Why use Gmail?

Why Use Gmail

I'm always recommending Gmail to people and when they ask why each time I write various bits about why... well NO MORE.. I'll just send them here:)

Gmail is google's answer to email. Its free and fantastic. Here are the pros and Cons:

General Gmail Pros

• Gmail is very fast. When I think back to the old days of waiting for outlook to send and receive... well... frankly I have nightmares. Gmail is modern and fast web-app page that loads and refreshes in an instant or two and there are all your mails. The only thing that is slow is the downloading of attachments, but that's only if you want to download them. In normal use this aspect of Gmail alone will save you about two days a decade.
• Gmail is very secure. You cant really get infected is you use Gmail. I mean, maybe there is some exotic exploit that could in theory drop a malware nuke right on your hard drive, but Ive never heard of the possibility. If you just used Gmail I think you wouldn't even need a virus checker.
• Gmail No Spam. I get more spam than the guy who has been joining porn and mortgage sites, on the same email, since 1995. Right now I have many thousands in my Gmail spam folder but they are of no concern. All the power of all the gmail users and The Google itself combine - Gmail is the best spam filter, period.
• No backup Required. - I have had an email address since about 1993 and I have lost all my emails many times. With Gmail you don't need to worry about backing up, Google does it all. And frankly, id rather trust them than me to manage back ups.
• Never Loose A Mail - Because you never delete mails with Gmail you never loose them.
  
• The Conversation - Gmail groups emails into conversations. Its hard to get your head around when used to linear emails but its a huge huge huge shift in productivity.
• The Other Google Apps - With your Gmail account you get seamless access to the vastly useful other Google Apps like Google calender, Docs, blogger, Notebook, Photos..... and on and on.... Google Docs is one of the most important applications for two decades in my opinion.
• Search fantastic - This is one that I hadn't really thought of until this list. With gmail you can find any mail or mails so easily using the full power of the Google's engine on your Gmail. If you need it you also have the full set of google search expressions at your disposal on your inbox.
  
• Office Anywhere - I can walk into a cafe in any country in the world and I have all my emails, documents, bookmarks, photos... everything... right there safely in the browser. Ahhh the liberation of technology!
• The Inbox Task List - Way before Gmail I was using my inbox as a task list, but gmail makes it sio easy. Just archive the actioend emails and its done.
• Google Mobile - Gmail works so well on mobile phones using either Opera Mina or the free Gmail mobile java applet.
  

Gmail Cons

• Contacts - With Gmail you don't need an address book really. If you have send an email to fred@ it will ALWAYS remember that. That's great, but if you do want to have Freds phone number etc, the contacts system is pretty crap. I'm sure it will eb improved but for now accept that its cruddy.
• You Are Googl's Bitch - I blogged about this here. Its as much of an issue as you want to make it. Until I have reason to believe otherwise I'm 100% happy with The Google having all my stuff.
• Offline - This is the big gripe some teccies have with Google Apps - that you cant work offline. And its true, we have had issues in the Sri Lankan office where some net downtime meant we just couldn't work. Google are pioneering some pretty funky technology called "Google Gears" to address this exact problem. Its still in beta,but looks very promising - it is currently available just for Google Reader.
  

I may add to this list as time goes by.

Remeber the Milk and Google Calender . Seamless

If you use Google Calender and need a task list try remeberthemilk.com - this now has a one button seamless integration feature. You end up with the RTM task list inside your colander.

What with this and it's great mobile interface compliment, RTM could be just be the missing gap in the personal task list/Google App vicinity.

This is the online calender equivalent of ancient man discovering the seasons. Only free.

The Google Fresh Liner

One thing about Google Search is that although its totally amazing as a search, its results are, by default, a tad on the musty side.

You want to know about the latest research in transfinite anti-calculus. You do the search.... bugger... your getting all those old papers from 2006; which we all know are now just considered "folklore" nowadays.

You can go into the advance search.... but who wants to do that. Don't we have lives!

Try this tip I just came up with...

In Firefox (If you don't use Firefox, get off my blog!) go to "Organize bookmarks" right click on Google quick search>properties and replace this:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%s

with this:


http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%s&as_qdr=m3

If it isn't there all ready I would change the keyword to just g.

