Packetfury.net

When GMail came out, it was a major event. It was on an invitation-only basis, each person having a certain amount of invites, and sending them out to friends, who in turn could invite. Ingenious, really... Instead of opening up and beeing flooded by millions of users, the servers slowly grew in size depending on the amount of invites. At the time, I didn't want a GMail account. I already had a web-based account, and I'm not talking about Hotmail, Yahoo or some other type, this was a real account, paid for, and hosted with Packetfury. I didn't need GMail, I didn't need the @gmail.com email, I didn't need the backups, and I didn't need the size. I was a geek! I had my own domain! I made billions of backups! Times change.

My first cell-phone was a monster. My last phone is too, but not for the same reasons. My first cell phone took batteries, real AA batteries. With it, I could actually call people, and also maybe send SMS messages. My latest phone is an iPhone. With it, I can find out where I am, see myself on an updated map, send emails, listen to music, play games, consult my agenda, publish useless Facebook statuses, find out where the nearest café is, and read the daily news. Oh, and I can also call people, but that seems secondary. I got myself an iPhone because at the time, I was an iPhone dev. Today, with the same choice, I probably would have gone for a GooglePhone, because I like Google. Anyway.

On the iPhone, Google is omni-present. The search engine in Internet is Google. The maps application is GoogleMaps. I can add emails accounts, and GMail is in the list. They have tons of applications designed specially for the iPhone, so in the end, I took advantage of it. I created a gmail account. I then added the PF account to GMail, just to have a "backup". I then added a few contacts, you never know. I added some more. Then I found out just how good this can be on an iPhone... My iPhone now reads my GMail account, not my PF account. My contacts are synced to my phone in real time, including the details I added, and the pictures. I can also sync with Evolution, if I want a heavy client. My agenda is also synced, but I still have a bit of work to do on that... Onlymy personal calendar appears, not the work calendar. So here I am, all Googled up, and I'm thrilled with it. So much, that I rarely use my heavy client anymore. I can do practically anything right from GMail, and it works just great. Having a 3G card on my PC does help, though, I'll admit. Oh, and another reason. Their anti-spam filter is excellent. My phone no longer vibrates every 15 minutes with useless junk.

Today, I use a lot of Google apps. GMail, Google Calendar; those are the logical two. I now have a Picasa account, and the software works great, even on Linux, natively. Google Earth is great fun too.This morning I was sleeping peacefully on the train, and the wakeup call was pretty violent. When I arrived at work, I found out that, yes, the train tracks are perpendicular, and very close to the runway at the Rennes airport. The A320 landing on top of the train scared the hell out of me. I use Google Code search when in need of a hand. My CV is on Google Documents, as well as a few administrative papers, "just in case". And before all that, before any other application... On the top right hand side of y navigator (Firefox, not Chrome, believe it or not), lies a widget, Google Search. This is where it all started!