My thoughts on Shortmail and email clutter

Cross-posted from my weekly CBC Tech column. Podcast MP3 download here. [audio:http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/misenerontech_20110712_40873.mp3]

My intention this week is to write about Shortmail, a new email service. But to set the stage, I need to share three examples of Personal Email Policies I Greatly Admire.

Example 1: When danah boyd needs a break from digital communication, she goes on an email sabbatical. Her mail server sends all incoming messages to the trash, and an auto-responder lets all would-be correspondents know that while danah’s away, their messages will not be received. As danah wrote on her blog, “You cannot put anything in my queue while I’m away (however lovingly you intend it) and I come home to a clean INBOX.”

Example 2: I have a friend whose email signature includes the following expectation-setter: “I respond to short emails at 11:30am and 3:30pm daily. I reserve Mondays to respond to longer emails or in-depth responses – that way I have the time for a proper answer.”

Example 3: A while back, I heard about five.sentenc.es (and its siblings two, three, and four.sentenc.es), “a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be five sentences or less.” The idea here is that you adopt this policy, link to it in your email signature, and don’t allow exceptions.

Now here’s the thing: I love all of these ideas. But only on paper.

Practically speaking, I can’t imagine putting any of these into practice. Maybe it’s a lack of guts. Maybe it’s a lack of discipline. As much as I admire these ideas, the closest I’ve ever come is the standard out-of-office message.

And thus is my initial reaction to Shortmail, a new email service from Baltimore-based 410Labs. I like the idea, but mostly on paper.

Shortmail will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s used a web-based email service like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. But as its name implies, the major difference has to do with length. Shortmail imposes a limit on how long your messages can be: 500 characters. This clearly seems like a page borrowed from the playbooks of pith-obsessed micro-messaging services such as Twitter and Canadian-based StatusNet.

Not only does Shortmail restrict the length of outgoing emails, it imposes the same 500-character limit on incoming messages. If you send me a message that goes over the limit, Shortmail will bounce your email back along with a notification that it’s too long. You’re then given an opportunity to edit your message to fit within the limit. This is the digital equivalent of saying, “Get to the point.”

I understand why that might be appealing, but I can also see how that might come across as, well, rude. An @shortmail.com address effectively says, “Play by my email rules, or don’t play at all.”

Beyond message length, Shortmail has taken other cues from social networking and micro-messaging services. Its other big difference has to do with sharing. On a one-to-one basis, email has historically been private by default. But Shortmail shakes this up, adding a public option. For example, I can send you an email, mark it as public, and in addition to showing up in your inbox, it’ll also be published to the web. For example, here’s a public email conversation I had with Shortmail creator Dave Troy.

Public messages sent through Shortmail are clearly labeled as such. Still, the idea of “public email” is a pretty big paradigm shift. It’s not hard to imagine inadvertently publicly publishing a message intended for a private recipient.

Of course, Shortmail is just one reaction to the decades-old love/hate relationship many of us have with email. Last month, Chris Anderson (of TED conference fame), published the Email Charter, which outlines 10 rules to “reverse the email spirals” – rules that cover principles like writing better subject lines and avoiding unnecessarily open-ended questions. The Email Charter isn’t a piece of software or a web service. It’s more of a personal pledge.

Anderson’s Email Charter (and the aforementioned sentenc.es policies) take a Ghandi-esque “be the change” approach to email. Shortmail, in contrast, imposes its vision of better email on all messages sent through its service.

Beyond length-limitation, I wonder about Shortmail and the “one more thing to check” factor. I mean, I already have a handful of email accounts. And Twitter accounts. And a barely used Facebook account. And now, a Google+ account. Do I really need yet another inbox to check on a regular basis? If the goal is to spend less time dealing with email, having a separate account just for short messages seems a bit counter-intuitive to me.

While it’s interesting to see how the form and function of contemporary social media tools are rubbing off on the decades-old system of email, for me, Shortmail is a bit too much like danah boyd’s email sabbaticals: something I wish I could pull off, but probably never will.

