Oct 2005
SmashMyIpod.Com
Monday 31 October 2005 Filed in: Rant of the Week
This really does rate as THE biggest scam [sorry, "entertainment"] craze on the web.
The site offers this interesting tid-bit:
The site offers this interesting tid-bit:
"This is only a social experiment, for the entertainment of the donors, and visitors of this site."
Right.
Read more at Smashmyipod.Com [type the URL youself - I don't want traffic linking to the site!]. What's more amazing is that people were paying $30 towards this!! Incredibly, the site's creator is using the idea on the Xbox360, PS3 and the Nintendo Revolution. Nob.
Of course, if you'd rather Paypal ME some cash for anything that I so desire, contact me! ;-)
|
I Hate Hotmail
Sunday 23 October 2005 Filed in: Rant of the Week
Yes, it's true that I use GMail more than ever now [if anyone wants an invite, I've got 200 invites that keep refilling to give away!!], but I still use a Hotmail account from the good old days. I've long meant to add a little critique/rant about Hotmail, but now is the ideal time with news of Kahuna, the up-coming Hotmail upgrade, hitting the web.
Hotmail Annoys the Hell out of Me
Imagine this: Nik returns from holiday. He checks his GMail account for urgent messages, and is easily able to mark all the new messages read and starred [I hate having GMail notifier say: You have 100 unread messages. It fills me with dread], and then moves on to check his Hotmail account. Firstly, MSN won't let me log in in Safari, and then won't let me sign out of my GMail linked passport. After swearing profusely at the computer, I turn to Firefox [which I like, but it isn't a truly Mac-style app], and log in to Hotmail. I look at my inbox. I then proceed to try and mark all 32 unread messages with a tick, because Hotmail doesn't have the "Select All: Unread, Read, Starred" trick that GMail does. :-( After failing to select all 32 unread messages [instead opting for the Select All tick box], I discover that I have hit not "Mark Read" but "Mark Unread" and that all 100 messages on the page are now "Unread".
At this stage you're probably asking: Why would I want to mark read a whole load of messages that I haven't actually read? Well, I receive a number of weekly newsletters [Apple, a number of technology retailers, Amazon etc. etc.] which I don't read unless all else fails or I have money to spend! Plus, seeing as Outlook and Entourage offer "Mark as Read" surely M$ could offer it in their web based product?
Anyway, back to the story. In the end, I deleted 89 of those 100 hundred messages as I didn't see the point in having to view each message just to have the "No Unread Messages" show in MSN Messenger or on the Hotmail start page. I read the remaining 11 emails, and deleted a further 6 on reading them, so my inbox is now clear. :-)
-Why is it SO complex to do such a simple thing like I tried to do above?
-And where is message search?
-I love the GMail archive button. It is a good friend of mine, as it keeps my mail around, but not in my inbox.
-Why isn't there a button to archive messages in Hotmail?
-What's with the stingy limitation in Hotmail? I have 109MB of messages in GMail - I have all manner of attachments from 6MB photos to 10MB Mac apps that I'm beta testing - that comes to 43.6% if I were in Hotmail - and I'd be worried as 70-80MB has come in the last 2 months! In GMail it's 4%.
-I love the drop down as-you-type suggestion menu of addresses in GMail - it means I don't have to view my address book and select the contact I want to send a message to, which means time saved. MSN Hotmail seems to be dormant with no gradual evolution, but if Kahuna is as good as people are suggesting, then that could be why.
I guess my rant is purely me becoming a GMail snob - so much so that I'd rather have a client that works like GMail to manage my POP messages than Apple Mail or M$ Entourage! :-D
Hotmail Annoys the Hell out of Me
Imagine this: Nik returns from holiday. He checks his GMail account for urgent messages, and is easily able to mark all the new messages read and starred [I hate having GMail notifier say: You have 100 unread messages. It fills me with dread], and then moves on to check his Hotmail account. Firstly, MSN won't let me log in in Safari, and then won't let me sign out of my GMail linked passport. After swearing profusely at the computer, I turn to Firefox [which I like, but it isn't a truly Mac-style app], and log in to Hotmail. I look at my inbox. I then proceed to try and mark all 32 unread messages with a tick, because Hotmail doesn't have the "Select All: Unread, Read, Starred" trick that GMail does. :-( After failing to select all 32 unread messages [instead opting for the Select All tick box], I discover that I have hit not "Mark Read" but "Mark Unread" and that all 100 messages on the page are now "Unread".
At this stage you're probably asking: Why would I want to mark read a whole load of messages that I haven't actually read? Well, I receive a number of weekly newsletters [Apple, a number of technology retailers, Amazon etc. etc.] which I don't read unless all else fails or I have money to spend! Plus, seeing as Outlook and Entourage offer "Mark as Read" surely M$ could offer it in their web based product?
Anyway, back to the story. In the end, I deleted 89 of those 100 hundred messages as I didn't see the point in having to view each message just to have the "No Unread Messages" show in MSN Messenger or on the Hotmail start page. I read the remaining 11 emails, and deleted a further 6 on reading them, so my inbox is now clear. :-)
-Why is it SO complex to do such a simple thing like I tried to do above?
-And where is message search?
-I love the GMail archive button. It is a good friend of mine, as it keeps my mail around, but not in my inbox.
-Why isn't there a button to archive messages in Hotmail?
-What's with the stingy limitation in Hotmail? I have 109MB of messages in GMail - I have all manner of attachments from 6MB photos to 10MB Mac apps that I'm beta testing - that comes to 43.6% if I were in Hotmail - and I'd be worried as 70-80MB has come in the last 2 months! In GMail it's 4%.
-I love the drop down as-you-type suggestion menu of addresses in GMail - it means I don't have to view my address book and select the contact I want to send a message to, which means time saved. MSN Hotmail seems to be dormant with no gradual evolution, but if Kahuna is as good as people are suggesting, then that could be why.
I guess my rant is purely me becoming a GMail snob - so much so that I'd rather have a client that works like GMail to manage my POP messages than Apple Mail or M$ Entourage! :-D
John Adams CD Arrives!
Saturday 22 October 2005 Filed in: Music
Wahey! My CD arrived today, and I love the recording by BSO [Bournemouth, not Boston or Baltimore!]. I'm listening to it at the moment, and the recording of "Short Ride in a Fast Machine is AMAZING :-D!!
Check out the cool cover as well. Buy It Here!
Check out the cool cover as well. Buy It Here!