Unfortunately the Top 20 List is of the “Most Annoying Tech Products of All Time” according to PC World. The other sad reality is the Microsoft’s storage model for its server product, Exchange, includes some of the same annoyances (i.e. storing all e-mail in a “single ever-growing data file” that will eventually leads to server failure). This situation is all too familiar to Concordia as we look at the potential failure of our Exchange server due to its ever-growing database.

Micah here (not sure why it says Beth Peter on the admin account. I gotta fix that).

Here are the links where I gleaned info on moving previous e-mails to gmail.
http://www.zoliblog.com/blog/_archives/2006/1/29/1729922.html
http://mailredirect.mozdev.org/installation.html
Lifehacker site (too long to paste in)

It does keep the same date that it was originally sent but for some reason it ends up in the Inbox the same day it is redirected from Thuderbird. I did have success with a personnal account that keep the original date sent as well as placing it in my Gmail Inbox in the relative date but I can’t figure out why it worked one time but not again. But an archive filter could be set up to archive everything redirected so it doesn’t clog the Inbox.

Using Thunderbird is time consuming but I had a lot more success with this rather than using Mbox & Maildir to Gmail Loader (GML) or gExodus – a graphical Gmail import tool.

There is not currently a task list feature on Google. This was concerning to some staff, so I wrote to Google about this.  I thought I would share their reply with everyone.

We feel that the concept of the task list is more effectively accomplished by a combination of archiving non-active emails (creating an inbox of to do e-mails) and scheduling tasks on the calendar. However, if we get an abundance of requests for a single feature, we evolve our products from customer requests and will accommodate.

One of the biggest concerns for staff is the privacy of information, especially confidential information exchanged between students and staff/faculty. This includes things like disabilities, financial information, information for the counseling center, etc. I wrote to Google about their privacy/security policy. I thought I would pass this on to those of you who might be interested in seeing it.

http://www.google.com/privacy.html

Right now, the people can e-mail departments on a general account, i.e. bearcenter@csp.edu. Would this still be possible with Google?  Could the system also be set up to respond with a general account instead of a personal account? For example, bearcenter@csp.edu would come up as the reply address instead of a staff person’s individual account.

One question that was asked when I reported information on Google to some staff was whether or not we could create a system where students used gmail (Google) and faculty and staff used Outlook (Exchange.) They wondered if we would need to get a new server then. I am not for this nor am I against this. I simply told the staff that I would pose this question to the committee.

I sent out an e-mail to the group about this, but also wanted to submit it here so that we can discuss it. Please check out the article and comments about the Google vs. Exchange at http://slashdot.org/articles/07/02/22/1430256.shtml. See what you think about all of this.

An article at Slashdot.org notes the Google Apps Premier Edition (the pay-for edition for corporations released yesterday) has already “replaced Microsoft products at more than 100,000 small to medium enterprises.”  

I would also like to note that Google Apps Education Edition (the free version available to Concordia) has all the same features as the Premier Edition, except for the 10GB mailbox size.  It would not surprise me if Google upgraded the Education Edition to offer the 10GB size as well.

Google has released some major updates today for their Google Apps Suite. For a quick summary from Google please visit the New Features Page.

When I logged into the administrative interface this morning it had completely changed and was much more usable. The addition of Google Documents and Spreadsheets was the first major update that I noticed. We now have the ability to create and share Google Documents and Spreadsheets for the CSP domain.

That’s not the only feature that they have improved, however. Many of the new features address some of the concerns and questions that people have had so far. Here are the new features that I’ve found:

E-mail

Calendar

Within the csp.edu domain, all calendars are shared.

Outside of the csp.edu domain, users have the option to share their calendars.

Conference Rooms & Resources – “You can now add conference rooms and resources to your domain calendar.” For instance, “You can create resources users can schedule in their calendar such as conference rooms or projectors.”

Documents & Spreadsheets

Chat

User Accounts

“The Provisioning API allows you to programmatically manage user accounts and synchronize your Google Apps user base with your own user management system. This feature is available in English only.” Learn More

“SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) service allows you to authenticate user accounts for web based applications (like GMail or Calendar). For desktop applications (like Google Talk or POP access to Gmail), your users must continue to sign in directly with their Google Apps username and password.” Learn More

Domain Settings

Google is now providing a Technical Support line for Google Apps administrators 1-800-598-3901, as well as a Support Site, and a Google Apps Discussion Group.

Usage Statistics

We now have the ability to fully test the capability of Google Apps for CSP. Google has corrected an issue that was preventing us from using the temporary e-mail account that should be assigned to each of us. If you would like to test the full functionality of your Gmail account here is the process.

1. Log on to your Gmail account at http://mail.google.com/a/csp.edu

2. Click on Settings

3. Click on Accounts

4. Click on edit info

5. Change your reply-to address to your real CSP e-mail address (i.e. username@csp.edu)

6. On the Exchange Server we would then need to forward your CSP e-mail to firstname.lastname@csp.edu.test-google-a.com (NOTE: If you would like to continue receiving e-mail in Outlook at the same time, please let me know and I will check that setting for your forwarding)

If anyone would like to enable this functionality, just send me an e-mail, and I will get your forwarding set up.