Four time-saving Webmail tips
January 31, 2005
A Webmail account is the only Internet
email account open to most Filipinos, since the overwhelming majority
use Internet cafés,
not Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Those with email addresses
from their ISPs, however, can also benefit from Webmail. The
advantages are well known so I won’t go into them. What I will do is
give out a few tips to make you Webmail experience more enjoyable and
productive.
Before I proceed, I might mention that some ISP mail
servers have Web interfaces. Even if your ISP doesn’t provide
Webmail, you can still access your POP/IMAP mail (including corporate
mailboxes, provided they aren’t behind a firewall) from Mail2Web
– the interface isn’t as polished as that of the major Webmail
services but it should suffice.
Running on Webmail
January 27, 2005
In a previous entry, I wrote about how I've decided to forgo installing a POP/IMAP client after my last hard disk crash. Instead, I'm going 100% Webmail. I have several Webmail accounts, the oldest one being my account at mail.com, which gave me the techie.com address. Since then, I've opened, and actively use, accounts with Yahoo!, fastmail.fm, and gmail. I might add that it's only mail.com where I paid for a premium service.
The table below summarizes what I like and dislike about each service:
Another XUL-based RIA
January 24, 2005The previous entry blog gave only an example of an RIA (Rich Internet Application, in case you haven’t gone over that entry). You can find a Mozilla extension that handles RSS feeds at Wizz Computers. It uses the sidebar as the control.
Mozilla + XUL = RIA
January 22, 2005Shortly after downloading Firefox, I naturally installed some themes and extensions. Themes change the appearance of Firefox. I personally find the default buttons too cartonish so I use the Smoke theme. But the more impressive feature of Firefox (and its big brother the Mozilla suite) is the extensions, which as the name implies extend the features of Mozilla. WebmailCompose is one of the most useful: when I click on a mailto: link, Mozilla opens up a Compose window from the Webmail account of my choice.
Death to POP/IMAP clients
January 17, 2005If you’ve been using personal computers long enough — say, five years — you’re likely to already have lost a hard drive to a crash. To make matters worse, electronic devices have this critical-moment detector that triggers a failure in that device just when you need it most. In my case, the triggers went off just at deadline time. I was lucky the first time because I was able to borrow my brother’s Mac and dash off the article. But I digress.
Any other device that dies — your monitor, modem, printer, even your system board — you can easily replace and the only downtime is the time it takes to replace that device. Not so with the hard drive. You have to restore your OS, your applications, and your data from backup. And if you’re like most users, you have a backup, if at all, only of your data, so you have to reinstall your system and applications software, then set your preferences.
Hello World
January 8, 2005One of the first surprises I’d like to share with you is this photo album. I’ll write more about it in a few days.
