infoworld metadata explorer

The solution I cobbled together speaks volumes about the fundamental openness of Web applications. To find out how Gmail creates a distribution list, I logged in, created a list interactively using Gmail's form, and captured the resulting HTTP transaction using one of the handiest tools in my Web developer's kit, Firefox's LiveHTTPHeaders extension.

The next step was to replay that transaction outside of the browser. I rearranged its elements -- an URL, a chunk of HTTP POST data, and a set of HTTP headers including a cookie packed with crucial name/value pairs -- as a command-line invocation of another of the handiest tools in my kit: curl. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]

Jon's Radio

Jon Udell

2006.02.08

gmail pop3 libgmail userinnovation

» Gmail correction and prognosis

I'm happy to report that I was wrong about Gmail's POP feature. The perceived problem I wrote about here turns out to have been operator error on my part. Apologies to Keith Coleman and the Gmail team. As is often true in cases like this, a combination of factors led to the misperception:

Jon's Radio

Jon Udell

2006.02.07

email mhonarc gmail libgmail emailthreads spade tiddlywiki

» Gathering and exchanging email threads

Twice in the past few weeks, once for business and once for a personal matter, I've had to collect and transmit a set of related email threads. In both cases, the Gmail query that produced these collections searched tags (what Gmail calls labels) as well as Subject: or From: fields. For example, one of the queries looked like this in Gmail's user interface:
in:school teacher1 teacher2
where in:school refers to the virtual folder created by assigning the school tag, and teacher1 and teacher2 are the names of teachers.

Jon's Radio

Jon Udell

2006.01.13

gmail libgmail python archiving

» Gmail lockdown in sector 4

Note: Hallelujah and mea culpa, things aren't as gloomy as the picture I painted here. I've appended an update below.
The other day I showed my old pal Rob Mitchell how I use Gmail. He was intrigued by its search, tagging, and desktop independence, but couldn't see how I'd allow myself to get locked into an unsupported service. I explained that I'm not locked in, and we went through the setup. My home server is the New Hampshire ISP I've been using for many years. My InfoWorld address redirects there, and now my Gmail address does too. Messages sent from Gmail bear my home email address, so replies go through my home server which then forwards them on to Gmail. Although I don't use Outlook any more, it continues to run on my desktop PC, fetching backup copies of all the messages that hit my primary server.

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Jon's Radio	Jon Udell	2006.12.07	gmail libgmail ldif intermediation	» General-purpose intermediation The solution I cobbled together speaks volumes about the fundamental openness of Web applications. To find out how Gmail creates a distribution list, I logged in, created a list interactively using Gmail's form, and captured the resulting HTTP transaction using one of the handiest tools in my Web developer's kit, Firefox's LiveHTTPHeaders extension. The next step was to replay that transaction outside of the browser. I rearranged its elements -- an URL, a chunk of HTTP POST data, and a set of HTTP headers including a cookie packed with crucial name/value pairs -- as a command-line invocation of another of the handiest tools in my kit: curl. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]
Jon's Radio	Jon Udell	2006.02.08	gmail pop3 libgmail userinnovation	» Gmail correction and prognosis I'm happy to report that I was wrong about Gmail's POP feature. The perceived problem I wrote about here turns out to have been operator error on my part. Apologies to Keith Coleman and the Gmail team. As is often true in cases like this, a combination of factors led to the misperception:
Jon's Radio	Jon Udell	2006.02.07	email mhonarc gmail libgmail emailthreads spade tiddlywiki	» Gathering and exchanging email threads Twice in the past few weeks, once for business and once for a personal matter, I've had to collect and transmit a set of related email threads. In both cases, the Gmail query that produced these collections searched tags (what Gmail calls labels) as well as Subject: or From: fields. For example, one of the queries looked like this in Gmail's user interface: in:school teacher1 teacher2 where in:school refers to the virtual folder created by assigning the school tag, and teacher1 and teacher2 are the names of teachers.
Jon's Radio	Jon Udell	2006.01.13	gmail libgmail python archiving	» Gmail lockdown in sector 4 Note: Hallelujah and mea culpa, things aren't as gloomy as the picture I painted here. I've appended an update below. The other day I showed my old pal Rob Mitchell how I use Gmail. He was intrigued by its search, tagging, and desktop independence, but couldn't see how I'd allow myself to get locked into an unsupported service. I explained that I'm not locked in, and we went through the setup. My home server is the New Hampshire ISP I've been using for many years. My InfoWorld address redirects there, and now my Gmail address does too. Messages sent from Gmail bear my home email address, so replies go through my home server which then forwards them on to Gmail. Although I don't use Outlook any more, it continues to run on my desktop PC, fetching backup copies of all the messages that hit my primary server.