Tag Archives | E-mail

Get E-mail Alerts for Twitter Lists Keywords

Get Keyword Updates for Twitter Lists

The new lists feature (that was added to Twitter a while back) has made it easier for you to share your favorite groups of people, and track their tweets.  What Listiti brings to the table is free e-mail alerts when somebody, on a predefined list, references a keyword you wish to follow.

For example, you have a large list of every web host on Twitter, and you wanted to be notified when one of them mentions the word, “coupon”.  You would tell Listiti that your list was located at mitchkeeler/webhosts, give them the keyword, “coupon” , and then hand over your e-mail address you wish to be notified at. 

For the people who create the lists, they also provide badges for you to use to promote the lists you have created.  Overall, Listiti brings a few beneficial features to this new Twitter feature, that the Twitter team does not provide by default. 

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Top Web Apps Mitch Actually Uses

lilcoloredmitch I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to new tools and applications out there.  I love to try them all.  When push comes to shove though, only a few survive the cut as far as making it to the list of applications I actually use day to day.

Google Calendar – It might not be the prettiest girl at the dance, but boy does she know how to get down with her bad self.  Google Calendar has never won points for beauty, but is more functional than anything else out there today.  I use this one for just about every date reminder there is, from invoice due dates to birthdays.

MooURL – I probably could close my eyes and pick a link shortener out of a hat and come out with a winner.  I won’t lie, I like MooURL.com just because the name makes me giggle.

Gmail – My e-mail situation is kind of oddly setup.  I have all my external POP3 e-mail accounts plugged into Gmail, and then connect from Gmail to Thunderbird via IMAP.  This way I can easily access my mail via the web or desktop, and a few other perks such as double spam filtering (counting what the server side Spam Assassin does, then put Gmail’s spam filtering on top of that).

Google Docs – Google Docs is one thing I just started using again, not too long ago.  I needed to have a few documents easily accessible to me, no mater where I was – and Google Docs made that an easy thing to do.

Instapaper – This awesome site replaced my “read later” bookmark folder in Firefox.  Using a simple bookmarklet, you can save any link to read later and the site itself gives you a neat list of links and the ability to “skip” (mark it read) or to mark the link unread.  Very simple, and because of that, very effective.

Ping.fm – I use this web site to socialize myself.  I can post a message out to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and every other social network under the sun in one go.  Great for promoting your work, or just to say hello on all the social networking sites  out there.

Google Notebook – This I use a little differently than most.  I store a lot of the information from work on this site, such as FAQ’s and hard to find information.  That way I have it all in one spot (and it is searchable).

Google Reader – Boy, this is turning into an “I love Google” list, isn’t it?  The reason I use Google Reader for all my RSS reading is due to the fact that I can make it “wide view” very easily, and all I need to do to browse the news is scroll down.  Don’t need much else for news reading.

I’m always looking for something new to add to the list.  I think the major problem is there isn’t anybody doing anything drastically new or different.  It is just the different spin on the same idea (no mater what that idea might be).  However, I could just be a picky person.

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URL, E-Mail and Text Shortening with kissa.be

If you have been looking for an online service that does a little ‘bit of everything when it comes to shortening your content, Kissa.be might be the solution.

They not only offer URL shortening services (taking your long URL and creating a shorter one that is easier to share).  They also offer e-mail address shortening and text shortening too.

Here are a few use suggestions for Kissa.be via their web site.

  • Shorten web addresses for emails, forum posts, blogs etc. which cannot handle long URLs and might wrap them, making them unclickable
  • Lower the character count when texting web addresses to a mobile phone
  • Hide the real URLs of affiliate links from visitors to your site
  • If you dislike a web site and have to mention it (e.g. when complaining about it), link via kissa.be so that your link does not help the site’s search engine positioning
  • Clean up bookmarks for social bookmarking sites or sites with low character limits like Twitter
  • Obscure your real email address from bots which harvest them to spam (enter an address like mailto:user.name@example.com)

Kissa.be is different in another way too.  They have opened themselves up, and put up their code on Google’s Code web site.  Kissa.be’s code has been released under the GNU General Public License v2.

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Reliable Web Site Monitoring with Site24x7.com

logo With both paid and free versions, Site24x7.com looks to be a great web site monitoring package.  They do monitoring of uptime and performance of your web sites, online services and servers.  They also promise to deliver instant alerts the moment something goes wrong.

You can set the monitoring tools to check the web site in question you wish to monitor in intervals ranging from 5 to 60 minutes or above.

If the worst might happen, and you need to be told, here are the various ways they can alert you to trouble:

  • E-mail
  • RSS
  • SMS Messages

For those of you just wanting to beta test the service; when you first sign up, you are given a fully functional, 15-day trial account. At the end of 15 days, your account will be downgraded to free unless you upgrade to either Standard or Premium account.

Check out the screenshots, then give them a shot at Site24x7.com.

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Feeds in Your Inbox

feedmyinbox

FeedMyInbox is a new service that recently caught my eye, due to the fact they make things very simple.  They are offering you blogs, feeds and news delivered magically to your e-mail inbox.  All you have to do is visit the web site and enter a web site RSS feed and your e-mail address. 

