Google Apps: Productive and simple

For as much as I bitch about Google I sure do find it to be a useful resource. Today I will talk about intergrating Google Apps with your website. It’s a fairly easy process and shouldn’t take much more than 5-10 minutes. So let’s get started.

What is Google Apps?

Google Apps is a service made by Google which allows you to use your own domain name with a number of Google products. For example instead of logging into gmail.com to check your email you’d log into webmail.yourdomain.com, or mail.yourdomain.com, or whatever. Google Apps includes by default the following:

• Google Mail
• Google Calendar
• Google Docs
• Google Talk
• Google Page Creator

In addition to those included features you can also add on additional modules from third parties. Some are free, some aren’t, but the basic Google Apps default package is free. I’ve seen everything from astrology updates to sports scores to CRM solutions, and beyond.

Flavors

There are three flavors of Google Apps that are available. Each one is designed to support a certain segment of the market.

Family or group

This one is free and includes hundreds of free user accounts. I honestly don’t know the exact number as I’ve made accounts ranging in size from 3 people to over 500 and not had any problems at all. This includes all of the default modules mentioned above. The email is capped at the usual (and growing) Gmail limit. In other words you have plenty of email space. Support is good if not a little slow, but that’s part of what you deal with when everything is done via email

Small Business and Enterprise

This features the same as the Family or Group accounts except the email is set to 25GB and there is a 99.9% uptime guarantee for the email service. Normally Gmail doesn’t offer any kind of uptime guarantee, but that doesn’t overly concern me. After all it is pretty rare that you can’t get into your Gmail (or other Google account). Support is available via phone. I’ve never had to work with them for support on a Small Business account so I can’t speak to speed or accuracy of their support staff. There is a cost of $50.00 per account per year for this flavor of the service.

Non-profit and schools

This has the same features as the family or group accounts, but also adds Extensibility API functions as part of the basic setup. This allows you to more easily integrate Google Apps into your current technology.

I still don’t get the point of it…

Suppose you wanted to give each and every one of your friends and family a free name@yourdomainname.com email address, but couldn’t due to size limitations. With Google apps you can.

Suppose you wanted to be able to share documents between several collaborators all of them working on the documents, saving, making changes and more at the same time via the internet. With Google apps you can.

Suppose you wanted a company wide calendar that can be shared via the internet with each person being able to edit and control their own entries. With Google apps you can.

How hard is it to setup?

Very easy. Of course I’ve done it 100 times if I’ve done it once, but in all honesty it is very easy. Here I’ll even help you out. These instructions are based on the Home edition.

Step 1

Go to the Google Apps homepage and click the “Get Started” button (currently in the upper right corner). This will take you to a page that allows you to select the edition of Google Apps you are signing up for. Most people can get away with the “Standard (free) Edition”

Step 2

Select the edition you want to use, in this case “Standard”. It will take you to another page that looks like:

If you already have your own domain fill out the information on the right side. If not read the left and decide if you want to get one. If you don’t have your own domain you won’t be able to use Google Apps.

Step 3

Fill out the information that is required. Make sure to give yourself enough email boxes as requesting more has potential to be an annoyance. Also make sure you write down the administrator username and password because without them your life as a Google Apps user isn’t going to be long.

Step 4

Log into your administrator account by going to google.com/a/your_domain_name_here.com/net/org/etc and on the left hand side put in the administrator name and password you used in step 3. This should take you to your administration panel where you can begin adding users, setting up the sub-domains and other things.

Things to consider

You will need to be able to access and manipulate things like your Mail Exchange records, and DNS records in order for Google Apps to work properly. Basically you will be creating DNS records that point things like webmail.yourdomain.com to your Google Apps account and MX records that will route your email to the Gmail servers.

If you are unable, or uncomfortable doing this type of thing most hosts will gladly do it for you if you just request it. During the activation process in Google Apps you’ll be given instructions on what settings to use. Be sure to save that information for future reference.

I hope you’ve found this article useful. If you have any trouble with Google Apps leave a comment in this article and I will see if there is anything I can help you out with.

Posted in Technology and Computers | 5 Comments »

Firefox 3 Beta 1 released

FF3 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 rendering platform which according to the release notes has been in development for over 27 months. It is designed to make FF3 more secure, easier to use, and more personal. They also mention “more under the hood” as a result of the new rendering engine, but for the most part that won’t have any noticable effect on the day to day user.

Features include:

Improved security features

FF3 has several security improvements over previous versions

One click site info

• Clicking on the favicon will show who owns the site
• Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand
• Extended Validation SSL certificate information will be displayed “in later versions”

Malware protection

Warns users when they navigate to a website that is known to install malware on a users system. You can test the protection here. According to the release notes the blacklist of sites is not active so I’m not sure exactly what is being tested or if it is just so we can see what it will look like.

Improved web forgery protection

FF3 will no longer show the content of pages suspected of being forgeries. In other words pages that are setup to look exactly like your paypal account page but are fakes won’t be displayed. This feature can be tested here.

New SSL error pages

The SSL error pages are clearer and stricter when you encounter an invalid SSL certificate.

Add-on and Plugin version check and secure updating

FF3 will automatically check for newer versions of add-ons and plugins and disable older, insecure versions. The release notes aren’t clear if this means that ALL older versions of plugins are disabled, or only older ones that are known to be insecure. FF3 will also disable any add-ons provided in an unsecure manner. Again the information isn’t very clear as to what this means, but I suspect any plugins/add-ons coming from a site you haven’t explicitly given permission to will be disabled.

