Do you love colours, patterns and pallets? Perhaps you are redesinging and recoloruing your home, or perhaps you’ree looking for some colour schemes to spice up your website. Maybe you just love colours. If you are any of these, then COLOURlovers.com really is the place for you. The site is based in the UK, so make sure that when you enter the URL, you include the U in colour/color.

This fantastic website allows visitors to search through hundreds of thousands of user made pallets, colour schemes and trends. You can make your own, title your own creations, search, chat on the forum or build your own colour loving community. Registration is free, and the site is built with a sleek design and is packed with features.

The site is really about the analysis of colour use, and what colours are being used in the modern era. The trends section will decipher what colour schemes the lastest magazines and websites are using. Even without registering, you can download and view your and other people’s colour schemes, and with registration you can comment.

You can also view, download and create your own funky patterns and share them with the world. The site has been round for quite a while, but I thought I’d review and share it with those who haven’t used or heard about it. The slider feature will allow you to search for colours, patterns and trends which are in a certain colour range or style.

If you need some inspiration or just some general way to entertain yourself, then this site really is for you. Check out www.colourlovers.co.uk - and remember the U!

She swims in the aquarium boldly now…this nondescript little Bluegill who came to me in an unexpected way. Darting amongst the larger fish, she swims unafraid—as undaunted as the name that I gave her…..I call her—-

But wait! I’m getting ahead of my story, folks. We have to start back at the beginning… Back to the spring of ‘07–a rather trying time for me, I must say.

I went on vacation in the spring, leaving the farm for a couple weeks. When I returned, I was distraught. During my absence, my beloved Jon boat had filled up with water from the spring rains, and had disappeared into the murky depths of the pond. I was nearly beside myself!

How I loved that boat! How many summers had I spent drifting in idle abandon in that Jon boat? Ah–the memories of sunshine and carefree bliss while the waters sparkled and the fish splish-splashed about me… The disappearance of my Jon boat marked a new low in my life.

Every day, I stood on the banks of the pond and stared into the depths, as though doing so would somehow resurrect my beloved boat. “Lord,” I said. “You know exactly where that boat is and you can bring it back to me if You just would!”

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The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey, may be indicative of a growing trend in the newspaper industry. The newsroom staff will be reduced almost by half:

“…The number of buyouts accepted outside the newsroom was not immediately known. The newspaper had sought at least 200 total, out of 750 full-time, nonunion workers, and received more than enough applications.

Two unions agreed to another 120 buyouts combined.”

link: Star-Ledger cuts newsroom staff by nearly half

The newspaper may use more stories off news services such as Associated Press. Freelance writers may have more work. However, papers like the Star-Ledger struggle to be profitable, keep their advertising base and maintain the quality of its local news. For the present, the local news in newspapers still may out-perform the internet. That may be the value added advantage that remains with the newspapers as they struggle to maintain advertising and circulation numbers.

Catherine Forsythe

It was a day we won’t soon forget. A day that lives in infamy—the Day of the Balloon.

My father called the crew together in the early morning hours, directing us to a newly-planted cornfield at the far corner of the farm. Nearly everyone was there—the kids, grandkids, in-laws and siblings. Even Grandpa came along, to keep watch over his cornfield if nothing else.

Dad hauled out his tattered treasure…a huge gray-green bag that looked more like a bloated sow than a hot air balloon. It didn’t have a riding basket, but that was a small matter to Father.

He made us help him as he dragged the huge balloon to a wood-stove that sat at the edge of the cornfield. We watched him build a blazing fire with cobs and kerosene. None of us questioned the method to this madness. The fact that our father had survived 58 years of this sort of thing seemed proof enough that he knew what he was doing.

Following Dad’s instructions, the crew draped the mouth of the balloon over a tee-pee of ladders standing above the wood-stove. We stepped back and waited, our hands grasping the ropes tightly.

Nothing happened at first, then life surged through the balloon as it took a breath of hot air. The crew burst into cheers, laughing and clapping.

