Eddie On Everything

Use Gmail like a Power User to Fight Spam and Stay organized

Gmail has been around for a few years, making its unique multi-threaded discussion format old hat to many internet users. Still, many users remain in the dark as to a number of Gmail power user tips and tricks, keeping them from unlocking Gmail’s full power.

Here, I run down a few useful tips and tricks that should help you use Gmail to its full potential.

1. Add periods to your Gmail address

You’re free to add as many periods to your Gmail address as you’d like. For instance, say that your Gmail address is:

eddieoneverything@gmail.com

You will also receive email sent to eddie.on.everything@gmail.com, ed.dieoneverything@gmail.com, eddie.on.every.thing@gmail.com, even e.d.d.i.e.o.n.e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g@gmail.com. Why does this matter? Using this trick in conjunction with a handy Gmail filter, you can track the source of your incoming emails, and filter them according.

2. Add plus signs to your Gmail address for fighting spam

Your Gmail account will also receive email sent to yourname+anything@gmail.com. So, if your Gmail address is eddieoneverything@gmail.com, you will also receive email sent to addresses like eddieoneverything+signup@gmail.com and eddieoneverything+spammer@gmail.com. This handy hack is great for dodging spam, and for tracking the source of all of that unsolicited email.

For instance, let’s say that you need to sign up at startribune.com to gain access to their news articles, but you don’t want to forever be spammed by the Star Tribune and their advertisers. Just sign up using the email address eddieoneverything+startribune@gmail.com, and if the spam gets out of hand, set up a rule to filter all email to that address directly to the spam folder.

3. Use the plus-sign hack to automatically sort, store notes

The plus-sign hack described above can make for a great PIM, or personal information manager. I set up a label for “notes,” and created a rule that automatically filters all email sent to myaddress+notes@gmail.com to the notes area. The result is that whenever I want to save a piece of information for later retrieval (eg a frequent flyer number) I can just email it to myaddress+notes@gmail.com. Searching by label is a snap, so the info I want is always at my fingertips.

4. Two Gmail addresses – gmail.com and googlemail.com

Digital Inspiration discovers that all Gmail users can receive mail at 2 separate domains – both gmail.com and googlemail.com. This means that you can give Grandma your googlemail.com address and set up a rule to process those emails with a higher priority.

These are just a few tips that make using Gmail a more enjoyable experience. Personally, I rarely use the Gmail web interface – instead, I use SMTP access to expand the power of Gmail even further. Look for more on that in Part II.

How to do a search and replace in multiple files using perl and linux

So you’ve got 100 files in a directory and you want to replace the string “foo” with “bar”. Stop before you waste your time opening up every single file and making the change, you can make all of the changes with a single line of perl.

perl -pi -w -e 's/foo/bar/g' *\.php

On his blog, Liam Delahunty explains what each of the following command line switches means.


-e means execute the following line of code.
-i means edit in-place
-w write warnings
-p loop


There you have it - a nice and easy Perl solution that should save you tons of time.

How to get Apache to parse HTML files as PHP

PHP is a language that is parsed and interpreted by the Apache web server. That is, all code execution takes place on the server side, not on the client side.

By default, Apache only parses files ending in extension .php as PHP files. If you need to tell Apache to also process files with other extensions as PHP files, you need to add a special handler to the Apache config files. Problem is, most individuals on shared hosting setups don’t have access to these files. Fortunately, there is a way around this.

To tell Apache to parse HTML files just like it does PHP files, you need only create a file called .htaccess (note the dot) in your root web directory. In that file, include the following line:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

It’s that simple!

Another Reason to not use Gift Cards

Reports have retailer Sharper Image, currently undergoing a bankruptcy, is refusing to honor gift cards both in both its retail stores and online.

If you really needed another reason to stay far, far away from these ripoff gift cards, this is it.

