First, get a Google Number. There’s more features this way and you can always start giving it out as your number or keep it secret for special people to use (your mom, the baby sitter, the guy who interviewed you for that dream job…)

Second, pick a good number. When you get a Google number you have some control over what number they assign to you. First, pick your area code. Simple enough unless your one of the many Americans who live in a multi-area code zone (like me). From there, you can search for certain character combinations that may be available. Anything good is likely already taken so consider something easy for you. If your number is 123-555-4321 then try and get something in your area code with 4321 also. That way, you only need to remember three new digits. or try getting your number for a different area code.

Once you’re done, you can use this number to send and receive sms messages (sorry, no media messages). Just make sure you don’t have it send you a text message to your cell phone if you have a smart phone and use the Google Voice app. If you do, then you’ll get two notices every time you get a message.

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More on Google Voice

This is a free service which is good, because if I was paying for this service, I’d be really disappointed. But since it’s free and isn’t any worse than my carrier’s voice mail system (aside from the delay) I’ll keep using it. You see, while it’s pretty good at transcribing the messages I get, it only gets about 70% of the message right. That’s enough to get the gist of the message prior to listening to it but not enough to rely on it for detailed information. Case in point, below are a couple of messages I received this weekend. One from my wife, and the other from a good friend of mine.

Hey love, it’s mike another year now and we’re walking up for the front gate, so just want to let you know. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet you there. Man will see you soon. Thanks. Bye.

Hey Babe, It’s just me. I, I just left starting it and I just wanted to see Al Gore invented the thing. Hopefully you were able to concentrate and he was the as well for you so love you. I’m heading over to the party now. Love you bye.

The italics represent the words that Google Voice wasn’t sure about. It uses various shades of grey text to represent it’s confidence in accuracy But as you can tell from the actual messages, even that isn’t completely reliable.

My Friend My-Friend

My Wife My-Wife

• More on Google Voice
• 619-269-0041
• Phaking Phone Number
• Hymns that burn!
• One email to rule them all

Talk dirty to me

For the gamers who frequent my site (especially when at school) I must apologize for the down time earlier today. My wife emailed me to let me know there were some problems with our sites and that I had an email from the hosting company I should read. Here’s what it said:

Recently we have noticed that your web site(s) is consuming a
disproportionate amount of server resources (including memory and/or CPU
time). Because of this, we have had to move your account off of the
shared hosting server to an auxiliary server. We now request that you
consider purchasing a Managed or other Dedicated Server in order to
continue hosting with 1&1 Internet.

The decision to move your account was made by the system administrators
in order to improve the quality of service for the rest of our clients
on the shared server from which you were previously hosted. The
resources consumed by your account threatened the ability of that server
to capably operate as as a shared host, so it was required that your
account be moved in order to mitigate server load. Though we could move
your site back to the original shared hosting server, it is not
recommended. Your account activity has demonstrated that your site
deserves its own server to better suit its performance needs.

Please visit 1and1.com to review the server products we offer. You will
have one (1) month to make a decision and migrate your account over to a
1&1 server or another host provider. You can choose to return your
account back to the shared server, provided that you take steps to
reduce the load generated by your websites. If the account has to be
moved off the shared server system again you will only have the option
of purchasing a dedicated server account to continue hosting with 1&1
Internet.

Please reply to this email promptly. Further questions/comments should
be directed to abuse-team email.

Thank you for your compliance in this matter.

Apparently, the new archive plugin I installed was using over 20% of the resources on the shared server- the entire server. To put it in perspective, shared servers like the one I use can host 1,000 websites or more. That’s entire websites, not just pages.

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Did I do that?

One of the features of the Motorola Droid (and other Google phones I guess) is that you can use your Gmail contacts as your phone contacts. I talked about importing my old phone contacts before but one of the results was a plethora of duplicate contacts and overlapping contacts.

For instance, I usually had one phone contact for couples and used the pink phone icon for the wife and the blue phone icon for the husband. This made it easy to search and since my old phone had a 99 contact limit, I saved room for more contacts.

Of course, when merged with my Gmail contacts, there’s a lot of editing involved but nothing too difficult. That is, until I discover how many phone numbers I have for certain people. There are even cases where I have an entry for Bob and Carol Smith as well as Carol and Bob Smith – but there are different numbers between them.

That’s why this past Sunday, I spent several hours combing through my Gmail reviewing every contact I have for accuracy and repetition. What I discovered was that Gmail remembers too many contacts.

As it turns out, if you send or receive someone an email , Gmail seems to keep them as a contact, even if it was only once. I had several contacts from craigslist postings and customer support emails. And while those are easy enough to identify for removable, the other contacts typically had names or appeared worth keeping.

The real difficulty for me is that my wife and I share our Gmail account so many of those contacts could be people she knows and wants to keep. In fact, we use our one Gmail account to handle several different email addresses from personal accounts to the websites I manage. Thus we had over 900 contacts to sort through. I can only imagine what those power users have to deal with.

I haven’t finished sorting through the list but I did make great progress. Soon I’ll start asking people for more info like birthdays, street address, webpages, etc so my contact list is more complete and easier to maintain. But for now, I have 791 contacts still to go. Check that, 789.Similar Posts:

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Keeping up with…everyone

One of the things I like about my new Droid phone is how well it integrates my Google account and all its features. One thing it does is use my Gmail contacts as my phone contacts (including email, birthdays, addresses, etc.) One of the features which it uses on the phone that I didn’t use much on the web was contact picture.

