Gmail: finally perfect

I use Google’s Gmail for mailing lists I’m subscribed to, for the following reasons:

• This keeps mail from mailing lists out of my main mailbox so I’m not distracted when I’m only interested in important (urgent) mail.
• It provides a lot of space – currently 2.8 GB. I’m currently using 11% – so I don’t have to worry about deleting any mail.
• This means if I see something interesting on one of the mailing lists, I don’t have to worry about bookmarking it or finding it again – I just archive it in the confidence that I can search for it again. (Assuming I can remember that it ever existed…)

Whenever I come across a mail that doesn’t particularly interest me, I archive it straight away. However, when this mail gets replies from other list participants it comes back to my Inbox. It seemed the only way to get it to disappear permanently was to create a filter for that subject – quite a few steps and not really worth doing. It’s easier to just hit ‘y’ and archive the thread when it comes back to my Inbox.

Finally however I learned a better trick:

How can I mute (ignore) a conversation?

If you’re subscribed to a mailing list, you’ve no doubt been subjected to the ‘thread that just won’t die!’ If you’re part of a long message conversation that isn’t relevant, you can ‘mute’ the conversation to keep all future additions out of your inbox.

By using the ‘m’ shortcut key, new messages added to the conversation bypass your inbox so that the conversation stays archived. If your address appears in the to or cc field, though, the conversation will pop back into your inbox ready for your attention.

This is very handy, especially for the CLUG lists.

Unfortunately, despite my optimistic title, Gmail would only be perfect if there were no privacy concerns – however for mailing lists, which are public anyway, I am now happier!

Toddler-friendly phone?

I came across this review of the Motorola V3x phone, which has some rather weird use of English:

You just need to shift the toddler on the internal side of the phone to change the modes. The switch is rather big, according to the lens’ size, to prevent the mechanism from faults at a hit and mechanical impact. It will take you only a second and no effort to switch modes in the new V3x, though the toddler is quite tough. With time and active use, the toddler may get distorted and you will need to improve its position in guiding rails. Such construction implies problems potentially and now consider frequent falls. However if you treat it carefully, the toddler will cause no problems.

Given that I have a toddler, is this the ideal phone for me?

;-)

DCC Alliance hazardous for IRC

Remember the Debian Core Consortium DCC Alliance, that grouping of Debian derivatives that doesn’t include Ubuntu? Don’t discuss it on (Freenode) IRC…

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 27 states,

One other sidenote, when in one of the Ubuntu IRC channels, avoid using the word DCC as well, as it will get you automatically kicked (KLined) from the network.