Once again, I’ve decided to switch email clients; this time from The Bat to Gmail, or more specifically, to Google Apps. After some recent issues with The Bat (mostly relating to a recent update), I decided to make another go at switching to Gmail; but this time trying the Google Apps version.

After my last attempt, I was informed that the Google Apps edition of Gmail doesn’t suffer the Sender issue that so plagued me before. After almost a full day of work, the transition is complete. And I couldn’t be happier.

The only downside is the expense - all in all, it cost $78.95 to go through this process. This was spent on two tools that made the process possible:

• Aid4Mail - A key application used for converting the various mail-storage file formats.
• gMOVE - Used for importing PST files into Gmail.

The process itself was simple, once I had found the software I needed, which took some doing. Here’s an overview, and some notes if you happen to try something like this (this assumes that you have Outlook installed).

• Export messages to mailbox format. (If you are moving from Thunderbird this isn’t necessary as it already is stored in that format.)
• Use Aid4Mail to convert the mbox files to PSTs
• Load PSTs into Outlook and cleanup as necessary (remove duplicates, cleanup directory structure)
• Launch gMOVE and use it to import the messages from Outlook to Gmail

There are a couple major differences in this attempt, compared to the last. A few things annoyed me about the way things worked after the last time, not the least of which is that by using Gmail Loader you loose all meaningful timestamps. So you don’t know when a message was sent or received.

gMOVE eliminated that problem. It sends the messages to a special POP3 server, and automatically configures your Gmail account to use it. That way, they can control the timestamps, and set them to what they originally were ¹.

So after all is said and done; I think I’m happy with this system; much better than last time. I simply can’t justify using a desktop based email client anymore. It just leaves you too out of touch.

1). There is a security issue here, so I wouldn’t do this with anything containing sensitive information.

I recently heard about JungleDrive (hat tip: Ryan), and decided that might be the backup solution I’ve been looking for.

I’ve got thousands of pictures, hundreds of megabytes of source code, and documents dating back several years, all of which I’d like to ensure I never loose. So far I’ve shied away from all of the online backup solutions due to the expense. But JungleDrive uses Amazon’s S3 service for storage, complete with its rather inexpensive pricing model.

With that pricing model, JungleDrive has the potential to provide most of what I need, and some extras that are quite nice; all at a better price. So far, I’ve looked at two options:

1. Use an online service. Much lower startup cost, but comes with a recurring fee.
2. Build a backup server. This will require at least 1TB of fully redundant storage. I’ll also have to identify software that will meet my needs. Much higher startup cost, but only minimal maintenance costs after that.

JungleDrive has a few upsides, the biggest for me is that I can access it from anywhere that I can install the client, not just when I’m connected to my home network. With a low price, simple, but flexible interface, and a great storage system on the back end - it certainly sounds like a winner.

Though, there are some features I’d like to see, that it doesn’t offer:

• Access to files without installing software.
• Incremental backups. This would make backing up PST and similar files far more reasonable.
• Store multiple versions of a file.
• Compress data before uploading. This would save a fair bit of bandwidth for me, as I backup things such as conversation and chat logs.

Will these missing features be enough to not use the service? I don’t know yet, I’ll give the service a couple weeks to see how it goes. So far I’m fairly impressed, though wish it offered more features.

Once I hit the two week-mark, I’ll post a status update; and my final decision as to whether I’ll continue to use it.

For those that missed it (like me), the Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines has been updated with some additional content. This update add content in the following areas:

• Software Branding
• Confirmations
• Warnings
• Toolbars
• Sound
• Icons

These guidelines are crucial to ensure the most consistent user experience possible. Though many don’t, this is a document that all developers should read. I firmly believe that consistency is the most important single factor in design, and following an established style such as this is a great way to ensure that a UI is as consistent as possible.

If you’d like some background reading, the XP version is still available.

The latest and greatest version of WordPress (the software that powers this site) has been released. This release looks to be mainly small fixes; nothing earth shattering this time around. As always, painless upgrade, and all seems to be working well.

As I didn’t see a package for just the changed files, I went ahead and zipped them up. These are just the changed files from 2.1, so this should make the upgrade process much quicker if you’ve already got 2.1 up and running.

The great Lutz Roeder has released a new version of the .NET Reflector. From what I’ve seen; this version is extremely nice. This has long been an required tool of any serious developer. With this update Reflector has reinforced its position in the list of tools you just can’t live without.

Scott Hanselman provides a great review; check it out for the details on what’s new.

Using Vista? Then I highly recommend getting a decent 1GB+ thumb drive, and use it for ReadyBoost; while the FAQ says 256MB is enough, for best performance I’d shoot for more. There is little difference under normal operation, it’s under high loads that ReadyBoost really shines.

On my main PC (with 1GB RAM), I would see fairly frequent freezes when several applications were open (primarily when memory utilization passed 80%). With a minor upgrade to 1.5GB RAM, and a 1GB thumb-drive* for ReadyBoost, the system became much more stable. This may be among the best new features in Vista.

I’ve frequently blasted Vista for the poor performance compared to XP, but with a few tweaks, it runs quite well.

* These drives (SanDisk Cruzer Mirco U3) work well, once to get the drivers working properly. If possible, pick a different drive; these are a pain at times.

For those that have been looking forward to seeing the final result of Microsoft’s attempt at AJAX, your wait is over. ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 has been released.

I’ve not had time to test this yet, but it sure looks like it has promise. I’ll be playing with this one soon, I’ve got a couple new projects this might be perfect for.

Xceed has released version 1.0 of their new WPF based DataGrid, and best of all, made it free! If you’ve missed the news, you might want to check this out.

For those that may be running Windows 2000, there’s some things you need to know.

With the change in DST taking effect March 2nd, your Windows 2000 boxes may see some odd behavior. There won’t be Windows Update patch or hotfix released for this (unless you have an extended support agreement); so there’s some work ahead to keep things running smoothly.

Microsoft has released (read more) a fair bit of information (complete with sample scripts) that can be used to update any 2000 boxes you may have laying around. Those of us that keep 2000 boxes around for testing or even production use will need to make sure they are updated. I can only imagine the odd errors this will cause if these changes aren’t put in place.

This is a bit of an annoyance, I really wish Microsoft would have released this in the form of a Windows Update, though I guess this will probably help drive home the reality that it’s time to upgrade for many users.

An update to the Visual Studio PowerToy Pack Installer has just been announced. This handy application wraps up many of the PowerToys so that they can be installed from one easy to use UI. With so many of these Power Toys available, this installer is great to have; otherwise finding and installing them can be a slow and painful experience.

If you’re a power user, or fancy yourself a power tweaker, this one might just be for you.