As messages come in, Gmail automatically flags some of them as important. Gmail uses a variety of signals to predict which messages are important, including the people you email most (if you email Bob a lot, a message from Bob is probably important) and which messages you open and reply to (these are likely more important than the ones you skip over). And as you use Gmail, it will get better at categorizing messages for you. You can help it get better by clicking the or buttons at the top of the inbox to correctly mark a conversation as important or not important. (You can even set up filters to always mark certain things important or unimportant, or rearrange and customize the three inbox sections.)

You do have the ability to further tweak the Priority Inbox (as referenced in the quote above) by including certain labels or filters.  So far, I have not made any advanced tweaks.  I have however followed the advice given by MG Sielger over at Techcrunch:

My favorite aspect of Priority Inbox is the settings that allows you to create four different sections of your inbox. Yes, you could previously do this with the Multiple Inboxes feature, but these new settings make things much easier to understand and implement. The three default sections here are: “Important & unread,” “Starred,” and “Everything else” — but there’s an option to add a fourth, which you should. You should create a new label that you can quickly tag emails with. For example, I chose “A1″ since “A” shows up first in the Labels drop down menu. Set this section (which is actually the second section) to show emails with that label.

Once you do that, your inbox will be transformed into four different boxes stacked on top of one another. At the top will be the “Important and unread” elements — this is your true Priority Inbox and ideally would be empty most of the time (indicating that you’ve read all these messages). Below that would be this new A1 section — these are your most important saved emails to come back to. Below that is your starred section — these are emails you quickly star that you might want to come back to. And below that is everything else — your general incoming email. Or as I like to call it, Hell.

So for the lack of being too creative, I actually did exactly as is recommended above…created a A1 category.  To be honest I am not sure that this method will work for me, but the nice thing about the new feature is I can tweak later as I use it.

Reading around the web, it sounds like when you first turn it on, the results are mixed.  However, over a couple of days of email usage, I can say that it has improved (and this sentiment is echoed throughout the web).

Keep in mind that you do need to turn on Priority Inbox.  Google is rolling this out to users throughout the week.  Once it is offered to you, you should see New! Priority Inbox upper right hand corner of Gmail.  You can always return to your regular inbox at any time (you will see both Priority Inbox and Inbox on the left hand side of Gmail).

And a last note to Google.  Add this to the Gmail client on Android and you are invited to Sleekfest.

I think I might have finally found a solution in the form of an app called iSyncr.

iSyncr costs $2.99 and is run directly from your phone once it is plugged into your computer.  Although it takes a little more work to find the program and run it (it is actually copied to the root of your phone when you install it), once you do run it is lets you chose from your iTunes playlists and then it JUST WORKS.  The sync still took awhile (9 GBs took 2 hours or so), but IT WORKED.  Since then I made changes to playlists and the changes synced. It also syncs play counts which was a nice bonus.

Definitely worth the $3…just hope it continues to work!

I chose to call Amazon about the issue and was prepared to be told that my device was out of warranty and I was SOL.  Instead, I was quickly connected to Maddie (sp?) who informed me that my issue is always covered.  She quickly got my information, started the process to send a replacement, and let me know that I would not have to pay anything.  This was the best example of customer service I have had in a long time.  Thx so much Amazon and Maddie!  It was definitely a pleasant surprise.

Today I stumbled upon AndSpot while reading Wired’s Gadget Lab.  It is the latest of several alternative markets that you can install on your Android device.  It looks like it has promise, until I read that it appears that they want to build their own social network for the app rather than leverage an existing social graph.  This is a non-starter.  I do not have enough techie friends who are willing to start another social network for a niche app.  Instead, use my friends I already have on Facebook or LinkedIn.  The app does integrate with those networks, but it appears to be only for sharing apps (please correct me if I am wrong).

Yes, Facebook may be evil in some ways and take up way too much time, but it has over 500 million users.  As an app builder, that is a huge network that you can leverage to make your app spread like wildfire.

Today’s Wall Street Journal Tech Briefing had a good tip to consider while traveling.  Basically the tidbit was that many hotels have hundreds of chargers left at their hotels during the year.  I have to admit that I have been one of those people who left a charger in the room.  So instead of actually buying a new one while on the road, why not try calling the front desk to borrow one?  No idea if they will actually give it to you, but it is worth a try.

