Ken's Tech Note

There are multiple ways to Block web advertisements. On Firefox, AdBlock extension is one the best out there. It comes with a few lists that you can subscribe to so users can start right away without much configuration. I have successfully configured AdBlock to remove many web banners from local web portals. Google ads, on the other hand, are pretty hard to beat because it is text-based. Here are 2 ways to remove Google text ads: 1. AdBlock: create a new filter: http://*.googlesyndication.com/ * 2. Modify the system hosts file: (also prevents Google to capture your web activities using Google Analytics) # [Google Inc]127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com #[Google AdWords]127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com #[urchinTracker]127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com #[Google Analytics]127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com #[Ewido.TrackingCookie.Googleadservices]127.0.0.1 imageads1.googleadservices.com127.0.0.1 imageads2.goo

Last year I had been struggling with this for an office relocation and machine upgrade project. This job is challenging because it involves many differences to be tackled: 1. E-mail client (Outlook to Apple Mail) 2. File format (.pst to .emlx) 3. Filing system (NTFS to HFS+) 4. Operating system (Windows XP/Vista to Mac OS X Leopard) It turned out version numbers also mattered because newer version provides more tools and introduced new complexity. For example, Apple Mail under Tiger and Leopard has great import tool for .mbox while it introduced new file format .emlx. The problem was solved via a few days of research and trial and error and countless time waiting for import because the file archive is more than 4GB. At that time, a great article helped. A new, suggested steps are posted below: 1) Use Thunderbird on PC to convert .pst to .mbox (via the Import wizard). 2) Locate the Thunderbird mail folders - “Local Folders.” and rename the mailbox (i.e. files without any extension) to