Category: Technology

Gmail search

I find searching my email in Gmail a little painful. The search results show all the emails in a “discussion” rather than just the email I am looking for. Then, I have to go through the entire bunch to find what I need. Is there a way around this?

Google Contradictions

I was just beginning to admire Google for standing up to the Justice Dept. on the issue of releasing search results. It goes perfectly with their “Do no evil” motto. Unfortunately they have buckled down and agreed to censorship imposed by the Chinese Govt. This approach just mirrors the polices of the US Govt in general. When it suits the US, human rights, dictatorship, corruption, all go out the window. Nothing matters. Economics comes first. Can’t blame Google for being American or business-driven, can you? Maybe as the company grows up they’ll re-write their motto…

Change of leadership at Autodesk

Carol Bartz quit as Autodesk CEO after 14 years at the helm. She handed over charge to her number 2 executive, who has been with the company for 10 years. Its nice to see smooth corporate transitions as opposed to the frequent power struggles (Disney, HP, for instance) or fraud cases like Enron, that we frequently read about. I guess smooth transitions such as these don’t generate big news or stock crashes. The ability to walk away without creating a vacuum (a crash of the stock etc) is also a sign of her true leadership.

Hats off to her for quitting when on top!

Arroyo Bridge Capital Partners: A Venture fund with a twist

There is an article in the WSJ (subscription needed) abut a VC firm that is focusing on investing in start-ups for eventual sale to Microsoft, Google, AOL, Yahoo.

I think this is a great strategy. In an environment where going public in the Internet/software technology is so difficult, such an approach makes a lot of sense. This was happening in the networking sector (though many VCs investing in this sector where never really very open about it) a few years back when companies where being acquired by Cisco, Nortel, Alcatel and others. In the hey days of the dotcomm similar things were happening in the Internet sector.

The firm does not have a website (I think this is a good strategy too!) but I personally think it has a great idea and hats off to them for being so open about it. It is a refreshing change from the typical VCs who talk about how great they are, their wonderful successes and their hot new “Google-MS- Yahoo” killer investments!

Serious comeback by Yahoo!

Check out http://maps.yahoo.com/beta

Man, these guys have fought there way back. I had thought that maps from Google where too cool and that I would never bother with Yahoo maps again. But these guys have done a phenomenal job with their new maps.

1. You can save addresses/routes so you can recall them when needed.
2. Live traffic updates are included.
3. You can look for anything (say “Indian restaurants”) around an address and “boom” its marked out on the map!
4. The maps have an inset showing the larger view that remains always on the screen.

All this and possibly more in addition to showing all of what Google has (barring the satellite pictures!) is quite an accomplishment in such a short time.

Have you checked out Yahoo voice chat? Its great! Very often works better than Skype. Has cool vmail capability too!

No question, Yahoo is coming back strongly against the competition.

Help! How to transfer Junk mail controls in Thunderbird?

I have been using Thunderbird mail program for some time now. I really like it and highly recommend it.

I am facing an issue right now with Thunderbird. When moving from one computer to another I can’t figure out how to transfer the junk mail filters. After you have used it on certain PC for a while Thunderbird automatically figures out the junk emails and moves them to a folder. In other words, it learns over time.

Is there a way to transfer that learning when I start using Thunderbird on another PC?

Help me recover from the PC monitor power save mode

My PC (Windows 2000 Dell) monitor goes into the Power Save mode (when left idle for a while) and I get the message “Activate using PC”. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get the monitor to come alive again. I tried a bunch of keys and finally had to hard re-start the PC. Anyway around this?

I don’t want to stop the power save mode. I just want a way to bring it back without having to re-start my PC.