All 600 entries tagged Randomness

Not to blow my own party blower…

Follow-up to For It's a Jolly Good Fellow from The randomness of tomorrow, today!

I know I say this every year, but Happy Birthday The randomness of tomorrow, today!!

Gosh. Four years old today. My how the time flies... 

: 10 Nov 2008 18:00 |  Tags: 4 Birthday Blog Randomness |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Google App Engine is quite easy to use

Writing about web page http://6x9media.appspot.com/

I made a Media Library using Google App Engine, if anyone's interested. It allows you to build up a list of all your various media (DVDs, CDs, video games, etc.), categorise them by type, rate them, and keep track of any Items that you've lent to friends.

: 26 Jun 2008 03:40 |  Tags: 6 Times 9 6Times9 App Engine Application Applications Google Google App Engine Library Media Media Library Randomness Service Services Tool Tools Utilities Utility |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Parking Fail

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7472490.stm

How on Earth does this happen!?

: 25 Jun 2008 13:53 |  Tags: Bizarre Fail News Parking Randomness |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Hmmm… that's disappointing

Writing about web page http://www.apple.com/mobileme/

As I've mentioned before, I want an iPhone. Especially since they announced the new one... which is, technically, what the iPhone should have been since it was launched; 3G wasn't exactly new technology back then...

I have a Gmail account to which I have all my mail directed. The iPhone has settings to access Gmail over IMAP so changes on the iPhone are reflected in the Gmail web interface. However, new emails aren't pushed to the iPhone; you still have to tell it to "manually" (it's automatic, but as opposed to the emails being pushed...) check every 30 minutes, or whatever you choose. I also have my own domain, which Gmail is configured to use as the default from address.

The new iPhone software is going to support Microsoft Exchange, and Apple also announce their own version of Exchange for the rest of us called MobileMe. MobileMe, like Exchange, will do push email (as well as push contacts and calendar, but they would be more of a bonus than a necessity) for a price. However, what I wanted to know was would I be able to link it to Gmail (via IMAP) so that it could push my Gmail emails to the iPhone I'm planning to buy at the end of the year and also pass any changes made to those emails by the iPhone (mark as read, for instance) back to the Gmail web interface. And, of course, I'd want to use my own email address.

On Monday, I finally managed to find an appropriate "Contact Us" form on the Apple website (it's much harder than it should be) and asked Apple if these two things would be possible. I've just received the reply (well, a few hours ago, but it was picked up as spam...). So, according to the reply:

Unfortunately it won't be possible to retrieve emails from a 3rd party IMAP account with MobileMe. [...] It will also not be possible to send emails from custom addresses via MobileMe.

Apple Support, via email

So - unless anything changes in the next few months - in November I'll be saving my £59 for something else, and sticking to polling Gmail every few minutes

: 18 Jun 2008 20:09 |  Tags: Apple Email Imap Mobileme Push Randomness |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

It's Firefox 3 Download Day

Follow-up to Get a fantastic web browser, and set a Guinness World Record from The randomness of tomorrow, today!

Writing about web page http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/

Firefox 3 should be released about now.

For the next 24 hours, all full downloads (updates do not count) should count towards their world record attempt. So what are you waiting for?

: 17 Jun 2008 18:00 |  Tags: Download Firefox Guinness World Record Randomness Record |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

There's this Nigerian prince I know that needs to get some money out of the country…

If us individuals are always told not to give our bank account number and sort code to nefarious folk, lest they empty out bank accounts, why then can companies print their details on statements and invoices for us to pay them by BACS without these malicious people emptying their bank accounts too?

What's the difference between a personal and business account that means anyone with the personal account number and sort code can clear it out, but can only add money to the business account?

: 16 Jun 2008 19:28 |  Tags: Account Details Bacs Bank Question Randomness |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

The Konami Code works in Google Reader...

(There's a screenshot on Flickr if you can see the video below.)

: 15 Jun 2008 15:59 |  Tags: Funny Google Google Reader Konami Code Randomness Screenshot |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

It would be nice if Gmail could tell me itself…

Follow-up to I have more spam than emails… from The randomness of tomorrow, today!

I don't use Thunderbird; I just use the Gmail web interface. However I'd previously installed Thunderbird just to have a look.

So, using IMAP, I have established that my (currently) 20,333 conversations contain 27,620 emails... which is still less than the spam I get.

The spam comes in at 75,926 for the past 30 days. So I currently have 2.7 spam for every real email...

: 15 Jun 2008 00:35 |  Tags: Count Gmail Imap Randomness Spam Thunderbird |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I restarted about 10 times, but I got there in the end…

Follow-up to If I only had a heart… from The randomness of tomorrow, today!

My score's much better this time...

: 14 Jun 2008 13:09 |  Tags: Card Games Cards Hearts Randomness |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I have more spam than emails…

Between 2:57pm on 13th October 2004 and 2:37pm on 13th June 2008 I had received 20,298 email conversations* in Gmail:

Between 1:00am on 14th May 2008 and 3:28pm on 13th June 2008 I had received 68,217 spam conversations* in Gmail:

If I've done the maths correctly (I rounded to the number of days), then that's 1 email conversation* every 1 hour, 38 minutes, and 28 seconds and 1 spam conversation* every 38 seconds.

I'm sure there will be many people that get much more spam that I do, but it's still a lot of spam...

(Coincidentally, since I took the screenshot the spam has risen to 68,303)

UPDATE: Another quick calculation: taking the number of spam over the past 30 days, and extrapolating it over the past 4 years gives about 3 million spam...

UPDATE: The number of spam I get has increased somewhat this year, and I've just found documented evidence that I used to get less spam. I'd forgotten about that one...

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* In case you didn't know, Gmail groups related emails into conversations. The numbers in the screenshots are the numbers of conversations; the actual number of emails will be much higher, but isn't nearly as easy to find...

: 13 Jun 2008 16:08 |  Tags: Gmail Randomness Screenshot Spam |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem