Kinda Lame » Not Lame

Not Lame: Telling Gmail Users Not To F*** Up

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:53:19 +0000

Let’s face it – people are idiots. They can’t manage a simple task and need to be reminded ever five minutes not to kill themselves with household products. My favorite’s Comet & coffeepots. The following snippet is a gem from the Gmail IMAP Client Setup, or how to get your Gmail on your phone, Outlook, whatever…

I love the entire set of warnings in the instruction set, especially since it starts with: Do NOT save deleted messages on the server. It gets fun in part three, my emphasis.

Do NOT save deleted messages to your [Gmail]/All Mail folder as some clients will try to empty this folder and ultimately fail. This can lead to delayed mail access or excessive battery consumption on a mobile device.

Lame: The Net After Net Neutrality Dies (Image)

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:41:48 +0000

Via @ Digg (author unknown)

If this looks like your cable TV pricing structure you know how this will screw us all out of every dime we have. (Click for full size image)

Hack: Cleaning Up Your Gmail Account In A Few Simple Steps

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:17:25 +0000

It seems that over time I’ve collected over 20,000 Gmail “conversations” and until today had 1,800 unread e-mails in my inbox. Who knows how many “read” e-mails I might have had. When I first opened the account in 2004 I was very diligent when it came to cleaning the inbox up, archiving, staring, and so forth. I rarely deleted e-mails as there seems to be no reason to with Gmail (The footer reads: You are currently using 976 MB (13%) of your 7367 MB). Alas what started as a dedicated mail trap has moved on to become the catch-all mailbox. And why not? It is so easy to search and manage that there is no reason to continually archive and delete. Something had to be done though when I linked Gmail to my iPhone.

I was rarely checking e-mail, up until a year ago, as it wasn’t a source of communication for me. I was e-mailing assignments to teachers (before I graduated from the diploma mill) and getting newsletters and so forth when I started this account. Now everyone is using e-mail and I get quite a few important updates such as Facebook notifications, etc. But that was just coming in too fast, and I wasn’t good about “deleting” stuff. If you click a link an in e-mail on the iPhone you are taken right to Safari and will likely not go back an archive the message when you get the next chance to do so.

The problem I had was that I like to use the “unread” status, rather keeping things unread, to know that I need to follow up on an item (notorious one at this point is the reminder to file my tax returns!). This works for Outlook at work as you can create a search folder that displays just those unread e-mails – I don’t see a way to do that with Gmail on the iPhone (though I have an idea for how to do so with labels!).

So I needed to clean everything up. Turns out it was an easy process. I started by searching for things that seem to flood my “inbox” but that would have taken hours to find each Crate and Barrel, The Onion, Border Rewards and Facebook e-mail that was ever sent to me.

Instead I did the following:

Searched using the following: label:inbox label:read

Selected all (using the Select: All, None, Read, Unread, Starred, Unstarred shortcuts). Then continuted to select more using the “Select all conversations that match this search” option.

Hit the archive button, confirming I wanted to archive each and every one of those suckers.

Profit!
(Though you’ll notice there is an extra step in there – it can be done differently, but it wasn’t allowing me to archive every one using Select: Unread.)

Then to clean up my unread e-mails:

Starred those 10 e-mails that are sitting there as reminders.

Searched: label:inbox -is:starred
(Notice the minus sign in front of the “is:starred”, this will perform an inverse selection)
“Select all conversations that match this search”

Hit the archive button, confirming I wanted to archive each and every one of those suckers.

Profit!

Now I have 10 e-mails sitting in my inbox that I can easily scan over and the unread reminders are no longer spread out with 25 read pieces of junk in between. Very much for the win. Now I just have to keep up on it. But using the above steps I can just go back maybe once a month and perform some clean up when needed, in just a few minutes (if even a whole minute).

UPDATE: Check out this nifty list of Gmail search terms that could make your (e-mail) life easier.

Not Lame (!) People Amass For Reverse Migration;”Beavers return to Scotland”

admin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:05:58 +0000

After a drought the Scottish future has changed. Last night two hundred families were created when 400 European “beavers” were released into the wild beside a bar in Knapdale, Argyllshire and central London’s night district.

For many men, this was a joyful moment, and for the country step in a long battle to recreate the “beaver” biodiversity of recently barren Scotland, lost in large part to centuries of mass migrations. For their opponents — often drawn from the Glasgow LGBT Men’s Division — it was a disaster, a furry threat to the 1 Million Man Fishing Contest.

Beavers return to Scotland after absence of 400 years.

Members Of Twisted Sister Now Willing To Take It | The Onion

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:00:03 +0000

Couldn’t not share this one.
http://www.theonion.com/…/members_of_twisted_sister

NEW YORK—In a stunning reversal of their long-stated reluctance to take it, members of heavy-metal band Twisted Sister announced Monday that, after 24 years of fervent refusal, they are now willing to take it. Read More

(Sent from my phone)

Not Lame; Paul Krugman

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:30:03 +0000

The NYTimes op-ed writer, genius, just made an All Your Base Are Belong To Us reference on Countdown With Keith Olbermann.
(Sent from my phone)

Hillary Clinton Fractures Elbow

Oktoberfest castle

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:26:19 +0000

Enter for food!
Posted via Pixelpipe.

Fountain Square at Oktoberfest

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:26:11 +0000

it’s packed
Posted via Pixelpipe.

Lenny Bruce once said…

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:25:57 +0000

Cincinnati was the best place to meet a pretty girl, “a beautiful mix of German and Irish.” Here is to you.
Posted via Pixelpipe.

“Taste of Germany”

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:25:50 +0000

…says it all
Posted via Pixelpipe.