Category: Web work

These days, most of my work is very related to the online world. Building web sites, reviewing web applications, integrating with web services, coordinating people who are far away from each other, etc. Whenever I find a new tool or service or an innovative, interesting idea about working online, I share it in this category.

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.

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.

I love GMail

I have fully moved to GMail. I have yet to import my existing archives, but I lovin’ it already as it is. My exim+procmail+mutt setup is great, but GMail is better for my current needs. It is, of course, less configurable, but Things That I Really Care About ™ (TTIRCA) do work and need practically no configuration.

Stars, labels and filters are easier to use than my previous configuration. Contact list is better – complete with pictures and total integration. Management of multiple accounts is easier done – by default GMail replies from the correct address. Searching the mailbox is better and faster – after all it is Google we are talking about – nothing can beat that! Attachment handling with image previews and Word document automatic convertions to HTML are beautiful. Multilanguage spellchecking is nice. And there is even that Google Chat thingy too. And, of course, it all works faster off the Google server farm than from my home server.

For the time being, I am really happy about my email. And I couldn’t care less for the Big Brother issue. At least, not right now.

Ok, if you one of those people who need to hear something bad, I’ll give that. If I could change one thing about GMail, it would be with Quick Contacts. Currently, if I specify that I want a person to be included in Quick Contacts, I get as many entries, as the number of this person’s email addresses. That’s just wrong. For the Quick Contact I need only one email. I can be asked to specify which, or the default one can be used, or the most frequently used one – I don’t care. Just make it one, not all of them. That’s it. This is my only complain.

Back to Gmail-USSR

(please, forgive my untalanted Beatles reference)

My email requirements have changed again. This time the changes are so significant that I am re-considering GMail. It looks promising.

Why so? Well, the nature of my email discussions has changed so that GMail threads conversations handle my load best of all. Also GMail is nicely integrated with Google Calendar, which I am using extensively lately. And another feature that I immediately grew into is multiple account management.

If you feel like dropping me a line, leonid.mamchenkov@gmail.com is my GMail address. Also, if you need any invites, let me know – because I have a few.