Gmail

[Adcadet]

anybody else playing with Gmail? Just realized I had the option of opening an account earlier this week and set it up. Seems to work well enough. Very nice to be able to just email myself every potentially important document to leave on the server in case I feel the need to print it out at school (no surprize the school spent $20,000 on consumable printing supplies last semester for about 650 students).

 

[sechs]

Considering that Google will be searching through all of that to target ads, I'm not sure it's such a smooth idea.

 

[Adcadet]

zero ads so far. But most of my conversations have been very short.

 

[sechs]

Do you want to have Google searching through all of your papers to target ads at you?

Makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

 

[Adcadet]

makes me feel wanted and needed

sorry, stress of finals

 

[timwhit]

Who cares if they put ads up based on what is in the e-mail address. They already do the same thing when you search for something.

It's really no big deal.

I will definately be signing up for an account when it goes public.

Adcadet, how did you get to sign up for an account?

 

[Adcadet]

I signed up about a year ago, back when it wasn't Google-ized. I use it to post quick little things to my class webpage (www.student.med.umn.edu/class2007). The Class of '06 webmaster tipped me off, and sure enough, there on the front page was an invitation.

 

[ddrueding]

Yeah, I'll be using it as an archicve of sorts. Who cares if google can read my resume. It's a classic case of TMI; considering the amount of information they will have, mine will be of little interest.

 

[Adcadet]

oh, I registered another administrator account on my blog using another email address, and that account was not offered a Gmail account.

 

[Fushigi]

GMail now does themes. Go into Settings - Themes to see them. If you don't have the Themes option, wait a bit; apparently it's taking a while to push it to all of their servers.

I've been using GMail since 2004 and am still only at 1% of my mailbox quota. The quota seems to be growing fast enough that I may never use more than 1-2%.

 

[ddrueding]

I like the stock theme, very close to here, actually.

 

[Mercutio]

There is a terminal theme. Green plain text on a black font. Just like everything should be.

 

[Gilbo]

I like the "Green Sky" theme. I calms me... (Work is highly stressful these days, by the way. I need a calming email theme.)

 

[Fushigi]

I selected Tea Garden, but then I use that one on one of my iGoogle tabs as well.

I tried Terminal but it was a bit too green for me. Modern terminals at least use color. And on a 1200x1920 display that's a lot of green/black.

 

[timwhit]

Terminals are supposed to be black background with white text. They need a PuTTY theme.

 

[Mercutio]

Some terminals were amber on black. Some were green on black.
The first PC I purchased for myself had Hercules graphics, which was a "high resolution" green monochrome display, and I've always preferred that scheme to any other.

 

[ddrueding]

My monitor had a switch that went between amber and green. I remember changing my mind every few minutes as a form of procrastination.

 

[Fushigi]

The 5250 data stream supports text color, background color, and the ever popular blinking text. I'm fairly sure 3270 does as well. And while I'm not sure about VT100 support, at some point VT got those as well.

Not that I'm particularly complaining about it being green on black. Just that they could have designed it a little better to make it less strenuous on the eyes.

I still work on terminals (emulators, really) and they are pleasant & easy to read. This theme was overpowering and not easy. Maybe it'd be OK on a small window but I run Firefox maximized pretty much all the time.

 

[Tannin]

Speaking of Google, they just introduced the ability for you, the user, to remove stuff from searches. (Long past due, in my opinion.) It remains to be seen how well it will work, but if it finally, finally, finally allows me to blacklist those Experts Exchange scumbags from all my searches, it won't be a day too soon.

Don't hold your breath - I think they pay Google off, because otherwise they would have been booted for scamming the system years ago.

 

[timwhit]

Speaking of Google, they just introduced the ability for you, the user, to remove stuff from searches. (Long past due, in my opinion.) It remains to be seen how well it will work, but if it finally, finally, finally allows me to blacklist those Experts Exchange scumbags from all my searches, it won't be a day too soon.

Don't hold your breath - I think they pay Google off, because otherwise they would have been booted for scamming the system years ago.

I always wondered who actually uses Experts Exchange?

 

[ddrueding]

I always wondered who actually uses Experts Exchange?

That is the first thing I use the Customize Google plug-in to strip out.

 

[Stereodude]

That is the first thing I use the Customize Google plug-in to strip out.

I like the plug-in, but I can't say I've come across Expert Sex Change before.

 

[Gilbo]

it finally, finally, finally allows me to blacklist those Experts Exchange scumbags from all my searches, it won't be a day too soon.

I hate those bastards too! I haven't gotten Google's WikiSearch or whatever it's called yet, unfortunately...

 

[Mercutio]

I like the plug-in, but I can't say I've come across Expert Sex Change before.

I am acquainted with a person who received a botched sex change operation. She has a substantial amount of nerve damage just where you wouldn't want it when you're paying $75k to have your ween turned inside-out.

All in all, gotta say that Expert Sex Change is probably better than the kind that is inexpert.

Anyway, until fairly recently, you could look at stuff on Experts Exchange by viewing the HTML source for the page. I know I got a lot of fast answers that way.

 

[LiamC]

expert sex change. You mean you guys didn't just scroll to the bottom past all the javascript generated garbage to see the actual answers?

 

[Tannin]

^^^ Only if I'm desperate. And you have to be really desperate to want to patronize the site that those scumbags operate.

Sure, if you want a pay site, have a pay site. No problem there. But don't scam search engines in order to waste masess of tijme and bandwidth that doesn't belong to you. I have never understood why Google hasn't booted them, the same as they do to all the other sites that game the system to increase their page rank. I smell money under the table.

 

[LunarMist]

I am acquainted with a person who received a botched sex change operation. She has a substantial amount of nerve damage just where you wouldn't want it when you're paying $75k to have your ween turned inside-out.

I'm almost afraid to ask how you are acquainted with the person. I hope you did not find out the hard way.
I mean, who mentions that in a conversation?