ellsworthlink.net

Google Maps

It is wonderful! Very easy to use interface, beautiful maps, real-time updating (at least on a high-speed connection). Goodbye MapQuest!

Turns out we’ve been getting attached by (multiple) Spam-bots lately. Kind of exciting. Makes one get an overly inflated sense of self. I mean, if “they” do this kind of stuff to Microsoft and Greenpeace, then our little ellsworthlink Blog is in rarefied company, don’t you think?

In any event, if you’ve been watching closely you may have noticed a bunch of random “people” popping up on the “Recent Comments” listing to the right. They’re all fake. And annoying.

I’ve read about several ways to defeat comment Spam—and then I promptly forgot where I read them since I figured we’d never get hit. Stupid. Foolish. Naive. Anyway, we’ll be changing things on the site sometime soon to fix the problem. I think all it will mean is a slightly different methodology to post a comment. No big whoop.

In other news: We got back Monday from a wonderful trip to Michigan visiting (mostly) family and (some) friends. I’m downloading the pictures as I type and will post the most embarrassing ones I can find of immediate family members. Probably nothing will be as bad as the famous “shooting picture,” but we’ll see what we can do.

It sounds like no one cares, and that’s fine, but if anyone wants a Gmail account (or a second Gmail account), please just let one of us know. We’re happy to forward an invitation. They’re just sitting there in our Gmail-boxes waiting to be used…

Matt was able to post a few entries by his phone, which is ultra cool, but sadly the email alert is not triggered when he posts from his phone.

So, don’t be surprised if you visit the blog because of an alert and end up seeing entries you haven’t read before!

Assuming the last two blog entries showed up okay (and this one in its turn), then I’ve just posted three updates from my cell phone. Gotta love technology. I had spent a considerable amount of time tinkering around to get the blog to be able to accept entries via email. It is only a baby-step from there to post by sending an email from the Treo (new version in November!)…

The next thing to figure out is how to do a quick blog posting using a picture I took using the Treo. Shouldn’t be too hard (of course I’d probably never use it—but that isn’t the point).

As we’ve told people that we have a blog, both Deb and I have heard that we’re now certifiable geeks (though we’re maintaining that my dad’s as-yet-unmet need for a pocket protector makes him the most certifiable in the family).

While I probably enjoy the geek-style envy (c’mon you know you think it is cool) of friends and family more than Deb does, we both (sorry Deb) now have that quintessential über-geek calling card—a Gmail account. We don’t actually check email in the accounts, we just have them so everyone knows we’ve got our West Coast creds. [debells@gmail.com and mattells@gmail.com]

Google is still beta-testing their much-talked-about free webmail service which gives you one gigabyte of storage for free. The service is quite good, with messages in the same thread collapsing into neat “piles” and the Google ads you’ve probably read about are very unobtrusive—and maybe even helpful since they are so content-sensitive. It seems everybody wants a Gmail account, and the process of getting one has turned into the latest pyramid scheme.

Since the service is still in beta, you can only get an email address at gmail.com if you are invited, and Google has gone to great lengths to turn the beta-test into an effective viral marketing effort. And it seems to have worked—you are only on the inside if you have a coveted Gmail address and the only way to get one is from someone who is already a member. This air of exclusivity has assured massive interest among the technorati and all but assured a successful launch of the service once it is out of beta.

Anyway, since I’m on the inside and you’re not, let me know if you are the least bit curious and I’ll send you an invite (oh! the power!) to open a Gmail account. It’s so utterly ridiculous and yet so compelling to one’s inner-geek that, as a marketer, I have to respect what they’ve done…

I’m told Gmail does not stand for Geek Mail, no matter how relevant the moniker.