Free DIY PVR workshop

As a follow-up to my piece, Your PVR is an insomniac, Ushnish from Free Geek Toronto email to let me know about a free workshop on building a Linux-based PVR:

What: MythTV (building your own Personal Video Recorder) Course

When: Thursday July 14th

Time: 6:30 to 9:30 pm

Location : Free Geek Toronto, Unit B, 51 Vine Avenue

Vine runs one West of Keele, one block North of Bloor

Closest subway station: Keele

Cost: Free

Linux Ubuntu computers available for purchase, starting at $50

Prerequisites: Some experience with Linux is recommended.

Not required if you are just attending the seminar, but recommended:

Talk on building a PVR (personal video recorder) using Mythbuntu (a version of Ubuntu Linux tailored to installing the MythTV program). The talk is free to attend, but you must book a space in advance. You are responsible for any hardware costs if you want your own PVR box.

The main MythTV website can be seen here: www.mythtv.org

A locally focused look at MythTV can be seen here: gtalug.org/wiki/MythTV

Download a free copy of Mythbuntu from their website : mythbuntu.org

To register for the Myth TV course, send an email to learn@freegeektoronto.org

Subject Line: MythTV

Email Body: Your Name and telephone number

I can’t make it to this workshop, but I’ve heard all kinds of great things about MythTV. Worth checking out.

Tracking down your wayward gadgets

This week, my CBC tech column (and podcast) is about how to track and recover lost or stolen gadgets. There’s a copy at cbc.ca/tech/ and one below, for posterity. [audio:http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/misenerontech_20110705_35202.mp3]

(mp3 download) And, as always, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe to the Misener on Tech podcast in iTunes.

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It’s summer. And for many Canadians – myself included – that means travel. And if you’re anything like me, along with travel-sized tubes of toothpaste and sunscreen your luggage will contain gadgets – a smartphone, a tablet, an e-reader and all the requisite accessories and chargers.

But what happens when one of those pricey gadgets gets lost or stolen?

This week, as summer vacation season begins, I’d like to take a quick look at some high-tech (and low-tech) tools for recovering lost or stolen gadgets.

Personally, I tend to err on the side of caution, planning for when my device will be lost or stolen, not if my device will be lost or stolen.

A simple first step involves setting passwords. Whether it’s a smartphone, a laptop or a tablet, anything that can be locked with a password should be locked with a password. A password won’t make your device impenetrable, but it’s a good first line of defense – the digital equivalent of putting a lock on your front door. If someone really wants to break into your device, they’ll get in. But a password can help guard against casually prying eyes.

Another good step that you can take before a trip involves activating or installing tracking software, a service that’s cropped up over the past few years as more and more devices include built-in GPS and always-on internet connections.

Some devices have tracking functionality built right in. For instance, Apple offers a free service called Find my iPhone (though it also works for iPads and recent models of the iPod Touch) that you can use to locate a device, and if necessary, remotely wipe it. A few years ago, there were rumours about a similar service from RIM called BlackBerry Shield that never materialized. But several third-party BlackBerry apps offer the same kind of functionality.

My favourite tracking service, however, is a bit of free, open-source software called Prey. For laptops, it works on Windows, Mac and Linux. It also supports Android smartphone and tablets, and an iOS version is in development.

Here’s how Prey works: You install a small application on your device. Then, you forget about it. If the device is ever lost or stolen, you can go to the Prey website, and mark it as such. Prey then tries to connect to the device, and starts sending back reports about the device’s location, what programs are being used, what files have changed. If your device has a webcam, you can even instruct it to take photos.

There are many other tracking products and services available for almost all modern mobile devices. But here’s what they all have in common: they’re useless unless you know about them, and turn them on. The time to do that is *before* your device gets lost or stolen, not after.

That’s not all, though. To get the benefits from a tracking service, you not only have to have it enabled, but the device has to be powered on and connected to the internet. That’s their Achilles’ heel: without power, and without an internet connection, these services just don’t work. Over the past few years, there have been a number of stories about people using tracking tools to retrieve lost or stolen devices. I think that for the most part, savvy thieves are now well aware of these services, and will immediately power down and wipe a stolen device. Even though we’ve seen some success stories, my gut tells me that these tracking services are probably more effective for recovering a lost device than a stolen device.

