Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

Well my Gmail account is finally back up. Actually, it was back up as of yesterday morning around 4:30am Eastern. In this post I’m going to write up my experience in hopes of convincing you that Google is not infallible and that it is important to have backups and other means of communication.

Tuesday 11/07/2006 : Gmail First Goes Down.

I woke to find that I no longer had access to my Gmail account. I wasn’t too worried as servers always have issues and it usually doesn’t take long to fix. I was also reassured that it was a server problem when I found out that other people I know who have Gmail were also experiencing issues. I emailed the Google Team just in case.

Later on in the day my friends’ Gmail account came back online while mine was still down. What was really confusing is the fact that all my other Google services were working fine.

Wednesday 11/08/2006 : Gmail Still Down

I spent another full day without access to my Gmail account. After exchanging a few emails with Google Support I still didn’t have any resolution although they did tell me that their engineers were working hard on the problem.

Thursday 11/09/2006 : Gmail Comes Back Up

I woke up at 6:30am Eastern to find that my account access had been restored. Unfortunately I’ll never know if I lost any email.

I emailed the support team to find out what the issue was. The only answer I received was that it wasn’t caused by anything I had done. I was hoping for a little bit more than that simple brush off. Maybe they will email me back about it.

The Important Realization

After this whole debacle I came to an important realization - I have been relying on Google way too much. All of my email, over 1GB worth, was in their hands. Only in their hands. If something major happened all of that email would be lost. All the personal messages from my girlfriend and my ex-girlfriends. All the emails from my friends and family. Bill confirmations, software registrations. Everything would be gone, two years of my digital history lost.

This is a problem and not just for me. It is a problem for almost everyone on the Internet. How many people create backups of the data that they leave in the safe keeping of these corporations? We use services for our email, our bookmarks, our spreadsheets, our documents, our financial statements. How much important data do you let someone else keep safe? How would you feel if it all suddenly disappeared?

As our lives turn more digitized this issue is going to keep arising and we need to find a way to protect ourselves. In the end I think it comes down to making backups. Unfortunately this too has problems. On site or off site? CD/DVD media or tape? What format should I store the data in? A proprietary MS format or something open source? Think of how many 8-track players you’ve seen in your lifetime and you’ll realize how important format can be.

Right now I don’t have the answers, I just have unanswered questions. The only thing I know for sure is that I will be making backups and I want my paper statements.

Well it has been over 24 hours since my Gmail account has been disabled.  I say disabled because everyone else I know can log into their account without an issue.  I’ve tried using my Treo 650, my home computer, my laptop and someone else’s laptop.  I’ve tried three different internet connections.  All to no avail.

I emailed Google last night about my dilemma and they responded asking me the following questions:

1) What browser version are you using? Please specify the exact version.
(In Internet Explorer, use ‘About Internet Explorer’ in the Help menu.)
2) Which Internet security, firewall, anti-virus or pop-up blocking software is installed on your computer, if any?
3) Which browser extensions or toolbars are installed, if any?
4) Do you experience this issue when logging in to your account from another browser? Mozilla Firefox is available for free download at: http://www.mozilla.org/products
5) When did this problem last occur? Please include the date and time (including time zone) so our engineers can pinpoint the incident.

I immediately responded and a few hours later I received another email asking me if the issue has been resolved.  I replied letting them know that it wasn’t.

This is really getting me down.  Is all of my email lost?  What about messages that have been sent to me since I started having problems?
I’ve been a huge fan of Google for a long time and this is really starting to change my opinion of them.  So please Google, get on the ball and fix my issue so I can start liking you again!

I consider myself to be a Google Fan Boy. I love GMail, Google Calendar, Google Documents, etc, etc. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to access my GMail account all day! I’ve tried POP access, other computers, different Internet connections and even my cell phone.  Talk about annoying. I emailed Google earlier this afternoon and I’m hoping to hear from them soon.

What really irks me is that everyone I know can log into their account without problem. People I work with, people in nearby cities, and people all around the country can log in. It seems that it is an account specific problem which makes me curious about my data - is it still there?

Coincidentally Ars Technica has an article titled The Pros and Cons of Central Storage. It is an article that definitely fits my situation.

Recently Verizon Wireless announced a sale on the Motorola Q - it was only $99 after all the rebates.

When the Q first arrived on the market I was unimpressed. The lack of a touchscreen turned me off and I have been a user of the Palm OS for about 8 years so moving to Windows Mobile wasn’t too appealing. But because of its sexy form factor and its small price tag I figured I would give it a shot.

The new phone lasted about a 1.5 days before I decided it wasn’t for me. First off, I couldn’t find any software that allowed me to sync directly with Microsoft Money. Even Microsoft didn’t have an application that was compatible with WM 5!

The next reason I didn’t keep the Q was because I kept missing calls. People would try my cell a few times and then call my apartment. The source of the problem, as I see it, was that I had some running process that was preventing my phone from ringing. Once I shut down those processes, the phone would ring. I don’t know which process it was or why it would cause such a problem, but it did. This issue could’ve been caused by my inexperience with Windows Mobile devices, but there was no way I was going to keep the phone if I had to worry about the applications I was running causing a problem with me receiving calls.

Another reason why I didn’t like the Q was the fact that it lacked a touch screen. I found myself time and again reaching for a stylus that wasn’t there. Again, I’m a heavy Palm user so I’m used to a touch screen. The scroll wheel was nice, even though its located on the right side of the device and I’m a lefty, but I wish it had a touch screen also.

