I'm going to be using post titles like "Bits and Pieces" and "Odds and Ends" from now on when I want to write about things that don't deserve a dedicated article and filing them under "Random". This is the first one.

Electronic Mail

As online providers like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo provide more space and features for their web mail services, is it time to ditch the clients on our PCs, Macs and other computers?

I've been using Thunderbird as an email client practically since it was first released. Before that, I used Outlook Express. Even before that, I used Eudora (back when Windows 3.11 was the prevalent OS).

I forgot to pack my USB flash drive when I returned o the Philippines in 2006 (after attending my older son's wedding). I had the portable version of Thunderbird on it. It came in handy when I had to go to an Internet cafe to get online.

I now use Google Mail ("Gmail") for all of my email needs. It's web-based, so it goes where I go without me having to lug around anything extra. While I have Hotmail (Microsoft) and Yahoo email accounts, I never use them. I only have them because I needed them to set up the instant messengers. I have relatives and friends that use all different kinds of instant messengers. I'm in the process of cleaning out the folders in Thunderbird and disabling the POP option from Gmail.

iGoogle

What's in a name? The first time I saw "iGoogle", I thought Google had gone into cahoots with Apple. I mean, Apple is using iAnything for their products: iMac, iPod, iPhone, etc. I don't think that's really the case though since iGoogle is nothing more than the fancy version of the personalized home page they provide for you.

I installed the gadget from Google Bookmarks and am now in the process of moving my bookmarks from Firefox to my Google home page. As far as Google is concerned, I now have Google Reader, Google Trends, Google Analytics, and my Google AdSense overview linked there. It's going to take a while to get all my bookmarks moved over, but the purpose is clear: One place for all my bookmarks wherever I go.

I'm adding stuff to the page and the extra tabs I created, using their "Add Stuff" link of course. I changed the theme to their "Beach" theme and I like it that way. The theme changes in brightness/darkness as the hours in the day changes and it's set for my time zone.

The CSS For My Theme

I don't like the CSS for my theme. The CSS is much longer than I think it needs to be — I didn't create it, so don't holler at me. Anyway, since I created a good, working sandbox for myself on my PC, I'm going to slowly rewrite the CSS and the pages of the theme (as necessary).

The CSS contains a couple of hacks to make it work better with Internet Explorer. I think the hacks are unnecessary. The theme author probably didn't know about some layout tricks that will make Internet Explorer (5, 6 and 7) display just like Firefox, Opera, and possibly others. According to my statistics, 80 percent of my visitors use Firefox, about 15 percent use Internet Explorer and the rest use various other browsers. Heck, that's probably why my Alexa stats haven't been improving lately. Those stats are registered mostly by Internet Explorer users.