by steelie -

The Homepage Gets a Facelift… Oh, goody…

I have to say that I’m not really a fan of the new approach to the VOX Home-page…

I’m really missing the Recent Comments and the old format… I mean, the new content has value too but the previous iteration was customised to me and my neighbourhood. Now, “my” VOX Home-page shows me more or less what VOX has chosen for me to see.

I feel that the current state of the Home-page is better suited for the Explore page… in fact, it would be perfect for the Explore page. People would immediately get an overview of highlighted posts and images, see what the recent favourites are and scroll through the most recently listed posts.

I know others will dissagree but I greatly preferred the set-up the way it was before the facelift.

Of course, the ultimate would to offer multiple modules that people could choose from to customise their Home-page to be how they wished… similar to LiveJournal’s “portal” page.

VOX, why fix something when it’s not broken… of if you are going to change something, why not adding enhancements or modifying things slightly instaed of removing almost all of what everyone is used to seeing.
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steelie

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by steelie -

Blinklife…

If anyone has tried the online-bookmark-managing services of Blinklist, by MindValley,then you may already be familiar with BlinkLife by the same company. It is an email/blog combo service that will “change the way you communicate…” I signed up to test it out.

The service boast an impressive unlimited amount of space, 100% Spam and Virus Proof “email”, video and picture embedding (no attachements) with Blog Integration. That's right, you can embed your video clips from any (any I've tested anyhow) online video hosting services — not just YouTube and Google Video, but other lesser known and better quality services like DropShots, VideoEgg and Vimeo, just to name a few.

Now, I'm trying to find a way to create a family blog where I can invite only certain people (family) to read certain blog entries (which BlinkLife lets me do). However, when I send people email-notifications from my BlinkLife site, people are directed from sent email to my linked “username.blinklife.com” they only get to see the most recent post associated with their name and not all previous posts that have been previously sent to them. Or, at least, this is all my tests have been able to produce.

Here is a scenario that, I hope, illustrates what I am attempting to do:
Let's say I have two groups of contacts. Group A has Scott, Stephen, Marc, and Michelle and Group B also has Michelle and Marc, plus Julien, Gerald, and Thomas. If I send a “post” to Group A, Scott, Stephen, Marc and Michelle will get this message. If I then send a “post” to Group B, Michelle, Marc, Julien, Gerald and Thomas would get the second message. Also If I post a general message to the “blog” anyone and everyone can read it. I understand all of this, however, at this point I would expect Michelle and Marc to be able to see both the first and second “posts” they were sent, AND be able to see the general message that was posted. I would expect this because both messages were associated with their names and the general post is associated with nobody’s and everybody’s name.

What I understood, when I signed up, is that BlinkLife could remember who you sent the individual “posts” to and that every time they clicked on another message-link they were sent, they would always be able to see ALL email/posts that were ever sent to them AND any general messages that were posted — almost like BlinkLife could generate a custom list of “recent entries” for each person that was invited to read a message.

Ultimately it would be great to have different groups of people or individuals, able read different combinations of “recent entries” — which LiveJournal, for example, can do — without the need for everyone to create an account — which LiveJournal, for example, cannot do. Or, maybe, BlinkLife could create an option that would allow people to create “Read/Comment -only” accounts so they don't have to go through the messiness of creating a Blog account if all they want to do is keep up-to-date with what their family members have been up to. This way it would be easy to add the people with the “Read/Comment -only” accounts to a friends list. So far, in my tests, people who have a BlinkLife account CAN see a custom list of “posts” associated with their account and a “Read/Comment -only” option would allow to happen easier. Of course they would always have the option to upgrade to a full BlinkLife “blog/email” whenever they wanted to. 😉

So far, I really like what I see but, unless I'm doing something wrong, the service just seems to missing something for me get into it completely.

Now my fingers are tired and it's late here. I hope it all made sense. BTW, Blinklist is great — all of your bookmarks available all the time… Nice!