Our joy was short-lived.

At the ol’ home place, it’s always the same. Every time the kinfolk come to visit, the placard goes up at the front door. “Grand Central Station”, it says. The sign takes its rightful place long before the swirling dust on the road announces the relatives’ arrival.

They are a rowdy bunch—appearing at the family farm like a hurricane from the south. Dogs bark. Pigs go to squealing. A nanny goat gallops about madly.

The farmhouse door flies open and the kinfolk blow in—a whirl of noise and confusion. The goat wanders into the house. The relatives send their jackets and junk sailing to forbidden regions. Stuff and fluff…coats and goats—they’re all under the Grandmother Jurisdiction. Granny chases down the unruly jackets, corralling them in a bedroom. The unruly goat is ushered outside. There she stands, peering in the window.

“What’s Granny cooking?” somebody says. “I’m starving!”

“Are we gonna eat, now?”

That’s the main thing on everyone’s minds. Top of the agenda at the family farm. Eating….

“Look here!” my sister says. “I brought stew, today. Try some! It’s a lot better than Sooooeeey Soup!”

Everyone laughs and we all sit down to eat. Who can forget that infamous day when we first sampled Sooooeeey Soup? Accidentally, of course.

In the midst of a family farm feast, someone had set a large kettle of steaming soup on the table. We ladled it into our bowls, but soon uneasiness spread around the table. Nobody wanted to offend the cook, but something had to be said.

“Uh, are those potato peelings in this soup?”

“And onion skins?

“Dirty carrots from the garden…?”

“Doesn’t taste too bad. Kinda gritty, though.”

“Needs more salt…Definitely!”

Granny was called on to give an account. She peered into the murky depths of the kettle. “What in the world?” she said. “I cooked that stuff up for Goldy-hocks and the others. That’s pig slop!”

We all put down our spoons. The offending kettle was removed. “I knew it needed more salt!” my brother said.

Eating resumed—a bit more cautiously this time.

A normal person can’t survive such tribal initiations. You have to be born into this clan in order to endure it. I remember when my late husband joined our tribe. He was clearly taken aback by our quirkiness…the crazy outbursts, the strange rites and family rituals. He could only shake his head in wonder and dismay. I suspect our rowdiness might have had something to do with his early demise…although I couldn’t prove it. He considered us wild and uncouth. Noisy and uncultured. He was probably glad to go heaven early and leave the rest of us to our wrangling.

Today, the atmosphere around the family table is as raucous as ever.

Amid the racket comes the insistent yapping of a dog, regular as clockwork. A black mop of a dog sits at Granny’s feet, barking for tidbits from the table. It is an annoying sound—but no worse, really, than the general hubbub.

“I don’t like that green stuff!” a child pouts. “Why is it on my plate?”

Them’s fightin’ words!

Poppa frowns. “You don’t like fried green onions?” Poppa thunders. “Something’s wrong with kids, nowadays…Can’t eat perfectly good food! I don’t know about this generation! How are they ever going to survive?” He spears the offending green thing off the child’s plate and eats it. “Did I ever tell you about the time I had to eat a blue jay?”

We sigh. Forty-seven times, Poppa…Forty-seven times. Someone skillfully changes the subject. “Hey! What are we going to do for fun on this visit?”

The air is suddenly filled with suggestions. They sail about the room like paper airp***s, colliding with one another in a noisy hullabaloo.

“I want to ride down the Humpty Dumpty Road ! Can we, Poppa?”

“What about the cliffs?” someone else says. “We can go climbing….”

“Maybe we could ride Pickle’s go-cart, or his glider…?”

“I know!” someone shouts. “We could fly Poppa’s hot air balloon!”

At the mention of the balloon, the clamor increases. Who can forget that day? It was a hallmark in family history….a comedy of errors from start to finish. The day Poppa dragged his old, basketless balloon out of the barn and we all made it fly with the help of a hot wood-stove.

