Adding a feature to Gmail - how to organize email by attachment size

Here's one way to auto-magically do it (one way, probably not the right way but one way)

- Under the "More Actions" drop down is an option "sort by size"

- Gmail automatically scans all email attachments and creates a rank order by size.

- Gmail then automatically creates three buckets of small/medium/large. These buckets would be calculated based on a pre-set percentage - the 25% that are the largest are "large" - 50% in the middle are "medium" and the 25% that are the smallest are "small"

- The presentation would appear to the user much like the "settings" tab with "large" being the default that you always see first and set to the left (in the same fashion as Settings > General) and then medium (Settings > Account) and small (Settings > Label) following in order to the right.

- The emails themselves would be presented in a manner similar to the main Inbox view but with the file name, type and size shown and a check box in the far right column.

- If the user puts a check in the box and selects "delete attachment" from a button on the top or bottom of the array then the attachments are removed and the rest of the message is preserved with a tag underneath the conversation header containing information something like "File XYZ.mp3 deleted on 4/16/2008"

What do you think?

Think Progress » Blog Archive » Cheney: If U.S. Withdraws From Iraq, Al Qaeda Would ‘Acquire Control’ Of Country’s Oil Resources

Ok, up till now I have to admit that I just laughed at most of what came out of Cheney's mouth but this is so ridiculous that I'm actually stunned....and I'm terrified that someone out there might believe him.

Question 1 - Regardless of what the Shia and Sunni "may" do to al Qaeda the real question is what in the world would they (al Qaeda) DO with the oil? Does he really think that people would be lining up to buy oil from a known terrorist organization? Where would these phantom revenues come from?

Question 2 - Does the Dark Lord think that Saudi, Iran, Syria and...for that matter...the rest of the world would sit idly by and let al Qaeda take control of Iraq's oil? Being the master historian that he is, doesn't he remember Gulf War 1 when we kicked Hussein out of Kuwait over oil - and that time did it with global support by the way...ah, good old days before an imperial presidency :-)

r.

Traffic shaping, network management and other broadband carrier issues

Traffic shaping, network management - it doesn't matter what you call it because there are parties on both sides of the argument that are bound and determined to shout and be heard above the opposition.

The worst part? I see and feel for both sides of the discussion. On the one hand you have people using their connection for perfectly legitimate reasons (but come on...we all "know" that the vast majority of bit torrent traffic is illegal downloads!! blind denial of this simply makes the rest of your arguments carry less weight!) who have signed up for "X" amount of bandwidth to use (for the most part) however they please. They simply expect their connectivity to work, no matter what. For the most part, I can't disagree with that stance.

On the other side you have the service provider/carrier that has been making investments over time and is adding customers to their network as fast as possible. They have a mission to make every customer as happy as the other.

So where do the fights start? Well, the service providers say that at peak conditions 90%+ of the network traffic can often be attributed to a very small number of users (those bit torrent fiends!!) and they want to make sure that everyone else isn't brought to their knees by these scurvy dogs!

The flip side - users simply say that the service provider should build bigger pipes if they can't support what is currently being requested, that they signed up for open and equitable access to the pipe and the carrier can't indiscriminately decide that their traffic isn't as important as someone else.

When do the rights of the few outweigh the rights of the many?
When do random decisions to block certain kinds of traffic shift into a decision to block access to certain kinds of content....China anyone?

With both sides of the argument screaming away on this topic I FINALLY read something that, in my mind at least, finally makes sense of how to approach this and it's wrapped up in a concept called "fair queuing" or "max-min fairness" - read on for more info.

r.

Scientific American: A Solar Grand Plan

This article is a virtual must read if you are at all interested in seeing what can be done to push the boundaries of what we can do to break the chain of dependence (addiction) on oil....more importantly pushing petro-dollars to the Middle East.

OK lawmaker: ‘Gays are infiltrating city councils.’

Wow, I guess it's me being naive that I am so surprised to hear a politician saying things like this in a public forum.....a bigger threat then terrorism?!?! I'd also LOVE to hear his background data on which studies show this being the death knell to America.

r.

McCain is ‘arrogant,’ his advisers ’scare me.’

Here's some thoughts on McCain and the people he chooses to surround himself with from the former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell...and I have a certain amount of confidence in the kind of people Powell picks to surround himself with.

Study: Daylight Saving Time actually raises utility bills : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

While the rest of the article is interesting, it's the last sentence that I like the most :)

r.

Bob Dole: McCain ‘has a temper.’

Via Think Progress
JUST what we're looking for in a president :)

Interesting Online Media plays

CBS steamed 50x more video content then Fox?!? I don't know what's more impressive, that number or the fact that NBC says that watching online video content increases brand recall while finding online video ads less disruptive....

That note, increased brand recall, really catches my attention. I wonder what could be done to boost that even higher? The converged/multimedia aspects of online video make the possiblities endless - from the fact that you can dynamically provide more relevant advertising in a very focused manner (i.e. if you are watching a travel show about the Caribbean you could get one ad if you are a man living in NYC vs. a woman living in the Midwest) as well as providing focused ancillary content, maybe blog posts or Wikipedia articles about the topic....providing a richer, more robust experience.

And by the way, wonder how much of their soul Move Networks sold to the devil to get this deal with M$??

Life is like a box of chocolates

I hope someone tells this croc that "life is like a box of chocolates" sometimes you just don't know what you're going to get when you bite in......I'm guessing this guy is happy that he won't be winning the Darwin Award this year :-)

Do Not Buy: Anti-Shark Device Eaten by Irony-Loving Great White

It's a bad day at the office when your anti-shark device attracts them instead.

r.

Think Progress » The economic costs of war.

here's one of the reasons that an increase in taxes is, in my mind, inevitable. that doesn't mean that EVERYONE will have to pay more taxes, it's just that we're going to need to both decrease spending (getting us out of Iraq will be a huge help here!!) and increase revenue.

i'm a bit more likely to trust the guys at goldman and nobel winning economists then the white house on issues like this.