A Smarter Way to Fetch E-Mail

I know everybody’s sick to death of hearing about Apple’s latest i-product, so I promise not to even mention its name in this newsletter. But as I was trying to get my e-mail set up on that cellphone, I stumbled upon a delicious secret feature of Gmail, Google’s fast, free, fantastic Web-based e-mail service. This is a trick that can help everyone, whether you have a cellphone or not.

One big drawback of the Mail program on Apple’s phone is that it has no spam filter. That’s not a big deal if your e-mail comes from AOL, Yahoo or Gmail, because those services have pretty good spam filters of their own. But if you have some other kind of account—like a standard POP account (provided by your cable company, for example), you may be overrun by junk mail.

I kept hearing from people who told me how they solved this problem: “Oh, I just forward my mail to Gmail,” they say. “Then I set up my new phone to check my Gmail account instead of my regular address.”

Well, all right; it’s easy enough to make your e-mail program auto-forward incoming mail your Gmail address. But there’s a huge problem with that setup: Now all of your messages appear to have come from you, the forwarder. If you hit Reply on your phone, the response doesn’t go to the original sender; it goes right back to YOU! It gets sent back to your desktop computer (or whatever computer is doing the forwarding).

Clearly, that’s no good. So I asked my tech guru, Brian Jepson, if there’s any solution—and he told me about Gmail’s new Mail Fetcher service. My problem was solved in five minutes.

In essence, this feature tells Gmail to fetch messages from your existing POP account, so that it all shows up at Gmail.com. Better yet, Mail Fetcher offers you the chance to have outgoing messages stamped with your regular e-mail address. In other words, Gmail.com becomes a free, invisible mail processing center, leaving no trace of its involvement. The people you correspond with will never know that their messages, or your responses, went anywhere but straight to your computer and back.

[UPDATE: OK, I totally blew this! I’m wrong on two points. First, some email programs, including Outlook, DO reveal that Gmail was used as a go-between. Second, I’m correct that Gmail offers to use your actual email address as the return address–but unfortunately, this feature DOESN’T WORK, at least not on messages you sent from the Apple phone! I’m red-faced with embarrassment that I didn’t catch this. Messages sent from the iPhone still bear your Gmail address, even if you turn on this feature! Let’s hope they get it fixed shortly. (Fortunately, it doesn’t matter that much–the net goal of this system, which is having Gmail de-spam the mail from your regular account, is still achieved.]

You can still check mail with Outlook, Mail, Entourage, or whatever program you’re using now. But now you’ve solved the spam problem on your phone—and better yet, you can now check your regular POP e-mail—up to five accounts, in fact—at Gmail.com, from any computer in the world! Now, if all you want to do is keep in touch with e-mail while you’re on vacation, you can leave your laptop at home.

Here’s how you set up this free, no-downsides arrangement. Suppose that your real e-mail address is chris456@comcast.com.

First, sign up for a free Gmail account at www.gmail.com.

Once your account is active, visit Gmail.com. Click Settings, then Accounts. Under “Get mail from other accounts,” click “Add another email account.” Fill the e-mail settings for your main address: name, password, mail server address.

If you like, you can also turn on “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server.” That means that you’ll also be able to check your mail from Outlook, Mail, or whatever e-mail program you use, just as you always have. The Gmail account will just be a backup, a secondary, Web-based way to do e-mail.

As you complete the setup process in Gmail, a message says: “You can now retrieve mail from this account. Would you also like to be able to send mail as chris456@comcast.com?”

Click “Yes, I want to be able to send mail as chris456@comcast.com.”

In other words, when you reply, your main e-mail address, not Gmail’s, will be the return address. It won’t matter whether you send from Gmail.com or from your phone; it will all look like it came from Outlook, Mail, or whatever.

You can add up to five e-mail accounts this way, consolidating them all in one place—a very neat trick. Gmail seems to check for new messages about every five minutes, and there’s also a “Check mail now” button.

I know this is all sounds much more technical than my usual writings; there’s no way around it. The bottom line, though, is that Gmail’s Mail Fetcher system solves a big problem for smartphone owners, and—by making your mail available on the Web—another big one for travelers. Nice.

Merill SOLD Lehmann BANKRUPT!!!!

