7 Months - 1GB of E-Mail

Late in November 2007, I decided to switch the domain where I get e-mail over to Google Apps.  For those not aware, Google Apps gives you the ability to use GMail, but with your own domain (among other cool features).

Today I hit the 1-gig mark in my e-mail box.  It took seven months and a week.  That’s 14% of the total space I am currently allocated (6.87 Gig and climbing).  1G is a lot of data from certain perspectives.  Further contemplation reveals the truth: it’s nothing in the overall scheme of things.

Review: ASUS eee PC 701

I like to buy gadgets. Recently I have been looking at attaining some level of mobility that lets me do some of the same things I normally do with my desktop-replacement Dell XPS M1710.

I recently bought and played around with the somewhat new Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. While it is good for certain things, it’s not what I was looking for. I had contemplated buying the eee PC for a while. I am glad I finally did.

Before we get to the good things, let’s get the (very few) bad things out of the way. The hybrid Linux system that came with it was not impressive to me. I suppose if I were just looking to surf the web or use Open Office to create a few documents, it would have been just fine. But I needed this thing for specific purposes.

Second, the keyboard is a little weird because it is so small. That’s what is expected for something so small and mobile. It just takes some time to get used to. I bought a small external USB keyboard. Problem resolved!

Now for the good parts.

CPU: 900-MHz Intel Celeron Processor

HDD: 4GB SSD

DISPLAY: 7 inches/800 x 480

VIDEO: Integrated graphics/64MB

Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g integrated

PORTS: Three USB 2.0, Ethernet, modem, headphone, mic

Laptop Magazine called this thing “Pound for pound, the best value-priced notebook on the planet.” CNET says “7.5 out of 10 … a near perfect choice for a highly portable second or backup laptop.” PC Magazine says “4 out of 5 - Ample software and a substantial feature set that’s well worth the money.” Notebook Review says “This little machine was as powerful as notebooks four to five times its price.”

To solve the problem with the very small keyboard, I bought an ultra-slim keyboard that is just slightly wider than the PC itself, but has bigger keys. It compliments the PC just fine. The next thing I did was to install Windows XP with SP2. I did all of the updates that I needed and compressed the drive. At the end of the day, I had 500MB free with no loss of speed. The OS is still very snappy.

I bought a 16G SD card from Crucial so I would have room to install my applications. The OS install went fine. The drivers for the Wi-Fi, video, etc.. are on the CD that came with the PC. I then installed MS Office 2003 and a ton of other things that I use on a regular basis. I also upgraded the standard 512M of RAM with a 2G stick purchased from Crucial. I think this is a necessity when using XP on any system.

The eee PC weighs almost nothing. It’s the ultimate mobile tool once you get it to the level of functionality you need. I was going to get the 8G version, but they were back-ordered. I may get one when they do come out in a couple of months.

Overall, this is one of the best products I’ve ever bought.

GMail: As Much as I Try

I would really like to use GMail as my primary mail application. I’ve tried and tried, and cannot bring myself to change over from Yahoo! Mail. I don’t care that Google’s stock price is over $600.00 as of this writing. There are some things that other companies do better than Google.

Yahoo lets you filter your mail into real folders. With GMail, everything gets dumped into the inbox, and you can apply a “label” to it for the purpose of filtering from the inbox. Not the best way in the world to accomplish this.

You can select default fonts in Yahoo! Mail. Playing around with the fonts in GMail causes the mail to be displayed on the recipient’s side in a manner that wasn’t intended (larger font, etc …)

Yahoo! Mail is $20.00 for ad-free, unlimited storage. While GMail is great with 3 gigs and counting, the ads are still there, and it costs a very unreasonable amount to get more storage. I’m not sure what they’re trying to achieve by charging so much for extra space.

Google/Gmail Upgrade rates:

10 GB ($20.00 USD per year), 40 GB ($75.00 USD per year), 150 GB ($250.00 USD per year), 400 GB ($500.00 USD per year)

Furthermore, there are strict limits to Picasa photo storage (1GB), where as Yahoo’s Flickr is also unlimited.

Google isn’t the best in the business with these things. When it comes to search, Google is king. When it comes to mail, photo storage, and a few other things, they’re not there yet. Even if the stock price is rivaling Berkshire Hathaway. Just my opinion.