* Posts by simon_elreg

3 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2010

Google Apps punts kill-Microsoft-Exchange-now tool

simon_elreg
Boffin

Oh comon!

/* I think that it's a bit early for Google to drop support for IE6 though. */

Early? Early? Are you serious? I find it hard to believe that anyone still supports it that abomination.

And I am surprised at the success for Google Docs. It will all end in tears.

Whatever happened to the email app?

simon_elreg
Badgers

ISPs? Who mentioned ISPs?

Quote /*

You may not see much spam in your inbox, but the sheer cost of providing the horsepower to keep it that way is making mail provision a losing proposition for many ISPs (Most of whom I wouldn't trust with my email anyway).

*/ End Quote

ISPs? Pah! Never use my ISP's email, too unreliable, but then many ISPs are tending to use Yahoo! mail or Google's gmail nowadays rather than their own servers, so another reason to avoid using them. For example, British Telecom already use branded Yahoo! mail and Virgin Media (cable) are migrating all users over to branded (virgin) gmail. All webmail accounts, but with POP3 access. I think this massively reduces the costs to the ISP...and nearly all will follow as far as I can see.

But stuff the ISPs, there are many, many excellent and inexpensive hosting services out there to choose from, and many provide email only services, POP3 packages that cost very little, etc. so I don't think it is as cut and dry as you like to think. Furthermore, for a couple of quid a year you can simply register your own domain name and for a few pennies extra some registrars will even supply you with a POP3 mailbox with webmail access...or use their totally free forwarding services.

Email isn't the problem, it is people not wanting to pay for something they can get for free...or rather, people don't want to pay for something they could easily live without. So I wonder how many FB and Twitter devotees would pay £15 per year for their accounts?

Email will 'grow up' like everything else, granted, but it won't be going anywhere soon. I think the next phase of email client development is instant messaging incorporated...and any other protocols that can be crammed in to aid communication. As long as it isn't a completely centralised affair I don't care...stuff the living in the cloud crap.

Email is infinitely more useful that FB, Twitter, and the rest; and with a local email client I can carry my communications around with me on a USB stick and access my email without a connection. Can't do that if your email is stuck on a ruddy Yahoo or Google server.

simon_elreg
Badgers

The Bat! since for ages...

Created a FB account under pressure from friends, using bogus details of course. 48 hours later I deactivated it. I'm one of those mid forties fellahs, but I have absolutely no desire to 'hang out' on FB with a bunch of people that want to play a sodding farm thingy all day, and let me know every time they've made a cuppa or farted. Creator in our Imaginations, what ever the %$?# next?

Email: I have used The Bat! since the early days. Being a skinflint I have always begrudgingly paid for it, but then there isn't anything better out there...IMO. I do have a free webmail account, but that is for emergencies only as they inevitably just become giant crap collectors.

With a hosted domain I control my email: unlimited forwarders, SPAM Assassin, domain keys, etc, and I don't even remember the last time I received a bit of SPAM in my inbox. Oh, and of course a hosted domain comes with a webmail interface as well. And whilst Horde may not look as beautiful as all these web2.0 apps, it certainly is much more powerful and configurable. If Horde updated its interface, nothing would be better out there!

Email isn't dead; what a nonsense. FB is a fad, and twitter just a phase (I won't listen, I won't...laaaaaa laaaaaa laaaaaaaa can't hear you...,laaaaa). And whilst all of those little brained 'me me me me...why-won't-it-work-when-i-look-at-it' idiots jump in ass first and throw away their rights to privacy, all us ageing cave dwellers continue to have reliable, private communications without being bombarded with useless, irritating advertising.

(when I say private, I mean almost).