So let’s sum up just a few reasons to not use gift cards:

• Limited to spending your money at one store.
• Unused balance often left unspent, meaning pure profit for the retailer
• The cards are pre-paid, non-interest bearing accounts. This means that the store, not you, makes interest on your money.
• Most have monthly maintenance fees after a period of inactivity
• No purchase protection like that offered by credit cards and even debit cards.
• Store may refuse to honor the gift cards at any time, subject to their issuance terms.
• Many Visa branded gift cards do not work at all retailers; in fact, they rarely work at gas pumps.
• As we learn here, gift cards are a form of unsecured debt for the store, meaning that if the store should happen to file for bankruptcy, card holders are very low down on the totem pole when it comes to reimbursement.

With all of these negatives, why do people continue to purchase these things? My guess is that most purchases are made as gifts for others - you don’t know what to buy your friend/aunt/cousing, so instead of picking out a gift, you buy him/her/it a Target-branded gift card. Word to the wise - next time, just give cash.

Customer Experiences from the Consumerst:

… Now, I finally go to the store and hand them my certificate and I’m told that due to Chapter 11, SI is not accepting Merchandise Certificates or Gift Cards from anyone.

He called Sharper Image customer service see what the problem was and the representative told him they had suspended gift card redemptions due to the bankruptcy.

How to take a screenshot in Windows XP

Unfortunately, Windows XP doesn’t come with the nice automatic screenshot utility like Mac OSX does. No worries, though - it’s still possible to take a screenshot with Windows XP, it just requires a few more steps.

One of these days, I am going to write a nifty screenshot utility that I’ve been planning for some time. Until then, just follow these steps.

1. Get whatever you want to take a screenshot of on the screen

Duh.

2. Hit the “Print Screen” Key

On a normal keyboard, the Print Screen key (sometimes abbreviated “prt scrn”) is located above the number pad.

Pressing the Print Screen key causes an image of whatever is on your screen to be copied to the clipboard.

3. Start your favorite image editor

If you have Photoshop, fire it up. If not, you can use the simple image editor that Windows XP ships with - MS Paint. MS Paint is located in your start menu, under “Accessories.” Alternatively, you can run MS Paint by going to Start->Run and typing “mspaint”. (no quotes)

Note - if you’re looking for a nice free image editor, you may want to check out The Gimp.

4. Paste the image from the clipboard onto your screen

Use the Edit->Paste functionality, or try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-V (paste.) You should now be able to use the photo editing program to crop the image to your liking, add text, etc. When finished, simply save the image to your hard drive.

5. A note on image formats

If you are using MS Paint, the default image format will be BMP or “Bitmap.” BMP files tend to be very large and limited in their usefulness. If you are taking this screenshot to email to someone, you should probably choose to save the image as a jpeg (JPG) file.

How to stop your posts from being flagged on Craigslist

I’m no Craigslist spammer, and this information isn’t intended to help the Craigslist spammers. On the contrary, I’m sharing this secret to help the many people out there who constantly find their legitimate Craigslist ads flagged simply because a large segment of the population doesn’t understand simple economics.

The Problem: You post an ad on Craigslist to sell a legitimate product or service, but “the community” flags your ad as being “inappropriate” or “prohibited.” Why do they flag these ads, if they are legitimate ads, you ask? Good question. Turns out that a lot of people are of the opinion that all goods should be sold at or below cost.

The Solution: If you find your ad being flagged, simply use the same email that you used to post your ad to edit it every so often. Each time you edit the ad, the “flag counter” is reset, meaning that you need that the small minority of vigilante flaggers has to start at the beginning.

“Social” sites always lead to this sort of thing - a small group of people control the content that everyone else sees. Ain’t democracy grand?

Craigslist and its merry band of Wii reseller flaggers

Lucky me - I happen to have a pretty reliable source of Nintendo Wiis. For the last few months I’ve been getting about 3 Wiis per week. Most of these have gone to clients and friends as gifts, but I’ve sold a few as well.

I used to sell them primarily on eBay, but lately there have been so many fake bidders that you have to watch your auction like a hawk and cancel any bids from a new user or a user with zero feedback. Whether this phenomenon is the result of a slew of new eBay users who just don’t understand the process, or whether it’s primarily nutjob anti-capitalists, I can’t say for sure. (I suspect the latter.) Either way, this, along with eBay’s ridiculous fee structure, has pushed me away. I now sell my Wiis on Craigslist.

