12:17 by FoxTwo
Offline Gmail - What Is The Point?
Image via CrunchBase
In the old days, we wanted to do our mails offline because the cost of Internet connection was high - many places charge by either the amount of data downloaded or the amount of time you spent online. The more you use, the more you pay. Hence, it made sense to download all your mails quickly, reply them offline at leisure, connect again and send your replies quickly.
Compare that to today's age of broadband - everyone's "always on", and it makes very little difference how long they spend online get their email. Many people no longer are on the pay-by-amount-of-data plans. Most ISPs offer "unlimited connections" or close to it.
So, when I came across this article - "Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Offline Gmail", I was wondering, has everything come full circle? Do people now want a way to read their mail offline, again?
Now Gmail is offering an "offline" function to assist people with "spotty network connections". To do that, you need to install a small bit of software from Google to allow it to detect the state of network connection on your computer.
I find this redundant because we already have software that can do the same thing for years upon years. Heck, you may even know it, because one of them is called "Outlook". Yes, Outlook (like most other email software) can download your mail to your PC and let you read and reply at your leisure! Amazing isn't it?
Not only can Outlook do it, so can Thunderbird, or Pegasus, or whatever. Just go to any software library site like CNet's Download.com, Softpedia, or Tucows and do a search on them. You will find a whole slew of them!
If you use IMAP on these email software, you are simulating the web-based experience only via a new GUI - your email software's. Everything you do when on an IMAP connection is real-time, just as if you're on the actual web page.
All these email software will download your mail by using a protocol called POP3. That is the traditional method. This is also the method that Google is mimicking to download a copy to your local PC.
Personally I've always used an email software, even if I may be using a web-based mail service. The advantage is, all my email accounts from the various services are contained within ONE software. For example, in Thunderbird, I can configure a mix of POP3 and IMAP services as I please, depending on how I wanted to get my mails. I am sure it will be the same in Outlook or whatever other modern email software that you do decide to use.
The caveat is - if your primary email service is HOTMAIL, you may have no choice but to use the latest versions of Outlook. Only MS Outlook can download emails from your Hotmail account.
Since this entry is talking about Gmail, you can relax. Google has wisely allowed both POP3 and IMAP protocols to be activated on your account, so you can easily configure an email software to access your Gmail emails via either protocols.
So I'm still puzzled - why's everyone going gaga over this "feature"? I've had it for YEARS :)
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Labels: email, Google, internet
16:57 by FoxTwo
Death To The Google Sorry Page!
In the early part of the week, I was cut off by Google from accessing 2 of my blogs. I kept getting the damned "Google Sorry Page". At first, like everyone else, we thought it was a temporary problem. Common ways to resolve the "Sorry Page" problem was to use a different browser, clearing cookies, clearing cache, etc. However, it seems that this time Google has it in for us. All these measures did not work. I even made sure to disconnect from Starhub and reconnect with a new IP address. Same thing, no go. Google still showed the "Sorry Page".
Ok before we go further, this is the "Sorry Page" I'm talking about:
Yeah it was driving me nuts since I couldn't access my blog to do maintenance or reply comments. I kept hoping it would be a temporary problem and it would go away. It never did. Even up to today, I still see people twittering about this. A very good example is shown below:
All my blogs were hit except this one. The only difference? This one's self-hosted, ie not stored on Google's free blogspot.com servers.
It was VERY fortunate though, that the 2 blogs that were hit, had already had the default Blogger commenting system replaced with the more powerful Intense Debate and Disqus ones. Thus, I could still reply to their comments via email. In the case of Disqus-powered commenting system, I could even head to the Disqus website and reply to the comments from there if I wanted to.
So I set about converting my blogs from the nifty Layouts format to Blogger Classic templates, so that I can publish them to my own server, away from Google's reach. I succeeded early on in the week with my fitness blog. I was lucky - I found the same exact template which I used, all ready and waiting to be used as a classic template. That one was fast.
However, there wasn't any classic version of my gaming blog template, so I attempted to manually convert the template by hand into a Blogger Classic template. After 3 failed attempts, I gave up. I have no clue why they failed - the CSS was left mostly intact, yet it looked haywire upon previewing. After having wasted 3 days trying to hand-code the XML template into a HTML one, I gave up and thought seriously about finally moving away from Blogger platform. I was deciding between Drupal and Expression Engine but the theme I used was not available on those platforms. Thus my decision was primarily forced by the need to use the same theme, and to get it working FAST. So Wordpress became de facto platform of choice.
Long story short, it was only today that I completed the migration of my gaming blog to Wordpress. I only used Wordpress due to convenience, not because it's a "all powerful" system. The migration had numerous hiccups, and even their much-vaunted import functions FAILED. Utterly. Wordpress forums were no help. Everyone just said "it SHOULD work!". Yeah it should, but it didn't.
Wordpress was, and still is, very finicky with some themes and javascript not playing nice together, so even though you might like a theme, you can't use it because of some javascripts that you're running. Even worse, some themes look fine on one browser but sucky on another. I know Wordpress die hard supporters will not like me saying this but it's true - Wordpress is almost as good (or "bad") as Blogger.com. The only difference is that Wordpress runs on a server out of Google's reach, which solves my current problem.
I do not have a problem with Blogger platform, just Google blocking me from accessing my blogs. I also do not have have a problem with Wordpress as a blogging platform, just the Wordpress fanbois. I can use either, and I am happy to say that I like (or hate) both equally. None is "superior" to the other in my opinion and usage. No wait, I take it back. Blogger has an edge - I can write 3 blogs from one Dashboard even if the blogs are all self-hosted and externally published. With self-hosted Wordpress, 1 blog per installation please, thank you (without using WPMU and having to muck around with Apache settings and such).