It was a hoot!

Nearly killed us all before it was over. (The story of our balloon adventures appeared in an international flying magazine…So—Poppa’s balloon ended up going around the world. Quite a feat for such a ratty piece of fabric.)

The discussion of the balloon is going hot and heavy when my brother’s words override us all. Pickle can out-shout anybody. “Listen now! Everybody has to help me get on that T.V. show, Survivor!” he says.

“What??”

The room goes strangely silent. We stare at him.

“Yeah!” Pickle says. “I want to get on that show, but first I have to make a demo video!” My brother brandishes an invisible hatchet. “I’m going to show them how to be a real man! How to swing from the trees and….”

We all resume talking at once. Serious discussions, now, about surviving in the wild—life and death matters…Tribal orientations. Eating blue jays, if necessary. Poppa’s time-worn story gains sudden respect.

We gab. We laugh. We digress to other subjects. Eventually the long, drawn-out meal ends in the usual way…with the Gathering-of-the-Sacred-Bites. A quirky tradition of uncertain origins—the collecting of the last dab of mashed potatoes, a leftover scoop of beans. The last drumstick. A strange ritual even in a family as odd as ours. It is our one and only attempt at civility, I believe.

No one ever eats the last dab of food on the platter.

Soon, the Sacred Bites are collected and stored away in the fridge to be resurrected at a later date. Green and moldy, the Sacred Bites will then be deposited into the slop bucket. And that’s ok. That’s just the way it is, and always will be.

In the midst of the food-gathering ritual, the front door flies open. More people troop in–distant cousins, friends, neighbors—followed by the goat. Dogs bark. Kids scream. The nanny butts somebody, and the black mop of a dog makes a dive for someone’s ankle. Shrieks rend the air.

“Come on in!” everyone shouts to the newcomers.

“Welcome to the Funny Farm!”

Grand Central Station. Dysfunction Junction. Survivor Island .

Indeed. Welcome! Grab a chair and a plate and have a Sacred Bite, or maybe a bowl of Sooooeeey! Never mind the cantankerous nanny, or the man brandishing an invisible hatchet, or the ankle-biting dog. Never mind the old granddad and his blue jays.

Never fear. We are good people…. Ordinary. Sane.

I look at the motley clan about me, relishing the antics and the inherited quirks, the laughter and the shouts. We are Survivors on our own little island—a tribe, bonded together with flesh and blood and memories. We have traditions and trademarks. Hoopla and history and heritage.

Life just wouldn’t be the same without this noisy crew…this human hurricane that takes over the farm.

I slip out the back door and sit on the porch swing. The swing creaks. The creek frogs croak. And the crickets go on cricketing. Across the farmyard comes the yells and banter of a dozen voices, all trying to out-shout one another. The yap of Granny’s mop-dog. The chatter of children.

Laughter coasts down the valley and across the Barada Hills where our ancestors’ voices have echoed for generations. It is an unforgettable sound—an echo that transcends the ages. The sound of love and bonding and togetherness.

I smile to myself.

We are kinfolk. We are family. And oh how I love it….When the relatives come!

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It was a bit embarrassing, to say the least.

There I was in the darkness of my daughter’s yard, wielding a flashlight while raking through piles of leaves. Cars slowed on *** Street, and I could feel eyes staring at me from the dimness.

My daughter appeared briefly in the doorway of her house, accompanied by her pampered little pooch. She stood looking at me with a dubious expression. “Find them, yet?” Karissa asked in a hushed tone—conscious of the fact that this was a respectable neighborhood, unaccustomed to rakish episodes after dark.

“Not yet,” I said. “Just a purple pen and a pack of Smarties. But no keys.”

Karissa sighed and said she would search through my purse, again; then she and the dog disappeared into the house.

Before I start, I better tell you my situation: I wanted a motorcycle (aside from the obvious first reason which was to pick up chicks) for commuting to school and work, because I was getting killed on gas driving my car. Oh, and I wanted to help save the environment, too, of course. That should go without saying. 