Go ahead Jiloty…if you read this feel free to say NERDS!

Anyhow, when creating a Battle.net account, I was a bit nonplussed when only certain special characters were allowed for the password for my account.  Huh?  I realize this is probably a limitation of some legacy code or software riding on Battle.net, but this seems like something that should be a thing of the past.  I have run into this on other sites as well, some of which are fairly high end enterprise sites (although Battle.net at this point is pretty damn high end).  By limiting the special characters that can be used for passwords, Blizzard is limiting password strength artificially.  Granted, password strength is a bit overrated when users are probably using pet names or school mascots as passwords…

Bill Puts Contractors Out of Work – NextGov
There a ton of articles that document the government’s efforts to trim down the contractor workforce.  This particular article focuses in on how the beltway bandit establishment are fighting against change that may effect their wallets.

Understanding and Selecting a Tokenization Solution: Introduction – Securosis Blog
An in-depth introduction to tokenization in enterprise applications.  I actually stumbled upon this blog a couple of weeks ago and it is well worth following.  They cover a variety of security topics including log management, network data flow, and secure application development.

Paying for Classified Security – NextGov
An article that details the $$$s spent by the federal government on information security.  Ironically enough the costs were actually down between 2008 and 2009, although the number is still at $4.26 billion dollars…not including what the intelligence community spends.

Nightwatch
This less about an article and more about Nightwatch overall.  Great feed to follow to read in-depth goings on in the rest of the world.  Most updates feature editor commentary that give greater insight into situation such as the North Korean/South Korean submarine debacle.

Cryptography Success Story – Schneier on Security
A link to an article showcasing where encryption of a hard drive actually foiled both Brazilian authorities and the FBI.  Certainly a good thing from a protection perspecitve, but maybe not so good from an inteligence collecting angle.  The comments on Schneier’s blogs are always insightful (and entertaining) as well.

As one would expect, range of these cars very often does not live up to the hype.  The Chevy Volt is one example where ever former GM Vice Chariman Bob Lutz is referenced:

“Lutz told a reporter from the Dow Jones that he drove the Volt for a weekend recently during the cold Detroit winter, and found he got only 28 miles of electric range.”

Fortunately for the Volt, there is a backup gas engine that will charge the battery.  However, if you look at other cars, many of their real world ranges are 50-75% of the manufacturers claims.  Is it just me, or does this sound a lot like your cell phone?  They promise days of standby, when in reality my Droid is lucky to last 18 hours.  So instead, I have chargers everywhere.  My house, my car, my office, and even at Sleekfest.  And even with all of those chargers, I make sure to modify my phone behavior as the juice decreases.

So basically when we start buying EVs, I will have to make sure that I am never too far from my house, the office, or the Sleekfest grounds (power is a game changer) so that I have enough juice to get anywhere.  Maybe its just me, but it is a helluva a lot different if my cell phone runs out of juice and I can’t check Twitter then if my car dies in SE when trying to get home from the Strasburg debut.

MS Live account needed, and it appears it is an invite model for now. Gonna try to grab an account tomorrow. Definitely could see some uses for the government and the IC.

While I agree that the “PowerPoint Ranger” mentality of the military CAN be a detriment, PowerPoint does have its uses when used properly.

This became very apparent yesterday during a session here at Web 2.0.  The topic was Security in Code Development, clearly a complex topic.  The presenter chose to eschew PowerPoint altogether and instead handed out ten copies of a 25 page paper so that the audience could follow along while he presented it.  It wasn’t a page by page review, but selected sections were presented to help facilitate understanding to the audience.

What it underscored to me is the power of pictures and diagrams to facilitate understanding.  This is not something that is PowerPoint specific, but tools like PowerPoint provide a good forum to present concepts.  In a complicated discussion about cross site scripting attacks, it would have been very helpful to level set the knowledge of the room to further the discussion.  Instead, I felt that some of the audience (frankly myself included at times) was lost in the discussion.  I also see this in briefings for the Government…the simple “cartoon” picture is a great way to level set discussions, especially with senior level folks who are less technical.

Of course I am not suggesting that this cartoon picture replace real diagrams.  Instead I believe it is a great tool to have in your quiver to enhance buy-in, stimulate discussion, and further your project.