Last week, we turned our clocks back for Daylight Savings Time (DST). The time change should be reflected automatically on all computers and laptops except for Mac users who are using Entourage 2004 and 2008 as their mail client.

I hadn’t notice this until I compared the time on my laptop to the time when I received an email. Strange to see that I received an email almost an hour before the actual time of the day! I felt like I was seeing into the future!

This happens as Entourage 2004 and 2008 use DST information from related ‘Timezones’ files which are not up to date with current information, even though the time change on the operating system is accurate. Microsoft has not released a fix for this issue but there is a workaround solution.

First, understand that this patch IS NOT SUPPORTED BY MICROSOFT.

With that said, only one of the support files is being replaced, the chances of lasting damage is minimal, but you are advised most strenuously to take a back up of the files that are to be changed.

If you accept this and want to continue, read on…

For Entourage 2004:

1. Download the updated time zones file for Entourage 2004
2. Quit Entourage (Entourage should not be running when you apply this workaround)
3. Make a back up copy of your identity. How to find your identity.
4. Back up the Timezones file in your /Microsoft Office 2004/Office folder
5. Copy the Timezones file you downloaded to /Applications/Microsoft Office 2004/Office folder, replacing the old “Timezones” file
6. Re-launch Entourage

For Entourage 2008:

1. Download the updated time zones file for Entourage 2008
2. Quit Entourage (Entourage should not be running when you apply this workaround)
3. Make a back up copy of your identity. How to find your identity.
4. Back up the Timezones.ics file in /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/EntourageCore.framework*/Versions/12/Resources/en.lproj/
5. Copy the Timezones.ics you downloaded to /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008/Office/EntourageCore.framework*/Versions/12/Resources/en.lproj/ to replace the old “Timezones.ics” file
6. Re-launch Entourage

*To access the contents of EntourageCore.framework, CTRL-click and select “Show Package Contents”

For more information about DST Workaround, check out the Entourage Help Page.

Update: For 2010-2011 timezone patch, refer to DTS Workaround for Entourage on Mac OS X (2010-11).

Five years ago, an open-source browser called Firefox was available as a 1.0 download. To say it’s changed the world’s web experience is understatement. If you aren’t already using Mozilla’s Firefox browser, drop everything immediately and make the switch! It’s available for Macs and PC’s!

To download Firefox, visit Mozilla.com.

To read more about the life of Firefox, check out Lifehacker.

iTunes makes it really easy to create your own iPhone ringtones with any music file. The following instructions are for Macs but I’m sure they are very similar for any PC.

Open iTunes and go to Preferences → General → Import Settings to make sure that you’ve selected “Import Using: AAC Encoder.”

Select the song that you want to make into a ringtone and listen to find the part that you want to use (I usually start with the chorus). Write down the start and stop times of the song while making sure it doesn’t exceed 40 seconds long.

Right-click the song and select “Get Info.” Click the “Options” tab and type in the start and stop times in minutes:seconds (ie 2:01) format, click “OK” when done.

Right-click your song again and select “Create AAC Version.” Wait for iTunes to convert your song. It will create a duplicate version and the ringtone file should be the one with the shorter time.

Delete the ringtone, making sure that you click “keep files” so you’re only removing the song from your playlist, not from your computer.

Find the file. It’s usually in your user folder under Music → iTunes → iTunes Music saved under the band’s name with an extension of m4a. Rename the m4a extension to m4r*

*For PCs: If you cannot view file extensions, go to your folder options in your windows explorer and change your view settings to uncheck the box for “Hide File Extensions for Known File Types.”

Double-click the ringtone file and iTunes will automatically add it to your ringtones folder in your iTunes Music Library. Connect your iPhone and sync your ringtone!

If you want to use a more sophisticated program to trim your songs, check out Audacity.

For more information on making your own ringtones, check out IntoMobile.

Here’s how to convert your audio files to MP3 format using iTunes version 8.

For Macs:

• Preferences → General → Import Settings
• Select “Import using MP3 encoder” (or your desired format)
• Then go to your song, right-click and choose “Create MP3 Version” (if you’ve specified MP3 in the earlier step).

For a PC:

• Preferences → General → Import Settings.
• Choose “MP3″ (or your desired format)
• Then go to your song, right-click and choose “Create MP3 Version” (if you’ve specified MP3 in the earlier step).

For more information, check out Apple iTunes.

In order to maximize revenue stream for advertisements, most file hosting services, such as RapidShare and DepositFiles, have a countdown timer which asks downloaders to wait for a specific time before download links are available. This forces the user to stay longer on the site to increase page views before downloading a file.

Here’s a simple trick to bypass the wait time to download from DepositFiles using Firefox. First, load the download link in your Firefox browser. Go to download the file as a free user (if you’re a gold member, you need not read this… doh!) and a page with a countdown timer will appear.

Go to your “view” options and “page style” to select “no style” turning your page into plain text.

A “download the file” button should now be visible just below the wait time.

Click and start downloading immediately!

If you need to download multiple files from DepositFiles, open multiple tabs with the links for the files in each tab and repeat this step while the timer is counting down. This will bypass the download limit time!