Pat's Sanitarium
Pat's Sanitarium
A retreat for the well-being of my mind from the insanity of the life that is mine.
Friday, May 21, 2004

Do you Gmail? 

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Mood: Losing sanity
Currently listening to: El Carretero - Bueno Vista Social Club

Do any of you out there still have Gmail invitations through blogger? If so, you might just want to read this article from Wired... ;)

My Left Arm For a Gmail Account

What's an invitation for a Gmail account worth?

If you have an invitation to open an account on Google's new e-mail service, you could sell it on eBay for as much as $60. But if cash is a little too prosaic for you, your Gmail invitation could net you 4 pounds of fresh fudge, some Jewish mystical knowledge, a photo of a wife and a girlfriend kissing, a tarantula, Paris Hilton's phone number or any one of more than 1,000 other options.

A new site, gmail swap, is hooking up those who have rare invitations with those who are willing to give just about anything to get one.

"For weeks, I had been hearing people complain about their desperate need for Gmail, and I thought it was silly -- and a little sad -- there was no recourse other than eBay," said Sean Michaels, the creator of gmail swap. It "came out of my firm belief that nice people were out there somewhere, ready to answer the pleas of the masses, but that there simply wasn't a conduit for the two groups to get in touch."

Gmail has attracted a huge amount of attention in recent weeks. Google plans to allow Gmail users to store up to 1 GB of e-mails and attachments in their accounts -- far more storage space than competitors Yahoo Mail and Hotmail offer. But Gmail is still in beta and the public can't sign up yet. You have to have an invitation from Google employees or associates to open a test account. People are clamoring for the accounts because of Google's image as a young, hip, progressive company.

"I'm a big believer in Google, mostly in their mission statements and their policies and what they believe in," said Kim Pardi of why she offered digital photographs of her "cute toes" to anyone nice enough to send her an invitation. "I just think it would be cool."

In the end, Pardi said, she agreed to plant a tree in the name of the person who got her a Gmail account, but she insists she would have sent the toe shots.

To Michaels, colorful offers like Pardi's have made running gmail swap a lot of fun.

"The best part has really been the extraordinary wealth of creativity, character and human diversity that's been on show," he said.

On Tuesday alone, there were 445 swap offers. And with so many to wade through, Michaels provides a list of the ones he finds most interesting.

"My favorite's probably the flight-crew member who has offered to send postcards once a month from all over the world," he said.

In the earliest days of Gmail, only Google employees and their friends got the accounts. Now, more people have them, but there is still the impression that those who have invitations to share are either at Google or, at the very least, are looking for swap offers worthy of Google.

Pardi said she thinks that would mean "the clever ones, where they would be somebody's slave. Not like, 'I'll trade you a hard drive.' Those are kind of boring."

Of course, one other aspect of Gmail has received a great deal of attention: The service automatically searches members' e-mails for keywords and then adds targeted advertisements to accompany the messages. Many privacy activists have raised questions about such a program.

Michaels pooh-poohs such worries.

"I think the privacy concerns are overblown, really, and I think most people agree," he said. "As commercial e-mail services go, Gmail's extremely benign, and unless you're scared about evil e-mail-scanning robots, there's not much to worry about."

In any case, the offers keep flooding in.

Wednesday's best? A '70s-era gold couch, a week's worth of drinks in Barcelona, a goatee and "sophistry bolstered by Hume, Berkeley and/or Kant."


Damn, and just when i'm out of invites (just had to give one to my mom and the other to Sneexe ;p). Still, some of you out there still haven't probably used yours yet (for each Gmail invite you get to invite two other people to use Gmail - its at the top of your inbox in Gmail), and some haven't even signed up for blogger's offer with Gmail in the first place (which can be found on your blog's dashboard in blogger on the right hand side)!

So if you haven't, why not get some quirky item (or even money?) out of it if you have the chance? I know i would... ;)

Here's the eBay and Gmail Swap links for your spoilt convenience.

In other, much scarier news, David Hasselhof wants to become a rapper thanks to Ice-T (with his gangsta nick purportedly being 'Hassel the Hoff').

Yes, the end must be near...


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About Me

Name: Patrick Pincon
Age: 27
Studied at: Monash
Work: Business Development
Nationality: Malaysian/French
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: ppincon@gmail.com

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Patrick/Male/21-25. Lives in Malaysia/Federal Territory/Kuala Lumpur, speaks English and French. Eye color is brown. I am what my mother calls unique. I am also cynical. My interests are Reading/Trying new stuff.
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