I once wrote a piece on my ideal of a modern communication tool. The idea was basically one drop box that recieves all the messages sent to me from the many places I am. This box would recieve messages from Twitter, e-mail, SMS, comment replies, voicemail, and all the other bacn that websites and communication services generate. This box would have an intelligence that would allow me to route these messages to the locations I want to receive it based upon who sent it, the time of day, or where I am. Then I could reply in the form I choose. But my response would be routed back to the sender and delivered the way they want to recieve it.

Communication message how I want, where I want from whom I want, when I want it!

I think the day that technology will make this possbile is approaching. Google Voice/GrandCentral may be a move in the right direction. If Google integrates Google Voice with Gmail and GTalk and allows for the same management capability and transcription Google Voice then it might be possible.

This doesn’t solve a single porblem of John C. Dvorak‘s list. But it at least gets each individual the power to choose how they want to communicate. The future could be very cool!

I used it when it first came out a few years ago but prefered Google’s offer. Since then I have just forgotten about it. But if you are looking for an easy and inexpensive place to host your own domain and manage your own email then Microsoft is worth a look too.

And of course DreamHost Apps, can give you some other options and Google Apps.

You can read about this at the Concord Monitor website.

This incident highlights something I’ve been telling friends and family for years. Do NOT use the free email from your ISP. It’s tied to the ISP! If they change ownership or you decide to change to a different service provider then you will be forced to change your email address. That’s never a good experience. In fact, I personally find it more of a hassle then changing phone numbers.

Dick Eastman has written a great article entitled, “Why You Need a Second (and Better) E-mail Address“. Hat tip to the Maine Genealogical Society where I first read the Mr. Eastman’s article.

I agree with everything Mr. Eastman says. Gmail is my favorite as well. Free Gmail or Yahoo mail or whatever is an improvement over being stuck to a particular ISP’s email. But I might go even one step further and suggest you take a look at Google Apps Standard Edition. For a very small annual fee you could have Google manage email at your own domain. By owning your domain then you never have to fear it changing. And if Google does not satisfy you then simply move your domain to another host. Your own domain puts you in complete control!

Don’t Use Your ISP for Email!

So what do I do to avoid the size problems and security issues? There are some great web-based services to help you share files easily over the internet.

An oldie but a goodie is YouSendIt.com. The YouSendIt free version allows files sizes up to 100MB and there are limits on how many times it can be downloaded by someone else. But for the kind of one-off files that you might be sending by email, this works fine. There are for-pay services that provide some significant advantages for business that may be sending larger files often. I use this service a few dozen times a year to share large files with people. The recipient gets an email from YouSendIt with a link to the file you are sharing. They click the link and download the file. Easy! If you create an account then you can password protect the file for a small fee.

Drop.io is very similar to YouSendIt. It also has a free version with a 100MB limit on the file, but it’s free to set a password and you can also set an expiration for the file. Drop.io also has a paid service with some nice advantages for those who would use this service often enough. Drop.io is a bit different in that you create a drop or storage bin to put more than one file if you want. You can then send the link to the file to the recipient. I like Drop.io very much. Lot’s of nice features and settings. But, when you use the “Email Recipients” button, it sends the files as an attachement. Not what I want! So I always just copy and paste the link tot he file into my own email message.

Another option is MediaFire. It’s very similar to Drop.io and YouSendIt. Is fast and works well. For some reason I haven’t’ used it other than testing. So I have no real experience. But see nothing wrong with adding it to the tool box just in case.

Of course, if you are running your own web server, you could be FTP’ing a file up and sharing a link by email as well. But even people who know how to do that will sometimes take an easier route like the services above. But whatever works for you, try these options over sending attachments. Please don’t send me attachments!

One last service I am going to mention is Dropbox. Dropbox is a utility you install on your computers and it syncronizes files and folders across them. Macintosh, Windows or Linux! You organize files and folders on your computer they way you would any file or folder. When you drg and drop it to your Dropbox, it begins to copy to the Dropbox servers and then back down to the other computers you have setup for you Dropbox. It’s free up to 5GB. I use this to easily copy files between my wife’s Vista machine and my MacBook. Works from home and work without issue.

“Ok Michael, what does this have to do with your pet peeve about email attachments?” Well, I’m glad you asked! Dropbox has a public folder that you can share a URL to and send that link by email. Voila! Also, the developers of Dropbox have mentioned that they might add some features to make one-off file shares easier too.

The last thing I will say is that you definately need to be cautious about who you recieve attachments from and what the attachment is. But using one of the services  I mentioned above does not remove the responsibility of being cautious.  A link to a dangerous website can be as unsafe as opening a bad attachment. Be careful!

A website I am a regular reader of is Heal Your Church WebSite. Dean Peters actually wrote an article about password before the news broke of Gov. Palin’s misfortune. And wrote a follow-up after the news was out.

So if you are wondering how to avoid Gov. Palin’s embarassment then read the following two links. Good, sound advice:

• 5 simple steps to stronger passwords
• 5 things we can learn about password recovery questions from Sarah Palin