Category: Technology

I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.

Gmail solves the “on behalf of” issue

This is the day I’ve been waiting for for a few years now – Gmail solves the “on behalf of” issue.

If you are not familiar with it, the essence of it is this.  You can use Gmail to manage your other, non-Gmail mail accounts.  You can either forward mail automatically to your Gmail inbox, or even set a POP3 fetching from a remote server.  In Gmail account settings you can add all the email addresses that you use, and then even reply from those email addresses.

However, due to Gmail not managing your other email accounts directly, it is forced to add a Sender header with a Gmail email address in it.  And some email programs, like MS Outlook either get confused by it or interpret it in a certain way.  So, if you use your [email protected] email address to manage your [email protected] email, and you reply to a message using a [email protected] in From, your colleague’s MS Outlook will show the email to be from “[email protected] on behalf of [email protected]”.  This is ugly and there was no easy work around this.

Today Google added support for external SMTP servers.  This way, you can configure your Gmail to use mail.work.com SMTP server when you send from [email protected] .  And it comes from [email protected] , not [email protected] on behalf of [email protected] .

With this feature, Gmail practically becomes a full featured email client with support for POP3 for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing mail.  And these are great news!

The “on behalf of” issue was keeping quite a few folks from moving all their email accounts to Gmail.  And not that the problem is solved I think more people will move over.  Good times!

Google Reader : too user friendly?

I think of Google Reader as a very user friendly application. It clean and simple and only shows you things which you need to see.  Or does it any more?  Here are the options that I see for each RSS item:

Google Reader item options

Let’s see:

  • Add comment.  I can add comments to blogs posts and news and my friends can read those comments and reply and so on and so forth.
  • Add star.  Star is like a bookmark.  I can quickly find the starred articles with a single click.  And I can also share my starred articles by selecting so in the Settings.
  • Like.  I can “like” the article.  Other people can see that I liked it.
  • Share.  Share it with other people.
  • Share with note.  That’s like share and add comment in one.
  • Email.  This one is easy.
  • Keep unread.  So that I can easily find it and read later.
  • Add tags.  So that I can find it easily later and/or share it via Settings.

I am all for making sharing easy, but isn’t it too much?  I see it as a huge overlap in functionality.  Such huge that it gets confusing now.  What’s the difference between the “star” and “like”?  Do I “like” everything I “share”?  Do I “like” everything I comment?  Is it shared or “liked” if I just “Add comment”? How do I “star” or “share” everything I “like”? And so on and so forth.

I think this should be simplified in one action per option:  star, share, comment, email, tag.  If you want to bookmark, you “star” it.  If you want to share, you “share”.  If you want to comment, you “comment”.  If you want to star and share, then you actually click “star” and “share”.  If you want to comment and share, then add your comment and click “share”.  With boolean options everything comes back to the sane world – you either did it or not.

What do you think?

Web OS? Yes. Are You Dense? No.

I came across the post titled “A Web OS? Are You Dense?“.  It has a lot of sense in it, but it also asks a question that needs answering.  And I think the answers are quite simple.

So, when your Aunt asks why her 1.2GHz computer isn’t fast enough to run an online word processor that has the same [censored] features as the 1987 version of Corel WordPerfect, you don’t have an answer for her.  There is no justification.

First of all, your Aunt is hardly capable of comparing the features of Corel WordPerfect in 1987 to features of Google Docs in 2009.  So, she probably won’t ask you the question at all.  And even if she will – that’s just for bragging and not for the justification.

Secondly, the features of Corel WordPerfect in 1987 are different to features in Google Docs 2009.  Collaborative editing with access level restrictions, online access, mobile support, web site integration, etc.   These haven’t been there in 1987.  Whether your Aunt is using them or not – that’s something else.  There are people who do.

Thirdly, the justification that exists for such a complication in technology stack is not for the Aunt, but for other people – often those in the technology industry.  Money, for example.  Go back to that original article and look at the diagrams.  Now, replace those vertical arrow comments with “Amount of money to be made/earned”, and you’ll have your own justification.  There are thousands upon thousands of people feeding on each layer of that technology cake.  The thicker the layer, and the more layers you have, the more people can feed of it.  I don’t like the way it goes, but on the other hand, I’m one of those feeding of that cake.

Fourthly, well, don’t mind the definitions, but Web OS is what you want for your Aunt.  Because in 1987 you had only one Aunt who was using a computer, so you had the luxury of time for going there and installing and upgrading software, fixing all those problems she was having, and explaining to her how to do things better.  In 2009 each of us has dozens of Aunts that need this help.  Going around doing all those little favours is getting time consuming.  So, giving her a small laptop with just a browser in it and the rest of the software from inside that browser  is an awesome option.

And I can go on and on about this …

Building a classified ads directory with WordPress

When talking about what else WordPress could be used for except blogs, classified ads directories come up high on the list.  It’s one of those examples which illustrate the scenario nicely and doesn’t require a lot of work.

So, how can WordPress be used to build a classified ads directory?  Here is a list of a few ways you might go:

  1. Buy and install ClassiPress – a theme and plugin to do just that – build a classified ads directory.  This is probably the fastest, cheapest, and simplest option.  If you want one of those directories up and running within a few minutes, that’s the way to go.
  2. Install wp-classified plugin and tweak it until you are happy.  You’ll pay with your time, not your money.  And you won’t have to start from scratch.
  3. Build your own, from scratch.  This is suitable for those who want to have 100% understanding of how their directory works, and for those who want learn how WordPress can be customized beyond blogging.

In this post, I’ll focus only on the third option.

Continue reading Building a classified ads directory with WordPress

Trailer : Office 2010

There are only three things that I can say about this trailer:

  1. It is hilarious.
  2. It probably did more to promote Microsoft Office 2010 than anything else. Combined.
  3. Well done!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUawhjxLS2I]

If that was a real movie, I would by it on DVD.