TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Tech

  • FastMail FTW

    For the past week or so I’ve been comparing other free services to Gmail and extolling Gmail’s virtues. However to be honest with you I actually stopped using Gmail for the most part after I wrote the first post. I didn’t mislead you dear reader because I did not switch to a free e-mail service. I just went back to a service I had been using since 2002, FastMail. I like FastMail so much I actually pay to use it.

    The reason I love FastMail so much is it’s old school e-mail. No Ajax to bring things to a grinding halt. Most importantly when I delete my e-mails from FastMail I know they’re deleted, unlike Gmail. I’m usually not one of those privacy zealots but I find it a little creepy that even if you delete your emails from Gmail they’re still not ‘deleted’. And personally I never cared for the conversation mode of Gmail. The fact that you could not turn it off was, well, a turn off.

    FastMail doesn’t have unlimited aliasing but has enough for my needs.

    Fastmail also does one thing that Gmail doesn’t. Multiple signatures for different aliases.

    It also has a plethora of available skins including my favorite Infinite Blackness.

    The main reason I stopped using FastMail to begin with is because I couldn’t be notified of my FastMail from the iGoogle start page. Now there’s widget for iGoogle that checks your POP mail so now I can.

    It was fun Gmail, then you got too slow.

  • G-Mail vs. Hotmail

    Today I’m going to see how Hotmail stacks up against G-Mail.

    I’m actually a little surprised by Hotmail. It’s been a while since I used it regularly.

    + Fast.

    + Choice of skins including black.

    + Sort of aliasing.

    / Forwarding but it’s all or nothing.

    + Can stay logged in all day

    – Ads in tagline

    Bottom Line: I’m actually impressed with the way Hotmail has improved over the years.

    Trench’s Rating: 4 out of 5. The tagline ads prevent it from a better score.

  • G-Mail vs. Inbox.com

    Today’s runner up to G-Mail is Inbox.com. Great name for a free e-mail provider by the way.

    + Fast interface. I mean super fast. Leaves G-Mail in the dust.

    + Aliasing. All the aliasing you need.

    + Good interface

    + Can stay logged in all day

    – No forwarding

    – Every time you delete an e-mail it asks if you really want to delete it and there’s no way to shut it off.

    – When you delete an e-mail it takes you to the previous e-mail.

    – Occasional ads in tagline but they’re so obnoxious it makes it really annoying. And all they advertise to is their own stuff.

    – They advertise for their own screensavers and stuff. SiteAdvisor says there is no spyware but it still feels sketchy.

    – Lots of complaints about whole accounts being lost.

    – Lack of feedback and limited documentation on service.

    Bottom Line: Inbox.com has the potential to be a G-Mail killer if they lost the tagline ads and addressed fears about lost accounts.

    Trench’s Rating: 3 out of 5. So close but yet so far.

  • G-mail vs. Yahoo Mail

    Ok, today I’m going to look at how the ‘new’ Yahoo Mail stacks up against G-Mail.

    + Decent Interface.

    + Can stay logged in for two weeks.

    + Feed reader included

    – The feed reader sucks

    – No forwarding yet

    – No aliasing

    – Loses messages

    – Ads galore including the tagline

    Bottom Line: It’s not bad but it’s more designed for your friend that still uses Internet Explorer.

    Trench’s Rating: Two out of five.

  • G-Mail vs. GMX

    Today in our comparison to G-Mail we look at GMX.

    Overall a nifty webmail service with just a few drawbacks.

    + Slick interface. It looks like a mail app like Thunderbird or Outlook but it’s all web-based.

    – But it all opens in a new window, not a new tab.

    – And you can’t stay logged in all day unless you leave the window up all day which leads to being caught by bosses.

    / Aliasing is kind of a toss-up. You can have 10 GMX addresses under one account but only one name. Also, you can’t alias as another e-mail address unless that service allows you to download your mail to GMX through POP.

    + Forwarding to other addresses is available.

    + No ads in the tagline.

    + Decent user forum with feedback from GMX

    – Doesn’t work in all browsers

    Bottom Line: Awesome free service except for a few minor details and to be fair they are in Beta. Still not G-Mail

    Trench’s Rating: 4 out of 5. Almost as good if not better than G-Mail but just misses the mark.

  • G-Mail vs. AOL Mail

    I’ve fallen out of love with G-Mail. It’s been slower than dirt lately and it’s really starting to annoy me. Not only that but unless you download a plugin or hack your browser you can’t change the look of G-Mail. Staring at a white background all day gets kind of annoying after a while.

    The problem is I can’t quit G-Mail. They just have way too many features that I can’t get along without anymore.

    + Aliases: I can make my G-mail look like it’s being sent from any of my dozens of e-mail addresses.

    + Forwarding: I can have certain e-mails forwarded to another e-mail address.

    + No ads in e-mail footer: I don’t want to send out an e-mail from one of my domains that has an ad for my webmail client in it.

    So G-Mail is pretty much perfect but there has to be an alternative out there as far as webmail goes. For the next couple of days or so I’ll be looking at one of the also-rans.

    Today’s contestant is AOL Mail.

    Surprisingly not a bad product from the people who brought you AOL in the first place.

    – I like to be signed in all the time to my webmail, AOL Mail doesn’t let me do that.

    + Interface is pretty clean.

    – Slow in getting and sending mail.

    + Good speed in loading though.

    – Ads in the tagline.

