Hashemian Blog Web Tools, Financial Markets, Technology Sunday, July 29, 2007 Gmail Inbox Changes  Beginning about 3 or 4 days ago I've noticed a change in the way Gmail groups emails together. It seems to be a subtle algorithm change but it appears that the glue has been watered down a bit. Email messages definitely don’t hang together the way they used to. Now many come In as separate items. Back when Google introduced the free email service, Gmail, it also introduced a relatively radical shift in the way emails are displayed to the users. There are no folders, instead one can use filters to apply labels to emails which sort of mimics the folder functionality of organizing and categorizing messages. There was also a new approach in displaying emails in that conversations within a thread are grouped together in a thread-like format (much like a forum) and a counter is applied to show the number of messages in a particular group. It took some getting used to Gmail's way of displaying messages, but I have grown accustomed to it. I don't consider it revolutionary though, it's just different. I'm fine with the traditional way used in Outlook or Yahoo mail. The difference with Gmail, at least at the time it was introduced, was their superior search capability. One could easily recall past messages given a keyword or two. I'm not sure what the exact grouping algorithm of Gmail is, but I suspect it has to do with the timestamps, senders and receivers, titles and contents of the messages. At any rate, that algorithm has now been tweaked to loosen the condition by which messages are grouped together. This became evident to me a few days ago when I noticed that my inbox suddenly had a large influx of messages. My Gmail inbox receives a number of automated messages that used to be grouped together, perhaps based on their titles. A closer look revealed that those messages that used to clump together, are now presented as separate items. I assume the change was introduced to make the inbox more usable for most people who were unaware of new messages arriving and getting filed under existing messages with similar titles. In my case it meant adapting to the new methodology and creating new filters to keep my inbox from getting too unwieldy. I suspect many others won't even notice the subtle alteration. gmail,google,email Labels: email, gmail, google <Gmail Inbox Changes> // posted by rh 0 comments Thursday, July 19, 2007 Ditch Your DBA Today?  I'm not sure about you, but this ad on a tech site sort of got under my skin. The company claims that this product obviates having a DBA (Database Administrator) managing your databases. As a sign of respect to all DBA's I obscured the company and their product name. Obviously the message is to get companies to buy this product and then save money by firing their DBA's. I hope no one is foolish enough to believe that they can simply replace their valuable personnel with a software program and expect things to hum along just the same. I'm only a marginal DBA where I work and we use Microsoft's SQL Server. For our purposes SQL Server has always been a reliable product and relatively easy to manage, but then we don’t deal with mountains of data like some other companies do. Any company that has to contend with gigabytes or terabytes of vital data should realize that a good DBA is worth his or her weight in gold. A well-trained and diligent DBA makes sure that databases have continuous uptime, manages security, disaster recovery, optimization, reliable connections and handles a slew of other tasks that software could never replace. As for smaller companies, a product such SQL Server comes bundled with enough tools and features that makes a product such as this one unnecessary. So if your company has never needed a DBA, don’t waste your time and money on a boastful product like this. You're doing just fine without introducing a new product into the mix. Otherwise don’t delude yourself with the idea that you can replace years of experience and training with hype. databases,dba,sql server Labels: databases <Ditch Your DBA Today?> // posted by rh 0 comments Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Answers Buys Dictionary  I guess you can call this another case of over-inflated pricing for domain names. Answers.com has agreed to acquire Lexico, the parent of dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, and reference.com for $100 million. Answers.com's market cap is currently below $100 million, and I doubt there's much cash in the bank for this acquisition, so I assume there's third party financing involved. Well, I just read that they'll be raising the cash by offering a variety of securities like floating more shares, bonds and warrants. At first strike, it may seem like an expensive domain play. Those are indeed nice names to have in one's portfolio, but there is more to these domains than just their names. They do attract plenty of eyeballs. I myself use dictionary.com often. My choice of online dictionary used to be m-w.com (Merriam-Webster), but I switched when dictionary.com revamped their site and made it a lot more usable and comprehensive. The price seems a bit steep, but it's a calculated gamble. It has success potential, but it'll probably a long-term one. My only gripe with dictionary.com is the incessant advert pop-unders and their trickery to circumvent the browser pop-up blockers. It would send a great signal if answers.com started the new relationship by getting rid of the annoying pop-ups and go with a more civilized format. How effective can pop-ups possibly be these days, anyways? answers.com,dictionary.com,lexico,acquisition Labels: financial <Answers Buys Dictionary> // posted by rh 0 comments Sunday, July 15, 2007 Homepage Hazards  Sites, specially news-related or educational, usually cram their homepages with links to various sections and freshly updated pages. In that regards those homepages are portals into the rest of their respective sites where the real content resides. That's all fine and good until they display links from those sections that the site maintains little control over. Forums, for example, are one these notorious areas trolled by spammers and jokers. The problem is that by nature they are supposed to be democratic. Pre-moderated forums generally suffer from anemic posts and little lively action. On the flip side, unmoderated or post-moderated forums spur real-time discussions, but invite nuisance posts. This is depicted in the image grab from the homepage of devx.com, a development site frequented by programmers and, in this instance, linking to a prankster's or a spammer's post in one of their forums. The offending post was removed at some point, but the orphaned link remained on the homepage until it was pushed out by newer links. homepages,forums,spam posts Labels: spam, web <Homepage Hazards> // posted by rh 0 comments Monday, July 09, 2007 Graphics Design Weekend  My graphics design knowledge doesn't extend much beyond Microsoft Paint and Picture Manager. I'm not very artistic but I've always wanted to learn a bit more about