RE: One option for dealing with many postings on tech wr-l

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

McLauchlan, Kevin wrote: 
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 11:15 AM
> To: Edgar D' Souza; Mike Starr
> Cc: techwr-l List
> Subject: RE: One option for dealing with many postings on tech wr-l
> 
> Edgar D' Souza  compares using Google gmail, via web interface, with
> using local mail readers to read mail that's been downloaded onto
one's
> hard-disk.
<snip quoted text>
> 
> Is the provided space so big that you never have to trim older
messages
> from/to high-volume mailing lists? How about if you send/receive large
> or frequent attachments?

When I first got a Gmail account, the space limit was 2 gig. Google
keeps gradually increasing it, and my limit now is 6793 MB (my actual
usage has all along remained just a few percent of that). A year's worth
of Techwhir-l posts might be about 100 MB.

The Gmail attachment size limit is 20 MB. Don't tell Google, but I know
people who use a Gmail account primarily as a free online backup device.

> I sorta trust my local ISP not to do foolish things with my mail, but
> the limits on how much I can keep online are painfully tight. I
> frequently need to download-and-delete, which then makes that slightly
> older mail unavailable except on my home PC. On the other hand, I
don't
> really trust the corporate... um.... sincerity of Google (or
Microsoft,
> or... fill in a big provider) to persist or to improve.  That is, I
> suspect that more is known by other people than by me about the
> contents, patterns, history, etc. of my own (rarely used) gmail
account.

I was similarly suspicious of Gmail at first. It's just a beta, I
worried, and what's to keep them from canceling it at any time? What
about my privacy? 

I'm a little more sanguine today. It's not that I trust Google to have
_my_ best interests at heart, but I'm pretty sure that they have their
_own_ best interests at heart, and screwing with all the Gmail users
would just about destroy their brand and the goodwill value attached to
it. As for the privacy concerns, they're no different if your mail is
sitting on your ISP's server. 

Regarding online vs. offline, you can have the best of both with Gmail
and IMAP. See my post earlier today, "Gmail and offline access." 

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------








 

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