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.

Here is an article I continually find related to google calendar synchronization, ipods, cell phones, home desktops, and work desktops.  This requires the use of a third party, but we may be able to integrate it locally.

The Holy Grail of Synch

There is a new version of Thunderbird coming out this month that will support Gmail integration including tags.

(Via Read/Write Web)

As we look at the potential move to Google Apps for Concordia’s e-mail system, we will need to have a solution in place for our mobile device users.  A new application called Consilient offers a free version that pushes e-mail to mobile phones.  One nice feature is that it is compatible with most common mobile phones including but not limited to Windows Mobile phones.  They also offer a pay-for service with added features.
(Via Download Squad)

Looks like this might be an added feature in the next release (expected in the next week or two):

Syncing with Sunbird/Lightning coming soon?

This weekend, while sending notices to off-campus colleagues of an upcoming event, I ran into Google email sending limits. I am currently locked out of sending email from my csp.edu account! Supposedly my access will be restored in 24-72 hours. The google policy is here. Rants are here and here.
IMHO, this policy (for which I cannot get the exact specifics) may be a deal breaker. And I do not find the alternative of setting up google groups as an appealing alternative. CSP needs the ability to send large quantities of email to large groups (to students in a college, to a recruitment group, to an event group, to all student, to all alumni, etc.). And nothing is more inconvenient than being locked out!!!

(seen at the bottom of my email screen)

They’re even willing to teach me how to use my university in more languages. I don’t think Outlook can do that!

Gmail Checker is another Gmail notifier. It sits in your
system tray and notifies you if you have any new Gmail emails. It is
open source, supports unlimited accounts, Gmail for your domain, and
has many customizable options.

Bruder has installed this, so I’ll let him comment on how it works, or
what issues he finds. The nice thing is, this is an opensource app
written in python, so I can edit and adapt it for our
environment. Right now, it works on PC, but I’m trying to compile it
for Mac or Linux.

Use Outlook with Google Gmail
Use Thunderbird with Google Gmail
Configuring Other E-mail Clients with Google Gmail

I think piloting using Outlook first would be a good way to move ahead. Can we identify 10-20 people in the pilot to switch over that way?

I’m going to set up Thunderbird and Sunbird/Lightning on my own machine and see how that goes. I think long-term this is the way to go since these options support open standards and should tie into Gmail nicely, as was mentioned in the meeting.

Update: I set up Thunderbird and it provided a one-click transfer of all of my e-mails from Outlook. I also was able to successfully set up POP access through Gmail in Thunderbird.

While searching for information regarding how to synchronize Outlook with Google Apps. I kept stumbling across Funambol as an option through ScheduleWorld.  My concerns is that ScheduleWorld is yet another site that would be having its hands on my data.  It turns out Funambol is an open source server side application that could be run here and can synchronize Google Calendar with iPod Calendars,  SmartPhones, PocketPC,  Blackberry, Palm Software, and Outlook.  I did not go to in depth because server side administration items tend to fly over my user services focused mind.

This could be a potential open source solution housed here that would resolve our syncronization issues.

Funambol