Picasa 2 vs Photoshop Elements 3.0

Danny Sullivan at searchenginewatch.com has written an interesting article comparing the features of Google's new Picasa 2 and Adobe's new Photoshop Elements 3.0. The executive summary: photo management software should embed it's tag/label information in the image IPTC data of each image. Picasa 2 does not do this, so you're labels are lost if you move to a different management software. Photoshop Elements 3.0 does this (but you cannot change the labels later -- bummer). Picasa is, overall, easier to use, and it's free, while Elements is more powerful and $100. Mr. Sullivan is staying with Adobe's offering for now.

Cannot create a gmail contact without an email address

I attempted to create a gmail contact for a friend of mine who doesn't have an email address (yes, there are a few people left who don't have email addresses). When I click on 'add contact' the 'Add Contact' window closes, but the contact is not saved. Since gmail's contact list is still in it's infancy I'm not too concerned -- I hoping that they'll get their contact list up to the same level as their email interface.

Gmail wish list

• I wish Gmail had the ability to "label" contacts... Gmail could then automatically label incoming email. (Contacts could then be organized and managed the same way as your Gmail!)
• I wish Gmail had a 'you have email' icon that shows up on my computer when new email arrives.
• I wish Gmail had a time out on the login (I have mixed feelings about it's 'always connected' mode).
• I wish Gmail had a "Save Draft" feature.
• I wish Gmail had signatures.
• I wish Gmail's "contacts" window didn't pop-up and then goes behind the Gmail window. (perhaps this is an IE setting I can control?)
• I wish ALL of Gmail's "from" and "to" fields would "auto-fill" the same way the "from" and "to" fields in the "compose mail" screen do (a very cool feature!).
• I wish the spell check on Blogger would work the same as the spell check on Gmail -- it rocks!

Guitar for Dummies

This is NOT a learn-to-play-guitar book; it's a book about guitars. I ordered it from Amazon before finding this out (I should have read the user comments better); I returned it shortly after it arrived (returning things if very easy with Amazon).

Spyware Smashing Code

I read an article on viruses, spyware, and other bad computer things. The article recommended the following software:

• Spyware Blaster: http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/
• Spybot Search & Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/

I use both and highly recommend them.