Archive for May, 2007
One Month With Google Branded GMail
Posted on May 31, 2007, under Email, Search, Spam, Tools and Services.
So it has been one month since I converted my personal email over to Google Apps. There were several phases in this process, the initial being research and testing different setups. I knew what my ideal end goal was going to be, but did not know which of the many ways of accomplishing that I was going to go with. In the process I was and am still converting my machines over to Linux, where the software compatibility with my Windows Mobile device are lacking. I ended up trying a bunch of different software to sync my desktop with my mobile device and then Google. None worked in such seamless manner as I wanted. Give it a couple more revisions and I am sure the software will be mature enough, but not at the moment. So ended up just going completely web based, something that is very foreign to me as I have used Outlook for most of my life. I am still looking for a good solution to backup my GMail, because the thought that “in case something happens my mail would be gone” kind of has me worried. I am no syncing my calender and mail right on my device to Google, bypassing the desktop.
So how has Google scored in this whole transition? Well here is the break down.
Pros:
- Google is fast!: I am not just talking about from the web application side. But from receiving and sending a message, it is lightning fast. It’s even faster when you are going from a Gmail account to another Gmail account.
- Shared calenders: I have my better half setup so we can share our Google calenders together, which has really been a great feature. This is one of those features that once you use it, you wonder how you ever survived with out it.
- Features: I am not going to go as far to say that Google’s webmail application sis flawless, but it is dam good. Features like Address Completion, Spelling, Tags, are easy to use and just as convenient as a desktop application.
- Load: Less load on my server, which means it can do what is does best: serving up web pages.
- Spam Filter: The spam filter is not perfect, but much better than what I previously had.
Cons:
- No API: I am really not sure why no API has been created yet, but it leads to being less in sync with your email. Applications to syncronize, applications to notify; are the applications I needed and wanted, but are cumbersome because there is no official API.
- Tags not Folders: Coming from an Outlook background, as mentioned above, getting used to tagging mail and not putting mail in folders was a change.
- Trash is not Storage: With Outlook I would keep my trash, it was a place i could reference if I ever needed. With GMail you use “Archived Mail” and anything in the trash is deleted after 30 days.
- Setup: If you have basic knowledge or a will to learn about of DNS and MX records, you can setup Google apps. It’s not too difficult, and the turn around was quick.
Overall I am very pleased, and it;s good to just have it work and not have to worry about managing it. Best of all when new features roll out, they will be implemented with no effort from me. Meaning I will not have to go and update the web mail software just to get the new feature I was waiting for.
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Google Maps Street View, Bound For Trouble
Posted on May 30, 2007, under Search, Tools and Services.
I am an avid Google supporter, but I feel with the launch of the new Google Maps Street View feature they have put behind them the “Do no evil” motto they employ. Basically for select cities Google lets you zoom down to street level to view very high resolution photos, I would say they are surveillance quality photos… not the cheap stuff. Not only does this raise concerns for the obvious like license plate numbers, peoples faces, identity’s, etc. But on a more serious level, what if there was a photo of a police stake out, mob crime, or something else. There are laws preventing someone from walking in public taking pictures and publishing them without consent. I am not really sure how Google feels this was OK to release. Take a look at this photo I found of someone on the streets of California, the quality is amazing… I even scaled it down some to save on bandwidth. Personally I feel Google really messed up here, this seems like a rush to market feature that was not fully thought through.
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The End of Stickers and Crapware on Your New CPU
Posted on May 29, 2007, under Operating Systems, Software.
Dell has been in a reinventing state, first starting to use AMD processors in some of its CPU’s and now it is launching a line where you can get Ubuntu installed as your operating system. This is a huge step in the OEM market, and means several things for consumers.
For one it means the end of the “Microsoft Tax“, which is the extra $80 or so you have to pay for a copy of Windows when you buy a computer from a manufacturer.
The second large important step this brings is the end of all the crap ware and hidden partitioning that manufactures do to your new computer. This tactic started to earn an extra buck has gotten way out hand. When you get a new computer it is so bogged down with unnecessary software, that you really aren’t getting the fast computer you hoped and paid for. Additionally the recovery partitions are getting larger and larger, taking up more of your precious hard drive space. The only sure way around this is to format the whole computer, which isn’t likely going to be done by the novice consumer.
