Is Gmail Rebranding to Google Mail?

I'm mad curious because I don't see this anywhere else (hey, I Googled!) but on the Gmail interface, the word Gmail has been replaced with the words Google Mail. The only place (so far) that hasn't sported the change is the Gmail sign-in screen.

Intriguingly, there seems to be just about zero commentary on this ... at least as far as I can find.

Is Gmail rebranding? It certainly looks that way. But why on the q.t.?

Are You Sure You Want To Send That Drunken Email? Really? Really-really?

1807.

Google introduces a little thing called Mail Goggles.

Lord, save us from the drunken email that we sent ... and we can't get back now. That cute little mission statement with the language you distributed to the entire firm with all the four letter words and the comments about your boss's progeny?

You'll be sweatin' that one on Monday morning. But if you just had this pop up:

... enough blood might flow back into your monkey-boy (or -girl) brain to enable that still, small voice that's saying "no" to get through to your R-complex. It defaults to late nights and weekends, but you can configure it for any little ol' time you want it to work.

Sir, step away from the internet!

Complete stuff here. If you use Gmail via a browser, this will be in your settings, under Labs. If you don't, just don't send email while you're drunk; do what the rest of us do – download bondage porn read random Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia, and Encyclopeda Dramatica articles.

Tags: liff, net_stuff, gmail, mail goggles, google labs, email, liff online

Powered by Qumana

[net_life] Of Course, We Knew They Were Totes Good For It...

1528. Yesterday, the Pizza Hut card arrived courtesy the folks at MyDamnChannel.com ...

The why of this is rather amusing. Recently I mentioned that I was drafted into the first class of MyDamnChannel "Co-Cons" and we had a little meet about a week back. What was cool about it was that they tried to make in an online pizza party by contacting local purveyors and having a cheese number delivered about the time of the online conference.

Sadly there were hitches. In NY, ya see, they just do this over the phone; here on the Upper Left, they demand credit card imprints (sort of an East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battle, except no battle, no hip-hop, add pizza delivery and credit card. Other than that, just the same).

Unnecessarily long story short, the pizza was a non-deliverable. But MyDamnChannel is a channel of their word, and perforce a $20 Pizza Hut card arrived just a couple days ago. Via DHL, which is, like, quite classy in the context.

Hats off to MyDamnChannel.com; I am a permanent fan now.

Also, You Suck At Photoshop is up for a Webby, for which voting has been closed and will announce on the 6th, because that's wicked funny; and the Big Fat Brain boys, who were profiled in Time, has the same profile posted at The Night Feed here.

Tags: Big Fat Brain, MyDamnChannel, Big Fat Brain, Webby Awards, You Suck At Photoshop

[web_life, pdx_life] Stumptown Mollusca

1526. This looks like fun, and should be interesting to follow ...

Cool logo too.

Tags: portland octopus, portland websites, pdx, portland news

Powered by Qumana

[net_life] So That's What It's Like To Be A Co-Conspirator

1525. I mentioned that I got a chance to get with a handful of very select people to give propers and feedback to MyDamnChannel.com (which is, as of now, the coolest site on the net, even moreso than PMerc's Blogtown (yea, I said it) and have myself counted as a co-con.

Here's the incriminating evidence on their blog, The Night Feed.

I am, to be sure. so cool you don't know I'm cool. Of course, the problem with that is the part where nobody knows I'm cool; c'est la guerre, mon cher. But they do.

And the Big Fat Brain guys who rool my world? Oh, not much; just the subject of an article at Time magazine. You know, no big whoop.

Tags: Big Fat Brain, MyDamnChannel, Council of the Co-Cons

Powered by Qumana

[net_life] MyDamnChannel Reaches Out And Touches Me

1512. I've made a big sloppy unsecret of the fact that I am an enthusiastic consumer of content from MyDamnChannel.com, particularly the bit on the Big Fat Brain channel, which is the stupid-funniest thing I've seen on digital video in a long time.

Well, we have a date. A MDC operative got in touch with me via email today and invited me to what they're calling an inagural "Channel Co-con" meeting tomorrow at about noon. It's a get-together where we're all going to give our opinions of what we like, what works for us and thus-such on MDC.

Here's where it's getting interesting ... it's an online pizza party. MDC is located in New York, and with me square-in-the-middle of the creative class here in PDX, it's going to be hard to get a slice, particularly as I can't afford air-fare. So they're going to buy me a pizza too. Have one delivered to my address.

Seriously.  This is so insane it's unsane. And I got invited and you didn't, so, suck that.