Here are the things I like about the device:

• Crystal Clear Screen. The screen is beautiful and sharp.
• Small form factor. The phone didn’t weigh much at all and it was so thin.
• Sound. The sound quality was superb.
• Bluetooth. I’ve been using Bluetooth for about 2 years now and I love it. But this phone has great Bluetooth range. With my Treo 650 I can’t walk more than 10feet away before I hear static. Also, the Q supports audio! My ringtones would play over the headset and they sounded great!
• Voice Recognition. The Q comes installed with voice recognition software that worked pretty well. Even the name “Charing” (LYJC), which most VR applications mangle, was recognized by the VR software on the Q.

All things considered, the Q is a nice phone it just wasn’t for me. I’m hoping that Palm realizes the amazing draw the Q has and comes up with something similar. Until then I’ll stick with my faithful, although brick like, Treo 650.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of windows open at any given time. As a developer I have Dreamweaver, an FTP client, IE, Firefox, JDeveloper and countless other windows open at once. In order to save time I normally keep certain windows minimized to the same location on the task bar which saves me time when I need to open them again. Or it could just be becuase I’m odd. In any case sometimes I accidentally close a window and it goes to the end of the list which is not where I want it.

Enter Taskbar Shuffle. It’s a great little program that allows you to drag and drop windows to any point on your task bar. Check it out.

I’ve recently, within the past month or so, wanted to find a program that would sync my Treo 650 with MS Money 2005. After much searching I’ve found only one program that will do so - Ultrasoft Money. Although to program seems to be pretty solid the price point of $39.95 seems a little to high for me. Especially since I purchased MS Money from Sam’s Club for only $19.99!

Being the penny-pincher I am I emailed the company to see if 1) They were running any specials and 2) Why they felt that the program was worth $39.95. To be fair, $39.95 is not too terrible a price but it’s $20 more than the PC version so I’m reluctant to purchase it. At least I’m reluctant to purchase it without a fight.

I was once in sales myself, for 4 years as a matter of fact, so I know the difficulties of selling and I’ve had quite a few people ask me those same two questions. So I figure that any salesman worth his salt would answer, and should be able to answer, those questions. Apparently this isn’t the case of the salesman I exchanged emails with.

Will I purchase the software? Probably. Will I email someone else at the company to let them know my displeasure? Most definatly.

For your amusement, here are the emails that were exchanged. I’ve removed any identifiable information.

I wrote:
Greetings. I’ve been a Microsoft Money user for about 2 years now and
I’ve recently decided to try out your Money product and it works great.
Unfortunately I find the $39.95 price point to be pretty expensive
since I can buy the PC version of MS Money for $25.00. What makes
your product so much more expensive? Is there any discount I can apply for?

Thank you.

They wrote:

Hi,
Sorry, we are not offering any discounts at the moment.
You might keep an eye on PalmGear.com and Handango.com. They offer discounts from time to time.

Salesman
Ultrasoft Limited
http://www.ultrasoft.com

I wrote:

Salesman -

Thank you for your reply but you didn’t answer my other question.

(Excerpt from my original email)
Unfortunately I find the $39.95 price point to be pretty expensive
since I can buy the PC version of MS Money for $25.00. What makes
your product so much more expensive?

Thanks.

- Zack

They wrote:

Sorry, but I really don’t see the point in getting into a pricing debate. If, after trying it out, you don’t think
it’s worth the price, then you should not purchase it.

Salesman
Ultrasoft Limited
http://www.ultrasoft.com

I wrote:

Salesman -

Most people, especially those in sales, like to point out why their product is worth the price they’re charging.

- Zack

I still haven’t received a response from Salesman. I’m hoping he’ll feel the need to address my question. In the mean time I’ll have to sit down and write up a review of their product. I’ll probably do that while flying this week.

Wow - I’m surprised I’ve never thought of this …

When Stan Bubrouski decided to sign up with vText from Verizon he wanted to be different, so registered with “null” as his username. Cool you say. But I bet most people reading my blog are thinking to themselves - “Uh Oh.”

Since most of my readers are programmers they instantly realize what could happen. User sends a text message but forgets to enter a “To:” address. When a “null” value is put into a String, it is outputted as the word “null.” Therefore, Verizon will send the message to, you guessed it: null@vtext.com. Poor Mr. Bubrouski.

Anyway, E-Week has all the details in an article titled Who’s Reading Your Cell’s Text Messages?.

Introducing the Rundfunker, another interesting project that I came across on Hack-A-Day.

There’s a great article over on IT Toolbox. The article is called Technologist Manifesto…, or Things Everyone in IT Should Know.

Although I’ve only been professionally involved in IT for about two years the author hits pretty close to home. He points out things that I’ve caught myself doing and things that I’ve witnessed senior developers doing. It’s a great read. Check it out.

I don’t have much comment on cell phone taxes. Maybe it’s bad that I’m just rolling over but what can one really do? The leaders of our states really don’t care about issues. They’re worried about how to pay for things, whether those “things” are truly needed or not is beyond the scope of this entry. There are very few ways to pay for things: levying new taxes or cutting back on something else.

Unfortunatly cell phone users seem to be a favorite target for these new taxes. Want to get around it? Check out this article on Forbes: How To Duck Cell Phone Taxes .
And if you’re the activist, email-your-congressman sort check out Stop Adding to my Bill!.