This third is a bit smaller, but still unnecessary. This might just mean the end of those stupid and annoying “Intel” and “Windows” stickers plastered all over your nice new shinny case. There are especially annoying on laptops because they usually stick them right where your palms go while typing. Yes easily removable, but really unnecessary. Windows owns the consumer desktop market, unfortunately, do we really need a sticker on the outside of every machine to remind us of that?
These changes from Dell will most likely mean other manufacturers will follow suite, maybe even trying to one up Dell with even something bigger. For me, it’s a fresh of breath air, and a much needed one. Consumers need, deserve, and want choice. Some companies have gone to great lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen. So when a major player like Dell steps up to put that power back in to consumers hands, it’s good thing. If Gateway wasn’t too scared to do it when people suggested it to them, it might have been the lifeline that company so greatly needs.
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When Customer Service Sucks
Posted on May 25, 2007, under Tools and Services.
I have not been happy with my cable company lately. If it wasn’t for the high speed internet, I would have been long gone a while ago. I have a high definition television, problem is nothing is in high definition. Now one could say, “well that is your problem… you shouldn’t have gotten a high definition television so early!”. Well I didn’t… it’s 2007 people, everyone should have a high definition television by now, and asides I got it mostly for other platforms like movies and video games.
So the other night while watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on VS. in non-HD, I called up Insight because enough is enough… I want my HD. After talking with the representative, I find out that not only does Comcast have VS. in High Definition, but Insight Communications is going to be Comcast by the end of the year. Furthermore, she stated “I hate the HD offerings on cable, that’s why I have a dish…” from a customer service representative! If I wasn’t jumping ship before, hearing something like this will definitely lose me as a customer. Asides from that, I am very tired of their craptastic DVR that has not once been updated in 2 1/2 years and still sucks to this very day.
So now I am researching my options. Either way, I am going to have to lose cable Internet because of the way my house is wired. This really sucks, because with AT&T DSL you can’t even use your own outgoing mail server, you have to use their’s to spam”. If they are sniffing mail ports, what else are they sniffing? AT&T does have this new U-verse offering which looks promising but have never been a fan of AT&T. then I could always just go with straight satellite.
If anyone has any experience with alternatives to cable, or DSL internet from AT&T give me a ping in the comments about your experiences. I would greatly appreciate it.
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Is Digg Losing Its Appeal?
Posted on May 23, 2007, under Tools and Services.
There has been a lot of bad press over the last several months for Digg. First is was the HD-DVD crack code scandal, and now it is all over the news that Digg is banning users for Digging too much. It certainly seems like there are some decisions being made within the company, that are not going over well with the community. To make it worse, when you do not communicate your decisions and reasons ahead of time with a community they feel very alienated.
Out of curiosity I looked at Diggs traffic ratings this morning, and it’s hard to determine where they are at with their traffic. First Alexa is not perfect, but most importantly it’s hard to tell if the trends are because of this recent bad press or it it’s season… AKA Geeks are spending more time outside and away from the computer because of summer.
So why is all of this bad press surrounding Digg? With these changes Digg definitely has more of a corporate view upon them, as apposed to the cool personal community image it has carried for so long. Why are they changing the way they do things internally so much that it’s affecting the community? Digg is one of the few “Web 2.0″ companies that hasn’t sold out to the man with an acquisition. We have yet to see Digg go the route of Friendster where a new service comes along and everyone jumps ship; but maybe something is in the works and soon to come. Aside from advertising, Digg has yet to formally announce a business plan so maybe something is in the works.
It will be very interesting to see how Diggs new decisions affect it long term.
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Why Microsoft will Never Succeed In Search
Posted on May 21, 2007, under Email, Operating Systems, Search, Tools and Services.
My recent change over to a Linux desktop has really given me some different perspective on things. It has allowed me to see things differently. The task of trying to find Linux replacements for some of my “must have” Windows desktop applications proved to not as easy as I thought. In the process I quickly learned what big name companies support Linux by making their applications and products cross platform. Google was on one side with their Linux versions of Picasa and Google Earth. this really had me thinking about how Microsoft plans on succeeding in the search market when they are too stubborn to embrace other communities like Linux and Macintosh. The search business involves managing data, take Google the undisputed leader in search. For email it’s GMail, for instant messaging it’s Google Talk, for documents and spreadsheets it’s Google Docs and Google Desktop Search, and the list goes on. So how is Microsoft going to compete with this? Is Microsoft’s online Office going to be compatible with Firefox with absolutely no feature different? Is Microsoft going to release a Linux or Macintosh version for their Desktop search product? Is Microsoft’s Picasa killer going to support other image and video formats that are not Windows dependent and plugged into to their DRM system.
