just an asterisk

I received an email from my sister that said:

I have a webcam which I never thought was bad but whenever I video-chat with anyone they always say it’s grainy and the picture is not very good.  So, I was planning on getting a new one and was wondering what to look for.  Is expensive always better?

Great questions!  There are two major concerns with a webcam (other than price) – Frames and Resolution.  However, before you think about buying something new, consider the following options.

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I recently converted over from Gmail to Google Apps for my domain and went through the process of transferring my email.  During the process, I moved 13930 emails.  With such a large data size to test with, it got me to thinking – are there any filters that nearly everyone could use?  Emails do not vary as much as you might think.  I took some of my favorite filters and checked to see if they worked only for me or if they could be applied to others as well.  Here is what I came up with:

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We’ve been making some updates to the site – expect more to come.  In the meantime, why not get an email when we post new content?  Just go to the cute little box up in the top right of this page and sign up.   We promise that we’ll never send you anything you don’t expect.

Thanks for reading!  As always, you can email post suggestions to ab@justanasterisk.com or posts@justanasterisk.com

~ab

I was going to call this post, the anatomy of a domain, after a Kids in the Hall sketch that I had (incorrectly) thought was called the “anatomy of a joke”.  In fact, the sketch is called “Sketch Comedy” and the premise is to describe what goes into a good sketch.  If you’re interested, check the out the video and the transcript…

Despite my mistake, I still want to go into the anatomy of a domain.  I want to try convince you that (no matter who you are) you can have your own web domain.  You can have your emails go to me@bobsagget.me or me@JAAismyfavoriteblog.com.  It’s not hard, nor should it be only done by professionals.  If you want a weekend project, and don’t mind reading a little bit, you too can have your own space on the fantastic interweb…  I should point out that this isn’t entirely free.   However, for less than price of 3 lattes, we can get you up and running. Read more »

I don’t know about you, but normally when I get these spam emails, I read the first couple lines, chuckle about the possibility that this could fool anyone and then mark it as spam.  However, this one was so perfect in its pandering to every possible piece of human nature that I figured I’d post it on the blog.   I’m sure that some doctoral student is working on it now, but someone should explore the evolution of spam culture for the western world.  I have to think that this is the product of a long line of bad attempts and that the author has learned a thing or two about the average English speaker…

Obviously, I’m saying DON’T send money to people like this.  We can break down the letter, but these people are not nice.  They steal… Now on to the ridicule :)

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How big is your email quota? If you know, you’ve probably exceeded it at least once (or gotten really close). Perhaps it was a work account and you were scolded by the IT trolls, setting off a frantic attachment deletion campaign? Or maybe it was just your Gmail account, clogged by the ginormous (sp?) photos your parents sent after a family trip. Maybe the problem was compounded by your sent mail folder, where emails you sent to others were counted against your meager space allowance. The reply-all emails with attachments resulted in 100 copies of the same file. What a waste!

The good news, my brothers and sisters, is that there are other ways to send files. These services will reduce the scoldings while even providing some additional services that you probably hadn’t considered. Read more »

Teeny note: This wasn’t supposed to be a multi-part article, but while brainstorming, it was clear that there was simply too much to cover in one post. Look for parts 2-4 in the coming weeks.

According to Wikipedia, “Gmail launched on 1 April 2004 as an invitation-only beta release and became available to the general public on 7 February 2007″ (source). I have used Gmail since 11/2005 (not to toot my own horn or anything) and I’ve consistently been amazed with all of the features (often unheralded) from Google. Google has their own page devoted to why you can use Gmail (here), and others have written good reviews (joke), but as always, I’m going to try to provide you with ways to use Gmail better! Read more »

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For those of you who just got an email update about email updates… my apologies :)

~ab