OK, I give up.
I will continue to use Microsoft Entourage as my main email client. I can find no reasonable way to move out of Entourage / Hotmail to Gmail. Or anything else.
One of the many reasons I hate Microsoft is their kind of proprietary, closed, anti-user behaviour.
DEATH TO MICROSOFT.
Still, my preferred email is RickMcCharles AT gmail.com
A longtime user of Hotmail, enough is enough.
Though I have several (confusing) kinds of filters on it, stupidly obvious SPAM still gets through. Microsoft Hotmail which I read via Microsoft Entourage has made no improvement on SPAM filtering ever, so far as I can tell.
Hence forth, I will be checking my Gmail address first RickMcCharles AT Gmail DOT com. So mail to my Gmail address if you want first response.
The spam in Gmail is also the subject of a promotional video that encourages to use Gmail if you want to “get back your time”.
Life is a continuum. Each morning you awake assuming it is your last. There is no difference between Dec. 31st and Jan 1st to me.
But a young buddy pressed for some sort of pronouncement to mark the changing of the calendar. (I eschew resolutions so as not to tinker with perfection.)
Spontaneously I predicted that Rick McCharles would listen to even more audiocasts in 2008. Watch even more online video than in 2007. And “read” even more audio books.
I’m off to a good start. Waiting on my digital bookshelf are:
And I’m currently listening to A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash. (Not a great book, but a fantastic true story.)
Actually, I finally dropped my monthly subscription to Audible.com as the Calgary Public Library seems to offer more good books on MP3 than I could possibly need.
(I can still buy books one-at-a-time on Audible or iTunes.)
Digital on demand infotainment rocks in 2008.
Who needs GPS?
Google knows what I’m doing, where I am, at all times, anyway.
The feature uses cell phone towers to semi-triangulate your area and display it on your map — and it does it faster than GPS, too. Maybe you’d like to see Google explain it themselves, in this playfully produced video:
Click PLAY or learn about your latest loss of privacy on YouTube:
Actually, I love this idea. If I get lost, I’ll ask Google for directions.
A humorous post laying out some of the reasons I am switching from Microsoft Hotmal to Google Gmail:
Today I want to ponder the question: what if Microsoft, not Google, had created Gmail? What would be the differences in that web mail client for users today? What if we apply some of the same design rules that brought us Hotmail, for instance?
The new Hotmail Live (or whatever it is called) is crappy.
But, to be fair, Gmail is not all that much better. No one has yet designed a web mail interface I like. Gmail is best of the worst.
Gmail has the best SPAM filter. That’s the main reason I will be switching.
Next week I expect to make it official.
I will keep my dozen or so OLD email addresses including Hotmail. But Gmail will get checked first.
It’s a bit of a pain to make the transition. But Hotmail is clogged with SPAM.
Google does a much better job of filtering. Here’s why:
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ve complained about this blogger, Dare Obasanjo, in the past.
But I want to buy him a drink right now. He’s put into words something I’ve been wrestling with for 30yrs. Ever since Ron Shewchuk tried to convince me that advertising was a “good way to inform the general public about new products”. (Ron was being indoctrinated into some cult of Journalism at the time.)
I knew then what I know today. Advertisers are lying, cheating scum who will advise their clients to poison the water supply for an extra penny per unit profit.
If you want to be as incensed about advertising as I am, read Fast Food Nation.
“Want lies with that?”
Where was I …
Ah, yes. My ephiphy.
Here’s the key quote:
… thats when the whole idea of advertising will go poof, will disappear. If its perfectly targeted, it isn’t advertising, its information. Information is welcome, advertising is offensive.
Dave Winer
Obasanjo gives some examples:
… If you think about it, the reason Google makes so much money from search advertising is because the ads are particularly relevant when a user is seeking information or a trusted opinion as part of the process to make a commercial decision. If Im searching for “iPod” or “car insurance” then it is quite likely that ads selling me these products are relevant to my search and are actually considered to be information instead of intrusive advertising. …
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life – SocialAds Implications: Facebook will Acquire iLike and Flixster
Advertising will go poof.
I like the sounds of that. How much time have I wasted hearing radio and TV advertising that not only hold no interest to me, but that offends my intelligence?
The recycling tub here is stuffed with dead tree that we do not even glance at.
Happily, the future is nearly here. We will be able to buy everything without ads if we wish. Or get the same content ad supported — but, we will be able to choose what categories of ads we want.
I would choose outdoor gear, kayaks, bicycles, Apple products, etc.
Those advertisers will pay very, very dearly to get me to look. I’m a motivated buyer.
Go Google!
Google is driving this whole revolution. Though it may be Facebook where I get to opt-in first on-line.
Everybody loved Facebook. Even Google.
But it looks to me like the value of the super successful upstart company has peaked. After choosing Microsoft rather than Google for a partnership recently, big G dropped the bomb, Open Social.
It’s a different Facebook killer than I had expected.
Only a first step on the road to all things Google socially networked.
Facebook, you’re on notice now, you’ve got to rev the innovation machine up to red line and fast or you’re toast. Google’s OpenSocial is going to eat your lunch, and breakfast and dinner. At this point (1:00 PM PT), just about everyone except Facebook is signing onto OpenSocial, including MySpace …
Facebook will be forced to join the Google consortium of social networks and the compelling reason to join Facebook — that your friends are there — will be gone.
Once again Google is on exactly the right track. I love the OpenSocial concept.
… PS. My own Facebook traffic seems to be in decline.
If you are not using Facebook already, you probably will be soon. Your “friends” will insist.
It’s by far the best general social networking site and looks great compared with MySpace.
Yet once the novelty wears off and you actually want to use Facebook as an alternative to email, it blows.
Of the many Facebook Sucks posts I’ve read, this is the most succinct in laying out changes needed instantly!
• Changing the meaningless word of “Friend”
• removing the “is” in the status
• creating a fitler of people who are your real friends and provide a feed for that
• enabling a true photo management system like on Flickr. Same thing on video
• Stopping referring me to facebook to read messages and actually sending me my messages
• Letting me remove this confirmation panel each time i add someone as a friend
• letting me add/remove multiple people as friend
• providing knowledge paths between friends (like on linkedin)
• providing true people search
• providing unique URLs for anything
• providing a correct group management and alert system (new members, messages,..)
The ones in bold are particular pet peeves of mine.
There’s no way I can use the photo system in Facebook because it is so inferior to Flickr.
And Facebook had better hurry. The GOOGLE is coming to this party soon. (and I don’t mean crappy Orkut.) Many will be tempted to jump to “GoogleBook”.
I suspect Google did not buy Facebook because it is too gummed up in design. Better to start from scratch with a competitor that works far better.
Facebook – join now
Funny.
Click through the stops on this page: Google
Rick McCharles 