PC Mechanic, New Article

Retro Friday: Email From XP To 3.1
3 Reasons Why Lifestreaming Failed
Webmail: Battle Of The Awesome Features

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PST

The unofficial goal of any vintage PC these days can be summed up in a single phrase:

"Let’s get this thing online!"

This of course means to connect the computer to the internet. That in itself isn’t too much of a hassle, but once connected, what productive thing – if any – can you do with that old internet-connected box?

In this order it’s usually this: Games, email, IRC, office apps.

The games are easy enough to explain because there’s a ton of older MS-DOS stuff out there that can keep you entertained for a good long time.

Email is what the video below is about. More on that in a moment.

IRC is good because it’s just plain text. Have old mIRC, will travel.

Office apps like an older copy of Word or WordPerfect go a long way because they’re simpler, easier to use and, dare I say, allow you to be more productive because you know the software so well.

The best kind of email to use on a vintage PC is one that uses "plain" (as in "no SSL requirement") IMAP email. The reason it’s best is because you can access the same email you would use on your normal modern PC on the vintage box and have the account be completely synchronized.

One email provider offers free and fast IMAP email, AOL. Yes, that AOL. They have quite a good IMAP setup for their mail servers that allows for POP or IMAP with or without SSL for both incoming and outgoing servers.

As noted in the video below, it is true that Gmail has free IMAP – but it requires SSL to use it. In NT based Windows this isn’t a problem, but for MS-DOS based (Win 95, Win 98, etc.) there will be issues because those operating environments don’t handle mail client SSL connectivity very well.

The video below shows how to connect up an AOL email starting with Windows XP, then to Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98SE, Windows 95 and finally Windows 3.11 for Workgroups – all with the same AOL email account.

I purposely used many different email clients just to show how ‘vintage-friendly’ AOL email actually is. Clients shown are Mozilla Thunderbird 3, Mozilla Thunderbird 2, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5, Windows Live Mail, Outlook Express 6, Outlook Express 5.5, Outlook Express 5.0 and Netscape Communicator 4.06.

Building/rebuilding your own vintage PC setup? Getting email to work on it is important if you intend to connect the box to the internet (which you most likely will), so you’ll find this information useful.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Retro Friday: Email From XP To 3.1

3 Reasons Why Lifestreaming Failed

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 07:00 AM PST

boring Lifestreaming is where someone goes on webcam on the internet and broadcasts his or her life, be it all or some of the time.

There was a brief period where lifestreaming was considered "the thing to do", but then dropped like a brick in popularity. Why did it fall out of favor like it did?

1. It’s no different than a radio show

There is no difference between seeing and hearing a talking head when all the host is doing is sitting in front of his or her computer.

2. People prefer to watch online video at their own pace

Nobody wants to sit around watching a talking head waiting for something cool to happen, nor do they want to be tethered to their computer when they have other more important things to do.

3. Boring

Lifestreams aren’t like scheduled television live broadcasts. Lifestreamers are just regular people doing regular things, all of which is mind-numbingly boring to watch.

Bear in mind lifestreams should not be confused with online seminars because those are totally different. Seminars all have real purpose, such as for product demonstration, meetings and so on. Lifestreams on the other hand have no real purpose other than broadcasting for the sake of broadcasting, leading to utter boring content – and that is ultimately why people stopped watching them.

(Image via Boring, Oregon)

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

3 Reasons Why Lifestreaming Failed

Webmail: Battle Of The Awesome Features

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 03:00 AM PST

It’s really easy to complain about webmail. After all, no email is perfect. However it’s rare that anyone says anything good about it, and said honestly it really is. Here are some of the better features of the major webmail providers out there. Who knows? There might be features mentioned here in the webmail you use below you didn’t even know about.

Gmail

Moving conversations

The 8 dots to the left of each conversation when in list view can be grabbed with the mouse and moved vertically anywhere in the list. Only Gmail does this, and it’s great.

Works in 800×600 window

It genuinely impresses me that Gmail can be used in a window this small. This is an advantage to both small-screen and big-screen users. Small-screeners can easily use Gmail with large fonts without fear of horizontal scroll, and big-screeners can resize browser windows to smaller apps to fit more on their screens.

Excellent color coding to know where you are easily

A good color scheme can sometimes make all the difference, and Gmail has this down to a science. Things like Search Options and Settings are distinctively colored so you’re never confused where you are in the system when using those features.

Hotmail

Quick Views, Shipping updates

Every email should have this. When Hotmail sees an update from FedEx, UPS, other carrier in an email, you have super-quick access to it with just one click. Fantastic feature.

Phishing scam option

This is an extra level of control when it comes to spam, and it’s a good one. Marking junk mail that arrives in your inbox as spam as good, but marking as phishing scam is even better because it allows MIcrosoft’s Hotmail team to better study phishing scam patterns and deal with them appropriately.

From Bing

Bing is a great web service packed with tons of useful stuff. With the tight integration of Bing into Hotmail, it’s easy to email things to others that are actually, y’know, useful, such as map locations, images from search and so on. This allows you to include content that would otherwise force you out of your webmail into another tab temporarily just to get it.

Yahoo! Mail

Best way to SMS from email, period

When you want to send a quick text message to a friend or family member’s phone, Yahoo! Mail does this in fine style and in addition is ridiculously easy to use.

It even counts the characters while typing so you never send too much text in a single message:

Apps that are actually useful

When it comes to apps and email, Yahoo! has tight integration with major service providers for things you would actually use.

Spell checker on steroids

Available in Yahoo! Mail Beta, this is the type of spell check options you’d expect to see in Microsoft Word – but it’s directly integrated into Y! Mail. (Note the easy scrolling and English (CA), which Gmail doesn’t have.)

AOL Project Phoenix

Delete or reply to a message with one click from any message list

To the best of my knowledge, only Project Phoenix has this, and I’m surprised didn’t happen in webmail sooner. One click to reply or delete. Very convenient.

Compose new email direct from tab

Nobody does webmail tabs better than Project Phoenix, and this seemingly insignificant way of composing a new message becomes very significant when you find you start using it all the time.

Arrow navigation done right

This is another feature that’s easy to miss but is actually very good. When looking at a message list, the order of buttons from left to right is first page, previous page, next page, last page. It’s very cool that it’s above the message list (meaning not slammed to the right or left) for easy access, and the symbols make perfect sense as to what they do without the need for text labels. If for whatever reason you forgot what they do, just hover over the button with your mouse and a small tooltip message appears explaining the function.

In.com Mail

This one deserves a mention because it has a feature none of the other majors do:

Future Mail

This is yet another example of a feature that should be in every webmail. It is a true mail scheduler.

When composing a message, you have this option:

On click of that button, it does this:

The only other ways to get this capability in your email is by either by using Send Later for the Mozilla Thunderbird email client or using the full paid version of Microsoft Outlook. Future Mail is one seriously awesome feature, and only In.com mail has it for webmail.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Webmail: Battle Of The Awesome Features

11 and 11

Jumat, 11 Maret 2011