I drive 65 miles a day for four days, every week, for school alone. Driving a car, I was paying $40 a week. When I got my motorcycle, I was paying $40 a month, ideally.

After passing the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) course and getting my license endorsed with that sacred capital “M,” I was ready, and extremely anxious, to buy a motorcycle. I had two categories to shop: the sportbikes and the cruisers. Unfortunately, I had some outside influence from my father who has been riding motorcycles for thirty years, who started on cruisers, and gave me the impression that the cruiser was the only way to go. Naturally, I leaned toward the opposite of his advice, like any good son, and began vigorously shopping around for a solid beginner’s sportbike.

I found out quickly that height is an important factor in shopping for sportbikes: the taller a person is, the more options a person has. I am 5′5″. I’m short. And I had two options: the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, or the Kawasaki Ninja 500R, both with a seat height of 30.5 inches. This is considered a very low seat height for a sportbike, mind you. And I still could not put both feet flat on the ground, which is a very important thing to do, in my opinion, for beginning riders (this is why I gave myself those two options, because every other sportbike is taller). The more experienced you are as a rider, the less important this becomes. Though keep in mind, sportbikes are substantially lighter than cruisers, so if you can’t keep flat-footed, it may not be such a big deal. But I didn’t want to take that chance. Roads can be uneven, I might have to slam on my brakes and put my feet down to catch the bike, the bike may stall–will my feet be there to keep it from dropping? In my mind it was too risky.

Eventually I was suckered into shopping for a cruiser. My main reason? Having both feet flat-footed. That’s really what it came down to. Though even in the cruiser world I was limited on what I could shop for. This is when we get into the size of the engine. I’m not technical at all when it comes to the mechanics of motorcycles or automobiles, but I do know that the higher the number of “cc”s an engine has, the faster it goes. The general consensus for the maximum size of a sportbike for a beginner is 500cc’s. Anything higher on a sportbike starts to leak into the “red-zone” territory for beginners. This is simply what I was told when I was shopping. For cruisers, you may notice, as did I, how everyone points to the Honda Shadow 750 cruisers. There is a Honda Shadow Spirit 750, which is more of a chopper-style-dragster type bike, and there is the Honda Shadow Aero 750, with more of a retro look and geared toward more of a touring-style of riding. If you’re perusing the internet and looking at the walls of the YouTube videos and asking around local motorcycle dealerships, you will be directed to the Honda Shadow every time. This is THE beginner’s cruiser.

I bought a 2007 Honda Shadow Aero 750 two months ago. At first, it was heavy to me after riding that Honda Nighthawk in the MSF course (and also because I’m only 140 lbs.). My dad rode it to a large parking lot and I followed in the car. The first time I tried to get going I stalled the bike and almost dropped it. I had enough leverage to bring it back up, plus my dad was there. After three or four sessions in the parking lot, practicing turning and braking and shifting, I took my first ride on the road. It was a bit frustrating–I went into somebody’s front lawn after a horrible left turn, and I almost hit my car on my way back into the driveway. But after only two more trips on the real road, I felt like I had been riding forever.

You’ll have your frustrating moments, and you’ll probably get buyer’s remorse (I did, I was asking myself why I didn’t buy the Ninja 500R), but it will go away after you gain confidence on the road. So, just some advice from a recent first-bike purchaser: buy whatever is COMFORTABLE to you, if you want to buy a motorcycle with a 250cc engine, don’t let anyone stop you, you can always sell it when you outgrow it (because you will, I have already outgrown my 750), and people are always looking to buy those things for gas-savers.

Some questions you may have about the Honda Shadow Aero 750:

Q: How does it handle on the highway?

A: When you’re going 70-75 mph, the engine is working pretty hard, and you will get buzz-butt. But don’t worry, when I say “working pretty hard,” I don’t mean smoke coming from the engine, screws coming loose, oil splattering everywhere. It’s just…working. It’s not a huge engine, but you can go forever at that speed. At 60-65 mph? You’re cruisin’, baby.

