Personal Technology Tips in Plain English
DEAL ALERT: Free Custom URL Registration + Email Account
May 26th
You know you should get a custom website address and email account.
Stop letting Gmail and Yahoo!Mail take over your identity.
It’s time you buy your own URL and then start using that for your email correspondence . . . For $0.00!
The world’s largest webhost, 1and1 Internet is giving away free URL registrations (worth about $8-10) for the first year. And included in their URL service is free 2GB email accounts.
Even if you “buy” a new domain for $0.00 and then transfer after the waiting period to your own webhost, this is a great promotion to take them up on: 
http://bit.ly/freeurlregistration
How To Transfer Big Files To Co-workers, Friends, Family Via Email
May 15th
These days, sending big files to other people via email (or even yourself!) is becoming more and more common.
Any video file, or those huge 12-15 megapixel photos of the kids’ soccer game, etc sometimes exceed the email attachment limits of your email provider.
Most of the popular web-mail email services like Gmail, Yahoo!Mail, and AOL all have file size limits of 25 MB or so for attachments. This means that you may have to send multiple emails, each with the various files you want to send, or you may even be prevented from sending the file at all if it is a large file. Video files typically encounter problems when trying to send through email.
So what can you do besides invoking snail mail? or waiting to hand over a CD or DVD the next time you see the other person?
There are free services online that let you upload files, and then simply send a download link that are live for a limited period of time – many times just a week or less, giving the recipient enough time to retrieve the file before the file become unavailable. Although there are services which let you transfer files via peer-to-peer, so that you don’t have to upload and leave your file in the hands of someone else, most people will want to use web-based services which temporarily hold onto your file until the recipient grabs it at their own convenience.
One of the services I’ve recently been using has an upper limit of 1 GB of file size, deletes the file after 5 days, allows up to 20 downloads of the file and is free. . . Read the rest of this entry »
Email Super Powers
Mar 26th
Are you being slayed by your inbox or are you successfully slaying your inbox?
There’s a big difference between the two. Productivity these days goes to those who understand how to manage their email inboxes effectively.
People have tons of different approaches and strategies to win the war on the overflowing email account that we all deal with in today’s world.
Check out some of the neat little tips for becoming more proactive and productive with respect to your email life on The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur’s site.
While you’re there, can you spot MY TIP amongst that list? 
 That’s right, Michael Michalowicz featured my contribution on the site.
A Buzz Which Can’t Be Ignored
Feb 10th
Logged into my Gmail account today (which I do rarely since I manage my Gmail email account through pop access both on my Windows Mobile phone and with Outlook on my laptop) and was pleasantly greeted with this:
It’s Google’s latest push back regarding social media is now integrated into Gmail: Google Buzz.
And of course nothing is buzz worthy if you can’t use your cell phone to pass stuff along:
The big question is if Google Buzz will become a turbo booster for Gmail or will it become another Orkut or Wave?
How To Get Your Weather Forecast By Email
Sep 1st
Ok, so my last attempt to predict the weather daily didn’t really work out.
Here’s a better way to know what the weather is going to be like without turning on the radio or tv and waiting for the weatherman to come on. No opening up a web browser either to go check a weather website like www.weather.com or www.accuweather.com (my fav), etc.
I simply have the weather report emailed to me every morning right before I get up each day. That way when I check my email on my cell phone or computer, I have a quick weather report snapshot for the whole week.
What I like about this service is that there a bunch of options available like which days you want the weather report emails, what time of day for each delivery, if you want severe weather alerts, and if you want a 2nd weather forecast sent to you later during the day (perhaps before you go to bed?) too, etc.
It’s just a one-page sign-up form and you’re all set. Your own personal weatherman via email!
Do you use any other service to get the weather? Share them below in the comments. . .
Keep Yourself From Embarassing Yourself
Apr 28th
The smart whiz kids over at Google’s Gmail came out recently with a new feature that basically prevents the digital equivalent of beer goggles, hence the name Mail Goggles.
It’s one of those things in life that are super simple, no brainiac needed. Every time you send an email from Gmail, there’s a delay before it actually gets sent so that you can realize that the email attachment that you wanted to send wasn’t really attached — now you can go off and attach that file so you don’t have to send one of those “OOPS!” emails right after the first one.
I started to think, hey, that’s not so special? And guess what…I was right! Read the rest of this entry »
I love tech, gadgets and the web. Hope you pick-up a useful tip or two here today that helps you use technology to your advantage! Better yet, why not share your own expertise in a comment on a post today to help the other readers that land here for answers!