Jason Unger

Gmail, Label:Unread and Controlling My Inbox

Posted by junger - 03/10/08 at 09:03:26 am

Why doesn't Google allow you to create an "unread" label for easy access in Gmail?

It's one of those "hidden labels" that Google uses, but doesn't allow you to actually access without typing into the search bar.

There are workarounds, but they're not ideal.

I use Gmail for everything. It's my personal email. It's my business email. It's my work email. I probably have 5 or 6 Gmail accounts.

So it actually IS a big deal that I have to type in "label:unread" into my search bar every time I need to find the emails I haven't read yet.

I understand that Google would rather have you archive your read emails and only keep unread emails in your inbox, but that's not how I manage my mail.

I read the stuff that is important, then leave the less important stuff unread to do later (I rarely check my starred items, so that doesn't help).

Come on, Google, let me create that unread shortcut. It would make life a lot easier for me.

David Richards Exposed as Plagiarist, Claims "Hackers" Did It

Posted by junger - 03/04/08 at 08:03:03 am

From the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation's "Media Watch" (original here)

The leading plagiarist in technology media, SmartHouse's David Richards, has been exposed on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Media Watch" program for the fraud he is.

In a story broadcast Monday, Richards' plagiarism of numerous technology stories (including my own) was highlighted as a "Phantom of the Internet."

What? No forthright accusation of plagiarism?

Richards, of course, claims he didn't do it. Instead, "hackers" got into his site, he says.

An investigation by 4Squatre Media has revealed that over a period of more than 24 months the content engine used to supply stories to web sites such as SmartHouse, SmartHouse News, ChannelNews and Smart Office has been illegally accessed and in several cases content changed. Code has also been hacked.

Please note that Richards DID mis-spell the name of his own company "4Squatre Media" — really professional, right? (And I've got the PDF saved for when he changes it and claims I lied.)

Beyond the absurdity of his excuse, here's why there's no chance it is true.

Richards claims he was "alerted" to the "hacker's posts" (my quotes, not his) in early February. That's impossible.

I have an email from Richards dated 12/19/2007, when he claims to have removed a story he stole from CE Pro written by Lee Distad.

Richards, not surprisingly, had not removed the article when he said he did. It took another email to him and his staff to get it down.

So, if you're the publisher of a Web site, wouldn't you be curious if a story showed up online that you hadn't published? I know I would be.

Richards is a hack job. His excuse is pathetic, and his arrogance is even worse.

It Gets Weirder: Did He Submit the Story to Digg?

A commenter on my original story pointed me to the YouTube video below, which was uploaded by … "DavidRichardsAU."

His profile says he's 47 years old and located in Australia.

What? How bizarre is that?

The story is also on Digg, where it was submitted by "davidrichards," "A 52 year-old male from Sydney, Australia (AU) who joined Digg on March 3rd, 2008."

I don't know if this is him or not, but the image on his profile looks a LOT like the one I could find online.

Would he seriously try and promote his own plagiarism? (It totally could be him, especially considering the spelling of "plagiarizm.")

That's just weird.

The Media Watch Video

Check out the Media Watch video here.

The Catchiest Theme Song in All of Podcasts

Posted by junger - 02/26/08 at 08:02:31 am

There's something about the theme song for The 1Up Show that is just so damn catchy.

I get it stuck in my head all the time, and I literally can't wait to listen to it (is it downloadable as an MP3 somewhere?).

The actual vidcast is a really great show — it's such a different way to present the news and views. Instead of having talking heads telling you what's going on, the whole group sits around talking about whatever game they're playing or event has just happened.

It's basically like an audio podcast with video, but not the roundtable-style discussion — more of a "day in the life" shoot.

Anyway, you can figure this all out too. Just watch the video. And enjoy the song.

PS – Not sure why you have to verify your age, but wait for this to buffer. The loading time sucks.

New Web Host: Media Temple

Posted by junger - 02/01/08 at 02:02:31 pm

If you've noticed any funkalities in the site for the past day or two, it's because I've been working behind the scenes to move the blog to a new host: Media Temple.

For the past so many years, I've been using Thinkhost to host my sites, but the prices and performance just haven't lived up to expectations. Lots of 403 forbidden errors, site shutdowns the moment a story gets hit on StumbleUpon and having to pay for multiple databases.

As I was searching for a new host, it came down to Media Temple or Dreamhost. There were enough complaints about Dreamhost's reliability for shared hosting that Media Temple won out.

Hopefully there shouldn't be downtimes with the site, and if you see anything funky, let me know. I might have missed a file transfer or plugin install or something like that.

Stop Motion + Super Mario + Legos

Posted by junger - 01/29/08 at 04:01:08 pm

Stop motion videos never get old. I have amazing respect for the people who can film these, edit them and make it look flawless.

Lego Mario might not be as in-depth as Tony vs. Paul, but literally every single frame of this has to be shot.

It's pretty impressive.