Q: How is the gas mileage?

A: Amazing. I get 60 mpg city-riding, 70 mpg highway-riding (3.7 gal. gas tank with a .9 gal. reserve). But I have to admit, I think I’ve been baby-ing it.

Q: I noticed this bike has a shaft-drive instead of a chain-drive, is that advantageous?

A: Like I said, I’m not very technical when it comes to this stuff, but it sounds like you want shaft-drive instead of chain-drive, because shaft-drives are basically maintenance-free, but I think you forfeit a little bit of power, though not enough to write home about. It’s still quicker than any car on the road and that’s what’s most important. On the other hand, shaft-drives are more expensive.

Q: Is it worth buying a brand new Honda Shadow?

A: Probably not. From what I’ve seen, people ride these things for a year (or even half a year) and then sell them because they grow out of them, which is exactly what I’m going to do. So if you find one that’s, I don’t know, 2000 or newer that’s used? It’ll probably run like it’s brand new. Plus, you’re saving money when you turn around and sell it (and yes, you will sell it, your first bike is never your last). I’ll leave you with some advice from my brother-in-law: “Before you buy your first bike, just ask yourself if you would cry if you dropped it. If the answer is ‘yes,’ you probably shouldn’t buy it.”

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When considering a second dog, a frequently debated question is the gender issue. Should it be male / female? Will two males fight? Are two females easier to manage? There are numerous questions. However, the simple answer is really not in the gender matching. The harmony of the household will depend upon two major issues.

There is no magical pairing - no magical gender pairing. The focus should be on temperament rather than gender. Undoubtedly, there will be a social order within the pack. One dog, regardless of gender, will be higher in social status than the other. This has nothing to do with fair treatment from you, the owner. It is an internal pack hierarchy which the dogs will sort out for themselves. Trouble occurs when there are two very dominant dogs. There will be conflicts as one dog challenges the other.

A common misconception is that the male dog is dominant. This is not necessarily so. Although the male may be bigger and stronger, that male may not be higher in pack social status. It could well be the female dog. Her strength is temperament. A female dog indeed can be higher in pack status than the male.

The second major factor for harmony of the pack is your leadership skills. There should be absolutely no question that you are the pack leader. If that is clear to both dogs, then a two dog household is much easier to manage. It will still be more than double the work but it will be easier to control the social dynamics of the pack, if there is no question about who is the pack leader. And, have no doubt - your leadership skills will be scrutinized daily by very perceptive canines.

Catherine Forsythe

Your email may be busier in this final quarter of 2008. There is a fierce competition for your retail dollars and there might be bargains online:

“Online retailers - grappling with a sharp drop in consumer spending from even their most gung-ho Web enthusiasts - are becoming pushier with e-mails that pitch the latest deals.

With pleas like, “Last chance to save 20 percent,” or “Hurry, final sale ends,” retailers from pure online players to land-based stores with a Web presence are hoping to get consumers to open their wallets - quickly and in a cost-effective way.”

link: E-tailers push e-mail discounts to lure shoppers

The retailers know that essential necessities such as groceries and fuel will limit fourth quarter spending. Ironically, there is speculation that hackers will be much more active. Not only do hackers feel the same economic stressors but they also realize that there are people turning to the internet in order to save money. And hackers see this as an opportunity.

Catherine Forsythe

I was just speaking with my father over Skype by calling his land line. So I had just paid $2.95 for a month of unlimited calls to any land line in US and Canada and decided since I already paid for it, I should use it. Well, in this discussion on how to make the cheapest long-distance calling option.

Right now my father is using a pre-paid MCI calling card. Which he states that he pays about $0.03 a minute for a phone call from Idaho to Florida. Same would be true from his home to my home and he figures that is the best rate he can get.

That made me wonder: is it cheaper to call per minute on a pre-paid card or is it better to have a plan or something similar?

