2 Gmail Tricks I Bet You Didn't Know About

Artem Russakovskii — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:00:00 +0000

OK, maybe you did know them – just see for yourself.

Introduction

The tricks I am going to describe allow you to create unique gmail addresses that still hit your existing gmail inbox, without actually making new gmail accounts.

This can be useful in a variety of situations when you need to use multiple email addresses without having the pain of maintaining them, such as

using unique emails while registering for the same service more than once (say, paypal)
giving out a unique email address to see if you start getting spam to it later – that way you know exactly who to blame for it
more generally, easily create email rules to sort incoming emails into folders, delete them, mark as important, etc.

The hints are not new by any means but it seems like most gmail users are not aware of them. So, without further ado:

Gmail Ignores Dots In Gmail Addresses

Did you know this? I sure didn't, until today, when I read a blog post by a fellow Russian blogger streetmakarov. Apparently, gmail completely ignores dots, so you can insert them anywhere you want in your email address.

Thus, foo.bar@gmail.com is the same as foobar@gmail.com, which is the same as f.o.o.b.a.r@gmail.com, etc – they will all arrive in the same inbox.

This begs the question – what if I registered foo.bar@gmail.com while someone else already owns foobar@gmail.com? Well, some digg and arstechnica users got their panties in a bunch over this a while ago, just to realize that gmail doesn't allow registering accounts that would clash in any way – so if I already own foobar@gmail.com, nobody can register foo.bar@gmail.com or any other combination.

You Can Append a "+ANYTHINGYOUWANT" To Your Username

I think this trick is even more awesome and flexible than the previous one. If your email is foobar@gmail.com, then you can use foobar+blabla@gmail.com, foobar+monkeybananas@gmail.com, etc and those will still land in your original inbox.

This makes it even easier to track the addresses you give out. For example, when I register new twitter accounts, I enter my email as myrealemail+mynewtwittername@gmail.com and then set up a filter in Outlook to filter those out to a separate folder. Simple, painless, and effective.

The only downside to this method is some sites foolishly (or purposely) disallow plus signs in email addresses. Oh well, you can use trick #1 for those.

Conclusion

Do you know other tricks related to "uniquefying" your gmail address? Feel free to share in the comments.

Fun With The Kill-A-Watt

Artem Russakovskii — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:28 +0000

If you haven't heard yet, there's a cool useful little device that you can buy for about $20, called the Kill-A-Watt. You plug it into the power outlet, then plug something into it and observe various fun facts about the plugged in device, such as the power consumption, voltage, amperage, etc. I started plugging things in and recording power consumption that you can see below. Here are the results I got so far (updated often):

Vizio P50 HDTV 50" plasma
- standby: 0-1W
- on – perfect white screen: 450W (OUCH!)
- on – bright screen: 350-430W
- on – medium brightness: 250-350W
- on – dark scenes: 200-250W
- on – perfect black screen: 185W
Torchiere floor lamp with a 300W bulb
- 1st torchiere – on: 272W
- 2nd torchiere – on: 305W
Cell phone charger
- no phone, no LED: 0W
- no phone, LED on: 0W
- phone charging (Samsung A900): 3W
- phone charged (Samsung A900): 0W
Dell 90W laptop charger
- no laptop, LED on: 0W
- laptop on, screen on, already charged: 33W
- laptop on, screen off, charging: 74W
- laptop on, screen on, charging: 85W
Revlon 1875W blow dryer
- low cool setting: 192W
- medium cool setting: 231W
- high cool setting: 251W
- low hot setting: 408W
- medium hot setting: 644W
- high hot setting: 1520W (HOLY SHIT! Blow drying your hair may just be the most expensive thing you can do. Don't you have some baby seals to club?)
Braun WK200B AquaExpress electric water kettle
- on: 1430W (SHITx2! If you like to constantly reheat your tea kettle, like some people I know, maybe you should switch to a regular stovetop one)
Rowenta electric water kettle
- on: 1465W
Plain 2 slot toaster
- on: 950W (and 8 Amps! If everyone just gets rid of their kitchens, we will have an instant green paradise)
Honeywell 51000 air cleaner
- on – low setting: 57W
- on – high setting: 94W
Honeywell compact fan similar to this one
- on – low setting: 28W
- on – medium setting: 36W
- on – high setting: 45W
Panasonic MC-V5710 vacuum cleaner (10A)

on – 900W (8A, guess it's getting old)

Norelco electric shaver

plugged in – charging: 3W
plugged in – in use: 0W (apparently, the shaver can't charge while being in use)
plugged in – charged: 0W (no overcharging is done when you leave the charge on for too long)