Why I [heart] Gmail... and the dire consequences that follow!

This is a two-sided entry, in that I'm going to attempt to explain my love for a particular Google email product while tempering that with some respectful fear of the juggernaut that is Google.

As some folks may be aware I used to be a die hard user of Microsoft Outlook for all my PIM and email activities. I didn't use is so much because I thought it was the best, but it was something I used on a daily basis at work, and I wasn't paying much for it either. Familiarity does have its privilege, and it made me a more efficient user at work as well. Outlook was (and still can be) a good option for many folks wanting to achieve a higher level of organization in their life, but only with hard work and a higher understanding of where your own strengths and efficiencies lay. Without extensive tweaking, Outlook sucks right out of the box, and always has. The Power, as with most Microsoft Office products, lies in the flexibility of the software. If you don't take the time to mold it to your needs first, you are really wasting a couple hundred dollars. There have been many Add-Ins devised for Outlook to make the jump to a higher level of productivity easier, but I became aware of them long after I had already made my own similar modifications for use at work. Oops!

When Gmail (still in Beta to this day) came along, like many other local email clients, Google refined the interface to allow more organization. The best part was that it was a web app, so you could access the same information almost anywhere. It literally puts any other POP-based email from your ISP to shame, and still takes the cake compared to the cluttered (and usually advertising laced) competition from most other webmail hosts.

The most powerful of Gmail's features are Filters. Using filters you can let the service sort your email for you, assigning labels, forwarding or replying, even deleting incoming email as you decide necessary. Some folks adhere to a task-based form of email sorting called Inbox-Zero, which makes use of deleting or archiving email you don't need in front of you anymore to do whatever job you are doing. Gmail does this exceedingly well. I don't follow these rules quite so vigorously, but I do archive (after labelling) any advertising to remove it from my inbox view. This keeps all of my inbox email limited to purchase transactions, voicemail alerts, and personal corespondence.

Another handy feature of Gmail is the ability to use "aliases". You can add extra text in the middle of your Gmail address to differentiate it for different purposes or senders. Check here for an example. I use "+voicemail" to let the filters know to label voicemail alerts appropriately, and "+shopalerts" for alerts from Dealnews and Pricegrabber.

The latest set of features is an expansion of the Google Labs concept, but for Gmail exclusively. Gmail Labs givs you access to potential Gmail features which may or may not make it into Gmail on a "permanent" basis later on. The ones I make use of rearrange the interface to make my most used functions more available. I move the labels above the contacts, set the reply button to default to reply-to-all, and add a Mark-as-Read button on the toolbar.

As with any "productivity" tool, a lot of the tool's strength lies in its ability to integrate with other applications. Google has made Gmail a central player in their "suite" of tools, making it a conduit for their Calendar, Apps, and Groups applications, and fully integrating Google Talk (now with AOL IM) into the interface as well.

And now for the dark side: Yes, Google has me. I share everything with them. And everything you share with me is then, by extension, shared with them as well. They are my Big Brother, but for the moment I am happy to play guinea pig if it means they can continue to make better tools and widgets to make my life easier. Thanks Google.

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Sunday Morning Musings

I've been working long hours lately, getting to work some time around 6:00am so I can leave at an early enough hour to enjoy the company of my family. This has somehow been accomplished without the help of an alarm clock. I'm really not sure how I managed to do it, but I like that I can get up early in the morning without disturbing anyone else in the house with blaring noises.

That leads me to this morning. I'm up with nowhere to go, so I figured I would use the opportunity to write a little.

I'd like to lay out some of my thoughts on living with a burgeoning writer. I have always enjoyed writing, but haven't felt much need for an outlet for it until Allison came along. She and her friend Chris, whom I am happy to claim as my own friend too, have helped me realize more of my own enthusiasm for writing than I knew I had. This has led me to find new uses for tools like Remember The Milk. I have a list, which you can find in the kEnny's Tasks section of the sidebar, to show future topics I might write about. I really love that I can simply add something to that list whenever I feel inspired, then pick up that train of thought when I have time later.