I started to look on the internet for “calling cards” and found one called PennyTalk Calling Card. Wow this looks like the best thing out there right now. But wait, look what I found in the fine print.

“Are there any additional charges?”

This was the response on the FAQ question:

“With PennyTalk, there are no hidden charges. There is a 49¢ connection fee which is charged at the time each call is made and answer supervision is received. There is also a 99¢ monthly service fee that applies to all accounts and is charged on each monthly anniversary of activation. Calls made from Alaska are billed an additional 10¢ per minute. Surcharges may apply for calls made from a cellular phone. A 90¢ payphone operator recovery fee will be charged on calls made from payphones.”

So PennyTalk may allow you to talk for a penny a minute, however, there are other charges that apply that make the call cost considerably more than one penny a minute.

I didn’t research much more but I did find that the MCI card does not have a per call charge and as long as the call is between your land line phone and you don’t get charged for making 800 calls your cost to complete the call through the MCI card is only three cents a minute to most places nationwide. AZ and a few other states have eight cents a minute but still on short calls this is far cheaper than what your cell phone, long distance provider, or that PennyTalk card would provide you.

Please send me comments on articles that have done much deeper research than I have done. I would love to read about them.

Until the next time,

Thirteen

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[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/1SZppd23ed0" width="350" height="288" wmode="transparent" /]

Just a few days ago I was talking to a friend and he wanted to know about some of the parts of a computer. So I decided to tell the whole world. To start off I recommend you watch the video above as it can show a lot more then some text in a blog post.

A computer has a few main parts. The Mother Board, CPU, RAM, HD, and GPU to name the basics.

• First off you have the mother board. Think of the motherboard as the body. It is what connects all of the parts together so they can communicate.
• The CPU is the brain of the computer. The Ghz of the CPU is like an IQ for human brain. The CPU is what does all the work of the machine.
• The next us RAM. The RAM is like paper if you will. Think if you were doing a math problem you would be writing it down on paper. The RAM is what stores the temporary data while the CPU works on it.
• Next you have the HD. Think of the HD as being the binder. When you are done with that math problem you would put the paper into a binder to store it for later. The HD is what stores all of the data once the computer is done working on it.
• Lastly, you have the GPU. The GPU is like a CPU for graphics. The GPU is short for the Graphics card. It processes all of the video input and output for the computer. The CPU also has RAM for storing what it needs to. Although some GPUs use the RAM from the rest of the computer.

So now the Whole analogy is that the Mother Board= the body CPU= the brain; the RAM= Paper; and the HD= a binder were you put the paper away. I hope all of this helps you in learning some of the basic parts of a computer.

Some of the terms I used are: CPU(Central Processing Unit), RAM(Random Access Memory), HD (Hard Drive), and GPU(Graphics Processing Unit). Here are some pictures of those parts.

CPU

HD

RAM

GPU

Please leave any comments you would like to. Also let me know if this helped you. Would you want to know more about the components of computers?

This is not an Alaskan road that leads to a bridge that is not going to be built. The road in question does have a purpose. It leads to a bistro:

“Just seven-tenths of a mile long, Crow Creek Road isn’t a road to nowhere. It runs straight to the Double Musky, a Cajun bistro owned by a Bob Persons, a close friend of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

It cost taxpayers $2.7 million to widen and pave that road, and Alaska had higher priorities…”

link: Sen. Stevens got $2.7 million for friend’s road

Perhaps in the grand scheme of government, a few million makes no difference. It was Senator Everett Dirksen who famously said: “A billion dollars here and a billion dollars there - pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of money”.

It may be that the road did not contravene any formal legalities. However, there is the appearance of a betrayal of public trust. And, as antiquated a notion as it may be, we the people should be able to expect fair play from the politicians who are elect to govern.

