April | 2005 | mashby

April 25, 2005

Gmail Anyone?

Gmail Logo This morning, I was checking my Gmail account, archiving old threads, responding to friends and what not. I looked to see how many Gmail accounts I have to giveaway when I was shocked to see that I have 50 invitations to give away. So if you’ve always wanted a Gmail account and have yet to get one, post a reply to this entry with your full name (first and last) and an e-mail address and I’ll send you an invite. Doesn’t get any easier than that does it?

What The Heck Is Gmail?
If you haven’t heard about Gmail some people may claim that you’ve been living under a rock, but I have plenty of friends and family that aren’t as plugged into the Web as others, so for their benefit, I thought I’d share a few details.

Gmail is a free web based e-mail service that was launched in April 2004 by Google. It’s a little different type of e-mail system in that it’s database driven. Gone are inboxes, outboxes and deleting of e-mails. Instead you “archive” your e-mail, which means that you don’t delete. To quote from a C|Net article:

“The idea is that your mail can stay in there forever,” said Wayne Rosing, vice president of engineering at Google. “You can always index it, always search it, and always find things from the past.”

With never having to delete an e-mail, it might appear that you’d fill up the measly 2MB that are typical of web based e-mail, but with Gmail, you have 2GB of storage! Originally Gmail came with 1GB, but they recently bumped it up to 2GB and may push it to larger and larger capacities as needed. So you never have to worry about running out of space, or that someone sending you a bunch of photos is going to overload your inbox.

April 22, 2005

The Computer Outlook Radio Show

Antique Radio I was in Baton Rouge a few months ago and my friends and I were at the City Cafe enjoying dinner and catching up on things. I was elbows deep into a tray of boiled crawfish when I thought of a story that I wanted to share. As a lead in, I said, “You know that radio show I’m doing…” I wasn’t even looking up when said it. My focus was on the tails in front of me, but instead of “Uh huhs and “Yeahs”, there was complete silence. Looking up from my platter, I was met with nothing but puzzled and confused faces. Duffy was the first to respond by saying, “Um… no? WHAT radio show?” Now I was the one that was confused.

“I told you guys about this didn’t I?”, I said in a somewhat pleading manner. I mean these were some of my closest friends and I would have shared something like this with them right? In a half-laugh, Ken Harelson said, “No, I think I would have remembered that!” No one was mad or anything, but it made me feel a little bit silly. You’d think I’d share something like this with my friends. I searched this weblog and I did find that I made a small mention of it here and here, but I’ve never really shared the whole story, so here it is.

April 18, 2005

Making FTP Easy – FTPDropper

FTPDropper Icon I don’t know about you, but using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) can sometimes be a bit of a pain in the butt. Don’t use FTP? Well you probably do without realizing it, but spend time with the web long enough and you’re bound to run into this protocol at one point or another. Start a weblog like this one, or be required to update a web site and you’ll be sure to use it.

Take this weblog as an example. I made the decision that I would include an image with every post. As innocent as that decision sounded at the time, it meant that I would always have to create an image. It also meant that after that image was created, I would have to upload that image to my web server. MovableType has an upload feature, but since I typically use Zempt to post my articles, I don’t use the web based interface. Instead, I would fire up my FTP program WS FTP, log into the server, browse to the directory and then upload the file. Not a huge deal, but it’s a series of steps that I would like to avoid if at all possible.

I found a cool widget called FTPDrop that works in AveDesk. I use AveDesk for other widgets, so this was a no brainer, but what I really wanted was a stand alone program. Why? Because I have clients that need to FTP stuff and trying to explain what FTP is and how the interface works, yada yada yada. Additionally, I didn’t want the solution to require installing a widget program like AveDesk, or Konfabulator just so that they could use one widget. I just wanted a simple program. Luckily, I found it. 🙂

April 13, 2005

My 10-Mile Ride

A map showing where my home is in relationship to downtown Nashville. With Spring in full bloom here in Nashville, my passion for cycling can finally flourish. After doing a mini-tune up and finding all my gear, it was time to fine tune my body and knock off some of the cobwebs after a winter of being sedentary. So for my first few rides, I’ve turned to my default route – the 10-mile loop. With the past few routes that I’ve posted, such as the Duck River Rendezvous, I thought it might be fun to document some of everyday rides. The 10-Mile loop is a ride a discovered after moving into our home a few years ago. I was looking for a loop that could give me a decent mileage and also provide a little challenge along the way. After riding and driving around one week, I stumbled upon this route and it’s been my go to route ever since. Being just at 10 miles, it’s easy to accomplish in an hour, but you’ll definitely get a workout along the way. There are several steep hills along the route which offer a challenge for those looking for hills. The first climb is a fairly small, low grade that’s a little deceptive. It starts just after the school and continues around the corner of Blue Hole onto Pettus. It’s not a hard hill per se, but when your legs haven’t had a chance to warm up, it can be a bit of a bear. There’s also a couple of friendly dogs that sometimes give chase to help crank up your adrenaline at this point too. Once you turn left onto Old Hickory, there’s a nice downhill to provide a pay off for your climb, but once at the bottom, there’s a slight grade all the way to a nice “pop” of a hill after the turn onto Clubertson. You definitely come out of the saddle for this small climb, but once on top, you’re greeted with a nice twisty descent that snakes down to Mill Creek. This is one of the best parts of the route. The road hugs Mill Creek and in the mornings it’s not uncommon to find ducks and other small birds welcoming the morning with a brisk bath. There’s only one small “pop” of a hill on this road, so it makes for a nice leisurely ride all the way till you get to Nolensville road. Continue Reading

April 11, 2005

Look For Me On The CMT!

