Mike's Thoughts

So I officially received my new Nikon D40 digital SLR camera today. Here’s the thing…I bought my LG Dare with the thought that I would consolidate my devices by carring around a camera and a cell phone all in one. Let me tell you, despite being a 3.2 megapixel camera, it’s still a really bad camera on a camera phone, and it just wasn’t cutting it.

So, I took the plunge and bought Nikon’s entry level SLR. It’s only a 6 megapixel camera, but it’s miles beyond anything I have ever used. For more information on it, check out this site.

Right now, I’ve take about 115 really bad photos! I mean come on, for an entry level SLR, this thing has a ton of features, and I’m just beginning to wrap my head around them all. However, I was able to come up with a few that I thought were ok, given that it was my first time out.

I have created another page on my actual web site where I will post pictures that I find interesting. To check it out, simply go to gallery.mikebruckner.com, or click on the link at the top of my blog, or at the top of my main site.

So, after doing a ton of searching on the RIT site for instructions on how to use RIT’s LDAP address book on my local machine, I finally came up with the settings.

If you, like me, use Mozilla Thunderbird (grab a free copy from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/), then you will most likely want to be able to search the RIT directory for fellow students and professors.

To configure Thunderbird:

1. Click on the Address Book icon in Thunderbird
2. Click Tools -> Options
3. Click Composition -> Addressing, then click “Edit Directories”
4. Click the Add button
5. Enter the following information:
Name: RIT Directory
Hostname: ldap.rit.edu
Base DN: ou=people,dc=rit,dc=edu
Port Number: 389
Bind DN: uid=<your RIT username>,ou=people,dc=rit,dc=edu
Ensure the SSL checkbox is UNCHECKED
6. Click OK
7. Click the Directory Service checkbox, then click RIT Directory in the drop down box
8. Click OK.
9. Close Address Book, and restart Thunderbird
10. Click Write
11. Start entering a student’s name (like Michael). You should be prompted to enter a password. Enter your RIT account password, and if you choose to, select the remember my password option
12. You should now be able to use the auto complete feature to query the global address book
13. You can also search someone by clicking Contacts in the new message window, then selecting RIT Directory from the drop down window

Just thought I’d point something out…

It doesn’t matter if you have dirty cloths up to the ceiling of your dorm room, or if you have more empty pizza boxes than shirts.

No, if you’ve got the right stuff in your room, you’re set.

As a “hero” of the Colbert Nation, I give you a perfect example