BTW, the YSAP universe is getting extended with a new series, Sn4tchbuckl3r's Second Chance, also tomorrow on the Big Fat Brain Channel, so if you didn't get invited, don't cry. We'll get to see what happens to Donnie's friend, presumably (if I'm reading the ads correctly) in Peopleburg.

Tags: net_life, MyDamnChannel, Phebco, Big Fat Brain, Roger Leventhal, sn4atchbuckl3r

Powered by Qumana

[net_life] Found Object: Nobody Really Knows What I Need ...

1400. Is anyone else as tired of this as I am?:

No, not nececelery the mock websites that come up when you mistype a URL (my bestest blogroll exists in mein Kopf), but the tagline that you see all the time:

What you need, when you need it.

How do they figure I need Houses For Rent and Women Seeking Men?

Know what I need? something that realized I meant to type craigslist there, not craigstlist.

I mean, please, people ...

Tags: net_life, sarcasm, things that should die screaming

[net_life] Found Object: io9.com

1276. Just found this one; the Bad Astronony email update recommended this.

io9.com.

Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer, remarked that it is a ... :

newish blog-like thing with rapid-fire updates, gossip, and photos from the world of science fiction. It’s actually very cool, catering precisely to folks like me: science fiction fans who have grown up, take it semi-seriously, but like the occasional cup of snark. The writers clearly love (and are extremely intimate with) the genre and have lots of cool stuff on the blog (though they seemed to have liked the suckfest that was Pitch Black), and their insider info is impressive.

That's true. The first thing I found was a post about this B-minus 1980 dystopian bubblegummy thing called The Apple; imagine Logan's Run, add in pop music addiction and a thinly-done Faust as a subplot, subtract out all the dying-at-age-30 and stuff, and you just about had it. And there was snappy, sassy give-and-take about the movie that was fun to read.

Naturally I signed up. I won't be able to keep up, no, but I signed up. couldn't help it.

The tagline is Strung Out on Science Fiction. That it is, that it is.

Tags: io9.com, community websites, community blogs, science fiction, sci fi fandom

Powered by Qumana

[net_life] Good Podcasts

1109. With the addtion of an iPod (though be it used) to the real property hereabout, I have been getting into something I really really wanted to partake of, and that is, of course, podcasts.

I've always loved listening to the radio, and podcasts are like that – informative programs going in-depth about things I'm very interested in, in the people-talking-to-you format. When its well-done, it becomes like people you like chatting and you get to listen in.

There are a handful of podcasts that I listen to regularly, and they're dreadfully well-done (these are all available in the iTunes Store and can be searched for there by title):

• The Adobe Creative Suite Podcast
• DAS Film Fest
• InDesign Secrets
• Logo Design
• Onion News Network
• Porland Mercury Pod 'n' Vod, especially Pure Pod for Now People, which is fun enough that I wish that Magsy and Matt would do them twice a week.
• The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
• This American Life (yes, iPod ownership has made me one of those insufferable Ira Glass fans)
• TriMetTV (naturlich)

Of course, some of them are vodcasts, which means if you have one of the older non-video iPods you can't take them to-go, but if you have iTunes, you can watch them on your 'puter all the same.

Question to my handful of readers: do you have favorite podcasts? What's on your iPod (or iTunes, or iRiver, or whatever)?

Technorati Tags: podcasting

[net_life] Site Pal: Just Too Damn Creepy

1089. The bell/whistle known as "SitePal"–that little embed that will talk to you from a web page and follow your mouse cursor around–has, for a while now, been the definition to me of wretched excess.

In a way, in the web design view, I'm a "less is more" person. If I want someone to talk to me, I find a person. I don't want my web pages to talke to me.

Since in our world too much never seems to be enough anymore, SitePal hasn't rested on its laurels; they've given them shading and made them look even more animatronic–and kiiiiinda creepy, too. Check the illo. She–s'cuse me, it–looks Minnie Driver-ish. She even speaks in a soft British accent.

It would be kind of worth it if it let me cross its eyes by moving the mousing over the bridge of the nose, but no, it ain't playing that game no more.

And she's going to haunt my nightmares, I just know it.

Tags: Site Pal, web design

[net_life] Don't Go Breakin' Yer Own Arm There...

915. Jonah Goldberg gave me such an eye-roll that I nearly had to go to an emergency room today:

The short history of the Internet is already long enough to repeat itself. In dog years, I'm 288, but in Internet years, I'm Methuselah. I was the founding editor of National Review Online in 1998

Good on ya, there, fellah. I've had the same e-mail address since 1987.