Until today, I’ve sold about 6 Wiis on Craigslist without incident. Today, however, some merry band of idiots is out there flagging my Wii ads as “inappropriate,” and they’re being automatically removed from the site. It appears that I am not alone. What is it about reselling Wiis that causes so many otherwise reasonable people to fly into unchecked rages? I have to wonder where these people do their weekly shopping - surely it must be hard to go through life with the attitude that people should sell you whatever you want at cost.

Anyway, I did learn an interesting trick to keep your posts from being removed from Craigslist - just edit the ad every so often, and the “flag counter” will be reset.

Gene Simmons Tape hits the Internet, causes a torrent of uproar

First Pam & Tommy, then Paris Hilton. Pretty soon Kim Kardashian followed them up. Hell, even Screech got in on the tape action. Now comes news that 61-year-old Gene Simmons also has a tape making the rounds, and long-time girlfriend Shannon Tweed is not his co-star.

There was some early speculation that it was not in fact Gene, but instead a Gene Simmons lookalike in the starring role. Gene’s lawyers have put that speculation to rest, however, by sending these cease and desist letters to the operators of Gene’s Secret, the website selling access to the video for a mere $24.95 per month.

Rumor has it that the tape was filmed in 2003, and that the girl involved is an Australian model by the name of Elisa, and that the two met while working on a promo for Frank’s energy drink.

Personally, I have no desire to see this thing, so I’m not even going to bother searching for a torrent. However, if you were so inclined, I’m sure it’d be pretty easy to find a torrent link to two, if you know where to look.

Start making money with Adsense - What should I blog about?

I tell people how easy it can be to make money with Google Adsense, and they usually say “Wow, Cool! It must be nice — I wish I could do that.” I tell them that they can, that it’s easier than ever to get started, and the response is nearly always “Nah, I don’t know what I would write about,” or “What would I talk about? I have nothing to say.”"

I stumbled across this great article today, entitled “Little Known ‘Boring’ Websites That Make Incredible Money With AdSense.”

Alonzy, 57, now makes $120,000 a year from the ads Google places on his Natural Handyman website, and he couldn’t be more thrilled.

…

Take Jerrold Foutz. The former Boeing engineer, 75, started a website a few years ago devoted to one of his passions — switching mode power supplies, which help drive, for instance, the inside of video cameras.

He put Google ads on his smpstech.com site four years ago. After just one month, the first Google check was for $800. The second check totaled $2,000.

…

Al Needham, 74, who runs a site about the care of bees (bees-online.com) from his home near Boston, reaps about $250 a month.

The lesson? Write about what you know. Are you an engineer? Write about interesting engineering problems. Enjoy cooking? Start a blog about making excellent meals. Secretary by day? Create a blog that shares your time-saving tips and tricks.

Everyone knows something well enough to teach it. You need only find what that something is and get started.

My sudden jump in FICO credit score

What’s in a credit score? Good question.

A FICO credit score is a single number that, in theory, quantifies your creditworthiness. In practice, however, it doesn’t always work out like that. Comprised of factors such as length of credit history, number of open accounts, and ratio of debt-to-credit available, credit scoring techniques can confuse even the savviest borrowers.

Take, for instance, the recent happenings with my credit score. I received a notice today that my credit score had changed by more than +/- 20 points. I was expecting a jump - last month, I received notice my score fell by approximately 40 points because a company that I’ve never heard of reported that I was late in making payments. (For the record, I haven’t made a late payment on any account or liability in more than 10 years.) I filed disputes with each of the three credit bureaus and the negative history was removed almost as quickly as it was added.

However, I’m still left wondering about the result:

I would have expected my score to return to about 700, where it has hovered for the past year or so. Instead, it shot up to a whopping 745. Why? I haven’t done anything different in the past month - I still have about $12,000 of credit card debt (at 1.9% - so it’s not going to get paid off any time soon), I still have $100k in student loan debt, and I still make the same payments each month. I keep opening new cards at the same rate I normally do. (My latest - I got a free $150 for opening a Chase Freedom card.)

So why the big jump in score? Inquiring minds want to know.