Cheers
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steelie

UPDATE (Okay… so it's not really an update because it's being written at the same time the original entry is… What? Okay, fine…)
AFTERTHOUGHT (…happy?)
LiveJournal should create the option for people to create “Read/Comment -only” accounts for all the good reasons listed above… Maybe this should be put in their suggestion box. Oh, and a pull down menu for tags associated with my account… yeah, that'd be cool too.

G'night
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steelie

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by steelie -

Gmail Alternatives…

Gmail Alternatives…

mood: contemplative

So, now I'm using IceRocket almost exclusively for my Web searching. The more I use it, the more I like it. I am, however, having issues with finding a suitable Gmail replacement. I'm sure I've spent way too much time looking for the perfect one but I'm not sure if it exists.

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Hmmm, I apologise, before I go too far I should correct myself… I do still use Google on occasion. But only to search for Google alternatives. They do still return the most results and it only seems appropriate that Google be the search engine that frees me from using their services. 🙂
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Www.noluv4google.com is keeping a running tab of all those who have "dumped" Google and moved on to better relationships. I have yet to sign up because I have been hanging onto my Gmail account trying to find the best alternative so I don't make the transition to another place and loose some important, potentially irreplaceable information (it involves company email addresses and other messiness). So far, I have found a number of alternatives, but none that capture all of the main features that I rely on the Gmail account for: POP3/IMAP, webmail, the ability to send and receive large attachments, mulitple accounts/identities, SPAM blocking, a generous amount of storage and, oh right, it's free.

Some of the most popular/reccommended Gmail alternatives that keep coming up are Walla.com (2 GB), Fastmail.fm (10 MB with free account), Runbox.com (10 GB for $49.95 US / year), and Spymac.com (1 GB email storage, 1 GB webspace). All of these are praised by a number of different people but fall short of what Gmail provided.

Walla.com does have the hefty 2 GB email storage, however, it has only a very basic interface and does not let you control any preferences at all. Plus, I was unable to attach a file to send. No POP, no multiple accounts… no thanks.

Fastmail.fm seems to come recommended by a number of people but it only has a number of features if you shell out $40 US / year. The free account only comes with 40 MB of storage space and very few of the features I'm looking for (no large attachments here). Plus if you don't access it for 45 days the close the account.

Runbox.com does not offer a free account, only a free trial. It has a huge 10 GB email account and claims to offer all of the features that I'm looking for. The problem is that the trial version does not seem to let you have access to all of the features so it's difficult to test anything. And maybe I'm stingy but I'm not shelling out money for something that I can't be be sure will work.

Spymac.com seems like one of the better candidates, however, it does not allow multiple accounts/identities. It looks like it might if I upgrade to their CLUB package but, again, Me stingy. Other than that, worth checking out.

I found an email service provider called 30gigs.com which looked promising given the fact that it offers a free 30 GB account and does allow for multiple identities. However, it does not offer POP/IMAP, nor was I able to successfully attach any files to send. Oh right, there's a mountain of ads to have to deal with. [sigh]

Another one I discovered from the list at Www.noluv4google.com is Aventuremail.co.uk/. It offers a 5 GB account for a one-time $5.95 fee. It offers POP and multiple ID's but I'm not sure about attachment size. Also, when you attach a file, there is currently no way to remove it if you change your mind.

The best online email service I have found is Inbox.com. It has everything I'm looking for except for multiple accounts/IDs. Unfortunately, for this reason alone I may not use it. Which is too bad because everything else about it is so perfect by comparison. If you don't care much about multiple ID's this is where I would start and finish looking. Plus it gives you a great email address too — yourname@inbox.com.

Either way, It's well past my bed time. I haven't found the perfect free replacement yet, but I'll keep looking. I'm actually strongly considering registering my own Domain name with someone that'll offer a free webmail account with it.

We'll see…

Good night.
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steelie

[UPDATE]
Inbox.com now has everything I’ve been looking for plus they’ve increased their email space to 5 GB, which can also be used to store music, photos and other files. Very happy…
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steelie

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