If it makes you feel good to have been a content-creator since '98, though, more power to you.

(snort) Child. Whatever.

Technorati Tags: buffoonery

[net_life] More On The Phishers

910. The commenter in the very last entry had a very interesting thing to say about the current torrent of phishery that's infesting inboxes everywhere:

This email is actually generated by one of the latest variants of the Storm trojan.

So this is what comes of poor computer hygiene and less-than diligent antivirus measures (thanks for the tip. Colin).

Just out of curiosity, I clicked the link to see what site the link (which has so far always been the same or very similay IPv4 address beginning in 76.XXX.XXX.XXX) and I get the same thing–a bare notice that says "If you do not see our Secure Login Window, Please download our Secure Login Applet".

An .exe file about 44 KiB in size downloads. I did not run it, of course, (I couldn't–this is a Mac) but if they can get you to run this little program...this ought to be a condition in which the user can legally have thier computer taken away from them. Or maybe get a new one, say a Timex-Sinclair 1000 or someohing like that.

Technorati Tags: phishing,trojan,storm trojan,spam

[net_life] Phishing: They Never Give Up, The Idiots

909. Gratutious alarm: EMAIL SCAM! DO NOT CLICK ON OR REPLY TO ANY EMAIL LIKE THE BELOW. There. Duty done.

Sometimes we are amused at phishers and sometimes we want to find them and just b-slap them a lot, a bit. Two essentially identical emails make us feel about 50-50 today. Here's an exampe of one of them:

Welcome Member,

Thank You for Joining Pet World.

Confirmation Number: 995793712
Your Temp. Login ID: user2604
Temp Password ID: qp381

This Login Info will expire in 24 hours. Please Change it.

Follow this link, or paste it in your browser: http://no.effing.way.charlie/

Enjoy,
Membership Support Department
Pet World

Now, I know better than to run off and change my membership information at a site that I've never heard before and never actually regsitered for. Am I to understand that there are people who fall for this?

Very banal. Very evil. I suppose people need to be told not to do this thing. Fortunately, that's not my job, but hopefully I've done some sort of public service here; I know it sounds rude and obnoxious and brutal, but there are just some people who deserve to be taken in my that.

Technorati Tags: net_life,phishing,scams,online scams

[net_life] 2 Days Left to Let the FCC Have It

869. Just a friendly reminder: Anybody who cares about the state of the 'net as it is today–where you can go get whatever's out there without anybody diverting you away from it if its not what they don't want you to see or carving a few more dollars out of your tailbone for something that was planted with your tax dollars–has just two more days to comment at the FCC.

No matter who you are, no matter what you believe, if you're wired, you have a stake in this.

So do the right thing. Comment.

Tags: net neutrality, save the internet

[net_life] 3 Days Left To Tell It to The FCC

868. The public comment period on behalf of Net Neturality at the FCC is closing in three days. If you haven't told them your views yet, go and do it now–right now.

It's the right thing to do, and it only takes a few minutes to show support.

On the ol' tote board, which is divided into Congressional districts, there are 189 comments from my home district (OR-2, Blumenauer), but only 139 from OR-1 (Wu). What the hey, people? That's the most teched-up area Oregon has.

Personally, as a native Oregonian, I think we can do better than that.

C'mon people, it only takes a few minutes. Get on the stick and do the right thing. Comment in favor of Net Neutrality. (If you don't want to comment, at least sign the petition)

Tags: Net Neutrality, Save The Internet

[net_life] Net Neutrality: FCC Comment Period Closes in 4 Days...

866. Have you told your story yet?

Go do it now. It's the right thing to do.

It only takes a few minutes, yo.

Tags: Net Neutrality, Save The Internet

[net_life] It's Time to Save Net Neutrality-Again

862. I know. You'd of thought they'd paid attention the first time. But when it comes to money, honey, the big guys never have enough. They want more.

Net Neutrality means that one group of companies or individuals can't discriminate on the basis of content. It means that if there's something out there that I want to see on the net, I can go see it-and nobody can tell me no. It means I can attempt to build a business on the net.

The loss of Net Neutrality means that big players will eventually craft a two-(or more)tiered Internet–one for the content and users they like and who can afford it, and the rest for everyone else. No matter who you are or what you believe, I can't believe that you'd be down with someone else deciding what quality of service you have and making the decent stuff cost more–broadband isn't all that cheap and besides, if you're an American, your taxes planted the seed that created this big beautiful network of tubes. You at least deserve to use it without having someone tap you on the shoulder and ask for more money please.

