel in Windows for any potential discrepancies, of which I found none. I naturally turned to Google as well as some Firefox and Java help documents, and came up empty handed.

Losing faith in my ability to use a search engine after a frustrating 30 minutes of seeking an explanation to what I expected would be a common issue, I dove into the programs files. Following a brief session of skimming Java file descriptions, I discovered two little gems: npjpi160_13.dll and npoji610.dll. Sharing a similar name, both are described as plugin files for the Netscape Navigator browser. Sure enough, a peak in Firefox’s plugins folder confirmed that both were missing.

The fix: Ensure that the latest copy of Java and Firefox are installed (watch out for the Yahoo! toolbar during installation). Navigate to Java’s program directory, and in the “bin” folder locate the files named “npjpi160_13.dll” and “npoji610.dll”. Copy both files and proceed to Firefox’s plugins folder, where you’ll paste them.

Assuming you’ve copied the proper files, and that this was the source of your issue, all should be well.

Armed with the file names, I was able to find potential bug recognition at bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase. If you’re still experiencing issues, visit Java’s Help Center for troubleshooting tips, and if necessary, feel free open a thread on our forum.

Access multiple email accounts with Gmail in 3 easy steps

It seems as though nearly everyone has at least two email addresses these days, and it’s not uncommon to have upwards of four that are used on a regular basis for separate purposes.

You may or may not have heard of Gmail’s multiple inboxes feature and how useful it is, so if you’d like to take advantage of this awesome way to manage your email, read on.

The multiple inbox feature can be enabled to access third party email accounts (hotmail, your ISP email, etc.) alongside your Gmail account and can even be used to display certain sections or labels within your Gmail account simultaneously, e.g. by creating a search filter for a labeled or starred email.

Though at first glance this may seem daunting, it’s not that bad to configure and will give you the advantage of never ever having to check 2+ separate email accounts again.

Step 1:
Login to your Gmail account and enable the “Multiple Inboxes” feature under the settings > labs tab.

Once you do that, an additional box next to your inbox pane will show containing search results for “is:starred” and “is:drafts”. If you have starred or draft emails, you’ll see them there. If you don’t want to have a pane dedicated to drafts or starred emails you can remove those panes by going to the multiple inboxes settings.

We will be adding our third-party email accounts next, so we can add those inboxes to separate panes in Gmail.

Step 2:
Head back into settings and take a look under the accounts tab for an option labeled “Get mail from other accounts: Add a mail account you own”.

Enter the email address, password and any other relevant information, then add the account. During this setup process you’ll be able to apply a label to the new incoming mail and if preferred, archive it as well (both recommended). You can also take advantage of the “custom from” feature which allows you to send emails from those addresses through Gmail.

Step 3:
After you’ve successfully added your external email accounts, jump over to the “multiple inboxes” tab in the settings.

If you haven’t touched these settings yet, by default you’ll see that pane 0 is occupied by “is:starred” and Pane 1 by “is:drafts” (I opted to remove those on my account). Simply enter the new email address or any other search criteria you might want displayed beside your Gmail inbox. Also note the additional settings, which provide the ability to increase or decrease the number of messages that will be displayed in the extra inbox panes as well as their position.

For adding additional email accounts simply repeat steps 2 and 3 to add more inboxes or labels as well as anything searchable that you want displayed in its own pane. And this is just one of the many advanced features found in the Gmail Labs tab which can take your webmail experience to the next level. Enjoy.

A Quick & Easy Guide to Bulk File Renaming

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you had to rename dozens or even hundreds of files, performing each and every file name edit manually, you can certainly understand the need for an utility like the Bulk Rename Utility.

While it might be a bit overwhelming at first sight, the 5-15 minute learning curve is well worth the time and energy you’ll undoubtedly save.

The Bulk Rename Utility allows you to perform a plethora of bulk file name modifications, all of which leave the files’ extension untouched unless you deploy an edit using the “Extension” section. You can easily add, remove and substitute letters, numbers, date and timestamps and it can all be done in more than a single way in some situations, ultimately leaving the process very open to the user.

You are provided with a preview of all potential and pending changes so you can tinker with and tweak your settings accordingly, though if you make an error it’s easily reversible by tapping CTRL+Z.

As you can see in the image below I’ve managed to alter the text to be appropriately capitalized (4), I requested all underscores to be removed (5), shifted the band’s name from the rear to the front (6) and inserted dashes ” – ” at the designated position (7) to separate the band and song name. The configuration of this took literally 45 seconds or less, if you’re curious.

Once you experiment by using a few features or skim some relevant sections in the help file, the rest should be easy with a bit of common sense.

I’ve personally used this utility to reorganize roughly 2,500 music files in 200+ folders, something I’d been putting off for over a year due to the tedious nature of the whole process, but with BRU it only took me less than a couple of hours (including the learning curve).

Download the Bulk Rename Utility here.

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