mashby

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:

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.

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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. 🙂

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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.

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The start of every new year makes us think of making a fresh start on various things in our lives. Perhaps you want to start a new diet, or maybe get a fresh start on your personal finances. Whatever the case, it’s this time of year that most people consider, and more importantly take on, getting a fresh start on things. Since I provide informal tech support for my friends and family, I thought it might be helpful if I published a “Top 10” list of do’s and don’ts on how to keep your computer running smoothly. My hope is that you’ll take this list to heart and implement these 10 steps as part of your New Year’s Resolutions. If you do, I assure you that you’ll be glad that you did.

Even if you have an IT department at work, most of us are on our own when it comes to managing our personal computers at home. There’s not a person with a PC I met this holiday season that didn’t say something negative about their personal computer. The most common complain is that it’s running slow. There’s a number of factors that contribute to the overall speed of your machine, but following the items on this list can go a long way in making sure that your PC is running as optimally as possible. So without any further ado…

Top 10 Things You Can Do To Keep Your Computer Running Smoothly

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I was very excited when I received my new pa1m0ne T3 in the mail several months ago. At that time I was all a twitter regarding Bluetooth and was thrilled that the T3 represented the final piece of the puzzle. I had the BT phone (SonyErricsson T608), a BT headset (Jabra FreeSpeak 200) and now a BT handheld. Unfortunately, what I expected to be the cornerstone of my new BT personal area network, turned out to be it’s biggest weakness.
I’ve been a Palm OS user since 1997 and my PDA is an integral part of my personal and business life. I use it for just about everything I do. Address Book, Date Book, project planning, keeping track of all my many passwords and logins, recipes, photos, videos, managing my money, e-mail and even playing games. To say that I’m a rabid user is an understatement. If I forget my Palm at home before heading to a client site it’s as if my right hand is missing.

Prior to upgrading to the pa1m0ne Tungsten T3, I was using the pa1m0ne Tungsten C which I liked quite a lot. It wasn’t perfect, but the built-in Wi-Fi rocked. By using the Enterprise Edition of SnapperMail, I could manage all 15 of my e-mail accounts easily and quickly. The battery life was excellent, especially considering the power consumption of the wireless adapter. The screen was sharp and bright and I really liked using the device.

Yet, like I said it wasn’t perfect. The integrated keyboard was handy, but I missed using Graffiti for some things. In an ideal world, I would have both, but pa1m0ne hasn’t released an uber device that features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Graffiti and a built-in keyboard yet. Technically I can do on-screen graffiti, but I miss the dedicated graffiti area and I’ve found trying to fill in a form directly a little cumbersome. I also didn’t like the fact that the headset jack was mono. Supposedly this was for some kind of VoIP application that never became a reality. Instead of headphones, you use a mono mobile phone headset which is less than ideal for listening to MP3 or video files. I can do both of course with the device, but I don’t because of the poor audio quality.

When the T3 came out, it seemed like a good upgrade. I would get graffiti back (and thanks to Mike Rohde’s help a way to get Graffiti 1 reinstalled on the device) and complete my Bluetooth PAN (personal area network). For years I dreamed of being able to look up a number on my Palm and then have it dial my phone. A WiFi card was in the works at the time too, so in the end the only thing I would lose would be the integrated keyboard. I use the AlphaSmart Dana for heavy typing (like this entry) and I could always get a Stowaway Keyboard, if I had to. All-in-all it seemed like a win-win situation.

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On Monday pa1m0ne released their latest device, the Tungsten T5, and as I looked over the details I had a sudden strange thought. A la Carrie Bradshaw, I couldn’t help but wonder, have handhelds “jumped the shark?”
In case you’re not familiar with the term, “jumping the shark” refers to an episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie performs a water ski jump over a shark tank. That became the definitive episode which marked the beginning of the end for the popular television show. So, to put in another way, I guess what I’m asking is, do you think that handhelds have become passe?
I have to ask this question, because I’m simply too close to be objective. Since 1997, I’ve been a vocal evangelist for Palm OS handhelds having started the Kansas City Palm Users Group and the Nashville Palm Users Group, which is about to celebrate it’s 5th Birthday. I’ve also been active with InterPUG, the Palm OS User Council, not to mention countless online communities. My consulting firm has been involved with training, public speaking and even writing custom software for Palm OS and I’m now getting involved with a radio show on the subject.

With all of this involvement with Palm OS, you’d think that I would be the last one to suggest that handhelds are no longer relevant, but I think that’s what I find so shocking. If I’M thinking it, then perhaps the shark was jumped a long time ago. With my love affair being so strong, perhaps I’m the jilted lover and as such, I’m the last to know? So I need you to “give it to me straight” and tell me the truth.

My hope is that it’s just me. After eight years of involvement with Palm OS, I may be jaded. There’s very little out there that surprises me, having seen all that Palm OS can do (and it can do A LOT), so maybe I’ve become numb to handhelds in some way. When I first became involved with the operating system it was new and exciting, but like any relationship, things mellow and become familiar. Am I simply longing for the “new” for the sake of being new as Mike Rohde suggested, or has Palm OS simply run it’s course?

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Voice Over IP, otherwise known as VoIP is nothing really new. It’s been talked about and hyped for years now; however like other technologies such as Bluetooth, it’s never really appeared in wide release and reached a mass market appeal. If you’re not familar with just what VoIP is, in a nutshell it’s when you use a data network for voice. Instead of using a telephone (a voice network), you use a data network, such as the Internet. Why would you want to do that? Well the biggest reason is price. If you use your Internet connection, which is typically a flat-rate monthly fee, then you don’t have to pay for long distance charges.
If the idea of not having to pay for long distance charges appeals to you, you may be wondering why there aren’t more VoIP products out there on the market, or maybe why you haven’t even heard of it. The biggest hurdle is that it’s a new technology and thus there aren’t a lot of elegent solutions that are easy to use “out-of-the-box”. The only instances that I’m aware of where VoIP technolgies have been implemented consistentaly and successfully are with large corporations.

Here’s a typical example, a company has an office in the States and an office in Singapore. The company establishes a data connection between the two offices so that for all intents and purposes they are on the same network. So even though there’s servers in the US and Singapore, they appear to be side-by-side. With their networks in place, they then add VoIP technologies to the mix so that the two offices can communicate between each other over their data network. The end result is that the system works no differently than a regular voice call. The end user doesn’t notice any difference in the quality, or overall experience. Only the one cutting the checks sees the cost savings and in this scenario it’s usually well worth it. 🙂

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