Posted via web from brb’s posterous

Gmail inbox getting full?  Mine was too.  For some inexplicable reason, Google does not allow you to run a simple search of your inbox where you can sort by attachment size.  There are some options to get your Gmail account under control, most useful of which is searching for particular file types.   Run a search for the most commonly large file types, and optionally add a date modifier so you only look at mail older than a certain date.

Enter this into the search box:
filename:(mpg OR mpeg OR avi OR wmv OR zip OR bmp OR mp3 OR wma OR mov) before:2007/12/31

I did not exclude JPG or JPEG because pictures are often a useful thing to save.  I still recommend going through each e-mail before doing a mass-delete with the above search query, but this will at least give you a useful workaround while Google works on a sortable attachment filter.

Google is well aware of the need for this feature, but feel free to cast your vote on their suggestion page, like I did.

The decorating of the tree commences with the fabled boxing Santa ornament.

My brother got this Office Space kit.  Included was a real life jump to conclusions mat.  I tried it out, but could not come to the conclusion of what it is useful for.

It really makes you wonder sometimes.  Is there a market for $20 Leather Jackets?  Does anyone come to CVS looking for a jacket?  Perhaps we will never know.

The chocolate is super sweet, almost too much so.  I would not recommend larger than the small size.  Mochi goes very well with the chocolate too.

http://twitpic.com/jlu6g – 62 views as of writing.  While I have a paltry 135 Followers, it seems that roughly 46% of them clicked on the link I posted.  Keep in mind, this view count is based off of pageviews to that page, so if one person viewed it multiple times it would count towards the same total.  So let’s make a more conservative estimate of 35% of my followers actually clicked the link.  Not too bad.

I still had envy for someone like Ashton Kutcher though.  Well, maybe not.  But I did have a little intrigue about his almost 4,000,000 followers on Twitter.

When he posts a link, if using my conservative estimate of 35% conversion ratio in clicks, that would mean he would get a whopping 1,400,000 clicks on every link he tweets.  Then again, 35% is a rather generous conversion ratio, what with all the spam accounts and all.  So let’s be VERY conservative.  10% conversion ratio.  Surely, at least 10% of the people “following” Ashton Kutcher are at least visiting the links he posts.  10% conversion ratio would be roughly 400,000 clicks.  That is still spectacular.  He is a marketing machine, right?  If only there was some way to actually see how many clicks his links get.

Oh, yeah, bit.ly.  That’s right, they offer pretty neat stats on every link shortened by them.  So I decided to look at some recent @aplusk data.

I made a typo right?  I wish I had.  It turns out that the links Ashton tweeted averaged 7,500 clicks per link.  This amounts to a shocking 0.19% percent conversion ratio.

The lesson?  Quality over quantity when it comes to a Twitter following.  If only .19% Ashton’s followers are clicking his links, at BEST 0.4% of his followers actually even read a word he says.

To enable this feature, go to your Preferences > Voicemail, and see the Voicemail Notifications area:

After saving your changes, all of your voicemails from now on will be e-mailed to you.  If you elect to receive e-mails on your phone, it makes it amazingly easy to check your voicemail when away from your Ooma hub.

On the iPhone, simply click the e-mail attachment, and it will open up the voicemail file in the iPhone quicktime player:

Could not be easier!

1.  Delete your current Yelp Application (if you have it)

2.  Download the Yelp application from the AppStore

3.  Go to the main yelp results page on the Yelp App (after selecting that you do not have a Yelp account, or logging in)

4.  Shake your iPhone three times and you will see this:

5.  Click the Monocle button at the top right, and prepare to have your mind blown:

Indoors it does not work so well, but the cool factor makes it well worth the install.

Edit 9/7/09: Use this link to receive $25 free from Lending Club when you sign up.

Microloans are all the rage now.  With my “high-yield” savings account getting around 1.4% interest as of date, I needed something with a little more oomph.  I had some success with Prosper (despite 2 of my 12 notes defaulting), and shortly after Prosper entered its “quiet period” I got into Lending Club.

The interface of Lending Club is clean, and because you can invest as little as $25 in a loan, they make it very easy to help hedge your risk by diversifying into many different small loans.  I only put a little money in to experiment, but so far it has resulted in impressive results:

Here are the notes I have invested in, with some details obscured for privacy:

Transferring in funds in and out of Lending Club has proven to be relatively painless, and I plan to continue small investments to see how my strategy works.  No defaults as of yet, but it is still early.  My first defaults did not show up in Prosper for at least a few months.

Anyone else have any success stories with Micro Loan sites?

Edit 9/7/09: Use this link to receive $25 free from Lending Club when you sign up.