The comment period to the FCC ends on 16 June–in five days. Go, right now, to this page as SaveTheInternet.com and tell your story. Mine's here. We must stand up and do what we can.

If you think it's all scare stories, take a look (cribbed directly from SaveTheInternet.com) at what telecoms have already done. Increase it. You like reading this, this, or even this (couldn't imagine why)? Do something now, speak the hell up, or this is your future:

Such corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent ideas that we've come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don't like:

• In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.
• In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.
• Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.
• In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

Now, go do the right thing. We haven't yet got 500 testimonies from Oregon; I should think the Silicon Forest can do better than that.

Now, for your matinee feature–brought to you by Net Neutrality.



Tags: net neutrality, save the internet

[net_life] The Thin Chipmunk

848 I have gathered you all together to name the killer....it's someone in this room...and it's...

YOU!

(I understand that if I don't post this, they take my blogging card away. So, at least I'm keeping up here).

And its actually a prairie dog, but who am I to poop the party?

And, also in course, whether you wanted it or not, it's been YTMND'd.

Tags: dramatic chipmunk, YTMND, viral video

[net_life] Silverton Redesigns Online Presence, Adds Information

845 My little town as stepped up its net-game.

Silverton, Oregon (birthplace...of me) had an adequate website up until just recently. But now, while probably not winning any design awards, has made itself more informative, easier to navigate, and just plain prettier.

The town, located about 15 miles east of Salem along Highway 213, has a website that now has Java-enabled menus and a new, more unified graphic approach. A sepia-tone predominates, which is appropriate for a town which trades, in large part, on its history as The Typical Oregon Small Town, and a quaint atmosphere, as befits Oregon's Garden City.

What I find interesting, given my public-transit bent, is that Silverton finally has one. The Silver Trolley. This is not a fixed-route service (Anyone of average hardiness could cross the majority of the town, still, in an hour) but rather a dial-a-ride service, operating Monday through Friday from 0830 to 1630...which, I am obliged to say, is a far sight better than I had in Silverton back when I was a neat thing, which is to say, no public transportation–at all.

There was the Silverton Taxi, a one-car operation that ran out of a one-room office on North Water Street across from the Palace Theater, that got me and my brothers home from a town adventure more than once, with bikes in the trunk...but that was pretty much it.

But the new site's worth a check out...http://www.silverton.or.us.

Tags: Silverton, Oregon Garden, webiste redesign

[net_life] No Matter How Small You Are, Some People Just Can't Resist Hatin' On You

843 In the course of blogging and creating content online, one encounters a great many people with different attitudes, different ways and standards of "playing well with others".

Herein, an expectation of something that happens to anyone who aspires to have a well-known name on the 'net; no matter how big a fish (or how small a fry) you are, there's going to be someone, somewhere, who takes one look at what you've done and cannot suppress the compulsion to smear your good name.

This, of course, is hardly a new discovery. BBS sysop after BBS sysop, and sitemaster after sitemaster, and blogger after blogger, have found this out. And, surprisingly, although my status in the bloggin o'sphere is hardly notable (sadly–I have worked to make myself a bit more admired than I'm getting), I have actually had mud slung my way more than once.

In my perambulations (real and virtual) in carving myself a niche in that lavalite world that is graphic design, I have had the extreme good fortune to make the acquaintance of Pariah S. Burke. This fellow, early on, saw something in me that sometimes I do not see in myself sometimes, and asked me to write something for a site he was starting, which I link to frequently perforce, Quark Vs InDesign. This has since increased into participation in Designorati.

Someone Farts in My General Direction

Recently, intrigued by a marketing campaign Denver-based Quark Inc. (the publisher of erstwhile DTP king QuarkXPress), I wrote an article about it on Quark Vs InDesign. Titled "Quark Gives You Its Top Ten", it recounted Quark's top ten reasons to upgrade. A continuted subtext is the Adobe-Quark layout competiton is "who's better?", a designation that can paradoxcially be equally subjective as well as objective: one application can be shown to work better than another, however, one's view of whether functions serve them could mean the qualitatively-better app is not the quantitatively-better app.

Or, put in simpler terms, something mustn't only work, it must also "work for you" (or maybe "work with you"). Parenthetically, this is one reason why I think software developers add so many features–the more features they give you, the more ways there are to do a thing, the more likely you'll find that way that suits you. But I'm digressing here.

Anyway, I posted the article and it began to fade into the background of recent history. Eventually, some commenter attached one that wondered where someone could find more information on the differences between Quark and InDesign. A couple of follows ensued, and then comment number four was posted.