    – Probably won’t get the name you want.

    – No forwarding.

    – No aliasing.

    – AOL spams its users.

    Bottom line: Not bad for a basic e-mail service. If you’re not picky about your webmail it’s not bad.

    Trench’s Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5.

  • GMX Mail

    I’m trying to escape from Gmail but it’s hard to find a free e-mail service with comparable features but there is hope. The only service I’ve found so far that could be a Gmail killer is GMX Mail. Two problems though for me.

    1. You can’t stay logged in all day.

    2. And this is a big problem…it opens in a new window rather than the same window. That’s a deal breaker.

    The search continues.

  • Net Neutrality solution

    Net Neutrality solution

    Both proponents and opponents of net neutrality have it all wrong.

    Proponents say we need government regulation to prevent the ISP’s from staggering traffic. Opponents say we don’t need the government regulating the internet. Well, as smug as both sides are, they’re both wrong.

    The problem is with local municipalities who allow cable and telephone companies to have a regional monopoly. Think about it. You probably only have 1 cable company and 1 local telephone company where you live. That’s not much competition in the marketplace, is it?

    The only way that’s going to stop is if enough people are vocal to their community leaders to put a stop to allowing these monopolies. Unfortunately, not enough people will even think about that until it’s too late.

  • Blogging, students, and the First Amendment

    Blogging, students, and the First Amendment

    Can Schools Punish Students for Posting Offensive Content on MySpace and Similar Sites? Often, the Answer Is No, Unless The Posting Materially Disrupts School Activities:

    This is a great article from FindLaw about blogging, students, and the First Amendment and whether or not schools can punish students for blog posts they make at home. And I’m not saying it’s a great article because I get a mention in it. 😀 I hear a lot of cries of “But..but..but it’s free speech and it’s protected by the First Amendment”. Well now, hopefully this article should clear a few things up…

    Cases Where Postings Violate the Law, or Provide Evidence of Its Violation

    These sites – though a boon to students in many ways – have also raised their share of problems. And some of the problems may also involve torts, or violations of the criminal law.

    In some instances, students engage in cyber-bullying — making critical remarks about other students or teachers. If these postings are factual, false, and damaging, they may count as defamation. The sites cannot be sued: Under a key provision of the Communications Decency Act, web intermediaries – those who merely allow others to post their own comments and photos – are not liable for defamation. But the authors can be.

    Sometimes postings may be evidence of law-violation: In photos, underage subjects may be shown in sexually provocative poses, or shown smoking or drinking, or holding firearms. For instance, a 16-year-old boy in Jefferson, Colorado was arrested after police — having seen pictures on his MySpace page in which he was holding handguns – found the weapons in his home. And in late April, police reportedly intercepted a Columbine-style plot in Kansas on the basis of a threatening email posted on MySpace.com.

    And sometimes postings may themselves violate the law – making criminal threats, or constituting harassment. In Costa Mesa, California, twenty students were suspended from TeWinkle Middle School for two days for participating in a MySpace group where one student allegedly threatened to kill another and made anti-Semitic remarks.

    So let this be a lesson to you that not all speech is protected under the First Amendment. And if you’re in a private school, you’re out of luck.

  • Calling all blog developers

    Calling all blog developers

    Since it’s Friday and hardly anyone reads this between Friday and Sunday, I’m doing this for my own benefit.

    This is a call to all blog software developers. You may think that your blog software is the greatest, but it’s not. What we need is some standards across all blog software platforms.

    Importing and Exporting: Stop locking people into your software. You may think that people would never stop using your software, but there’s always another software around the corner that just might be better than yours. Since most blogs will import entries from Movable Type, I think they should all export in the MT format as well. Right now, I’m stuck in WordPress. Not that there’s anything wrong with WP, but I just don’t like being tied into one software format. I’ve tried the WP to MT export scripts, but so far, I have yet to get one to import properly.

    Subscribing to comments: When I leave a comment on someone else’s blog it’s nice to receive an e-mail when someone else replies to it. A lot of blog developers think this is unnecessary and an RSS reader should be used instead. That’s all well and good, but only a small minority use RSS readers. Plus, I don’t want a line in my RSS reader for each comment I’ve subscribed to. I’ve left thousands of comments on hundreds of blogs. I don’t want a line on my RSS reader for each of those comments that I’ve left. This is a standard feature on PMachine and Serendipity. A plugin is available for WordPress. There used to be one for MT but since they went to 3.0 I don’t know.

    Permalinks: The URL’s to blog entries should be uniform so when someone moves from one platform to another, their URL’s will stay the same. Personally, I think WordPress’ URLs are the best. It goes domain/archives/date/entry-title. Seems simple enough to implement.

    Toggle options: While the developers may think something is a great option or feature, the user may not. Since I’m not a PHP or Perl guru, I would rather just click a button to turn a function on or off and not have to alter any code. For example, in WordPress, if you want a pop-up comment window you have to remove part of the code. Granted, it’s labeled real easily within the code, but I’d rather not mess with the code. In Serendipity, trackbacks are automatically pinged whether you want them to be or not. To turn it off, you have to alter the code. While I may be comfortable doing that, someone else may not be.

    Not that any of these platforms are bad, with the possible exception of MT 3.0, but I just think there should be some kind of blog industry standards. Trust me, if I had the time to learn how to write scripts I would at least try to develop my own. (Hmmmm. TrenchBlog? Trenchpress? Movable Trench?)