So now when you enter in the Firefox address bar:

g world overpopulation issues

You get only all pages updated in the last 3 months about world overpopulation issues. Plus the Google search will now show the date drop down so you can change the search date range yourself.

Nifty!

First Salted Review: Desktopondemand.com

I saw This:
desktopondemand.com/info/video.html
And was blown away.
I signed myself up,
For Free, easily...
But then I logged in,
Was the swan song sung?
My window froze,
My Firefox hung.

Application Reminiscences: Photo5 on Psion Series 5

I was just chewing the cud with Amila from work and I was reminded of a programme I wrote as a hobby called Photo 5.

I used to love writing programmes. Sadly, since I work with much more talented programmers than me, I don't do it any more. Boo Hoo :(

So here... if you're even remotely interested... is a brief dip into the software developments I have published on my own. Or at least one of them. Might add some more later.


Photo 5

Photo5 was a an image editing and photo manipulation on the Psion Series 5 computer, that came out in the late 90’s.

Essentially I wanted to write the first ever handheld Photoshop - in the days when Photoshop was version 4. And I think I achieved it.


Features:

• 20 Levels of Undo
• Supporting Plugins - quite a few plugins were written for it by 3rd parties, such as jpeg export, printing and stuff.
• Animation Support - including frames, paths and animation brushes.
• Image Modification: resize, bend, shear...
• Image Filters: distort, emboss, negative, glow, solarize, pointalize....
• Custom rendered font types and text objects.
• Vector based shapes and B-Splines (They were so much fun(i.e. nerd fun))
  
• Many kinds of drawing tools, like pens, brushes, sprays. I seem to remember all were very configurable.
• Smart adaptive GUI with custom sliders and interface elements; trying to get as close as possible to Corel Draw and Photoshop.
  

Photo5 was huge in Romania, and many people cite its ability to make true creativity truly portable was a key factor in the collapse of the Ceaucescu regime, as this article testifies.

Reminiscing, as I rarely do, it was a pretty ground breaking application that did stuff that still hasn’t been done on handhelds, even today.

I’ve lost the Zip install but I have a Psion 5 still, so if by some freaky chance anyone has the install I'd love a copy!

Bullet Points on the New Big Brother Racism Thing

• White people shouldn't use the N word. They shouldn't use it because of its history, no matter how much it gets used by black people.
• Emily on Big Brother used it foolishly rather than maliciously. Drink driving is foolish. Being foolish doesn't stop something from being very wrong.
• Emily repeatedly said to Charlie, "I didn't mean it". Which implies that at some level she found it to be an insult rather than a term of "camaraderie" that other aspects of her talk suggested.
  
• Emily was in Big Brother for hours after saying it. This to me suggests that Endemol were calculating various factors: ratings, racism, opinion, legality..... In fact if their convictions for removing her were a purely moral , "it was wrong," then she should have been removed from the house immediately.
  
• White people shouldn't use the N word.

I'm writing a paper on racism here: Racism Viewed from Nowhere, Draft 1

Can you think of a humorous reply to this question?

George Bush and the central problem of moral philosophy.

The "Is/ought problem" is the central problem of moral philosophy.

George Bush: "You shouldn't interfere with a missile defense system."

I mean, I'm kind of in agreement with him, but I don't see how the ought follows from the is.

Saw Stop

Quite Amazing

The Massacre By The Innocents

Better Google Reader is Certainly Better

If you read news on the internet it would be better if you use Google Reader than any other method.
If you use Google Reader it can be made even better than the norm with Better Google Reader from the good people at Lifehacker.

"Better is better than worse " Confusedus

The Hold Era of Foldera

Well, we have decided to put Foldera on Hold, its so close to being so just what we want but some speed issues and a general blocky betaness about it mean that it isn't right for us.... yet.

Personally, I still have high hopes for it and will bet hard cash that it will be assimilated into The Google.

This wont be the last The Salted Solution says about Foldera.....

Getting a Facial From Google

Google Search has just slipped in facial searching.

