Okay, not really . But maybe I should go into fortune telling, because I had written about the newly released Google Groups2 Discussion List Service two weeks ago on the "What Should Google Do" group on orkut.com:

[As I've noticed in my earlier Gmail commentary, I unfortunately do not have the ability to offer invites... sorry :( - Adam]

With all the coverage of Gmail (to which I've somewhat guiltily contributed), one might snicker that Gmail's being positioned as something that's going to change the world.

Well, almost.

I seriously think that Gmail may substantially change the way people deal with e-mail... sending, receiving, storing... leading to some interesting and not-insubstantial behavioral changes.

HARK! A powerful new technology! Let's [try it / ignore it / ban it]!

History repeats itself. When new technology is developed, there are the early adopters who coo excitedly, those living under a rock who grunt "huh?" and varying degrees of those who issue warnings, which -- at least as of late -- seem to fit into one of several convenient categories:
1) Fighting against terrorism
2) Safeguarding values (e.g., "Protecting the children!")
3) Protecting privacy

To simultaneously save me from getting writer's cramp and enable you to finish reading this essay in under two hours, I'm just going to tackle the issue of privacy for now.

[In case you didn't already notice, I wrote a pretty detailed review of Gmail earlier, in which I also noted that I'm unfortunately unable to procure accounts for folks. Sorry! For those who already have accounts, I hope the tips below are useful and/or fun - Adam]

So, you're one of the Gmail testers and you want more bang for the buck, eh? Try these tips on for size:

SENDING & SHORTCUTS
- Send mail to fellow Gmail'er by just entering their username in the TO, CC, or BCC spot. No need to include @gmail.com

- Did you reserve and now wish you had left out the darn period? It's not too late! For whatever reason, Gmail treats that e-mail address the same as one without a period (and visa versa), so works just as well as . As you may have guessed, Gmail is flexible with regards to capitalizations, too!

- Using the handy-dandy spell-checker and want to quickly Resume Checking without using the mouse? Just hit 'R', an undocumented shortcut key in this context.

There are many times in which I've felt that people -- myself included -- would benefit from logging off and getting a life. This sort of cynicism (or optimism, depending on one's take) is heightened when I read about people falling in love with someone else that they've "met" only online. Hey, I'll admit... been there, done that. And never again.

So, too, do I often ask myself why I continue to feel so passionate about online communities and online networking. With all the flaming and faking and fluffery and general bullshit, isn't it all just a waste of time?

Then every once in a while, I'm reminded why Online matters.

I've had the pleasure of extensively beta testing Gmail for a few days, and I'm happy to offer my thoughts about the service here. First, though, I'd like to get a few disclaimers out of the way:

1. I don't work for Google. I'm not a Google employee and I do not speak for Google or the Gmail team, yadda yadda...
2. I can't get you a Gmail account. I can't even get accounts for my bestest friends. If you'd like to try out Gmail, I encourage you to sign the notification list here.
3. Gmail is in BETA (not yet a finalized product). Beta beta beta beta! Things will be fixed, improved, changed, etc. Therefore, I will try to resist the impule to nitpick about specific features that don't work perfectly because -- let's face it -- this is a BETA version, and what I'd write today would likely be fixed before long.

With that said... let's get on with the show

OVERALL / THE BOTTOM LINE

For those too lazy or busy to read through my long note, here's the quick summary for you:

Gmail is generally a delight to use. While it is not yet fit to be a substitute for client-based e-mail systems (Eudora, Outlook, etc.), nor does it yet have all the features of competing Webmail services, Gmail is blindingly fast, its ads are unobtrusive (often even informative and useful), and its label paradigm is promising. And of course, as one would expect, the search features are unparalled. If you're not keen on seeing text ads or you prefer a more drag-and-drop GUI environment AND you don't mind paying $30/year for a fabulous competing Webmail service, I urge you to check out OddPost. Yes, the time has clearly come to ditch Hotmail and Yahoo!.

I recently purchased a Handspring Treo 180 (black and white version), which -- as many of you probably already know -- is a PDA/phone combo. The PDA OS is Palm, and the phone runs on the GSM network (I connect via Voicestream / T-mobile in San Francisco). The new color Treo 300 runs on Sprint's CDMA network.

I've been extremely happy with my Treo. While it's definitely more bulky than the wonderfully-pocketsized Ericsson phone I used to have, I'm now actually carrying around a Palm Pilot and phone religiously. And with the Outlook sync, it's amazingly handy having ALL of my contact numbers in my phone without having to laboriously type them in.

In an older post, I raved about the online mail service called OddPost.

I'd like to recommend another really cool service, called Mail2Web, which lets you pick up your POP mail without cost and without even registering.  It's got nowhere near the nifty interface of OddPost, but it's free and it's useful for when you must check more than one POP account.  They've even got a companion site called Mail2PDA.  Very cool!

When a cranky computer I was using overseas would not connect to OddPost, I found it worked quite well with Mail2Web.  Give both services a try!

Here are some comments I sent to T-Mobile / Voicestream after using their service for a week with my Handspring Treo 180:

EDIT on 3/12/2003: Just discovered that the Treo 180 has been discontinued, so the links below do not work.

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Though I had sadly a bunch of valuable stuff stolen in Estonia, two of the replaceable things that I have been, well, eager to replace are my cell phone and PDA (Palm Pilot).

My new cell phone and plan: Handspring Treo 180 and T-Mobile / Voicestream service

After stumbling upon the amazon.com wireless section and noting an amazing after-rebate price of $149 for the Handspring Treo 180 (phone + PDA), I had to grab it   I even shelled out an extra $11 or so to get expedited 2 day shipping... so I should get the phone on Wednesday.

My experiences so far with T-Mobile / Voicestream

This, of course, hasn't stopped the relevant wireless carrier -- T-Mobile / Voicestream -- from overeagerly activating my account and starting the clock on my monthly bill even before Amazon shipped the darn thing!  Sheesh.  And adding insult to injury, when I received a "we've shipped your phone" e-mail from Amazon today, I noticed that my new phone number listed was in the 514 area code.  San Francisco, where I live, has a *415* area code.  What the heck?  Do they have folks manually entering in area codes or something?  Sheesh!

• I placed a call to the number listed on the e-mail.  That, however, was the ACTIVATION number; I had to call the customer service number.  Okay.
• I called the cs number, waited for thankfully not-too-long, and spoke with a polite but unsurprisingly not-all-that-informed rep.  She changed my calling plan with no probs, and also assigned me a new number without much hassle.  But when it came time to adjust my billing period... whoops!
• Apparently, their computers can't assign a billing period that goes from the first of a month to the end of the month.  So I had to accept a billing period from the 2ND of the month to the 1st of the next month.  Oh well, I guess that's not too painful.
• And to their credit, I was issued an one-time extra 100 anytime minutes to make up for the early billing (before my phone arrives).

What I get from T-Mobile / Voicestream (my calling plan)

So now I'm on their T-Zone Talk and Text $29.95 plan, which includes 300 anytime minutes, unlimited weekend minutes, 1 meg of T-zone (limited "internet" access, 300 text messages (additional at 5 cents per), and no extra charge for long distance or nationwide roaming.  So on the weekends, I can yack it up with friends across the country for free.  Of course, with BigZoo offering 2.9 cent-per-minute long distance on my landline and with my Treo having only an expected battery life of 2.5 hours talking-at-a-time, that's not SO exciting, but oh well

To be continued...

I'll keep you posted on how stuff goes when I get my Treo and try out the wireless service; hopefully the reception is decent in SF, and hopefully my friends get far-fewer "all circuits busy" messages when they try to reach me.