Catherine Forsythe

I have noticed that I am still receiving comments from readers to two previous articles I have written. One back on December 16, 2006 about Dell adapters not staying connected. The second about two wire Dell adapters that won’t charge the on board battery. Both of these are adapter problems are for Dell’s laptop computers.

Most of the comments from readers indicate that Dell does replace the adapters that malfunction. But it is unknown if these are being replaced if the systems are out of warranty.

May I recommend you check which models are problematic, if you are looking to purchase a Dell laptop.

Comments welcome.

Dell two wire adapter

Dell adapter won’t stay connected

For a limited time and while supplies last, order the HP 2133-KR922UT 8.9-Inch Mini-Note PC (C7-M 1.0 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB Flash Drive, Linux) for as low as $299.00 (up to 40% off!)

Small but mighty, the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC (model KR922UT) offers you a full-function laptop that weighs just 2.8 pounds. Designed to go where you go without weighing you down, it’s perfect for young students in your home, and robust enough to handle demanding business applications for road warriors. Despite its size, it features an 8.9-inch scratch-resistant display with a WXGA resolution and a nearly full-size keyboard (92 percent). A durable all-aluminum case encompasses the top and bottom of the notebook, while an internal magnesium alloy support structure helps protect sensitive components from damage.

It’s powered by the VIA C7-M ULV processor, which provides a 1.0 GHz clock speed and excellent power management capabilities. And because it uses solid state hard drive memory instead of a spinning hard disk drive (with 4 GB of storage), the Mini-Note is optimal for weathering rough handling and sharing space in overstuffed bags. Other features include 512 MB of installed RAM (2 GB maximum), 54g Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b/g), lightning quick Gigabit Ethernet, VGA webcam built into the screen’s bezel for video chats, and up to 2.25 hours of battery life. This model comes pre-installed with the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 operating system.

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The folks over at Google are busy once again adding new features to Gmail. They now have emoticons, canned responses and also an addition to their mobile clients. On their site they have listed the following information:

Canned Responses

If you’re sick of typing out the same reply every time someone emails you with a common question, now you can compose your reply once and save the message text with the “Canned responses” button. Later, you can open that same message and send it again and again.

It couldn’t get any easier unless Gmail automatically pushed the Send button. If you’re lazy enough to think that would be a good idea, then read on, friend.

Emoticons

Here on the Gmail team, we’re always thinking of ways to help you communicate. Back in the day, we put chat right inside Gmail. Then along came group chat and more emoticons. And when we realized that late night communication had its downsides, we created a state-of-the-art lucidity test for after-hours email. Anyway, the black and white days of text-based emails have had their day. Following the evolutionary path blazed by colored labels, we present, in all their technicolor glory, emoticons in your mail.

Gmail Mobile

As an engineer on the Gmail for mobile team, I use the Gmail client on my mobile phone all the time. Because of this, I’m always looking for ways to make it faster, more robust and easier to use. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce Gmail for mobile version 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones. Our focus for this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable. We rearchitected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize every bottleneck piece of code we came across.

So there you have it. More Google toys to play with to keep you entertained. Give these new features a try and see what you think.

Comments welcome.

Gmail Mobile Source.

Gmail Canned Response Source.

Gmail Emoticons

There are so many advantages when carrying portable solar panels. It’s basically having electricity on the go. It’s excellent for camping, especially when you have no access to electricity. While camping, you have the ability to bring along your laptop, a cell phone, an mp3 player, or even a portable TV. There are some panels that you can put on your back while your jogging or riding a bicycle and charging your phone or your iPod at the same time.

You can also use it so save energy and money. It may cost less than 72 cents to charge up your laptop using electricity from your home but all those change adds up. If used wisely, you will be able to save over $275 each year. They may be a bit expensive but it is a wise investment.

It’s also useful when there’s a power outage. You would be able to charge your cell phone to make those important calls. I would also recommend that travelers or people who drive their car a lot use one too. Instead of letting all of that beaming sunlight go to waste, you can use it as a free source of energy. Check out specs and features of available models at Amazon.com