There are also some lower-tech approaches to the lost gadget problem. For instance, I’ve been a paid user of a Canadian company called TrackItBack. The company sells special stickers that can be attached to almost anything. The stickers have a website address, telephone number and a unique ID printed on them. If anybody finds your lost device, they go to the website (or call in), reference the ID and TrackItBack arranges for shipping back to the owner. It’s a bit like the War Amps key return service, but for gadgets.

For me, the only downside of a system like TrackItBack is that it relies on the honesty of the person who finds your device. Not so helpful if your gadget is stolen. By the same token, you don’t need a fancy TrackItBack sticker for an honest person to independently help you retrieve your lost device. For example, when I tweeted about this column, @seanckelly responded, “I left an iPad at TO airport and I thought it was gone. A nl’er found it, sent it back to me 2 weeks later. #findmyiphonenotenabled”

Another low-tech technique is to keep records of your devices’ serial numbers, as this information can be useful to law enforcement or service providers. For instance, some types of cell phones can be tracked or deactivated by their serial number.

I think it’s important to remember that even though there are tools out there to help you recover a lost or stolen device, there are no guarantees. In the case of a lost device, you’re relying on the goodwill of the person who finds it. Or, if it’s stolen, you’re relying on the technical incompetence of a thief.

I think it’s also important to remember that even though tracking technologies and services exist, they aren’t a replacement for common sense or street smarts.

Just because you have a tracking service on your device doesn’t mean you should let your guard down. If you have a brand new smartphone, don’t be flashy with it. Don’t leave your valuables unattended. Common sense still applies.

The very first eBook

Yesterday, July 4, 2011, the digital book community celebrated the 40th anniversary of the eBook. According to most accounts, July 4, 1971 is the date Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart first digitized the US Declaration of Independence.

But, as I was researching the anniversary, I came across an interesting tidbit from a 2010 LA times article:

Hart began transcribing and scanning books on July 4, 1971 — “technically July 5,” Hart corrected himself in an e-mail; “it was all night.”

So, which is it? July 4? Or July 5? To clear up the confusion, I emailed Michael Hart directly. His response:

Here’s how it happened:

I was at the Fourth of July fireworks at 9PM.

I probably left there close to 10PM.

Let’s say it took over half an hour of walking, stopping for a few minutes at a grocery store a few block short of getting to the computer.

Say I got to the computer building around 11PM. It took me a while to get in, not sure how long, it was late and I didn’t have a key. As soon as I got in I learned that my personal, as opposed to an operator’s account I was using, was not only ready, but that they had already put a HUGE amount of “computer play money” in it, for me to use on anything I wanted, and that they were ready to put more in when I used it all up. I ran all my life without using that much on my own.

So, I sat down to think about what I could do to be worthy of what they had given me. . . .

I realized I was low on energy so I poured out the contents of my book bag on the floor to get brownie mix for some instant energy so I could think enough to come up with a good project.

Along with the brownie mix, etc., came one of those faux parchment Declaration of Independence copies they were handing out all over and putting on walls of every school and mall in the U.S. in preparation for the 1976 Bicentennial celebrations.

At that moment the light went on over my head, just like in the comics, and Project Gutenberg was born.

I read the document to make sure I COULD actually read the handwritten transcript, which I could, and was ready to enter it into the computer.

The operator on duty decided I should enter it on “paper tape” from a TeleType machine, and then it could be read into magnetic tape and be available in a minute whenever anyone asked for it.

Somewhere in those last couple paragraphis I felt that this was a momentous occasion and that I had to note the time when I actually realized a power of what I was doing would change the world.

At that moment it was 1:41AM.

It took all night to type the all in and correct typos, work out punctuation, etc, and I just got done in time to be LATE to my 8AM class and then handed the roll of paper tape to a day operator, who was just coming on duty.

The first count I heard, in that first day maybe overnight, was that six people downloaded it.

That is pretty much the Project Gutenberg start, from beginning to end.