The 2005 CMT Awards

On Friday I had to meet Holly for a late lunch at 3:00pm so that we could go through the “security process” for the CMT Awards. Yes, you read that correctly, Holly and I are going to be part of the Country Music Television Awards tonight. Ok, it’s a small part – a very small part, but for a couple of kids from Baton Rouge, it’s pretty cool to us. We are going to be on the floor right in front of the stage. We have to stand there from 5pm – 10pm, with no chance of sitting (hence the apt nickname “the mosh pit” ), but we’ll probably be on camera throughout the broadcast. How cool is that?

So how did we get this opportunity? Well, Holly’s a member of the “Women in Music Business Association (WMBA)” organization. This group is a fairly connected group and because they work in the industry, and they come across unique opportunities and often pass them along to the group as a whole. This was one of those times. Holly received an e-mail and quickly submitted our names for consideration. We were selected and received an e-mail telling us what we needed to do, where and what the rules are (no cameras, cell phones, etc.).

The first order of business was to show up on Friday to go through “security.” I’m using quotes because it consisted of nothing more than showing your ID to prove you were who you said you were. After that 5 second process, our names were checked off a list and a plastic wristband was attached. We were then told that this wristband was all that we needed to gain admittance on Monday. However, we were not to remove it and if we did we would not be allowed on the floor.

April 10, 2005

Duck River Rendezvous

Yesterday was the “Duck River Rendezvous” 50-mile bicycle ride at Henry Horton State Park, which is about 30-miles south of Nashville. Unfortunately, I had to host a Nashville Palm Users Group meeting, so I was unable to participate in the ride. That didn’t stop Holly and my Mother though from deciding to try the ride. They’ve never taken part in a coordinated bicycle ride and both had never ridden more than 20 miles at a stretch, so both ladies were definitely exploring a bit of the unknown.
Normally I would put a link to a web site describing the ride, but unfortunately the only mention of the “Duck River Rendezvous” is in a year event calendar for the entire Tennessee park system for the 2005 year. You can find it at this link, but to save you the trouble, here’s what the entry said:

Henry Horton | April 9 | Duck River Rendezvous
A 50-mile bicycle ride that travels through Marshall and Bedford counties will begin and end at Henry Horton State Park. Pre-registration required.
Contact: Randy Whitworth, Randy.Whitworth@state.tn.us or (931) 364-7724.

Not much to go on, but given that the event was free certainly nothing to complain about. My Mom works for State Parks and e-mailed Randy who explained that there would be full SAG vehicle support (No one knows what “SAG” really means or where it came from; in this respect it’s kind of like “Ham”. According to one definition, it is an abbreviation for “Support And Gear.” SAG Vehicle drivers pick up broken down bikes and tired riders.) So it sounded like a great ride and I was really sorry that I wasn’t able to participate. Holly and Mom both registered and I helped them get their bikes ready for the event. I tried to get them to train some for it, but with only a week, there wasn’t a lot of time. Mom got in two 10-mile rides and Holly only had 1 10-mile ride. Even with very little mileage under their belts, both ladies were ready to go at 6:00am yesterday as I loaded them up. I learned later that they were a little nervous about the ride since I wasn’t able to go, but they showed no signs of it as they were leaving.

April 7, 2005

The Most Annoying RingTones EVER

Crazy Frog - the most annoying ringtone ever! The other day my good buddy Dan Westman was chatting with me via my mobile and every time he’d mouse over the ad space in MSN Messenger, there’d be a cacophony of silly noises. I couldn’t hear exactly what it was saying, but from 8000 miles away it sounded absolutely hilarious. I fired up MSN Messenger, but I couldn’t get the same ad to pull up.

Fast forward 5 days (today) and Dan tells me that he has a link for me. I click on it and I’m taken to Jamster! Crazyfrog RingTones. The source of the ad that I had so much enjoyment from. Unfortunately, when listening to the ring tones, the pleasure is all gone, because these ringtones have to be the most annoying ringtones EVER.

April 4, 2005

And The Winner Is…

Well, the little contest of “Guess What’s In My SysTray” is over. Didn’t get quite as much attention as I hoped it would, but for those that did participate, they sure gave it a good shot. Since no one guessed every item and not all items were guessed, I’ve decided to award the prize of a free Gmail account to the two people who contributed the most – Raena Armitage and Merlin. Congratulations you two!

April 1, 2005

Best April Fool’s 2005

Google Gulp - Google's 2005 April Fool's Joke Been buried in work for the past few weeks and I didn’t even really get to scan the web for any good April Fool’s Day gags, but thankfully my friend Renee Roberts, over at SacPUG brought one to my attention. Seem’s Goggle, did one on a fictitious drink for “surfing the web” called “Google Gulp“. Pretty funny if you take the time to read it. My favorite part is when they poke fun at themselves when they talk about “How To Get Gulped.”

How to get Gulped?
You can pick up your own supply of this “limited release” product simply by turning in a used Gulp Cap at your local grocery store. How to get a Gulp Cap? Well, if you know someone who’s already been “gulped,” they can give you one. And if you don’t know anyone who can give you one, don’t worry – that just means you aren’t cool. But very, very (very!) soon, you will be.

Although it’s funny at face value, what makes it so priceless is that they did a FAQ , a Product History, not to mention details regarding the 4 Great Flavors too. Kudos to Google for doing such a fantastic job. In the immortal words of the Visa commercials, “Priceless”.

Oh and in a final note, as of this posting, it’s still not to late to get your Magic Supersecret Anagram T-Shirt!

Month / April 2005