Gmail

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What is Gmail?
ItÂ’s GoogleÂ’s free webmail service, also known as Googlemail in UK & Germany due to copyright issues. Initially launched in April 1st, 2004.

Storage:
Initially launched with 1GB of free space & was increased to 2GB at its first anniversary. Now it provides over 2.7GB & counting at a rate of 0.000032470826991374936580416032470827 megabytes per second which is 1GB per year

Features:
Conversation View:
GoogleÂ’s innovative method of categorizing emails, where Gmail keeps related emails together, so all emails related to a single email are kept in a single stack. Gmail users can delete a whole conversation or individual emails from a collection of emails from a conversation.

Labels:
Gmail has labels rather than folders, where one email could have more than one label.

Integrated Search:
Gmail incorporates GoogleÂ’s powerful search capability, making finding an email sent or received very easy

Access:
Gmail allows web interface in addition to free automatic forwarding & POP3 access. For mobile access, point mobile phoneÂ’s web browser to http://m.gmail.com.

Spam Filtering:
Innovative Google Technology filters spam using sophisticated filters.

Virus Protection:
Gmail scans all attachments for viruses & tries to remove if found. Gmail does not allow attaching executable files, as they are the major source for distribution of viruses.

Relevant Text Ads:
Gmail displays only relevant text ads. No Pop-ups or Banner ads.

Auto-save:
Saves a draft copy of current message & saves any attachments, once per minute, to prevent loss of data.

Optional Dots:
The Gmail usernames must be of 6 to 30 characters comprising of letters, numbers or dots & cannot include hyphens(-) & underscores(_). But Gmail ignores dots when resolving addresses. So my.name@gmail.com is as same as myname@gmail.com & m.y.n.a.m.e@gmail.com. Also Gmail is case Insensitive.

Plus-addressing:
Gmail supports a tag to be added to your email address where it can be written as my.name+tag@gmail.com. This can be used to track email address provided to different services & people.

Customized ‘From’ Address:
Gmail can be customized to display as been sent from another of your addresses Eg: my.name@yahoo.com

Google Talk:
Gmail allows users to chat with Google Talk Network users with in Gmail window. So users can chat with their contacts if they are online.
Also it includes Contact pictures & auditory notification when new messages arrive. But voice calling is not supported by Gmail.

Google Calendar:
Gmail incorporates powerful Google Calendar where events can be added using natural language phrases & numerous more powerful features.

View as HTML:
Gmail allows attachments of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice & .pdf type files to be viewed as HTML pages rather than downloading the attachments or when in a hurry, using a mobile device or when the software needed to view the file is not installed.

and,
Vacation Auto Responder,
Contact Groups,
Filters,
Many Languages (even some left-to-right languages),
RSS Feeds,
Address & Package Tracking as Shortcuts,
Offline Access with Google Desktop,
Photo Upload to Gmail with Picasa,
Archiving Emails,
Spellchecker,
Gmail for Your Domain


Privacy Issue:
Some amount of Privacy concern is there regarding Gmail, mainly because all emails are automatically under go software-based scanning to determine relevant text advertisements.

Supported Browsers:

Standard: Microsoft IE 5.5+ Netscape 7.1+ Mozilla 1.4+ Mozilla Firefox 0.8+ Safari 1.2.1+ Opera 6.03+	Standard with chat: Microsoft IE 6.0+ Mozilla Firefox 1.0+
	HTML view only: Microsoft IE 4.0+ Netscape 4.07+ Lynx

Deactivation of Account:
Gmail account is deactivated if not used for 9 months, which is far more than most of the other free webmail providers.

How to get a Gmail Account:
Gmail is still in Beta testing stage & opening a Gmail account is still by using an invitation

By Mobile Phone:
Mobile phone users from US, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Turkey can receive invitation code by filling form in Gmail website.

By Google Invitation:
If you own a .edu email address or Blogspot blogger, you may receive an invitation from Google. Occasionally in search page an invitation is provided on the top bar.

By a Friend:
Gmail users can send Invitations to their friends.