So, If you want to find images of Don Johson's face (whichy lets face it, we all do) then do a search for Don Johnson and in the address bar add &imgtype=face

You get something like this

Its not ideal. Its not documented but it shows the shape of the future.

Portable Firefox and Foldershare: A great way to do stuff.

If like me you use the internet and use more than two computers then things exactly like the following will surely have happened to you:

• Your sitting at work, browsing the web in your very extended lunch break. You find a website you would love to browse more, but in the privacy of your own home. You add the bookmark.... back at home you realise that the bookmark is still on our computer at work. You try to remember UR:, but the site was in Russia and had characters that don’t exist on any keyboard within thirty miles. You spend the rest of the night crying your eyes out because you realise that there’s not much point in living without that bookmark.
• You sigh up to a very special members only site, this time in Venezuela . You need to go to an internet cafe that allows you pay by cash and wear a hoodie and shades. You’re there sitting with the homeless prostitutes and the online crack dealers when you realise your cookies are not with you so you can’t login to the site.
• You wish that you didn’t have to worry about synchronisation of all of your browser data and tools and settings between computers.

If, like me, any of these issues have concerned or confronted you, then read on... there are solutions.

There are in fact many solutions and over the years I have tried most of them. The one I’m going to suggest has been mine for many months in various guises. There have been problems, these are now solved and I am ready to unleash it upon the world. Go wash your hands, button down the hatches, I am about to unleash:


Five simple steps.

1. Download Portable Firefox. Portable Firefox is a version of the world’s best web browser that has been tweaked to make it Portable; it can be run from any folder, USB Drive, IPOD etc. Download it here and install it in a place you will remember. I have it in My Documents>My Applications>Portable Firefox.
2. Set everything up in this installation of Portable Firefox, your bookmarks, extensions, web sites, layout. Make it just how you want it and back it up. One great thing about backing up Portable Apps is it means simply copy the folder.
3. Download Google Browser Sync This will synchronise all of your Settings and bookmarks and cookies . Once installed, set it up. It won’t synchronise Extensions and themes and interface changes, however.
4. Download Foldershare. This is an amazing bit of free software, recently bought by Microsoft. You will need to download it and install it on all PCs you want to sync. Have a play with it and a read of the help files if you get confused, but its very easy once you get the hang.
5. Using Foldershare, share your Portable Firefox on all the PCs you want to sync with and let Foldershare do its magic.

Note: The Portable Firefox cache can become corrupted if you switch between different PCs before Foldershare has had the chance to update. I always wait a few minutes between closing one Firefox (on Desktop) and opening another, say on my laptop. This gives Foldershare the time to Sync the changed files.

If you follow these 5 simple steps, you can become more productive, more helpful around the house and better within the community you live in.

It would be churlish not to.

First Days in Foldera

We have been using Foldera tentatively for a few days now. And this is my first (non-poem) review - it is a brief mixture of initial reactions and-in-the-field use.


Speed

The first thing to tell you is, it's slow. Painfully slow. I think there is a guy In Folderaville shuffling floppies (and I aint talking in the "fluffing" sense). Foldera is so slow that it's burnt my monitor. Foldera is so slow that by the time I have logged in to add a new project, the project has been completed. Online, there is one thing slower than Foldera, and that is SETI@home (which is slower than Fold(era)ing@home by a long shot).

If Foldera is this slow in a years' time, it won't be here. And seeing as you're probably not reading this until then, then clearly they have speeded it up.


Clutter


They have some quite hard design hurdles to cross, I think. They need to supply a lot of information, links and other interface items on the page at the same time. And this creates clutter, as you can see from this grab of my current Foldera:

I really should get some screen wipes.

And that's just part of the page. The blue links on the left are the folders, and the right hand side are the folder contents. They are already using some neat AJAXy dropdowns which work really well but they have a ways to go to get the screen ergonomics nailed. I think some compromises and extra steps will have to be juggled and see no reason why they won't get it right in the long run.

Email


Though Foldera is new, there is bloat. It has an email system which I imagine won't get that much use. Not because of the system per se (it might be great) but just because people already have an email, and the kind of people who might use Foldera are probably pretty happy with the system they use now. What Foldera needs isn't its own email but to hook in seamlessly with Pop or Gmail in a configurable and filterable way.

