Is G-Mail good?

Got the following question from my Dad, and figured a reply was worth posting here.

Tom
As I recall you were beta tester for G-Mail. Is it any good? Should Mom and I sign up? IF it is free, how do they make money?
I got an invitation from them this weekend.
Dad

I've had an account on Google's g-mail since their early beta testing last year. To be honest I haven't used it very much, as it's yet another place I have to check for new messages.

What I have seen doesn't seem that particularly better than Yahoo's free mail service. Google does have a larger mail box, 1000 MB vs Yahoo's 250 MB. But Yahoo has more integrated services, like calendar, groups, virus scanning, etc.

At this point I wouldn't make any particular recommendation one way or the other for Yahoo vs G-mail, unless you're trying to protect a particular user name.

These days I'm using Mozilla's Thunderbird, for most of my e-mail and Yahoo as a secondary.

If I decide at some point that I don't like Mozilla's Thunderbird, I may direct more of my soot-n-smoke.com e-mail to g-mail and give it a better testing.

As for how does g-mail make money, the short term answer is they sold a whole bunch of stock last year. The longer term answer is that they will probably sell search keyed advertising when you search your e-mail. I suspect that they'll also offer various premium services much like yahoo does.

Microsoft in decline.

Ever since my visit to Comdex in 1999, I've noted that the buzz / feel / smell around Linux and the open source movement is very reminiscent of the early days of Microsoft and Windows [circa 1985]. Evidently I'm not the only industry watcher that seems to think that Microsoft isn't doing as well as it once was. I tend to agree with Michael Malone's recent article that there is a faint smell of rot about MS. I see definite similarities between where Microsoft and Longhorn are today with where IBM was in 1987 with it's ill-fated attempt at industry remonoplization, the PS/2 and Micro-Channel Architecture.

If nothing else Big Bad Bill and company have lost the coolness that is the hallmark of the up and coming in the tech world. The real innovation is not in OS upgrades, security patches and the pathetic myth that is digital rights management. [Does anyone else remember copy protected software flop of the 1980s?]

Cool today are Slashdot, Google, Mozilla/Firefox LAMP and the blogosphere.

Sorry for the lack of posts.

It's been a busy couple of weeks getting the Cascade Vaulters ready for our first public event. Which hasn't left much time to blog.
There have been many things that I've wanted to post about but never seem to have enough time. Things like: Installing a new stereo in my jeep.; Dog Sitting; CD-R Drive dead?; and my comments on a host of technology news items.

Hard Core Programming

I spent most of Friday and Saturday cranking out code for the FAQ page I mentioned in my last post. I ported it to other parts of my web site, but there are still some essential features to implement before I can release it. It is the first serious database / software project I've done since beginning this blog. It felt really good to spend the better part of two days hunkered down and hacking out code. It's nice to know that the skills are still there, even though I haven't been using them much over the past couple of years. And the experience makes me think I should spend some more time trying to find a job where I can do this professionally again.

Database driven FAQ page

I have created a database driven FAQ page for the Cascade Vaulters web site. I'm planning to make it portable to most websites running PHP & MySQL. This project is the first in a series working toward RaceWriter.

RaceWriter

While I was down in LA, I worked with my Dad to make some improvements to his web site. I taught him how to use a Cascading Style Sheet (.css) file to give his pages a little better look and feel. I also tried again to get him to start using Blogger as his main publishing tool, but too much of his site is non-liner / non-chronological. [The over all navigation is a mess.]
On the way back to Seattle, I conceptualized a new blogging tool specialized for runners, like my Dad. The result is a new web project that I'm working on, RaceWriter.

Back In Bellevue

Arrived home safely at 5:40. Traffic from Salem north
was heavy but moving.
I found out from my housemate that the recycling truck
knocked down the cable connection again. So no
Internet until Monday.

Around The Snow

After sleeping in Eureka, got a good start about six
AM. Stopped in Crescent City for gas just as it was
getting light. Found about two miles of slushy snow
near the OR state line. Rest of drive has been
uneventful, with light rain. ETA 1800

Made It To Eureka

Left LA about 1045. Drive so far has been uneventful,
except for a little light rain.
Expect to get about eight hours of sleep then back on
the road. Should get to Crescent City about first
light.

