Living in the Canadian Arctic is tough for many reasons, one of which is the slow-as-molasses internet connection. Every computer-user is used to watching in agony as screens fail to load. The little green bars in the bottom-right hand side of the screen can be our worst enemies and many a temper has been lost frantically clicking the "refresh" button, in hopes that a faster connection will have magically appeared in the last two seconds. More often that not, frustration results as information disappears, especially when that information is in a personal or professional email. Dealing with the dial-up has helped me grow to love Gmail's Basic HTML option. Why wait forever for the little "Loading .." sign to not come through on its promise? Instead, choose to go back to the basics, and enjoy your email much faster. Sure, you don't get all the fancy add-ons to Gmail (which are super-sweet, by the way! New colors for my labels? You know I love it). But, when you are in a pinch, and you need to know if there's a little (1) waiting in your inbox, the Basic version does just fine.
Andrew Stuhl, Volunteer Teacher
Inuvik, Canada
Labels: mail on the go