PJB » rave

How to stop sending email you’ll later regret – These 4 simple steps

PJ — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:05:16 +0000

Have you ever sent an email only to realize later on that you shouldn’t have sent it at all? These things usually happen when you’re sending mail at the heat of your emotions, or when you’re sleepy, or funnier but plausible still, when you’re drunk!

It kind of makes you wish you have a Microsoft Exchange server which gives you the ability to “recall” your mail, which is a reactive solution.

But if you want things done proactively, then here’s yet another reason to use Google mail or Gmail. They’ve added a new application tool in their arsenal, called Mail Goggles, that proactively tries to prevent you from making that email blunder.

When enabled, Mail Goggles will make you solve a couple of math problems after you click “send” to make sure that you’re sober or at least in the right state of mind.

But what if you’re “mathematically challenged” you say? The good news is you can set the difficulty level to suit you, the bad news is it won’t go any lower than 1. Well, tough luck, you might as well let another person do the mailing for you then. Kidding aside, this is one neat tool that can save you from humiliation.

Just follow these 4 simple steps to enable Mail Goggles in Gmail:

Click “Settings” in the upper right corner of the Gmail window.
Click on the “Labs” tab of the Settings page.
Scroll down the Labs section until you see the “Mail Goggles” feature and select “Enable”.
Scroll down to the bottom part of the Labs section and click on the “Save Changes” button.

By default, Mail Goggles is only active on weekends (Friday and Saturday) from 10PM to 4AM, since this is the time when you’ll most likely need it (after partying hard). Once enabled, you can adjust its settings by going to the Gmail General Settings tab.

Once everything’s done, you won’t have to worry about inadvertently sending that hate letter to your boss, or that private, steamy love letter to your entire address book.

Now if only they had text or sms goggles. :)

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Browse the web the Google Chrome way

PJ — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:31:13 +0000

Google recently released the beta version of their new web browser named Google Chrome.

I installed it a few hours ago and found its features to be excellent, in terms of security, ease of use and performance! It looks like the Google guys have another hit in their hands!

The problem is now I can’t decide which browser to use, Firefox or Google Chrome. :)

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Related Reading:
Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Use Google Public DNS and/or OpenDNS to speed up internet access

Google lifts its invitation-only gmail account restriction

PJ — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 14:08:00 +0000

I recently blogged about Google’s Google Book Project. Now get this, Google finally opened up Gmail to new comers just few hours ago. They finally decided to drop its ‘invitation-only’ restriction.

Gmail, which is now the 3rd largest email hosting company, currently has approximately 60 million users. And with the existing 2.8GB (and growing) mailbox capacity, powerful email search capability, and its tight integration with different, extremely useful Google apps, such as Google Talk, it will definitely keep its main competitors, namely MSN’s Hotmail (approx. 236 million users) and Yahoo! Mail (approx. 246 million users) on their toes.

You can take a gander at what the impact will be for us ‘netizens’. This will most likely mean an improvement in the overall global webmail service offering. Which spells good news for us!

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Sources:
People’s Daily Online
The Register

Use Google Public DNS and/or OpenDNS to speed up internet access

The Google book project

PJ — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:34:00 +0000

This is something very interesting. Google is working on a platform that would allow users to easily download the entire content of books in a format that could be read on mobile devices. This will be part of the Google Books Library Project. This is somewhat modeled after Apple’s iPod product. Google will be doing for books what Apple has done for music.

This “virtual library” seems like a great idea to me, a consumer. I’m not much into collecting music (.mp3′s and whatnot) even though I am a music lover (I can play a mean guitar – in my own right, ha!). But the bookworm (bookshark?) in me would most definitely love the idea of being able to carry a few e-books here and there in one small device instead of having to lug around bulky tomes.

Imagine this:

- You’re traveling and got stranded in an airport because of a storm coming in. Flights are canceled or postponed. So what do you do to while away the time? You pop out your Google Reader “thingy” and, oh what luck, you’ve stored your favorite books and are able to catch up on your reading.

- You’re a tourist. You’ll be traveling to a country you’ve never been to before. So how can the Google Reader “thingy” help you? Well, you could download and store almanacs, tourist books, translation dictionaries, phone directories, and maps of the place you intend to visit. Now tell me this isn’t handy.

That’s one side of the story, taken from the point of view of a consumer. But how would publishers, and authors react? I believe that one of the key success factors for this product is a collaboration between Google and publishers. If Apple was able to do it with record companies and artists, I don’t see why Google can’t do the same.
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References:
Technology News
Times Online
CNet News

Use Google Public DNS and/or OpenDNS to speed up internet access