a blog about me & technology
Internet
Review of Thunderbird 3.0
Jan 14th
Wow, what an upgrade from 2.0! I have been a Mozilla fan boy for six good years now and this is one update I have been very excited for. Off the bat I am thrilled with Thunderbird 3.0 so far; it has finally caught up to Firefox in basic functionality. Below I’ve outlined the good and the bad about Mozilla’s latest release.
One of the big reasons why Firefox has become so popular is because they have revolutionized the way we interact with our browsers with the integration of tabbed browsing. Mozilla first started using tabbed browsing in 2001 and Thunderbird users have wanted this basic feature for years. Tabs are finally a standard feature in Thunderbird. Open one window and have your inbox and as many emails as you want opened at the same time, all in the same window, brilliant! This has been the best new feature added to this latest release of Thunderbird. However, there is one feature with the tabbed browsing that I would still like added. When I want to compose a new message, I would like the window that opens up to become a tab.
Another cool feature added to Thunderbird is how they overhauled the ability to search your inboxes. If you’re like me, you have more than one email address to manage; I have four that I use. I can search a specific inbox or all of them. There is also a cool statistics feature at the top of all your search results that is a bar graph of the emails you’ve received matching a search term through time. You can click a certain week to get more detailed information about your search results and even down to the day. This can be useful when monitoring your messaging patterns. The new search also gives you the ability to narrow your search results by selecting a specific person, a mailing list, emails with attachments along with several other options to help you find that email from last year more efficiently. The one thing I would like to change about the new search is the way the information is displayed. The search results all run together. I wish each result was in its own little bubble with a background to make it stand out from the other results. Despite this minor lack of detail, I am very pleased with the new search feature; it looks like Mozilla took a page from Google’s book.
Thunderbird was also nice enough to include some neat little bonus features. For instance when you’re writing an email you may say something like; “Please read the attachment closely.” Once you’re done typing the word ‘attachment,’ Thunderbird will politely remind you to include that attachment so you don’t look like an idiot if you forget to attach it. I really like this feature because I have forgotten to include an attachment before. That’s not the only keyword it works with, but definitely the most useful.
Thunderbird also created a nice handy integrated inbox as I’ve grown to call it. Thunderbird now gives you a master inbox with the ability to micromanage all of your separate email accounts. This makes my inbox more organized and it is easier to see all the information from all of my email accounts simultaneously.
One feature I would still like to see added (although I’m sure possible through plug-ins) is to have the address book become integrated with social networking sites like Facebook and Linkedin. This would just make getting in touch with your contacts a little bit easier.
All in all, I give Thunderbird 3.0 a big thumb up. It included some more basic features like the tabs and powerful search along with some wow features like the word recognition and search statistics. Mozilla executed this upgrade well too; I haven’t noticed any bugs or crashes. Thunderbird is known for the quality and security of Mozilla products along with the intuitive, clutter free interface that’s synonymous to all Mozilla products. If you are a Thunderbird 2.0 user, I highly recommend the upgrade and if you’re still using Microsoft’s archaic and confusing Outlook, please switch to Thunderbird and give it a week; I’ll guarantee you will not want to switch back.
Save Money on the Internet
Aug 16th
Hundreds of billions of dollars are exchanged over the internet every year and it’s no surprise why. The best deals in the world are to be had on the internet and it’s the easiest way to shop and get unbiased reviews and comparisons of products. The internet is the cheapest place to buy items for multiple reasons. Very few stores actually have physical stores to maintain but only warehouses and some employees which helps to cut overhead costs. Online retailers know how easy it is for you to click on over to another store to buy something so they competitively price their products. The last big reason why the internet is so cheap is due to its accessibility to anyone who wants a business.
However, just because the internet is cheap, doesn’t mean you still can’t save even more money. I’m also not saying that I can get you that fancy new $2,000 TV for $1,000 either. But, in times like these where wallets are thinner than ever, it takes some creativity to find the best of the good deals. All of the tips I’ll talk about today are ones that I personally use and I decided to publish an article like this because I get asked by people all the time how cheap I can get something.
The place I always go to first when trying to find anything is Google Product Search. They scourer the internet and find all the websites that sell that item and compares the pricing. Sometimes the prices are a little outdated but overall it can be a great first place to look. Type in the product name and click search. For example; Amazon lists the Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote at $199.99 plus shipping. After heading over to Google Product Search, I typed in ‘Logitech Harmony One,’ clicked ‘Search Products,’ then clicked ‘Compare Prices,’ lastly I clicked on ‘Total Price,’ so I could see the price after shipping costs. I am able to get the Logitech Harmony One shipped to my house for $179.77 thanks to Google. That’s over $20 in savings for a minute of my time!
My next tip involves Amazon. Usually Amazon already has the best price and it’s a great website with great service and fast shipping. If you use Amazon as much as I do, sign up for Amazon Prime. I have been a member of Amazon Prime for years now and I love it! It costs $79.00 a year, but you get free 2-day shipping on most items and you can upgrade to $3.99 1-day shipping. Another plus is that you can share you Amazon Prime with up to 4 other household members. Get them to chip in to split the costs. By the numbers, if you buy from Amazon once a month or more you could be saving money and time by getting Amazon Prime.
The third tip I have for you involves a neat little site many people never heard of known as RetailMeNot.com. This website allows users to enter in promotional codes that websites use to give people free shipping or discounts. When I go there I search the website that I am interested in buying something from and I look through the various promotional codes and I try some of them out. This can be very hit or miss as a lot of the codes have expired or are not relevant to your order and some websites do not allow users to submit promotional codes. Every now and then, you find a jewel on this website that knocks 10% off your order or gives you free shipping.
The newest tip I have involves eBay. They have a brand new program called eBay Bucks that is currently invite only and I got lucky and got an invite! Soon it will be made available to everyone. It’s free and it gets you 2% back on all of your purchases on eBay. Every 3 months, eBay will issue you an eBay Bucks certificate for use on eBay towards future purchases. There are some clauses however. You must pay using PayPal and it doesn’t apply to purchases in eBay Motors, classifieds or real estate.
The last big tip I have for you applies mainly to college students. Myself being one I know how expensive textbooks are. My tip to you is to buy international versions. These are the same thing as what you can buy at your bookstore, but are made for people in developing countries. Often times they say “Not for sale in US,” and the price will be in rupees instead of dollars and they are almost always in black and white and soft cover. You are allowed to own these, it’s not illegal and some bookstores even buy them back from you too. I buy the international version of every book I can and use Google Product Search to find them. On average I save about $70 a book or $210 a semester which means $420 a year or $1,680 over my 4 years in college.
There are many more ways to try and find the best deal on the internet but these are the highlights and secrets of my success to saving hundreds of dollars or more every year on the web. The last piece of advice I have is to be creative and look around the internet, some websites sell products from several merchants and consider buying used and refurbished items. Also, keep an eye on websites like Woot.com and 1SaleADay.com.