Heading back to WA via cost route

I'm headed back to western Washington via the coastal route due to snow forecast for the Siskiyous. Will be heading up I-5, then out to US-101 near the SF Bay area. Will overnight in Eureka. I plan to get an early start Sunday getting to Crescent City about first light, then over to Grant's Pass, OR hopefully before the snow level drops below the pass level.

TSOed

Last night I went to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA, with my Mom and my niece. Was a wonderful performance. I especially liked the electric violin, keyboards and the special effects (lasers pyrotechnics, etc.). The ending / encore was truly amazing.
The audience was overly sedate, given the amount of heavy metal / rock concert look and feel that the show had. I've seen more animated audiences at philharmonic performances back east.
After the performance we managed to briefly hook up with Michael Lanning, a long time friend of my Mom's, and got to visit a little back stage.
If you like classical music and/or heavy metal, I would highly recommend catching a the when it comes to your city.

Showing off how I post blog Entries

Spent much time today working on my parent's computers and their web site.

In LA For Christmas

Arrived in Glendale about 4:30 this afternoon. Very soon after I got to my parent's condo, we headed out to my brothers place for dinner with Ed, Laura, Nicole & Jack.



After dinner we hung out at their house until Jack's bed time.

On the Way to LA

Left Bellevue about 1100. Made it to Redding in just
under twelve hours, including stops for food, fuel,
etc.
ETA 1800ish

Tom & The Trencher

Here's a photo that my housemate(s) took this past summer as we were replacing the drain pipe that runs along side the driveway.



I like working with big tools!

No good deed goes unpunished

Toady I was informed, in a somewhat formal meeting with my supervisor, that my initiative to develop and deploy an open source barcoding tool for my co-workers to use has been rejected because our legal department is fearful about using software that is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License. This despite the facts that: 1) Another division of our company (like many other companies) manufactures and distributes a Tivo which includes many software components covered by the exact same license and even the more restrictive GNU General Public License. And 2) that our upper management has historically been strong supporters of open standards such as the compact disk and the universal serial bus. Oh well, this in and of itself is simply an example of the old adage that the quickest way to kill a good initiative, is to consult the legal department.
As if simple rejection weren't enough punishment, I was also informed that my web site included or contained inappropriate "self promotion" using the {Employer’s Name Removed} name [and/or trademarks?]. While parts of my web site, including TomS Barcode Bonanza, are blatant self-promotion, I thought that my referential use of the {Employer’s Name Removed} name was typically editorial in nature. And I certainly haven't tried to pass my self off an official spokesman for {Employer’s Name Removed}. I've even tried to link to official {Employer’s Name Removed} sites for those who are looking for that kind of information and stumbled across my site instead.
For the most part I've been proud to be an employee of {Employer’s Name Removed}. So I am somewhat disheartened, that I feel I need to censor my web site to keep from offending my employer. So in the coming weeks, I will be updating various past posts to my blog and other pages to reflect this paranoia.

Been Busy !!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

Big news items are:

• The vaulting team has been trying horses.


• I've been helping my housemate rewire the bathroom.


• I got and have been setting up a Linux box.


• We been in the big christmas push at the toothbrush factory.

Hope to write more soon, but I won't make any promisas.

Real Postcards from Online!

I found this cool service through the USPS website. I was able to upload a photo I took with my digital camera compose a message, have it all printed and sent to 10 recipients for under $5. Assuming that the printed quality turns out to be reasonable, this looks like a good deal and a great way to earn brownie points with that Grandma that doesn't do e-mail.

Barcode Bonanza

This evening I whipped of a barcode generator application for my web site. This was my first public PHP project. The more I use PHP the more I like it. At some point I want to learn how to generate PDF files with PHP.

Vaulting Photos

In case you missed it, I posted a couple of cute photos from the Devonwood Vaulting Harvest Fest on the Cascade Vaulters' blog / public web site.