I'm learning that living with a writer has its own challenges. Allison needs more time to herself, just like anyone with a "real" job might need to travel to their place of work to actually grind through the particular chores of their occupation. For her to write at home, this comes in the form of some isolation from the frenzy currently defining our children (and probably myself as well). She will find it easier to have a chunk of time during the day to work once the kids are both in school, which she might be looking forward to just a bit. The nice thing is that she has a wide selection of mood music to choose from and a nice place from which to write, with a fairly large workspace and a big window close by. I don't think she would have been able to throw herself into it nearly as much if we (that should really be she, but I did try to help a little) hadn't kept an eye out for her workspace since we moved into the new house.

Her excitement has been rather infectious, and I'm really glad to have been a part of it.

-I should also add at this point that I love the dawning of the new day. I've written the previous words in the last forty minutes, and just noticed that I can see the light starting to fill the sky. One of my favorite morning-time memories is from about ten years ago. The cubicle I occupied at the time, with my current employer, was on the fourth floor on the eastern side of the eastern building of the campus. This put us up above most of the trees for a good distance at the time. The spectacular thing that made the memory special was the way everything above the level of the cubicle walls was lit in golden brilliance as the sun came up. Just sitting in my cube during sunrise, I could see the air shimmering over my head. Really amazing stuff!-

Thanks for letting me share!

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Alien probe alert!

Does this really work?

I'm attempting to use Word 2007 to write and post this blog entry. I'm a bit skeptical, in part because it feels a bit blasphemous. I've been a big fan of using Flock for this task, but now that I've got a moment to try it out I have to admit I'm a little excited to see how it does.

E-Tools that have me hexed, and some that don't.

This is more of a feedback entry than introducing anything new, and for that I apologize. There are a number of my regular tools whose usage has changed and their operation (or lack of) should be noted.

Where to begin... Twitter has been all over the place, functionally speaking. I've recommended it's use to a number of people, both as an organizational aide and for fun, and for about half of those instances there has been something bad going on over at Twitter. I'm happy to say that overall, they seem to have gotten it together, but it hasn't been without some loss of functionality elsewhere. One of those losses has been my twitter sidebar gadget (formerly on the right). Since the gadget doesn't work at the moment, and I don't seem to be able to capture the RSS feed, I decided to remove it for now. I'm keeping it on my mobile blog, if only for the link it still provides.

I have been a little "mixed bag" about Flock's most recent beta (you know, probably because it is a beta!). One of it's downfalls for me has been the (hopefully temporary) loss of keystroke access to the blog editor. The new security features inherited from Firefox have been a pain to deal with, but I can see their necessity.

One good note is that where I had previously been unable to use Flock's blog editor without trouble from the Flock Blog Plus add-on, I'm not having that problem any more.

Google's Send to Phone add-on for Firefox has been retired. I've come up with a substitute of sorts, by borrowing from the clues left by Flock when sharing a link via webmail. I now have a bookmark to open Gmail's Compose Message page, with the To: address filled in with my phone's SMS address. This works almost as good, as Send to Phone did.

***

In my last big post, discussing event organizing, somebody left a comment saying how great their product was. I thought I'd try it out. After reading up on it a little, I made an account for myself and attempted to login, but it didn't work. To make matters worse, there was no password recovery/reset tool either. So much for being able to recommend it.

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Really. What the heck IS happening here?

I've been very busy elsewhere this last month, so one might be asking just that question.  It hasn't been for lack of topics to write about.  My lack of correspondence may be partially related to the staggering number of things upon which I wanted to air my opinions, but things have been busy as well.  The most Headline-able event was that Allison's hard work at the keyboard has taken a big leap toward her (dare I say?) dreams.  She was just recently notified of her selection to have a piece of her's included in a compilation of short stories to be published soon!  I am so very proud of her, and consider myself lucky to discuss her work with her during the fun stages (before she has to actually make a story out of it).

I am going to try to make a better effort to keep my own content updated on a more regular basis, even if it is only for the fact that this is rather theraputic.

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