No, not this one:
Hope this one works out better than that one.
My personal Great Leap Forward: I finally sucked it up and signed up for DSL from SWCP. Yay!
The Heartbreak of Dialup shall soon be healed!
Of course it’ll bring with it sundry attendant hassles. Sigh. I look forward to much arduousness getting email addresses switched. And of course I’ll overlook one or too vital ones, causing unending wrangles.
One upshot of that is that I’m looking to mostly go to addresses unlikely to change. Such as, belatedly, switching my correspondence to my domain. (My first name plus my domain name will definitely be in play, for those with wisdom to read what is written. Which hopefully excludes spambots.)
I’m also thinking of using gmail. Specifically for business. I have a couple reservations about that. First, what to put on my business card? It’d make sense to use the address above for that, yes? Also, given Google‘s recent propensity to identify the entire Web as a Mutant Enemy (which name links two of my obsessions in one!) I’m leery of trusting them. In general I’m highly dubious of putting all my eggs in any cloud-tenuous Web 2.0 baskets.
Also, they spy on you. There’s that.
So recommendations are solicited, with thanks in advance.
And anyway: yay! Broadband soon!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Yay!
I use and like Gmail, as you know. As far as the spying, I content myself that they’re spying for purposes of greed, which is a wonderful force that makes everyone better off, not for purposes of power lust (which is more or less the opposite).
As far as the malware snafu, well, if you try to do something about the malware on the Interwebs, shit’s occasionally going to go wrong.
I think a lot/most of the google-bashing is because they’re so clearly #1 in their industry. America seems to have a problem with commercial success, but we all want to be rich. D’oh!
Seriously, you’re going to enjoy DSL.
L
You’re gonna love high speed. The only real disadvantage to broadband is that once you’ve had it, you won’t be able to go back.
As far as email service goes, I’d still recommend gmail.
Google is theoretically not looking at the contents of your email. (Their motto is “Don’t be evil.”) But really there’s a chance that someone could look at your mail no matter what service you use, so I tend to go by features.
On that front, Google really stands out.
They give you something like 6GB of space on their servers to store your mail.
They have a pretty good web interface (which is a plus to me if I need to check my personal email at work).
If you don’t like using a web interface, they also support POP mail (for free!) so you can use any email client you like.
They have excellent spam filters too.
Finally, since the gmail account isn’t tied to your service provider, you’d never need to change it (perfect for your business card as you said).
My 2c anyway.
Steve, thanks for pointing out that basically *everyone* can spy on your mail, as long as it’s unencrypted. I shoulda said that.
And you’re right, there’s no going back. But for most of us, I think that’s true all the way back to 1200 baud…
L
Thanks, Steve & Larry! And thanks to Steve for joining in.
You two ought to get to know each other.
I know Google’s slogan says, “Don’t be evil”: it’s just that more and more these days these seem to neglect the “don’t.”
As for using a gmail address for a business card, excellent point, of course. My real concern, which might seem silly, is that if I’ve got (and am actively pimping) my victormilan.com domain, wouldn’t it be odd to put on a business card.
Aside from that I admit I’m inclining toward gmail for business for the reason it wouldn’t need to change if/when I change ISPs again; and while the domain won’t either, gmail would presumably still be available even if something ran off the rails with the domain. Which I don’t anticipate; I like to be prepared for that which I can foresee and prepare for.
In any events, thanks for the most cogent counsel. I’ll think on it.
And, Larry, I’ll study and implement the blog and website suggestions you made when I’m a little more out from under.
Oh – and Steve: how did you contrive to get your exceedingly cute kitten avatar to show up on your posts?
I think WordPress is tied in with Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar) which I signed up for ages ago just for kicks.
Okay, WTF? The world is not filled with people named Victor Milan. When I try to sign on with gmail they tell me VictorMilan isn’t available as a username, nor is Victor.Milan, and suggest such monstrosities as “vmvictormilan04″ and “milan.victormilan.victor657″. That ain’t goin’ on a business card.
Is there such a thing as gmail cybersquatting? Not that I imagine I’m famous enough to attract much in that line. Still I find this both weird and aggravating.
Steve => Gravatar, eh? Thanks!
Victor:
You should use your victormilan.com domain for your bizcard email – it’s (in theory at least) the most permanent and portable of your email addresses. How does that work, BTW? Do they forward it somewhere or do they run a mailserver for you as part of your Webpage hosting? With whom are you hosting VictorMilan.com? (there goes all my geek cred… I shouldn’t even have to ask….)
L
Let us know when your broadband is up & running. Got a few pictures of Billy & the Boys at the Crosstime (not to mention Cross-Universe) Party in Bethlehem I’ve been holding back on sending to you via your dial-up.
- M. \”/