Why Gmail is better

Like many of the Technorati, I have more than one e-mail address. Several, in fact. On the personal side, I have an address with my home ISP (insightbb), a work address with my employer, another address with the client with whom I am currently working on a long-term project.

Out in the virtual world, I have two more addresses for my alter ego; one oh Hotmail, and one on Google Mail, or Gmail. The last one is the most recent addition, coming into being just over a year ago, when I received an invitation to the then-Beta Gmail a couple of years ago. Since then I have been using it sparingly.

However, recently, I have had reason to take a long, hard look at the various e-mail accounts and compare them.

My personal ISP address is bloody useless. Their ability to keep spam out of my inbox is highly suspect. I don’t know how many they keep out, but the other day I had to remove at least a dozen identical spam messages. I don’t know what they are doing to keep spam out; I suspect nothing.

The client and employer addresses are too ephemeral, too subject to change. And the employers are another one who seem unable to stop spam.

Hotmail does a decent job of keeping out undesirable stuff, but some stuff does get through. Ironically the worst spammer on Hotmail is… Microsoft. Not a week goes by when I don’t get some “helpful” e-mail from Gates & Co exhorting me to use X-and-Y new feature, or trying to interest me in their latest flavour-of-the-month offering. The nice thing about Hotmail is that you can access it from anywhere, but they no longer allow POP (the technology that allows you to download your messages to program like Outlook Express), unless you are a paying Customer.

Like Hotmail, Gmail is web-based, but there the similarities end. Gmail has a revolutionary way of listing your messages; they show them as “conversations”, so an exchange of e-mails are displayed as a conversation thread. Those who have used Usenet Newsgroups or discussion Forums (Fora?) - will be familiar with this.

Gmail was the first e-mail provider to break the 1GB barrier - the others have been playing catch-up ever since - which means that Gmail has become an unofficial backup mechanism. What a file backed up? E-mail it as an attachment to your Gmail account!. They also support POP - downloading your Gmail to a PDA over wireless internet is way cool - and you can decide whether you want to “copy” messages (leave them in Gmail) or “move” them (and remove them from your Gmail account).

Where Gmail truly hits a home run is with Spam handling. Simply speaking, there isn’t any. I don’t know how they do it, but after over a year of use I have yet to see a spam message in my Gmail inbox.

The only thing that keeps me from adopting Gmail for everything is inertia. However, over the next few months and years I can see myself using it more and more.

Now Reading: Thud, by Terry Pratchett

You can always tell a gentleman…

California Man Charged With Raping Women Met on Millionaires Site

Summary: Guy goes to millionaire dating site, meets women… and rapes them.

This is wrong on so many levels….

• You don’t have to be a millionaire to use the site… so what kind of men would frequent it, and what would they be looking for?
• What kind of women would frequent such a site? What kind of men would they be looking for?
• The mere existence of a “millionaire dating site” seems… mercenary.

This brings back to mind the Mike Tyson rape case. While he (Tyson) probably did rape the girl, which was clearly wrong, I found myself wondering at the time what a Beauty contestant was was thinking getting out of bed in the wee small hours of the morning to go to the hotel room of one of the judges - a man who could kill people with his bare hands.

What was she thinking? What were the victims thinking?

But rape is a crime… and stupidity is not.

Approval of seal of approval

Official Seal Generator

Once in a while, a website comes along that is too good not to pass on. This site allows you to create your own personal seal and download it to your computer. For a small fee, they will even make it into a sticker or a fridge magnet!

Here is my humble offering, which took all of five minutes’ work.

For those who don’t know, the logo in the center is the IDIC (Infinite Diversity from Infinite Combination) Symbol from Star Trek - this is the central philosophy of the Vulcan race. Seemed appropriate.

Wally of the Week: Domain Registrations of America

Just got a snail-mail letter from this outfit, asking me if I wanted to transfer my domain registration over for them.

I have been using these folks for several years now. I have had no problems with them, and they have my recommendation.

What’s wrong with this picture?

 

• My domain is not due to expire for another six months. I don;t know why they are notifying me so early. Looks like a sign of desparation to me…
• While they make it clear that “this is not a bill “, the language and wording, such as “Domain Name Expiration Notice” , I suspect that they are banking on some people signing up without knowing what they are doing.
• They try to pass themselves off as low price (”when you switch… you can take advantage of our best savings”), but their prices are astronomically high - I pay less than $8 per year for my domain. They want $30 per year - nearly four times as much - for the same thing.