Any task/project system nowadays has to use email as a core conduit, but that doesn't mean every task system needs its own email system.



Conclusion

Despite the speed and clutter and babybloat of the early version, there must be a reason why I/we at work are still using it and, so far, increasing our using it of it. Small projects first, but projects nonetheless. I said in a blog post last week about how Foldera is heading straight up for a Google buyout. So much so that the UI proportions are almost exact with Gmail. The Foldera colour scheme is a panchromatic (though mainly pale blue) celebration of the Google colour scheme. The lack of a task and project system in the Google Apps is, like the lack of a Powerpoint contender, a well discussed omission. Foldera is very very Google like, much more than Basecamp or Activecollab.


And there is another similarity with the Big G. Foldera has that feeling, like when I first tried Gmail, Writely, Gcal, you can't but help think: "It may not be there now, but when it's there, whoooo-hoooooo, this baby is going to roll me over and butter my balls 'til Christmas," or at least the website/software equivalent of that sentiment.

Skagen Cartesian Doubt

I like watches. I have had my new watch for a week; A Skagen Titanium from Denmark. Very nice.

The strap is not the normal strap I am used to. It is a locking clasp.

But this morning my affair with this watch changed.

It has just come undone as I ate my breakfast.

And now there is always the doubt, and always will be the doubt, that this could happen again. My confidence in the watch is gone. All beauty is lost. Around my wrist I wear a band of uncertainty.

Between Google and The Government

I want someone to look after my data,
And relate my data to me.
I want someone to look after my data,
That someone who isn't me.
So who should I choose to do this,
To manage my freedom's edge?
States who in the past,
Have shifted from their pledge?


Or should I choose a group,
Whose currency is truth,
Assured that all will test them,
In critical rolling proof.
The slightest mote of doubt,
Their empire does implode,
I pack up my bag, my mail, my blogs:
Yahoo. F5. Reload.

The one hundred dollar laptop is here (from digg)

olpc.tv » Children

Review - Tom Tom Drum WUSB Touchscreen.

In the days before Google I used to work for TomTom, so this review might be biased, but the Drum is awesome! I got my hands on prototype and its the dog's kahunas. It's 100% right there, bang-smack exactly what I have been looking for for the past two decades: it's a very feminine transsexual masseuse/tech-philosopher. No! No! I mean it's one of these babies:

Its the first - to my knowledge - WUSB Touch screen (Control4 and Panasonic did some WiFi ones a few years back). The technology has been possible for a couple of years I guess, but this is the Walkman. The Drum has no real CPU or GPU, it has no memory, no drive. No moving or thinking parts. Think of it like a really cheap, light, rugged, weatherproof Tablet PC that goes for 12 hours, weighs a bit more than an average paperback and doesn't get hot.... or make a sound.


I have one of the Logitech WUSB keyboards and proper mice, and so I use them around the house when I am not in the mood for typing on the screen with a pen.

In terms of the tech that's all you can really say. I could go on about the nice crisp screen. I could whinge about the lack of any speaker in the device - a Drum with no sound: those crazy Dutchies:P!

I could eulogise on how it's nice to have so much power (that's really on my desktop) in something light and cheap - 200 big ones.

But whats the point?

You know if it's like the other TomTom stuff it's going to be well built and look good. Sub-Apple looks, but good looks. Most of all, you know its a great idea and you want one.


Playing C&C in the bath with never be the same again.

Order at TomTom.com

---

Non-Haiku Review Of Foldera

I have signed up and signed in for the first time.
I am in darkness.
It has asked me for my first folder.
A folder is like a category or project.
I need to invite another.
I invite two.

It has the functional googleesque aesthetic,
Chunky. Ajaxy... and the cascading style.

It doesn't have a mobile view.
Rememberthemilk has this.
That is close to essential.


It has some interface elements,
I haven't seen before. And they are good.
There is a wholeness and unity,
I haven't seen before. And I have sought;
from the base-camp to the summit.

But like all babies that splatter into the web,
Mewling and puking,
This one has a slowness about it.
The need to grow.
Streamline.




8/10 (So far)