GMail Beta

Tonight I got my gmail.com beta account and had a lot of fun testing out the various features. I think that the shortcut keys are awesome althought I'd like to see a few more and be able to use the arrow keys or configure my keys in some sort of advanced options tab. I also run my resolution at 1600x1200 and found it a little annoying that they fixed the message width at a maximum which doesn't take up all that much space. However, if done intentionally I can understand that they might have picked some number of characters that most users have for e-mail reading width and forced wrapping there, similar to how many people force code wrapping when programming at 80 characters. I think that 80 is a little narrow these days given the resolutions that people run at and the advancements in text editors. Sometimes just another 20 characters or so in a line of code can really make it more readable. But I digress.

Back to gmail. I thought that their message threading was a very intriguing feature but I haven't yet gotten used to it, we'll have to see if I do. I thought that their address auto-complete was awesome, and their spell check worked great, just like MSWord with the underlined misspellings and the drop-downs to fix them--very nice. I also found that they rejected an attachment that I sent which was a .url forward from someone at work. It seemed like a funny attachment to block (security reasons?) and I received the message "552 Illegal Attachmentservice" in return.

All in all, I thought that the Google mail service was great, super fast, clean, and easy to use. I'm sure once it is available to the public that people will be using it in droves. I think Yahoo is going to have some catching up to do. I do think that gmail needs a little more polish and I intend to bundle up my feedback after some more testing and send it to them--not that they probably don't already have enough, but the more the merrier I guess.

Well, that's it, just thought I'd post a quick note about gmail since I was excited to get my account tonight. Other than that not much going on. I played soccer for a few hours, grabbed some Jamba Juice on the way home, and finished off my dinner with a hard-boiled egg--I cooked 18 of them this weekend for breakfast, etc. this week.

That's it folks,

Nick

Time's a Flyin'

Again, the time is flying by, but as I sit here on a hot Sunday afternoon in Santa Clara, CA, I thought I'd post a quick update. My company Pivia recently updated its website and I think it looks great. They also started an online Blog of sorts to discuss issues in the industry, etc.

Recently I've been reading a few more blogs like Boing Boing and it's been a lot of fun. Of course, some of my daily reads like Slashdot or Plastic are always still favorites. I've been pretty busy lately at work. I've been itching to paint lately too but just haven't had the time. Once I move into a new place I'm hoping that there's enough space in the garage for me to set up a little painting area. I have some fun ideas that I've been working on.

Hey, I know that blogging and writing about your life online is all the rage these days, but does anyone have much experience with personal diaries kept electronically? I've played with them off and on before and written my own, but I've never really gotten that great of a feeling from the programs, something that's so simple with a handwritten diary, like adding little sketches, doodles, etc. I guess only a touchpad diary system might come close to providing that interaction. Anyone have any experience with something like that?

Well, I know, not the most exciting blog entry, but I have to run. I really hope to make this better in the coming months when I finally find a little time.