Gmail Heaven (A Cool Extension for All Gmail Users)

I'm in love with Gmail all over again. Not because of an enhancement that Google has made, but because of the extension that makes Gmail just plain perfect. The extension is Boomerang and it does four things:

1. It temporary removes an email from your inbox and you can reschedule that email to return to your inbox at a later time or another day. If you subscribe to the zero inbox philosophy, or just want to cut down the number of messages in your inbox from 700 to a more manageable number

2. Boomerang lets you send an email at a later date. If you feel inspired to write an email, but don't want to send it quite yet, Boomerang adds that ability. Like Microsoft Outlook -- except using Gmail.

3. Boomerang will remind you about an email you sent if you don't receive a reply. You don't need to try to remember to follow up because Boomerang will do the remembering for you.

4. Boomerang automatically offers to remind you about a date-sensitive email. If you receive an email that says, "Meet me for coffee on Friday at 2pm," Boomerang's artificial intelligence will offer to remind you about that meeting several hours beforehand.

Dear DC Government: Lose the Anti-Terrorism Tag Lines in All Your Emails

by Bill Adler

Every message that originates from a District of Columbia, dc.gov email address contains this ominous reminder:

Preventing terrorism is everybody's business. If you SEE something, SAY something. Call the Metropolitan Police Department at (202) 727-9099 or email at SAR@DC.GOV to report suspicious activity or behavior that has already occurred. Call 911 to report in-progress threats or emergencies.

To learn more, visit http://www.mpdc.dc.gov/operationtipp.

While it's a good idea in theory for citizens to report suspicious activity, in practice it rarely turns out to be a good thing. Are average citizens really any good at being able to tell the difference between ordinary and suspicious behavior? According to the MPD's website, this activity can be suspicious: "Are you aware of anyone recording or monitoring activities, taking notes, using cameras, maps, binoculars, etc., in your neighborhood?" Birdwatchers and amateur photographers can look very suspicious. How can ordinary citizens tell when somebody's hobby is actually a terrorist cover? The answer is that untrained civilians can't (and the police often can't tell the difference either).

Keep in mind that the 9-11 terrorists did not conduct photographic surveillance prior to attacking the United States. That fact somehow got lost or distorted along the way. We're building a nation of suspicious-reporting citizens based on what? Not based on anything useful.

Passengers on an airplane reported another passenger for suspicious activity because of too many trips to the bathroom. Amtrak police arrested a photographer for suspicious activity because he was taking photos of trains for an Amtrak-sponsored photography contest.

Remember the white van that the Washington snipers were supposedly driving? The actual vehicle that everyone, especially law enforcement, should have been looking for turned out to be a Chevy Caprice. It's very easy to look for the wrong thing when it comes to suspicious activity

I'm not sure exactly how to segue into this, but I think it's relevant to point out that New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority trademarked the phrase in 2007 “If You See Something, Say Something." Not kidding. The MTA licenses its use. Is this about security or about marketing?

But never mind. Back to the reasons why this tag line on DC Government email's is a bad idea.

What happens when you hear the same warning over and over again, such as "Cigarettes can be hazardous to your heath," the warning that was on every cigarette package for decades? Repeating the same thing over and over again numbs people to the message. Repeating the same phrase turns that into an anti-warning. It become less than useless.

So, please, District of Columbia government, turn off that tag line. It's doing more harm than good.

The Top Ten Reasons to Join the Cleveland Park Listserv

Cleveland Park is an email list for people who live in Washington, DC and the Cleveland Park neighborhood. It's a way to meet, exchange news, and find out what's happening in the area. The Cleveland Park Listserv is Washington's most vibrant electronic community, the largest neighborhood email list in the country, and the only neighborhood email list with an columns and features.  Visit www.cleveland-park.com to join.

10.  It's an A-List that doesn't require you to be a major donor to any political party.

9.  You'll find out about new restaurants, secret parking places, neighborhood events, street construction, crime, and other activities that affect your life.

The Life and Death of Jonathan Rees

When Jonathan Rees died in November 2008, almost nobody noticed. Jonathan Rees had been in the news because he was a candidate for Ward 3 City Council (garnering only 24 votes). But Jonathan Rees was a lot more than just a failed political candidate. Jonathan Rees was evil and smart, and he knew how to wield the Internet to deceive and hurt people. Rees died of lung cancer. During his dying days, Rees was kicked off a lung cancer support forum. I don't know what he said to have been exiled from an online cancer community, but it wouldn't have surprised anyone who knew Rees that he was removed from such a group.

WMATA Spam Problem Fixed

The Washington Metropolitan Transit Area Authority has fixed its spam problem. Commuters who subscribe to WMATA's email alerts received fradulent messages containing links to a non-WMATA website. And if you clicked on that nefarious link, well, you can imagine what bad things might happen. (You can subscribe to the alerts through WMATA's website.) Here is the spam update from WMATA:

Metro has resolved a problem with its e-Alert notification system with some subscribers who received spam emails instead of service disruption reports from Metro since Sunday, August 29.