Apparently There's A Pox Upon My House. Hopefully It's Just A Small One.

The comment began thusly:

The first thing to do is go to a more impartial site, If you want hard facts, it’s very hard to get from this site, more of an Adobe backed marketing tool, so very good for getting details on the CS suite but not for DTP tool market comparison.

That bothered me a little. I'm not so young that I can simply look upon an obvious smear of the good name I've worked hard to craft online and not wince just a little. Someone from somewhere (I know not and care not who and where), not knowing me or anything about me, sees fit to impugn my honesty, no doubt because they think that little, still-trying-to-find-design-work me, have been beating unfairly up on poor, multi-million-dollar-income-having-multinational Quark, Inc.

Well, really, you can't stop someone from thinking fool thoughts. And Pariah has taken pains to encourage me to let things roll off my back in this wise; and, to be sure, I was quite ready to do so here. I say this in all truth–despite my extremely mere stature as a design/tech pundit, I actually have been perceived as a secret-Adobe-backing-having syncophant.

I like putting the word "having" on the back of those silly word contstructions. Me think it funny! Anyway.

I let it go, as I said. I'm bigger than that; that I would not myself leave such a remark proves me a better person (also that I'm not including his name in this here missive, and will not). But, apparently not happy with making the slander once, it's made again. Scrolling down to comment number 6, I find the comment ending with the following bon mot:

From what I see the US is behind in seeing this due to the Adobe marketing machine, this website is a classic example. Only provide the information needed to get the result you want, and that’s the results that is the most profitable for the individual. They look for where there pay day is coming

Spelling mistakes are all the posters (as well as the lack of a full-stop at the end of the 'graf).

They say sticks and stones may break one's bones and names will never hurt them. Not true. This hurt. For me to be struggling at what I really want to do and to still have to live with the fact that there are apparently people who are so sure that everyone has a hostile ulterior motive that I would sell the one thing I do have that's truly valuable online–my integrity and honesty–that really wounded.

Well, I'm not necessarily one to bicker online, but due to a number of centrifugal forces in my own life, I was compelled to respond. I did so via email. Not surprisingly, no response. I don't really expect one. To be honest, I don't think I'd really know what to do if one came, but I'm not worrying over that point.

My pay day? I wish. I'd say that my life is withal best exemplified by a remark made by a character in Norman Sprinrad's Bug Jack Barron: The saddest day of your life isn't when you decide to sell out. The saddest day of your life is when you decide to sell out and nobody wants to buy.

One of the happy things of my current life is, as a member of the media (shirttail or otherwise), I am accorded the privilege of receiving software for reviewing purposes, of course. It is a right I've earned, however, just as surely as any wage, and I believe the reason I've earned it is, in major part, because I write well and with insight, and when I present myself as a reviewer, I produce reviews. This is standard practice in reviewery.

And, for what it's worth, I think my reviews are damn' good ones.

A Manifesto, of Sorts

I write this not necessarily to moan and whine and complain or get sympathy (although I will once again remind everyone that I'm not above begging; I need a job doing design for someone, I know QuarkXPress, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, etc...this has been a message from our sponsor, who needs to pay his bills) (and sympathy don't hurt, let's be honest), although it is, I suppose a note of complaint.

Well, I'm entitled. This is my 'blog, after all. And one of the unspoken missions of it is to chronicle my growth as a designer, in whatever form that takes. And, to be honest and true, it really ought to chronicle, to some degree, the ups as well as the downs, and the successes as well as the failures.

This is probably the most honest entry I've ever done. It reveals a little more about me and my feelings than I'm comfortable doing, but I feel like I'm gaining from it, and it's an account I'm compelled to write.

As far as the slights against my character and the content of Quark Vs InDesign, I can now let those go. It hopefully need not be said that they are patently false; moreover, I feel no need to defend myself against an accusation someone should have known better than to make.

And this isn't a defense. It's more of a manifesto.

Above all, all content I create for Quark Vs InDesign (as well as Designorati) is driven by the experiences I've had with what I'm doing. That goes for any experience I have with QuarkXPress as well as any experience I have using any part of Adobe Creative Suite.

I stand by everything I've said on both sites. They were uttered in the service of honesty, and when you write for network consumption, honesty (and its particle aspect, integrity) is the only commodity you have that is really worth having.

That's why I post as I actually am, in name and in deed; what you see with me is what you get.

If, on the other hand, if nothing but praise for your sacred cow is what you want to see...sorry. Can't help you out there. If I have to take my lumps, so do you. C'est la vie.

Tags: Samuel John Klein, blogging, writing, reviewing