[Yokohama]

I've upgraded to Office 2008. In the 2004 version, when I booted up Entourage, I could immediately get mail by clicking on the Send/Receive icon. With the new version, I have to wait a full minute before S/R becomes active. Is there a way to manually override the post boot-up wait?

[Chooglin']

Yes, here are the steps:

1. Remove Microsoft Office 2008

2. Sign in or sign up for a Gmail account.

3. Forward all other mail to your Gmail account.

4. Relax and watch email instantly arrive each time you fire up your web browser.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by Yokohama 

I've upgraded to Office 2008. In the 2004 version, when I booted up Entourage, I could immediately get mail by clicking on the Send/Receive icon. With the new version, I have to wait a full minute before S/R becomes active. Is there a way to manually override the post boot-up wait?

Office 2008 can be slower than 2004 in many respects, depending on your Mac's hardware and RAM.

I suggest compacting and rebuilding your Entourage database. That could make the initial startup more responsive and perhaps cut the wait time. Hold down the option key when you start Entourage to get the compact and rebuild database options.

Another suggestion -- just keep Entourage open. If you have enough RAM, you don't need to quit the application each time you're done with it.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chooglin' 

Yes, here are the steps:

1. Remove Microsoft Office 2008

2. Sign in or sign up for a Gmail account.

3. Forward all other mail to your Gmail account.

4. Relax and watch email instantly arrive each time you fire up your web browser.

5. Enjoy your email being data mined.

[Chooglin']

besson: Paranoid much?

Google has better things to do than read your email.

[besson3c]

It's not paranoid, it's factually true. Google data mines all GMail email, period. Do you think that they provide email services and invest millions of dollars in this infrastructure out of the goodness of their heart?

[ghporter]

While Google even points out that they mine your data in their terms of service, they aggregate the data and sell it to advertisers, rather than keeping any personal data on individuals. There's no profit in individual data anyway, but collecting huge amounts of data gives them something advertisers want: large trends.

[Yokohama]

Cold Warrior, your suggestion worked well. Much appreciated. I should have mentioned that the problem also happened when waking the Mac from Sleep, so quite a few times each day, which was tiresome.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

While Google even points out that they mine your data in their terms of service, they aggregate the data and sell it to advertisers, rather than keeping any personal data on individuals. There's no profit in individual data anyway, but collecting huge amounts of data gives them something advertisers want: large trends.

True!

Still, while the data is sold to analyze trends, one has to be careful about what data is exposed this way, legally speaking. Even if the data is not private in nature such as a social security number or whatever (and it's far from a given that there is no strictly confidential information that is in Google's possession thanks to naive and/or uninformed users), there is still the issue of ownership. If I provide you with private or personal information and I'm specifically told that it will be kept confidential, it is not yours to sell (directly or indirectly).

I'm paraphrasing my understanding of the law and am probably quite inaccurate in all of this, but I do know for instance, and I'm sure you can back this up Glenn since I believe you've worked in the medical profession, making medical records available without full consent of the patient is a legal no-no. These laws are very clear, but however formal or informal similar laws that cover other sorts of data in other professional areas might be, it is still our responsibility to be aware of them.

My philosophy is that if you have *any* sort of doubt or simply don't want to take this sort of risk, erring on the side of caution is a good thing. I'm bothered by the naive notions of many that GMail is this sort of benevolent magical free service that provides us with email service no strings attached, there is nothing to be concerned over, and any sorts of concerns are paranoid.

[Chooglin']

I can only offer this: email is inherently insecure. Smart people understand not to put sensitive or confidential information in email no matter what email client they are using.

[besson3c]

You'd be surprised how many smart people would contradict what you are saying in their actions. Really.

[Chooglin']

Well you contradict your own argument. There's no such thing as email privacy no matter which server is used, Google's or yours. If people are transmitting social security numbers, medical records, etc. through email of any kind, they are taking an enormous risk of having someone easily "owning" that information by intercepting it. Simply put, confidential information does not belong in email, period.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Chooglin' 

Well you contradict your own argument. There's no such thing as email privacy no matter which server is used, Google's or yours. If people are transmitting social security numbers, medical records, etc. through email of any kind, they are taking an enormous risk of having someone easily "owning" that information by intercepting it. Simply put, confidential information does not belong in email, period.

There is no data mining going on with non-free email services, unless it says so in the user agreement.

[besson3c]

The non-free providers also need explicit permission from the owner of the data (i.e. you) to even look at your mailbox, it is illegal to examine mailboxes otherwise. Google can do whatever they want with your mail, you have no control over it, it is not your legal property.

[ghporter]

You GIVE Google explicit permission to look at your mailbox by agreeing to the terms of service in their agreement. No agreement, no data mining, but then you also don't get their "free" service. It's as simple as that. Instead of giving Google money to provide email services for you, you allow them to look at your data and aggregate it with thousands of other people's data. TANSTAAFL.