So, now that I've finished addressing my more immediate concerns, ie getting the blogs OUT from blogspot.com servers and onto my own, I can slowly concentrate on perhaps, migrating them completely out from Blogger and onto other platforms. Perhaps I will revisit Drupal, or try out Chyrp. One thing's for sure - the CMS system that I pick to migrate THIS blog to, will need to have this theme readily available and useable.
Now, with Intense Debate or Disqus as my choice of a commenting system, I wouldn't even mind trying out other CMS systems and see if they would be a better, or at least, more interesting choice, than Wordpress. After all, ID or Disqus can be used with any sort of web site, even if commenting systems were not originally available on them!
Labels: Google, internet, Rant
13:51 by FoxTwo
Goodbye Streetdirectory.com, Hello Google Maps
Yes, by now most Singaporeans would have known about Streetdirectory.com shutting down due to their lawsuit with SLA (Singapore Land Authority).
Many Singaporeans actually depend on this free service, truth to tell. When someone organises a ping.sg gathering at some far-flung corners of Singapore, we'd all head to streetdirectory.com to see how we can get there in one piece. When you get a job in a remote corner in Singapore, you'd head there to see how to get there before your boss screams at you for being late at the customer's location.
However, some of the basic functions can be found in an alternative - Google Maps! The basic stuff like searching for a road name like "Bedok North" will zoom you onto Singapore, since "bedok" is definitely indigenous to Singapore. However, if you're going to search for, say, "Smith Street", it's advisable to include ", Singapore" in your search query to get the right location.
Google Maps also has a mobile version, which I've already downloaded to my phone months ago. In fact I wrote about it here, back in October 2007. Since then I've been using Google Maps when I'm on the move and needed to find a location. In fact I have never loaded up Streetdirectory.com at all when on the move. To me, it feels like Google Maps work faster for mobiles, so I've stuck with it.
So, until Streetdirectory.com comes back up again with new, non-infringing maps, turn to Google as a filler. :)
edit:
Alternative 2 - Can.com.sg (thanks to Wishbone)
Alternative 3 - e-route planner (thanks to joshua)
Labels: Google, Google Maps, internet, street directory
00:06 by FoxTwo
100 Free Email Accounts For Your Domain!
Well, I just found something really useful today and thought I'd share it with everyone.
First of all, I am sure that for many of us who have registered their own domain, we usually get ONE measely "free" email address that is named for the domain we purchased. In some cases, may be 5, or 20. Or, in worst case scenarios, none.
Well when I registered mine, I only got one free one. It was a no-brainer to create the email address. However, most "professional" sites have email addresses like "support@domain.com" and "sales@domain.com" etc for different purposes. Assuming you registered your domain for a business goal, having just one "free" email probably wouldn't suit your business, and you would probably already have paid a small fee to "upgrade" your plan so that you can get more email addresses to run your business.
Today, I ran across Google Apps. Ok, with a name like that, it's nothing to shout about. Google Apps is a web-based office productivity suite, kinda like Microsoft Office On The Web. Yes you get the usual Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Pages and all that jazz. However, what drew me to it was the fact that the "standard" edition, ie FREE edition, already allows you to create up to 100 free email accounts, and they can be named for your domain! Not only that, each of these email account is a Gmail clone - ie you get 4GB (and counting) storage for your email PER ACCOUNT. FREE! If you went ahead and created 100 accounts, you'd have 400GBs of storage for your email.. wow! For a small business, I doubt anyone would need more than 50. Oh did I mention they are POP and IMAP capable too? Would probably fit right in to most organisations.
In any case, I wasted no time in signing up, and configuring Google Apps for a few more email addresses to my domain. Instructions provided by Google Apps are easy for guiding you to create DNS entries or to point them to Google so that your brand-spanking-new email addresses are ready to accept email.
No I'm not making any money off this, and there's no "referral link". Just something really cool that I'd like to share with you guys.
Labels: domain, email, Google, internet
16:48 by FoxTwo
Lost? Let Google Maps Help You!
Some years back, I was just thinking to myself, how nice it'd be to be able to carry a Street Directory in my Palm (back then a Palm 3e, upgraded to a Palm Zire 71, then now a Palm Tx). At the time, street directories were still print-media only. It wasn't until about 2005 or so that they started coming with CDs with digital versions of the maps.
At the time, I remember that I'd happily install the digital maps, run a conversion software and made them into PalmOS versions, and then copy them over to my Palm. It was SOOOOooOooO handy!
Now, Google Maps has appeared! Now, we get REAL-TIME updates (needs an internet connection)!
Yeah there's a Palm version available too, but I don't see how useful that would be on a non-smartphone Palm device like a TX. Basically you load up the software, it'll query Google for your maps. For a non-smartphone Palm device to do that, you need an alternate internet connection. However you can still jury-rig up a connection with your mobile phone with the Palm TX if you know how (I'll probably update this in my Palm section of this website). Otherwise, for those with a TX, you need to look for a wi-fi spot to use the maps.
However, Google also offers the same software for other platforms too, and I proved it by downloading it onto my Sony Ericsson K810i phone. It runs without a hitch and it's pretty dang fast. Word of warning though - any internet connection via GPRS or WAP is going to cost you data charges. If you do not have a data plan with your phone service provider, you will be running up the bills quite fast.
So, if you do have a data plan, go ahead and download it here. The PalmOS version is here.
Labels: Google, Google Maps, maps, real-time, street directory
