I love IMAP. Why was I dicking around with POP? Synchronize, synchronize, synchronize. I never realized how easy it was to switch (very). I never responded to messages from work because I didn’t want to have anything not copied to where I wanted it (now it is). There is the problem of not being able to access my stored messages when my host has an issue or my internet connection is down. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Much. [I typed this up yesterday. My host was down for a bit today. Figures.]
Pause to backup files…. Get sucked into research on database and full site backups and cron jobs…. Done!
With the addition of Gmail to my repertoire, I was thinking about the number of email addresses I have and how many of those I use and do I really need all of those? Dave was thinking the same thing. Let’s count the accounts, shall we?
Warning: I bored myself to sleep re-reading this, but who am I to self-censor?
Covad – My folks’ ISP. Since I set it all up for them, I figure I ought to get an email address out of the deal. This is my main account. I use it on my resumé. I use it with my friends who’ve known me for a while (because the username is the same as it’s been since college) or who I might be trying to keep away from the blog. I use it to sign up for stuff that I actually want to keep track of.
swirlspice.com – Three at the moment. There’s the default/black hole where all the spam and crap and error messages go. Not even enabled. There’s the one listed here and my main address for people I’m not trying to keep away from here. The third’s exclusively for use with the iVillagers since we generally produce over 100 messages a day all by ourselves.
Gmail – On account of the above addresses getting plenty of use, I don’t foresee doing much with this one anytime soon. But I have it just in case. It’s my top contender for “professional” use if the Covad goes away, unless I get around to registering my name as a domain name.
Yahoo – I’ve had this address forever and a day. I only check it about once a week. I’m always afraid something I signed up for and forgot about will send me mail there and I’ll miss it. A few folks willfully refuse to update their address books when I give them the Covad address, repeatedly mail them from the Covad address, and tell them I don’t use this one anymore. As punishment I don’t respond to them when they send mail here unless it’s really really important. I probably didn’t see it until a week later anyway. I guess I do have another one associated with the IM screenname listed here, but I never check it.
Mail.com – Signed up for this when I needed non-cheesy-yahoo web-based mail for my resume, before I had the Covad address (and because I could select “@engineer.com” as the domain). Hate it. Completely overridden with ads. Haven’t used it. Wish it had a “delete account” option. It’ll dump all your messages if you go too long with signing in, but it won’t let you escape cleanly.
umich.edu – Free alumni bouncer, sends to the email address I supply. I have no idea which address I have in there now, but this is a surefire way to catch me if you’re someone I went to college with and haven’t talked to since. I could use it more, but that requires the constant use of “Reply-To” which is just silly (maybe not if I had consistently used it from the start; too late for that).
copper.net – It’s the dial-up account I use when I travel if broadband isn’t available. I’ve never actually used the email and I’m not even sure I know how to login.
.mac – Technically this one doesn’t count. I signed up for the 60-day free trial, but let it die because I didn’t have $100 to plop down for a subscription. If/when I do, I’ll sign right up, but I doubt I’ll use the email.
That’s 10, plus one that doesn’t count. Dang, that’s more than I thought I had. There are only three in heavy rotation, plus that pesky Yahoo clinger. Since I usually collect those main three through one mail application, it’s not such a big deal (although I’ve accidentally sent messages from the wrong account once or twice, oops!).