Pictures allow you to put a face to a name! User-selected pictures show up when you roll over a name in your inbox, Contacts, or Quick Contacts list. You can choose your own photo for yourself and for your contacts, suggest a photo for a contact to use, or see what your friends have selected for themselves.

When writing emails, I simply started typing a name and the possible contacts would show up like an auto-complete form field. Easy and to the point. But the contacts in my phone all show a thumbnail picture next to the name. This is great when scrolling through or trying to quickly pick the right “Bob” except, I don’t have pictures of a lot of my contacts. I may have a picture of them in our vast collection, but sorting through that will take some time.

So this is my plea, if you use Gmail, add your picture to your account. This is the best way to get a picture you like and it will update my list if you’re already on my list. If you don’t have Gmail (or don’t want everyone to see it) please email me a picture to use for you in my contacts list (or link to a photo). I’ll return the favor upon request. Otherwise, I’ll pick my own and may not be very selective.

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Picture Pages

Its been a busy week which I’ll tell you about later but I wanted to give you a heads up about this.

Amazon MP3: 25 Days of Free – Daily Free Downloads in December. A different holiday song available for download each day for free.

Every day through December 25, they’re unveiling a new holiday song available to download free for a limited time.
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Free Amazon.com MP3 Downloads

Week 6 (Nov. 9-15): Yellowstone Photo Expedition with Canon Wish List — A trip for two to Yellowstone National Park, and a private lesson with a professional photographer and an awesome camera setup to capture it all.

Here’s my Dream Camera Wishlist inspired by this weeks prizes.

• Wishlist Sweepstakes
• Happy Mother’s Day – early edition
• This Week: 10 FREE Kindles
• Sports Illustrated
• Baby’s got a brand new camera

My Dream Camera

Looking back, I realized I never mentioned the first time. Back in September, Siobhan (pronounced Shove-On, I swear) was featured on the cover of the San Diego Reader – our local free magazine. It was quite an honor and I was personally proud of her. I also thought I would use her fame to get me into the swanky places. that was before the comments started coming in from all the offended San Diegans.

San Diego became a beautiful blonde
By Siobhan Sept. 23

I always pictured myself in California. After my boyfriend Aaron received job offers in Oklahoma City, Topeka, and San Diego, we decided we would head to the land of fruits and nuts.

Within a few weeks, we had loaded up our station wagon with boxes of belongings, our dog, and our four-month-old son for the cross-country trek. We were giddy with excitement.

And despite (or because of) all the ruckus her article raised, she has been included in the cover article again. San Diego Reader – Another Perfect Day is a collection of blog posts describing (or from) the neighborhoods of San Diego. As you read these posts, keep in mind that they were not “commissioned” or “assignments”. They were selected retroactively.

Why I Should Own a Minivan
By Siobhan, July 16

I almost got my ass kicked in the Food 4 Less parking lot off Broadway in El Cajon. I wanted to buy the popsicles that are imported from Mexico that look like rockets.
It all went down immediately after my kids attended vacation bible school, where they learned about Jesus and held baby chicks.

It’s my husband’s fault. He was supposed to buy a minivan but instead he opted for a Jeep, one with ridiculously heavy doors. Because of his Isuzu Amigo, or as I like to call it, his little friend, I innocently banged my door into the car next to me. The woman who owned the car was sitting in it, yapping on the phone.

“I am so, so, sorry! These doors are heavy!” I told her while smiling.

I had never seen a human being move so fast. She was out of her car and standing next to me in .006 seconds. I could smell Cheetos on her breath. When her face was within an inch of mine, I realized that things were going to get ugly

^NOT Siobhan^

The Hypochondriac
By Siobhan, June 25

My husband reminds me that it should be called H1N1. I think that’s stupid. It’s far more awesome to die by swine flu. Almost as awesome as living on Bacon Tree, a one-block street in Linda Vista with the greatest name ever. Bacon on trees, I want that. If there were a house for sale on that street, I would find a way to fork over a large chunk of cash to buy it. I want my return address to say Bacon Tree on it.

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Siobhan makes the cover – again

Windows 7 is a truly exciting new Microsoft launch with great new features including Jump Lists, Aero Shake, Snap, new Device Stage Management, as well as new levels of home group network interaction

Upgrade to Windows 7 Professional

With Windows 7 Professional, fewer walls stand between you and your success. You can run many Windows XP productivity programs in Windows XP Mode and recover data easily with automatic backups to your home or business network. You can also connect to company networks effortlessly and more securely with Domain Join. With all the exciting entertainment features of Windows Home Premium, it’s a great choice for home and for business. All editions of Windows XP and Windows Vista qualify you to upgrade.

If you don’t have Windows XP or Windows Vista already installed, you probably need a new computer – one that doesn’t say Etch-a-Sketch on the side. In general, if your PC can run Windows Vista it can run Windows 7. To make sure, download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to do a quick check. If you want certain features, such as HomeGroup or Windows Media Center, check to see if your PC has the hardware that’s needed.

Click on the image to enlarge and compare features of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

For those of you who hated the Windows 7 Launch Party ads, I offer you this gem from Funny Or Die (thanks Gil)

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Time to open a new Windows

Oh, it will also include baby archshrk II when he/she arrives around March/April. Until then, check out the Baby Registry page.
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