Your PVR is an insomniac

This week, my CBC tech column (and podcast) is about a new study from the NRDC that looks at electricity of use of set-top boxes. A copy is up at cbc.ca/tech, and below, for posterity.

The podcast version (mp3 download) includes full interviews with Bill St. Arnaud and Noah Horowitz. [audio:http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/misenerontech_20110628_94967.mp3]

And, as always, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe to the Misener on Tech podcast in iTunes.

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Your PVR may be an insomniac.

That is, it may not be able to sleep.

According to a new study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, many set-top boxes (like the ones used to receive satellite or cable television) use almost the same amount of energy whether they’re in use or not.

What’s more, the study says, some set-top box setups use more electricity than your refrigerator.

NRDC senior scientist Noah Horowitz says that when several set-top boxes were tested, “Hitting the power button did next to nothing. The box continued to consume near-full levels of power, even at two in the morning. All it did was dim the clock.”

Though the NRDC’s study focused on U.S. set-top boxes, Horowitz says, “many of the boxes and brands that are installed in the U.S. are the same exact devices installed in Canada.”

So why do these devices use so much electricity? There are a few reasons. Often, set-top receiver boxes are left powered on all the time. Couple that with the lack of efficient standby modes, and the aggregate power consumption can become costly.

As consumers, we don’t often have a lot of choice when it comes to set-top boxes. Many people simply use the box that comes with their cable or satellite subscription. Opting for a greener television receiver isn’t a practical option for most.

Ottawa-based green IT consultant Bill St. Arnaud told me that part of the issue here is that television service providers have little interest in making receivers and PVRs more efficient: “There’s no incentive for the cable companies or the telephone companies… because they’re not paying for the power.”

You are.

And it’s not just set-top boxes. Most homes are full of devices that draw power even when they’re not in use. For instance, usually, when your TV is turned off, it isn’t completely powered down. Rather, it’s likely in standby mode, using a small amount of electricity. Ditto for wall chargers, which continue to draw energy even when they’re not charging a cell phone or video game. This is what some people call “vampire power” – energy consumed by devices even while they’re in standby mode.

But for many set-top boxes, the issue goes beyond vampire power, because these boxes don’t even have efficient standby modes. Horowitz explains: “Imagine your DVR box that consumes 35 watts when you’re watching The Simpsons. It will consume 34 watts when you turn it off.”

So what’s the solution? The NRDC study suggests improvements in energy efficiency. They say that better-designed set-top boxes could reduce energy use by 30 to 50 percent.

But Bill St. Arnaud says that’s not enough. He told me that building smarter, more efficient devices with standby modes would help the problem, but not solve it. He cites the Jevons paradox, which proposes that as efficiency increases, so too does consumption.

“The problem is that we have so many electronic devices in our home,” he said. “And even if they’re operating extremely efficiently, they still are going to continue to consume more power as we add more and more devices.”

St. Arnaud argues for switching to alternative sources of energy. “If you power these devices — because they only consume microwatts of power — from a one-foot square solar panel on your roof, you could power them all in standby mode. Then you wouldn’t have this huge drain on your electrical bill.”

Though your set-top box may be an insomniac, there are measures you can take today to give it a rest. When you can, turn off or unplug your devices when you’re not using them. This can be tricky in the case of PVRs, which don’t do a good job of recording The Bachelor without power. But if you’re planning to be away from home for extended periods this summer, it might be a good time to unplug that cable or satellite box.

Some manufacturers sell so-called “smart power bars” or “smart power strips.” These can tell when your TV is turned off, and then turn off your other devices. Again, these can be problematic for the recording functions of most PVRs. They’re less of an issue for non-PVR cable or satellite boxes, but depending on your television provider, you could experience delays after you turn your device back on. Horowitz cautions, “The downside is that when you return, you might have to wait a minute to five minutes for [the box] to reboot.”

Often, we don’t have much choice when it comes to set-top boxes. We tend to use whatever the service provider installs. But where you do have the choices, you can go for lower-consumption devices. And you can let television service providers know if this matters to you, and you can vote with your dollars.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some lullabies to sing to my networked media streamer.