I woke up this morning,and was engaged in a casual conversation with a friend based in Rhode Island..I was just telling him that I have the monday morning blues,and then he told me the whopper-wow!
I guess,there goes my dream job then.
check out the link.nice article

How to Get the Attention of a Venture Capitalist

At the Elite Retreat I gave an off-the-cuff answer to a question concerning getting the attention of venture capitalists. My buddy Wendy Piersallblogged about my answer, and it was a very popular. However, to truly help entrepreneurs, I’d like to provide a cogent list of the tips to get the attention of a venture capitalist.

1. Get an introduction by a partner-level lawyer. He should work at a firm that does a lot of venture capital financings like my buddies at Montgomery & Hansen. Best case email/voicemail: “This is the most interesting company I’ve seen in my twenty years of legal work for startups.” Venture capitalists dream about calls like this—it’s the equivalent of a scoring shot that knocks the goalie’s water bottle off the top shelf.
Incidentally, this part of the reason of why you should pay top dollar and use a well-known corporate finance attorney instead of Uncle Joe the divorce lawyer (even if he handles venture capitalists’ divorces). You’re paying for connections not only expertise.

2. Get an introduction by a professor of engineering. Best case email/voicemail: “These students are the smartest ones I’ve ever had in twenty years of teaching computer science. Larry and Sergei would have carried their backpacks for them.” Arguably this is even better than the lawyer’s call if the school has a history of receiving multi-million dollar donations from its alumni—if you know what I mean.

3. Get an introduction by the founder of a company in the venture capitalist’s portfolio. Best case email/voicemail: “My buddies are starting a new company, and I think it’s really cool.” For this to work, it would help if the person making the call is a successful company in the venture capitalist’s portfolio. Also, this would be a good time to tap your network in LinkedIn to find acquaintances in the portfolio.
Here’s a power tip regarding getting to venture capitalists using LinkedIn. Maybe it’s only me, but I hate when a connection of a connection of a connection wants me to take a look at deal. LinkedIn enables you to just go direct, and that’s my advice if you can show success (see below). If you can’t show success, the connection of a connection of a connection is useless anyway.

4. Show success. Suppose you can’t get any of the introductions mentioned above. Then the most compelling email/voicemail that you provide is this: “My buddy and I have been working in our garage, taking no pay, and with MySQL we built a site that is doubling in traffic every month. Right now, we’re at 250,000 page views a day after thirty days.” With this one sentence you’ve proven you can (a) make a little bit of money (“none”) go far, your architecture looks scalable so far (once in my career I’d like scalability to be a problem), and most importantly, the dogs are already eating the food.
Another way to show success is to hit it out of the park at Demo or the poor man’s Demo we call Launch: Silicon Valley, but this is a game that only a few dozen companies can play in every year. Finally, you can provide links to articles singing your praises, but this only means that you fooled the press, not that the dogs like what you’re serving.

5. Make sure your company is in the right space. No matter how you get to the venture capitalist, make sure that she is the right one for you. For example, if you have the cure for cancer, contacting a firm’s enterprise software guru isn’t the brightest idea, so get on the web and do your homework.

6. Use a short email. The ideal length of your email is three or fourth paragraphs:

◦ What does your company do?

◦ What problem are you solving?

◦ What’s special about your technology/marketing/expertise/connections?

◦ Who are you?

7. Here are some things not to do:

◦ Attach a PowerPoint presentation. I don’t care if it even adheres to the 10/20/30 rule. Save it for the face-to-face meeting.

◦ Use the word “patented” more than once. All it takes to file a patent is $1,000. No good venture capitalist believes patents makes your company defensible. They just want to learn (once) that there might be something worth patenting.

◦ Claim that you’re in a multi-billion dollar market. Isn’t every company in a multi-billion market according to some study? At least every company that’s ever pitched a venture capitalist.

◦ Provide a lofty financial projection. Most projections that I see show how you’ll grow faster than Google. Frankly, I wouldn’t provide any projection at all. It will be either too low and make your deal uninteresting or too high and make you look delusional.

◦ Brag about an MBA degree. Most venture capitalists want to invest in hardcore engineers at the start. The MBAs can come later, so focus on engineering or avoid the subject completely.