Here is how FeedMyInbox explain the process:

Once you find a feed you would like to subscribe to, simply type in the web address (URL) for the site on FeedMyInbox.com. We will find the feed(s) available on the page, and you can select what you want to subscribe to. Once you subscribe to a feed, we will send an email to the address you specified. Simply click the link that is enclosed to confirm that your email address is correct, and you are all set!

It is an interesting service, to say the least. 

Of course, if you want to get my feed in your inbox, that is easy enough to do without this service.  Just click this link to subscribe to e-mail updates, so you never miss a post.

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This Week in Mitch (Mail mixed with Saturday Morning Fever?)

Shame on you for missing out on some great post this week?  Want that link again?

  Mixing POP3, Gmail and Thunderbird for E-mail Anywhere!

Watch as I explain my confusing, yet practical e-mail system I have in place.

  Mitch’s Favorite Thunderbird Add-ons and Themes

Here are some of the few Thunderbird goodies worthy of being shared.

  Different Quote Level Colors for Thunderbird

My absolute favorite tweak for Thunderbird usage. Helps with seeing who said what.

  OneNews – Create a List of News

Looking for a way to clone popurls.com?  This is the perfect WordPress powered solution.

  Captain N: The Game Master

This has to be one of the greatest Saturday morning cartoons ever… at least for me.

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Different Quote Level Colors for Thunderbird

tips_quotelevels Scrolling down a really long e-mail trying to sort where one message ends and another one starts can be a pain. Thank goodness though for this Thunderbird tip that will add different colors depending on the level of the quote you are at.

Just copy and paste this to your userContent.css file for Thunderbird:

/* Quote Levels Colors */
	blockquote[type=cite] {    color: navy !important; background-color: RGB(245,245,245) !important;
	}
	blockquote[type=cite] blockquote {    color: maroon !important; background-color: RGB(235,235,235) !important;
	}
	blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote {    color: green !important; background-color: RGB(225,225,225) !important;
	}
	blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote {    color: purple !important; background-color: RGB(215,215,215) !important;
	}
	blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {    color: teal !important; background-color: RGB(205,205,205) !important;
	}

There are a handful of other Thunderbird config tips and tweaks you might want to check out from Mozilla’s site too. This is the best one in my opinion though.

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Mitch’s Favorite Thunderbird Add-ons and Themes

Continuing the e-mail trend from yesterday, today I thought I would share some of my favorite Firefox add-ons and themes. Listing the add-ons I use with Thunderbird is an easy task.  Why?  Well… there are only two of them. 

ico20_tb  Quicktext – Keep a list of pre-written messages to use in your e-mails.  It also accepts variables so personalizing a static message with information you have in hand is easy to do.

ico20_tb  Minimize to Tray – This extension minimizes Thunderbird to the system tray on the task bar.  This way I can keep Thunderbird running without it getting in the way when I don’t need it.

There are only a handful of themes really worth checking out too.  Here are a few of my favorite themes for Thunderbird:

ico20_tb  Azerty ‘mail – Brighter and unique icons, but still keeps the same look and feel.

ico20_tb  Charamel – A tan colored Thunderbird theme that is awesome, except for a few little things here and there that keep me from using it 24/7.

ico20_tb  Silvermel – A silver port of Charamel, same look (and bugs) – just a different color.

The rest of the popular themes out there all look like Apple/Mac clones (insert yawn here), and do we really need more than one of those? I think not.  Really wish DeviantArt had some better ones too, but they seem to be a little lacking with the Thunderbird skin section.

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Get Mitch in Your Inbox!

I have been playing around some with the FeedBurner e-mail subscription settings here for Mitchelaneous.  Don’t think I have bothered with this since I moved from Blogware to a hosted WordPress solution many moons ago.  If you’d like to subscribe to my blog via e-mail to help boost circulation and to make sure you don’t miss any posts, use this link:

Click Here! Subscribe to Mitchelaneous by E-mail!

You’ll just get one update a day packed to the brim with Mitch-like Web goodness.  If you need other subscription alternatives, we have plenty to choose from.  Remember, Mitchelaneous is here to help you with the evil Mr. Internet!

Help me find a way into your inbox!  *knock knock*

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I Want Sandy – Personal Assistant via E-mail

I Want Sandy!Having a hard time remembering certain things that you don’t really have time to write down? Well, if you are one of those people who live in their e-mail inbox IWantSandy.com might be the service for you.

Using this service could not get any easier. You get you own e-mail to contact Sandy at and she will then remember or remind you of certain things. For an example if you send her an e-mail saying, “Remind me to post about Sandy on Mitchelaneous in 15 minutes” then in 15 minutes you will get an e-mail back reminding you of the task you need to do.

The service (trying my best to stop calling the service “she” and “her”) knows the words remember and remind the best. Here is a little more information.

When you signed up, I sent you a “Welcome” message containing your own personal Sandy email address. You send me stuff by writing to me at that address, either directly or by Cc’ing me on a message to someone else. You can write to me in the subject line or the body of an email message — I pay attention to both.

More details about the service can be found on the official web site.

All in all I think this is a neat service, and I am currently trying to find reasons to use it more and more. If you need a little help getting your projects (and/or life) in order you might want Sandy too.

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