I just wanted to point out that opera is available for Macs (and Linux, and
OS/2, and a bunch of other stuff I've never even heard of).  This is one of
the reasons I chose it.  While you probably realize this, I just wanted to
point out to other people looking here for answers that the original
instructions I included should really work on pretty much any operating
system.

-Wes

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 4:50 PM, neil N <musomuso@gmail.com> wrote:

> Jake. (and other Mac users)
>
> Under Mac OS v.10.4.11 the mbox file opened up with "Text Edit". I
> saved it as a .txt file. (took a few minutes). Regardless, the
> original or .txt format, won't import to Mail 2.1
>
> I thought for the halibut, I'd convert it to an RTF file under Text
> Edit. This is still taking a long time FWIW.
>
> i.e. as we speak, It is still chugging away in the background with the
> "Spinning Beach Ball-o-Death" !
>
> Neil.
>
> On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 1:31 PM, Jake de Villiers
> <crescentbeachguitar@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Wow Wes, thanks for doing this!   You too John.  :-)
> >
> > Now all I have to do is figure out how to use the file!
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 10:43 AM, pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@gmail.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> A while ago, I promised that I would put together a file with some
> >> easy-to-follow instructions about how to get the vanagon archives into
> your
> >> gmail account "in a few days".  First a few words on why this is
> necessary:
> >> the web search interface for the archives doesn't use an indexed search,
> >> which means that searching it can take 5 minutes or so, or, in practice,
> >> hours or more, since it will often simply time out before returning a
> >> result.  Searching the archives with google is not a good substitute,
> since
> >> google doesn't index most of the archives, so that a google search will
> >> miss
> >> many messages.  (I will not cover this fact in these directions.  If you
> >> missed my previous examples of how the google search doesn't work,
> "search
> >> the archives" to find them.  Once you follow the directions below to get
> >> the
> >> archives in a browseable and searchable form, it will become obvious
> just
> >> how bad google is for the archives, as you'll see that some searches
> that
> >> get only a handful of hits with google should actually be getting
> >> hundreds).  There is one decent alternative to what I describe below
> when
> >> it
> >> comes to searching the archives: the "email" search interface, described
> >> here: http://gerry.vanagon.com/info/searching.html.  It is still
> painfully
> >> slow and has its own share of issues, but it doesn't time out and is
> >> reliable.
> >>
> >> Weeks later, I'm finally ready to deliver something less than what I
> >> promised.  It is possible to get all of the archives into gmail (I've
> done
> >> it with my account) but I don't recommend it.  It is slow and tedious
> (it
> >> took me more than a week of constant uploading by an automated script)
> due
> >> to gmail's slow imap import process.  It can also make gmail mad at you
> (I
> >> got locked out of my account for a day at some point) and is generally
> not
> >> a
> >> good choice for most people.  For that reason, I'm not going to try to
> give
> >> "step-by step" directions on how to get the archives into your gmail.
> >>
> >> But what I will do is almost as good (or maybe even better).  By
> importing
> >> the archives into the opera mail client (which is free), you will have
> >> access to the entire archives of the vanagon list whether or not you are
> >> connected to the internet.  Plus, since opera mail has an "indexed
> search",
> >> you can search the entire archives in seconds all on your own machine.
>  The
> >> best thing would be if the web archive interface was "fixed" to use an
> >> indexed search, but until that happens, I consider this to be a pretty
> good
> >> solution for most people.
> >>
> >> I've prepared the archives as an "mbox" file, which John Meeks has been
> >> kind
> >> enough to agree to host for listmembers to download on his vanagonauts
> >> site.  You can also import the mbox file into a different email client
> of
> >> your choice, but I can't write instructions for every email client so
> >> you're
> >> on your own there.  I chose opera as the "suggested" client because it
> >> seems
> >> to be the only readily available client that has an "indexed search"
> built
> >> in (and is available for just about any operating system), but another
> >> solution is to use another client (like thunderbird) in conjunction with
> >> google desktop or a similar search program.  Like I said before, you are
> on
> >> your own if you want to pursue that route.
> >>
> >> One final thing: in spite of the fact that these directions can give us
> the
> >> ability to have complete access to the archives, I think we should keep
> in
> >> mind that most listmembers will not bother to download the file and go
> >> through with this (which is quite reasonable, since the process requires
> >> upwards of a gigabyte of free space to complete).  As a result, I would
> >> suggest that it is still probably not very constructive to answer
> peoples
> >> questions with the answer "search the archives", since, for many intents
> >> and
> >> purposes, the web archives remain broken and google doesn't work either.
> >>
> >>
> >> Here are my directions to get the archive into opera mail:
> >>
> >> 0.  Download the gerry.zip file from
> >> http://www.vanagonauts.com/files/gerry.zip
> >> 1.  The file gerry.zip is compressed and needs to be unzipped.  (Some
> >> versions of Windows may have this functionality built in?)  The size of
> the
> >> file gerry.zip is 162M.  If you have a file that is much smaller than
> that,
> >> it probably didn't download correctly.  (For anybody that wants to know,
> >> the
> >> MD5 sum of the file is 408626910cc14145089907ba7f7c66c1)
> >> 2.  When unzipped, the file "gerry" (no extension) is 576 megabytes.  It
> >> contains every message in the vanagon archives (starting on April 2
> 1994)
> >> through November 30, 2008.  The unzipped file is an "mbox" file, which
> can
> >> be imported or used by most mail programs.  You are on your own when it
> >> comes to importing this into your mail program of choice.  I will show
> you
> >> how to import the file into opera mail, which includes an indexed search
> so
> >> that you can search the entire archive in seconds.
> >> 3. Install opera (get it for free from www.opera.com)
> >> 4. On the left bar in opera, click on the envelope button to go to opera
> >> mail.  Under the file menu, choose "Import and Export" > "Import Mail".
> >> Choose "generic mbox file" and click next.  Hit the "add mbox..." button
> >> and
> >> locate the unzipped "gerry" file.  Under "Import into:", you can leave
> the
> >> setting as "new account" or you can choose an existing account if you
> >> already have an account setup that you would like to use.  Click next,
> and
> >> opera will start processing the file.  This will take a long time.  When
> it
> >> finishes, you will have the archives in an easily searchable and
> browsable
> >> location.
> >> 5.  If you setup opera as your email client for your vanagon
> subscription
> >> (follow readily available online instructions), you will always have all
> of
> >> the vanagon mail available for search, minus the "gap" between November
> 30,
> >> 2008 and whenever you set it up.  Maybe at some point in the future, I
> will
> >> make an extra file to cover the "gap".
> >>
> >> Happy searching!
> >> Wes
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jake
> > 1984 Vanagon GL
> > 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
> > Crescent Beach, BC
> > www.crescentbeachguitar.com
> > http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta "Jaco
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
> http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>