Either they are stupid or they think I am. NEXT!!

Zunafish!

Once in a while an idea comes along that is so mindbogglingly simple that you wish that you had thought of it yourself. Zunafish is such an idea.

Most of us have books, CDs VHSs and DVDs lying around that we are not going to use again. List them on Zunafish, and if an item catches someone’s eye you can swap it for a like item from their collection. Each party ships their item to the other and pays Zunafish a dollar for the service.

On a slightly more cynical note, this is music trading at its finest. I am fairly sure that it is going to infuriate the RIAA and their cohorts, but it is totally legal and there ain’t a damn thing that they can do about it.

A vision of the future?

Microsoft. Google. Amazon. The New York Times?
Disturbing, and yet.. believable

Fake or Foto?

Think that you can tell a real photo from a computer-generated image? Take this quiz.

Here’s another one.

The .XXX Top-Level Domain is dead…

…thanks to the actions of Concerned Women for America.

There was a proposal to introduce a Top-Level Domain (TLD) specifically for porn sites. CWA was instrumental for shooting it down. Personally I think that thing that this was a bad move. Why? Because a .XXX TLD would have made it easier to move porn sites to a dedicated area and to block those sites at the ISP.

One of the fundamental founding values of America is that people are free to do as they please, and that includes the freedom to make choices that we may feel are stupid or wrong. Previous attempts to impose a common "morality" have failed - just look at prohibition and the "War on Drugs".

As long as there is a demand there will be a supply. Just like Cigarettes, Alcohol, Gambling, drugs and prostitution you cannot stop pornography by banning it or wishing it away. Conversely, if it is legal it can be licensed and controlled.

Think about it: Only in America… is it easier to buy crack than Viagra.

Another thrilling episode of “Lawyers Gone Wild”…

"Here's the scoop. Penniless dude scrounges together some FedEx boxes and makes some furniture out of them. He puts up a website showing his work.

FedEx gets upset and their lawyers send him a "cease-and-desist" letter that claims, among other things, that he is in breach of the DMCA (huh?).

He consults a lawyer, who tells FedEx that the DMCA is a Copyright law and this is really a trademark issue - and a weak case at that. The site stays up while the lawyers argue among themselves.

The saddest thing about this case is that it is so unnecessary - FedEx could have turned it into a massive publicity stunt at minimal cost to themselves. As it is, they have given me one more reason to not do business with them - they're paying their lawyers too much…

Personally I hope this one goes to court and they get their collective noses bloodied. Given that FedEx and their Lawyers have proved to me that they have their collective heads where the sun don't shine, that would be quite a trick.

What is this Internet thingy and how can I make money out of it?

Some years ago I attended a computer show.

In one of the meeting room, a free “web sales seminar” was being held.

Out of curiosity I went in and found a couple of lads talking about markets and strategy and trying to sell their web marketing service to a dozen or so “punters”.

Their sales pitch went on for about 15 minutes, and then they asked for questions. I asked if I could speak for a couple of minutes, and I stood up and said something like the following:

Like many managers of small and medium-sized businesses, you are probably asking the following question:

What is this Internet thingy and how can I make money out of it?

I respectfully suggest that you are asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is:

How can I use the Internet to improve the business that I already have?

As a heavy user of the Internet, I am amazed at how many companies turn away my business or drive me into the arms of the competition through poor or nonexistent communication.

• Too many times I have e-mailed companies asking for information about their products and services… and never received a reply.
• Too many times I have wandered around a “sales brochure” web site trying to find a way to get in touch with a real person, only to give up in disgust and take my business elsewhere.
• Too many times I have e-mailed regarding a problem and received a boilerplate message from an alleged “customer service professional” whose skills did not apparently extend as far as actually reading and answering my question.

I suspect that much of this problem comes from a lack of focus on e-mail customer support. All too often this job is placed upon staff who are already overloaded, and as a result the job does not get done.

The answer is obvious - make e-mail support a priority with a dedicated budget and dedicated staff.

While the products and services that these gentlemen are selling may help you along the way, if you don’t focus on communication, I suggest that all of the “marketing” in the world won’t help and you may be wasting your time and money on the Web.

I believe the best advertising of all is word-of-mouth. I believe that the customers you already have are your best sales leads. The question is, do you?

Thank you for your time.

I wonder if any of them listened?