Month: August 2006

Quick GMail update

I am doing the biggest email move ever. I am migrating all of my email to GMail. That includes archives, which, in some cases, have threads dating back to 1999. That’s A LOT OF email.

Obviously, my GMail account is a huge mess right now. I’ll try to clear it up as soon as possible, but for the meantime, if I miss an email from you, please, stay with me. I’ll get it al in order ASAP. Note thought, that just the upload process will take around two to three days.

The script I’m using for this process is Mark Lyon’s GMail Loader. I’m usin gthe older .4 version, because I didn’t have enough Python librarires for the GUI. Neither did I need it. The script works like a charm.

Daily del.icio.us bookmarks

My appologies for an inactivity period with del.icio.us bookmarks. That was related to the change of API address, which I had to fix in my script. Now everything seems to be working fine.

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2006-08-12

Google Spreadsheets

Somehow I missed the announcements of Google Spreadsheets. Not that I am that interested anyway, but usually releases like this are surrounded with a lot of hype.

Well, Google Spreadsheets is all you can expect of it – a web-based spreadsheet application, which is very similar in look and feel to Microsoft Excel and a billion of other spreadsheet applications. It features all the usual functionality – cells, formatting, formulas, etc. You can import your existing spreashits from a comma-separated values files (CSV) or Microsoft Excel.

The additional bonus of using web-based applications as opposite to system applications is easier sharing. Google realizes this and provides a handy interface to do so.

If only I had any task that would need a spreadsheet…

GMail enhancement request

Now that I’ve really thought about things that I want to see in GMail, I remembered that I didn’t blog about one thing. Or forgot that I did. I want a separate signature for each of my accounts. Ideally, I’d have some interface – similar to filters – to set some conditions and the resulting signature. But if I just could have a static one, separate for each email address, that would have been good enough. Until then I’ll have to stick with the simpe “Leonid Mamchenkov” bit. No URLs, no titles – no automatics.

Backpack – more than just a TODO list

I am trying out a new webservice these couple of days – Backpack. Backpack is a nice tool for information management. It provides a nice and easy interface to create and link web pages. On the web page one can have some text, lists (complete with checkboxes), notes, images, and other attachments. Everything is nicely integrated and really really really easy to use.

One of the ways to use Bakpack is to manage a TODO list. But that would be one of the simpliests tasks. Much more can be accomplished as easily. If it sounds interesting, take a short tour of the functionality and looks, and, also, check the examples of what it can be used for.

I found the took quite handy, although I wish they provided a bit more free of charge (don’t we all?). I also don’t have any problem spending money on online services (and I do spend), but Backpack’s pricing schemes seem to be a bit expensive from $5 USD to $14 USD per month. Maybe I think so because I haven’t tried much of the calendaring, emailing, and reminder functionality.

Still, the service looks interesting and certainly has its audience.