Microsoft has never really been platform independent. They stopped releasing Internet Explorer for the Mac, the web-mail for Microsoft Exchange is completely less usable and has less features if running on a browser other than Internet Explorer, and IMAP in Outlook has never worked the way IMAP is supposed to work. Microsoft has always had the problem of needed to own the entire market, and complete the circle from Desktop, to Internet, to Mobile; this does not play well when you want to be a service company.
Enter in the ongoing rumor that Microsoft has been looking at Yahoo for an acquisition, and I am completely dumbfounded. Yahoo uses open source technology like PHP and MySQL. How long is it going to take for Microsoft to convert all of that over to Microsoft proprietary software? And what is the cost in doing so in terms of advancing your product from its current state?
Maybe I am missing something in all of this, but I just am not sure how Microsoft plans on putting the pieces together. When you are a service company, you have no platform in the term of Windows, Linux, or Mac, you need to bee diverse, which is something Microsoft built a monopoly on top of not being.
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Use Tabs, Not Spaces!
Posted on May 18, 2007, under Development.
I am now working out of an office and with other developers on a regular basis. With this comes the debate amongst developers over syntax highlighting and tabs vs. spaces. I usually do not get involved in these “geek wars”, but lately I have learned just how much tabs make sense. I have always been a tab fan, but here are the reasons I see tabs being the better of the two.
- Each developer can set tab width to their own preference in their IDE. So once user can have tabs shown as long, while the other has them shown as short.
- Using the arrow keys is much easier with tabs. It’s one key stroke as appose to 4 or 8.
- Whitespace leads for less mess during an update.If any amount of whitespace is changed, it throws off source code control systems.
- Tabs are less on disk that spaces, which is important for load time in web applications.
There are a lot of plug-ins and IDE’s that put some solutions into play for some of these issues. I would love to here others experience and view points on this, and what you development does to solve the never ending battle.
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Service of The Day: Sputtr
Posted on May 17, 2007, under Search, Tools and Services.
I came across this little service called Sputtr in my daily RSS readings, and thought the service was so dead simple and useful I set it as my homepage. I have gotten so much use out of this. the site acts a lot like the little search bar in your browser works, but as a web page. I really like the sites design, and it is very quick to load (for now). They even have a button that allows you to suggest new search engines.
Great little service, check it out.
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How to Find Music from Your Favorite T.V. Show or Movie
Posted on May 15, 2007, under How To, Tools and Services.
I have been behind on the Tivo watching lately, the weather has been too nice to be slumming around on the couch. Last night I was watching some of the tube while working, and came across four different songs from the shows that I wanted to know more about the artist. Of course. Most of the time television programming is exactly to the hour or half hour so the part where they tell you the music featured in the show gets cut off. I originally went to the shows website to see if they had any information about the features music, and most of the time the site was not even updated yet with the latest episode. So I went searching further.
Enter TuneFind, the answer to looking for that one song you heard during the latest episode of you favorite show. You can find just about any song from any movie or show. Best of all it is quickly updated with the latest episodes and movies because it’s mainly community driven. TuneFind features a very well designed and easy to navigate site that allows you to quickly find the song you may know nothing about.
Excellent!
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Cool Things For Linux: gDesklets
Posted on May 14, 2007, under Operating Systems, Software.
No this will not become a Linux blog, but there are just so many cool things for the Linux desktop that I have been discovering lately. Today a buddy at work pointed me int the direction of gDesklets. A little application that creates little widgets for your desktop, much like the sidebar in Windows Vista. There site does not have as many desklets on it as you can install with the manager in Ubuntu, but they have a few.
The application does not seem as memory intensive as some of the other desktop widget applications I have used, like Konfabulator, now Yahoo Widgets, or the Windows sidebar. The project still seems young, but seems like there are more Widgets out there to download. I am still hunting for a great repository.
