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Don Edrington - Computer Columnist for The Californian and San Diego's North County Times

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Gmail's Unsend Option
Using a Spreadsheet for your Address Book
Speed Up Vistawith a Thumb Drive

   Jeff Fastnow wrote to say he couldn't find Gmail's "unsend" option that I mentioned in a recent newsletter. Well, it is a new feature that can be added to Gmail options by clicking on Settings>Labs>Send/Undo. It's near the bottom of a long list of interesting options in "Google Labs."

   The command won't appear until you click SEND, whereupon "UNSEND" will appear as an option. You will then have five seconds in which to abort the SEND command.
    Five seconds may not seem like a lot, but they can be a lifesaver if you notice that your email was addressed to the wrong person, or if you suddenly have misgivings about an angry thought you expressed in the message.
How do I Copy my Address Book to a New Email Program?

   This is one of the most frequent questions we hear. Well, we never have that problem because we don't use an email program's address book in the first place. We keep all our contacts in a spreadsheet. (More on this in a moment.)

   In any case, some email clients have "File>Export" and "File>Import"options for moving addresses, but there is very little consistency among various programs to accomplish this easily.

   An easier method is to open your email program, begin a new outgoing message, and then click each of your contact's addresses into the "To:" box. Then click anywhere this box and do Ctrl+A to select all the addresses, followed by Ctrl+X to cut them from the box.

   Now you can do Ctrl+V to paste all the names onto a word processing page or into a spreadsheet (as we do), from whence you can copy and paste them into your new email program's Address Book.

Better Yet, Don't Use an Email Program's Address Book
(except, perhaps, for a few of your most frequently-used addresses).

   Just leave all your email addresses in a spreadsheet, and then copy and paste them individually as needed into an outgoing message's "To:" box or "BCC" (blind carbon copy) box.

   This would also mean that the next time you decide to change email programs, or add to the one you have, you'll never again have the hassle of exporting your contact list. Furthermore, adding and/or removing addresses from such a master list is infinitely easier than doing so within any email program's Address Book.

   This is particularly true if you send out a newsletter such as this one.

Create a Dummy Email Address Called AAA@AAA.AAA?

   Speaking of Address Books, a number of readers have asked our opinion regarding an email being circulated suggesting you could protect against having your contact list hijacked if you create a phony email address named AAA@AAA.AAA. The theory is that this address would alphabetically go to the top of your contact list, where it would foil a hacker's attempt to steal the remaining addresses.

   Well, this theory first began circulating circa 1997. However, subsequent information claims the hackers quickly learned to circumvent the trick. So, it's kind of like eating chicken soup for a cold - it can't hurt you and it may even do some good.

   In any event, be aware that AAA@AAA.AA will NOT be first in line if you have a contact whose email address begins with a numeral, which alphabetically, always precedes an alpha character.

Speed Up Vista with a Thumb Drive and "ReadyBoost"

   A little known trick offered by Microsoft lets you improve the speed and performanfce of Windows Vista by means of a USB Flash Memory Drive. It's called ReadyBoost.

   If you insert a USB Flash Memory Drive (aka a Thumb Drive or a Stick Drive) of 512 MB or more, Vista can use the device to perform operations that would otherwise need to be done with your PC's built-in hard drive.

   More information about this can be found on Microsoft's site: www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/readyboost.

© Donald Ray Edrington - All Rights Reserved

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