If you cannot get a Gmail Invitation, please feel free to ask for an invitation from me. Use the provided email form in the left Sidebar of this blog to send the request to me. Please remember to include your email address as well .

P.S.: I get so many requests, but few of the invitees do not seem to open the Gmail accounts. Please if you wish not to open a Gmail account, forward the invitation to one of your needy friends or back to me.
Also note that the Gmail invitations sent to other webmail services sometimes get categorized as Spam or Bulkmail. So please check those folders as well, if you requested for an invitation. Please be patient, If you requested for an invitation, I will definitely send you one.

Talents

Cover Designs of the Talents souvenire books		Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura is the youngest medical faculty of Sri Lanka established only in 1993. With the heavy burden of studies, medical students only rarely venture into performing arts. But with Variety stage show Talents, which commenced in 1995, the hidden talents of the medicos were exposed. Since then, with the blessing of the staff of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, this show is held each year entirely by Medical students. This variety show includes singing, dancing & drama. Proceedings of the show are utilized to fund projects which will enhance the students’ aesthetic & sporting skills. It is amazing how small dreams turn into major events. I joined the second Talents show as a first year student in 1997. In 1999 with Saliya we made a performance ‘Sri ape lankawe sinhalaya’, which is a hilarious song, based on the rapidly losing cultural values. In it we used a multimedia projection, where we projected a morph between a traditional dress to a short skirt, etc. It was a major success & we were commended by so many & we were asked to do a similar one next year too. But after seeing the video editing equipment at the faculty while we were editing videos for the previous one, I was dreaming of having a live coverage of the event projected to a giant screen. I never thought that it could be done with our meagre resources. I discussed about it with some of my friends & thought of giving it a try. Then we discussed with our Dean of the Faculty, who without a hesitation released the necessary equipment. After a dozen of sleepless nights, we could manage to get prepared, only by the eve of the event. Since then we are having a giant screen projection of the event edited live at the scene. This year it had come to a climax where the National Television Station of Sri Lanka (Rupavahini Cooperation) are covering the stage show & it will be telecasted tomorrow (22nd June) at 10.00pm.
^ Cover Design by Mahendra Ekanayaka	^ Cover Design by me
^ Cover Design by Kavinda Rajapakse
^ Cover Designed by Sangeeth

Pregnancy Due Date Calculator

Pregnancy Due Date Calculator or Expected delivery Date Calculator can be used calculate the approximate delivery date in a pregnant lady. This uses a standard calculation method, where it is considered that the period from last menstrual period to date of the deliery of the baby is a constant. This period can slightly vary in a small percentage of the women population. This only gives a approximate date & this date can vary due to various reasons.
For this calculator to be used, the woman should have regular menstrual periods.
The date that is entered is first date of the last menstrual period.

For the design of the above Calendar, Tom Duffy's Create an Object-Oriented JavaScript Calendar Using the Façade Design Pattern was used. Thanks Tom!

Be a Hero...

Being a hero is not something that can be achieved very easily.
But ofcourse I took a bold step today...
Yeah, became a volunteer blood donator. I always wanted to donate blood, but couldn't take that inaugural step.
Yesterday was the (14th of June) World Blood donor Day. So there is a special campaign going on in whole of Sri Lankan government hospitals to mark the event.
The Blood Donor system is a well functioning system in Sri Lanka where volunteer blood donors donate blood at regular intervals of four months. Every donor is registered & details of their illnesses, especially AIDS & Hepatitis B are tasted for in the donated blood & healthy donors are encouraged to donor regularly.
The aim of the National Blood Transfusion Service of Sri Lanka is to have all needed blood collected from volunteer donors.
At present patients undergoing routine surgeries are encouraged to get someone to volunteer to donate blood. This can be eliminated in the future. In Teaching Hospital - Kurunegala, where the National Thalassaemia Center is situated, so many units of blood are needed daily to be transfused to Thalassaemic children. All thee are collected from volunteer donors.
I am very happy to be able to be a donor & 'Blood saves lives...'

Also visit:

• WHO : World Blood Donor Day
• Official World Blood Donor Day website