After months of being derided for a relatively small amount of space (100 MB of iDisk space, 15 MB of mail space), Apple has finally bumped up the space for .Mac to 250 MB combined (which you can allocate in any way you see fit).
I’ve been waiting for this for some time now. I use a .Mac address as my main one and some other services for other stuff. The main reason for this was that 15 MB wasn’t enough to keep all my mail for all time on the server. As a result, I use Gmail for all my mailing lists. Now I can rethink this and maybe use one address for everything.
At any rate, with the increased space, integration with OS X and Apple applications (such as iPhoto), free goodies and discounts, and of course new features coming in Tiger (such as preference syncing), .Mac is finally coming into its own as a well-priced, full-featured service.
Thanks to Python and Google supplied SOAP API’s, you can now access the Google cache for any site here. I’m only allowed a thousand access per day, so if this gets popular, it may stop working later in the day.
Enjoy!
I love keeping track of my favorite news sources in NetNewsWire by using RSS feeds. However, a lot of stuff I read is still distributed via email. This isn’t too much of pain with a mail client that does threading or Gmail.
That said, it’s not nearly as convenient as using NetNewsWire (or your favorite RSS reader). The solution? It’s a neat, new, novel, free idea called dodgeit. There are no passwords or setup involved, but it’s easy to sign up and you instantly have RSS access to email there. This is perfect for mailing lists whose content can be publicly accessed by anyone. It can even be used by mailing list administrators to instantly add RSS access. Nifty!
The service was originally designed to be used for throwaway addresses, but I think this use is even better.
We’ve now reached a time where most people are fairly computer savvy. However, despite knowing how most of the parts of a computer interact and work, the units are still seemingly impossible to master. Let’s review shall we?
Hard drives and memory are measured in storage units. They based upon the unit byte (which is in turn 8 bits). A long, long, long (did I mention long?) time ago, hard drives were measured in MB (megabytes). Once they reached one thousand megabytes (or 1,024 depending on how anal you are), they started measuring them in GB (gigabytes). This has been true for the better part of a decade. It’s time to force yourself to type GB. As for memory, most people don’t get this wrong yet. Most users still have less than 1 GB and as such, will refer to it in MBs.
CPU speed is measured in cycles per second, or hertz. Formerly, hertz were measured in mega units, or MHz. Again, once computers reached a thousand hertz, the units were gigahertz (GHz). When you compare your old 500 MHz computer and your new “1 MHz” computer, you sound like a complete moron. Get it right.
Finally, bandwidth is measured in bits per second (bps). This can be preceded by K (kilo) or M (mega). Read a guide on unit prefixes to figure this out.
The whole thrust of this rant is that units are not hard. Don’t write down specifications if you can’t be bothered to know what the units involved are, because if you can’t manage those, then you probably don’t have a handle on their significance.
Lately Google has been really generous with invitations to their free email service. I keep getting back up to maximum six invites, almost as fast as I can give them out. If you are interested, leave a comment.
Please make some kind of case for it if I don’t already know you. Saying “Please stranger, I really want one” is not a way to endear yourself to me.
