Google's e-mail add-ons are fun

By Anne Krishnan

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

The fun folks at Google have been busy developing neat e-mail features within Gmail Labs, the company's experimental testing ground.

Three of the new additions can keep you from sending an e-mail you regret. The two more practical ones are the "Forgotten Attachment Detector," which scans your e-mail to determine when you probably forgot to include a file, and "Undo Send," which gives you up to a 10-second grace period to cancel a sent e-mail. A third, called "Mail Goggles," tries to prevent poorly conceived late-night e-mails by requiring the sender to solve a few math problems before the message sends.

Other features allow you to use Gmail offline, add a to-do list, show link previews within the body of e-mails and expand the flagging icons beyond the yellow star.

To see these and other options, log into your Gmail account. (You can set up one at gmail.com.) Go to "Settings" at the top right of the page, then choose the link for "Labs." You can also click on the little green test tube next to the settings link. Once you have enabled a feature, you also may be able to tweak it under the "General" settings tab.

Clif Dudley of Raleigh, N.C., was one of several readers who responded to the recent column about BIOS errors. His letter was so good, I wanted to reprint it here.

To Stump The Geeks,

The answer to the last question in today's article ... was partially correct, that Windows XP Service Pack 3 was indeed installed. But there are two indicators in the body of the question that point to a very basic solution to the underlying BIOS problem. A person admitting to using a dial-up connection implies a Mennonite type mindset to use a contraption far beyond its intended life cycle. Most of us, in our throw-away society, never enjoy what this resourceful miser has just experienced — a dead battery.

The clues to the problem are the repeated BIOS errors and 12:00 a.m. clock time upon start up. The main board battery can last beyond five years before giving up without warning or a sensible diagnostic error code such as "Battery Dead, Replace To Continue." Merely coincidence that a laborious download occurred at the same time a voltage back up gave up the last of its three volts.

So advising the questioner (who might currently be in the futile effort of updating the BIOS, which if done improperly or with the wrong load, can permanently corrupt the poor unsuspecting chip) to replace the silvery thin disk contained within a black plastic holder somewhere towards the left rear of the main board with a CR2025 battery found at most department stores as soon as possible would be the best option.

How do I know? I have no particular computer skills to note and am often software challenged. But I am one of those Mennonites who has difficulty in containing my glee and adrenaline release when I happen upon a residence with an unwanted computer on temporary display before the sanitation technician crew rolls by.

Regards,

Clifton Dudley

(Think you can stump the geeks? Send your high-tech question to stumpthegeeks@newsobserver.com. Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Individual replies are not given.)

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