Anti-virus intergration

FF3 will alert 3rd party virus protection programs when downloading executables. You’ll still need to have your own virus protection program running. Personally I recommend Avast 4 Home edition as it is reliable, lightweight, and free.

Vista parental controls

FF3 is compatiable with Vista controls and will “respect” its settings.

Ease of use

FF3 developers have taken steps to ensure that the end user experience is much more enjoyable.

• Easier password management
• Simplified add-on installation
• New Download Manager
• Resumable downloading
• Full page zoom
• Tab scrolling and quickmenu
• Save what you were doing
• Optimized Open in Tabs behavior
• Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item
• Text selection improvements
• Find toolbar
• Plugin management
• Integration with Vista
• Integration with the Mac

For more information take a look at the release notes. You can download Firefox 3 Beta 1 from here and see it in action for yourself. Before doing so be sure to checkout any known issues that might cause you problems.

Posted in Technology and Computers | 7 Comments »

Obscene Email storage space

• Hotmail - 5GB
• Gmail - 4GB (to 6GB by Jan)
• Yahoo - Unlimited

I’m sure with a little effort I could go on and on with a list about the insane amounts of email storage space. The question is who ever needs that much space? Does anyone actually make use of it? I have a gmail account that I opened on 7/14/05 I’ve never deleted a message except the spam which is deleted automatically and all told I’ve used 134 MB (2%) of the current alotted amount of space. Which is, as we all know, growing.

Let’s do some quick math.

• 7/14/05 - 11/4/07 is 15 months (we’re rounding)
• 134/15 = 8.9 MB per month growth on average
• 1024MB = 1GB
• 1024/8.9MB = 115
• 115/12 = 9.5

What does it all mean? It means at the rate I use my gmail account that it will take me 9.5 years to reach 1GB of stored “stuff”. Which means it will take me over 36 years to reach the current capacity (which of course will likely be 1000 times higher than it is today) of 4GB. Not to mention the fact that if I’m still saving email that is 30+ years old I need to be shot!

That’s just one account. I’m not even going to bother with my Hotmail and my Yahoo Mail accounts. Not to mention the ones I’ve setup via cpanel on my various domains. Is there anyone who actually uses that much storage space? I can’t think of one good use for that much storage…

Store media files

Could do that but email is way to slow. Not to mention it might get you in trouble and you run the risk of it getting deleted

Store important documentation

I suppose you could, but not a very bright idea. Scan it in triplicate and put two of the copies in two different safety deposit boxes and hold onto the third if you’re that worried about it. Email isn’t THAT secure. Unless you muck around with encryption which will send most uninitiated people home crying to their mommas.

Brag to your friends

Hey look! My thingy is bigger than your thingy!! Ok maybe not, but you get the idea

Take my word for it. Unless you are storing full sized movies in your email, and we already went over why you shouldn’t, you’ll never even begin to dent your email storage capacity. Why then do the free email accounts offer such insane amounts of storage? Because disk space is cheap and it makes for good PR. After all everyone likes to hear “and now [insert name here] is proud to offer our loyal customers [insert absurd number here]GB of email storage space! You’ll never have to delete another message again (unless you live to be 1002 years old)!”

Do you need MORE email storage space, or are you good to go for a little while now?

Posted in Technology and Computers | 6 Comments »

Google’s “OpenSocial” goes live

Google’s “OpenSocial” goes live

Google’s latest attempt at global internet domination has been launched. They have code named it OpenSocial for friendly public consumption, but we all know it’s true nature is anything but friendly.

What is OpenSocial?

Per the FAQs: OpenSocial is a set of common APIs for building social applications across many websites. OpenSocial consists of both JavaScript APIs and Google Data APIs.

Translated into plain english that simply says OpenSocial is another way for Google to monopolize on your websites and surfing habits.

Is OpenSocial open source?

Per the FAQs (again): Currently, the sample code is released under the Apache 2.0 license. Additionally, we have Creative Commons licensed all of the OpenSocial documentation, so you are welcome to reuse and remix as appropriate. In the future, we are planning to open-source the components that are required to run OpenSocial on your own website.

Translation: We’ll release just as much as is needed to get you to use it under open source licensing and nothing more.

How do I get started?

Go to the OpenSocial home page and start reading. Be sure to check out the documentation full listing of FAQs, the OpenSocial Blog, and as always make sure you read the terms of service before getting too wild with it.

Are you recommending it or not?

It looks to be a potentially very powerful asset for bloggers if used properly so in a word, yes. I might not be a big fan of Google’s strong arm tactics, but that certainly doesn’t preclude them from releasing some really good software.

Are you going to try out OpenSocial?

Posted in Technology and Computers | No Comments »

8 ways to bring new life to your old computer

8 ways to bring new life to your old computer

Here are eight quick ideas of what you can do with an old computer. Not every suggestion is free, but the costs are kept to a minimum.

Turning it into an audio media center

Load up your favorite flavor of Linux, hook up some nice surround sound speakers into a Creative Labs Audigy sound card
and “rock out” to your favorite tunes using XMMS.

Donating it to a local charity

Money doesn’t grow on trees, especially for charitable organizations. A free computer, even if it isn’t working perfectly will be a real blessing to them. Often they have volunteer “geeks” on staff (more…)

Posted in Technology and Computers | 7 Comments »