There are annoyances we often have to deal with in life and in practical computing.
Let me illustrate a few examples: I've been a user for some time of CintaNotes, a marvelous freeware note-taking utility (there is also a premium version with enhanced features). I use it for a number of things, including things like clipping embedded codes for a video I want to include in a future blog post. There is a hotkey setting for clipping such text. What I've noticed is that whenever I update the application (probably every few weeks), it seems to wipe out my hotkey settings.
A second example is the idiosyncratic nature of iTunes updates. I used to anchor the program on my taskbar. If your icon list is long, like mine, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to move a newly added icon to the front of the taskbar (another usability gripe), but basically if I updated iTunes, my iTunes icon on the taskbar would disappear (something that doesn't seem to happen with other application updates), which meant saving and repositioning the icon on the taskbar. I finally decided instead of launching iTunes from the taskbar, I would use a Quick Cliq menu item to launch iTunes, which, of course, doesn't require a fix across upgrades.
Another couple of quirks I've noticed in iTunes recently dealt with the podcast interface. For some reason, I found my Cato Institute Daily Podcast stopped updating/downloading. I could go to the iTunes Store and manually download podcasts, but the refresh functionality didn't seem to work. I recently noticed the functionality resumed; was an interim update responsible? Not sure. I also noticed that episodes were no longer playing continuously through some feeds.
I've had multiple posts on using Thunderbird as my email client. (At some point I licensed a copy of Outlook and may use it in the future.) I also have a copy of MailStore (free for personal use) as one level of redundancy. I've also started using it as a second-level archiving tool. For example, some of my Thunderbird email folders had literally thousands of emails. Once you configure MailStore for your email client, the archiving operation adds new emails in the Thunderbird folder (since the last archive). Some emails in my folders are literally over 10 years old. (One of my gripes is that the archiving operation doesn't actually sync emails; it just adds new ones. So for example, if I delete a 2005 email in my politics folder, the mirrored copy in MailStore isn't dropped.) The archiving operation was literally taking hours (a lot of emails!). So what I did is set up a clone email folder structure in MailStore, do an archive (with Thunderbird down), move emails to the clone structure, then empty my local Thunderbird folders.
So when I have spare time, I go and prune my clone email folders (e.g., daily stock market reports from 4 years back or weather forecasts). Note that you might want to tweak the Search Email options via the home page (e.g., toggle off all but subject and/or from options). A second issue: I'll occasionally find items that somehow filtered to the wrong folder. For example, I found some recruiter or personal emails (from my niece) in the wrong folder.
Familiar readers may know that for years I had used now defunct AskSam as an email repository; I could easily and flexibly retrieve a target email. More recently I started storing older emails (e.g., sent emails, financial transactions, etc.) in individual *.eml format (via the indispensable ImportExport Tools add-on). I can basically revert the process through the eml2mbx utility (which works at the command level, downloadable from Softpedia and other repositories). Why do this? Because ImportExport Tools has an option to import MBOX files into Thunderbird local folders; I might want to do this to reorganize emails (e.g., misplaced recruiter or personal emails) or even upload emails into Gmail making them accessible from the Internet along with Google's powerful search tools. Note that MailStore will also allow you to export target emails in EML format (e.g., using the directory option).
Note that you can also use the export/restore email option to get emails back into Thunderbird. (Note: Thunderbird should be down when you try to restore emails to a Thunderbird local folder.) Note that under Thunderbird local folders there should be a MailStore Export folder; you should be able to find the emails once you restart Thunderbird under the clone or other source folder/directory in this Export folder. Or you can do it in more of a batch fashion, e.g., set up a misc folder in MailStore, move misplaced or other emails you want to import back into Thunderbird, and use the home page export email option for the misc folder.