making simple art and manipulating photos on the computer. Photoshop is the tool of choice for professionals. We have some talented people in the art department where I work who can churn out fantastic material in little time. I've dabbled in Photoshop a bit in the past, but for my purposes it's just too daunting of a task to learn this advanced program. Besides at my level, it would be a waste of money. But a few days ago I discovered a free program online that actually captured my interest and kept me busy most of the weekend learning some graphics design skills. It's called Paint.NET and, according to its author, it's written entirely in .NET, mostly C# I believe. Paint.NET is certainly not an all-encompassing graphics design tool, but for an amateur like me, it has just enough features to keep me interested without frustrating me. A wonderful aspect for me is a recently introduced plug-in (currently in beta) that allows programmers to quickly prototype a desired effect in C# code and then produce a plug-in to use for themselves or share with others using Paint.NET. My appreciation to the makers(s) of Paint.NET for a great utility for newbies like me. Not only did I learn a number of terms and skills this past weekend, but I put some of that learning to actual use by creating this admittedly garish art. I call it the "planet of fire." graphics design,paint.net,photoshop,microsoft paint,computer art Labels: technology <Graphics Design Weekend> // posted by rh 1 comments Thursday, July 05, 2007 The Greedy Shepherd  Preface: A few days ago I received an email from Answers.com inviting me (and other recipients) to write an essay or a poem using 10 words they had selected and link those words back to them — certainly a publicity and SEO stunt. At the end of the contest they will judge the entries and pick a few winners. I was going to lambaste the tactic in this blog. Instead, for some inexplicable reason, I decided to take up the challenge and write a short story. I'm not much of a storyteller, although I did write a book about financial markets a few years back, but that's a different matter. This is my amateurish stab at a short story. I know, I won't quit my day job. There was a once a shepherd in Belize who took his herd to a field near his house everyday for grazing. The field wasn't the most fertile but there was sufficient grass for his sheep to graze on. His was a perfunctory task, but for all intents and purposes he made a comfortable living from his sheep. He would occasionally visit the local market and sell a few sheep which made him enough money to buy the necessities of life like food and clothes and, on occasion, a gift for his family, like a yo-yo for his young son. On another occasion he made a quid pro quo deal with the local beekeeper to provide him with honey for a year in return for a sheep. He had vowed never to change his way of life. One day, while leading his flock to the meadow, he met a stranger who told him about a field farther away where the landscape was more lush and the grass was ubiquitous and plentiful. The stranger insisted that on this new field the sheep would get fatter much faster and the herd would double or triple in numbers at no time. He kept filling the shepherd's head with quixotic ideas of wealth and status until the shepherd agreed to take his flock to this new field, abrogating the vow he had made to himself. It was an arduous journey but when he reached the new field, instead of the lush grass he found a barren land with scarcely anything for his herd to feed on. Disappointed and ashamed of his gullibility, he set out to make the return trip home, uncertain if his herd would survive the harrowing trip back. Just then a large colony of wasps that had been disturbed by the herd's arrival stirred into action swarming the shepherd and his sheep and stinging them about their faces. His brand of sheep, known for acute melissophobia, panicked and scattered quickly. Soon they were all out of sight, seemingly lost forever. The bereft shepherd began the long trek home, alone and destitute with thoughts of regret and penitence circling in his head. Midway to his home, he sat by the side of road to rest his tired and wobbly legs. He failed to notice that his head was just inches away from a large brown recluse spider who had become alarmed by the new visitor. As the spider moved closer to defend her territory with a deadly bite, the shepherd heard a faint bleating and quickly rose in excitement to scan the area. In astonishment he saw his herd, back together, slowly trudging back toward their old grounds. His joy was indescribable as he once again took command of his herd and safely guided every one of them back to their old and trusted turf. As he watched his sheep with satisfaction grazing safe and sound, he renewed his old vow and never again strayed his flock from the trusted meadow. Moral of the story: 1) Don't abandon a sure thing chasing after dubious promises. 2) Melissophobic sheep don't make good herds, but … 3) They can save a life. sheep,shepherd,herds,belize,short story,seo,publicity Labels: seo, writing <The Greedy Shepherd> // posted by rh 8 comments Monday, July 02, 2007 Discover Card  My memory is hazy on this, but I think Discover Card was the first credit card I ever had. What I'm sure of is that Discover Card was the only credit card I carried in my wallet for years. I signed up for mine back in college years when credit card companies were just beginning to realize the untapped potential of revenue in college students. The Discover Card was a new arrival but it had an innovative approach. No annual fees and a cashback program and a slick slogan, "It pays to Discover." It instantly won me over and I started using it exclusively. Their plan was certainly paying off with me. As I graduated from college and entered the workforce and ramped up my expenses, Discover Card came along for the ride. But it wasn't meant to last. After some 15 years, I finally parted ways with Discover Card over a small dispute with a vendor. This happened a few years ago and the details of the dispute escape me, but what remained was the bitter taste of a credit card company taking the side of the merchant, rather than its long-time customer in good standing. I can understand Discover Card's reasons to go against me. I'm sure the vendor's business was substantially larger than my paltry charge-ups. But from my point of view I was wronged and by then the credit card landscape had caught up with Discover Card's benefits, so there was no reason for me not to jump. And jump I did, to a no-fee, cashback MasterCard and never looked back. As Discover Financial Services got its own stock symbol (DFS) today and begun trading on NYSE, I couldn't help reminisce of our long relationship and how it was derailed over a small charge. I wish Discover Card well, but I still don't miss it. discover card,mastercard,credit cards,merchant accounts Labels: business-finance, credit cards, customer service <Discover Card> // posted by rh 3 comments

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