Gmail as a scrapbook of the internet.

Gmail as a scrapbook of the internet.

Ever found a great article on a subject that you want to save complete with
pictures. And you want to save it for the long term. You can build your own
personal library with Gmail and the Google toolbar.

Yes a toolbar. The Google toolbar has many uses, but to keep it simple we'll
focus on one feature. A feature powerful thing that sometimes gets lost in
the jungle of options. So here it goes.

Optional

If you don't like the Google Toolbar and want to end up with a clean
interface follow the following steps:
The following example of course deals with Firefox, like most of my
articles.

1. Install the Google Toolbar. Click on View Menu | Toolbars | Customize
2. Instead of using the Customize Toolbar dialog, direct your attention to the Google Toolbar and locate the "send to" icon
3. Drag this icon to be a part of your links Toolbar.
4. Then close the dialog. Click on View Menu | Toolbars and uncheck the
5. Google Toolbar.

Now you have a clean system again with the exception of the new send to icon.

Usage

Now when you see anything on any webpage you want to save.

1. Highlight and click the icon.
2. Select Gmail.
3. Put your email address.
4. Click send

That is it. You can also skip the highlight and simply click on the "send
to" icon and send the whole page. Now you have a permanent copy in your
massive Gmail account quickly searchable for your convenience.

You can also skip the highlight and simply click on the "send to" icon and
send the whole page.

Advanced (optional)

What I do is create a filter which activates any time an email contains
aStar or astar. It then archives, labels it as an "a Article" and adds a
star to it. Reason for "a" is a strategy I use to sort labels not only
alphabetically, but also by attention priority. My top labels have an "a" in
front with a space. When I'm done reading the article I take off the star.
Using letter prefixes is more convenient on an iPhone than having to switch
keyboards for special characters.

Convenience

You can archive more than just the Internet this way. You can email yourself
pictures you take on the road business cards and the like. Just tag them as
you email them. Not only with the "astar" operator but with key words such
as "John Smith Business card." If you forget to tag, reply to that picture
with the key words as body or subject. That will create a conversation which
is searchable.

Updated my new site!

Just finished doing my first weekly update to my webpage! Check it out. I always get questions from people and always wished I could do more than give them a quick answer. So this site is dedicated to helping new people unfamiliar with technology. I'll update weekly and I'm sure it will soon grow to a healthy resource for everyone wanting to actually use technology and not just learn about it.

www.TechnologyManual.com

Understanding the iPhone

The iPhone is misunderstood. I can never think of the iPhone as a phone. It is a mobile computing tablet which can also make phone calls. There is a distinction there which gets lost by the way its being marketed and the way that is being perceived. If you don’t plan to use internet or email and are not at all a computer user, do not purchase it. The iPhone is not a phone.

Why I bought an iPhone.

Battery Life

I bought the iPhone cause I wanted a mobile computer which had a great screen, smooth performance, and above all had to have a marathon battery life. After using and testing ultra-portable and micro laptops one things was common within all of them. Very poor battery life. Two hours was the average though you could squeeze some more minutes if you did this and that.

Practicality

Aside from battery life practicality had a great deal of weight in the decision making. I want it to fit in my pocket because I am not the type who likes to carry around a backpack everywhere I go. Its not very socially acceptable to pull out your laptop at every restaurant to do some web searching, check email, and view some video podcasts. Even if it were the annoyance of booting up a Vista or any other operating system to do a quick internet search or email check is comparable to watching paint dry. The iPhone for that most part has instant On.

Connectivity

Laptops need a wifi hotspot to surf the web. If there were numerous places that offered free wifi, maybe there would have been an argument for the laptop. The operative word there is free. That, is still very rare, but even if you found one, the iPhone can connect to it too and give you the broadband surfing with it. The iPhone allows you to not worry about connectivity. Go to whatever restaurant you like, heck go to the park and surf the internet, check your email, and see last night’s NBC news on podcast.

I'm at the auction!

Truck is registered now the long boring part of camping out till it
starts 3 hours from now!

Athens

First Fire

So I am working on my project to share my views and methodology of technology use as well as new ideas to be less stressed and more effective through the more utilitarian use of common practices as applied on a practical daily activity.