◦ Try to create the illusion of scarcity. Many entrepreneurs claim that “Sequoia is interested.” If Sequoia is interested, you should take its money. If it isn’t, then the venture capitalist won’t be either. Either way, don’t even think of blowing this smoke.

This posting is merely about the process of getting across the moat. To learn more about what to do once you’re there, read how to fix your pitch by Bill Reichert of Garage.

©2006-2008 Guy Kawasaki

All Rights Reserved

MY NEW CAT BLOG

What a monster the CAT is-my heartfelt sympathy to all who have undertaken the hopeless task of sitting for the cat.But before one even thinks about preparing for the exam,he/she(no sexists here) has to complete the arduous task of mailing the "completed CAT form"--and how i struggled with it!!
initially, I was too late to purchase the form so i had to call for it from an IIM..those were a few tense days..Then, when i opened the bulletin,I realised that I needed a "3rd COPY" of some receipt or the other,and of course I didn't have that(why do they need a copy of a receipt to prove that I bought a form when I am submitting the form itself!?). Anyway what followed was days of frenetic searching( I was ofcourse at home while i pestered the unfortunate soul who had been kind enough to buy my form in the 1st place to "FIND THE RECEIPT") and I finally was able to submit the form with a day to spare!(the author is now patting his own back while a bored friend gives a soul stirring but completely out of tune rendition of we are the champions)

The hard part is now over..all that is left is to give the cat..till tomorrow..ciao

PLAY WITH MAUKEE..SHE GOOD CAT

MAN UTD finally sign BERBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the summer's longest-running transfers was finally concluded, with Fraizer Campbell going to Tottenham in a year-long loan.

United have not said how much they have paid for the 27-year-old but Tottenham confirmed they had agreed a fee of £30.75million.

As part of the deal, Tottenham have agreed not to pursue a complaint against United for making an illegal approach to the Bulgarian international.

Berbatov told the official club website: "Joining Manchester United is a dream come true for me. I look forward to playing my part in helping this club win more honours in the years to come."

Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted to finally capture the elegant striker and admitted: "This is a key signing. Dimitar is one of the best and most exciting strikers in world football.

"His style and ability will give the team a different dimension and I'm sure he will be a popular player with the fans."

www.manutd.com

Alternative Energy Market

Why the pessimism?

Alternative energy products available are few. Purchase a solar powered anything and you will find a lame product that produce little power, is undependable and made cheaply.

The biggest problem is batteries (storage). And although we have been working hard on alternative energies for more than thirty years we have not produced breakthroughs in storage. Perhaps it is why the McCain Campaign is promising rewards for battery breakthroughs.

Engineers have been working on the chemistry of batteries for years but nevertheless little has been forthcoming. We keep hearing that a much R&D is happening; we keep hearing the phrases "soon" and "within a decade – we keep hearing, and that is all. Companies like Firefly say they have breakthrough battery technology but the products are immensely expensive and have been disappointing in performance.

Thousands of pounds of batteries requiring frequent replacement present a disappointing prospect for electric vehicles. Ask yourself why Chevrolet has been promising the electric "Volt" for several years but still say it will be 2010 before production. And now they are complaining about storage being the hold up, production delayed again.

Wind has had great difficulties in public acceptance because of rotational noise, excessive maintenance and the need for towers - and you guessed it – storage issues. People reject wind power for aesthetic reasons. There are complaints from coastal states that offshore wind power stations will destroy tourism??? Even Ted Kennedy (King Democrat) opposed wind power in his own back yard.

It seems as if we are being channeled into dependence on our enemies for energy. Every excuse is given to excise every form of using our own natural resources and power production - drilling, refining, coal, or nuclear are all opposed by the "Greens" while at the same time alternatives are opposed as unacceptable in one's own back yard.

Americans are especially gluttonous with power using an average of nearly a thousand kilowatts per month in their residences. The guru of global warming - hypocrite Al Gore - is reported to use many times this in his mansion and tells us to use one sheet of toilet paper while flying around in his private jet.

Someone please give us the good news that alternatives are real. If the past three decades are any indication of the lack of invention, I do not see alternatives coming to fruition and replacing fossil fuels without a severe reduction in the quality of life any time soon.

By corneliusvansant of the CR4 forum