The Machets’ Blog

gmail.com - an email service by google

Gmail is one of the best web-based email services that are around today. Gmail is very user friendly and comes with more than 2600mb of storage space. Gmail was made by Google around two years ago, and encourages users to archive their messages instead of deleting them. This is because there is so much space available that you don’t need to get rid of anything.

Gmail, like Hotmail can be used anywhere in the world, and has a relatively good spam filter. Each month, new features are added to the service, but it hasn’t yet finished the standard features column. It is quite new, so I’ll give it a break. Currently, you cannot just go and sign up an account online. You need to be invited to the program because it is in a beta, or being tested, phase. However, you have come to the right place! If you want a Gmail account, simply email us and we’ll invite you. Gmail is a very good web based email service and is worth a look.

Gmail can be found at www.gmail.com. If you would like to register a yourname@gmail.com, simply email us and we’ll send you an invitation shortly.

Update (16/8/06): For those living in Australia or New Zealand, you don’t need an invitation, as you can now sign up from the homepage.
Update (9/2/07): Gmail has opened its doors to the world! Now anyone can sign up for the service, without invitation or phone sign up. I have closed the comments for this post as there is no need to ask for an invitation.

Recently while going through an airport during one of his many trips, President Bush encountered a man with long hair, wearing a white robe, and sandals, holding a staff.

President Bush went up to the man and said, “Aren’t you Moses?” The man never answered but just kept staring straight ahead. Again the President said, “Moses!” in a loud voice. The man just kept staring ahead, never answering the President. Bush pulled a Secret Service agent aside and pointing to the robed man asked him, “Doesn’t that man look like Moses to you?”

The Secret Service agent agreed.

“Well,” said the President, “Every time I say his name he just keeps staring straight ahead and refuses to speak. Watch!” Again the President yelled, “Moses!” and again the man stared ahead and didn’t answer.

The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, “You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?” The man leaned over and whispered back …

“Yes, I am Moses. However, the last time I talked to a bush I spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East where there is no oil.”

intazaar.com.au - send free SMSes from your computer
Intazaar is a new way to send messages to mobile phones from your computer for free. It’s free because the company makes money from the ads on their website. The ads do not appear in any messages, but merely are visible on the side of the website, similar to the ads on machet.com.au. No ads are sent to the recipient, except for a notice that is sent once to each unique person informing them about the service.

There were some apparent problems with the service. If the recipients of a free SMS clicks reply, the message is sent back to the company and not to the sender. The recipient instead needs to create a new message to the sender’s actual mobile number. Another problem that I experienced with Intazaar was signing up. It took a few tries to get it going but after that has been fine. Otherwise, it’s pretty good.

Start sending free SMS messages by visiting www.intazaar.com.au.

A new business was opening, and one of the owner’s friends wanted to send him flowers for the occasion. They arrived at the new business site, and the owner read the card, which said, “Rest in Peace.”

The owner was angry and called the florist to complain.

After he told the florist of the obvious mistake and how angry he was, the florist replied, “Sir, I’m really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry, you should imagine this: Somewhere there is a funeral taking place, and they have flowers with a note saying, ‘Congratulations on your new location.’”

engin.com.au - internet phone company
You may have recently heard of VoIP, or internet telephony. Basically, the technology works using a standard telephone connected to the internet to make phone calls to landlines, mobiles, overseas or anywhere a normal phone works. You can use a cordless or a spare phone with the system and will save a lot of money. Engin is Australia’s leading VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) provider and provides massive savings compared to a conventional phone service. For instance, a call from an Engin phone to a landline anywhere in Australia is 10c flat. No flag fall, per minute charges or the like. A call to a mobile is 29c per minute whereas the same call from a standard Telstra phone is about 50c per minute. Calls to major overseas destinations cost 3.5-4c a minute. Further call rates are advised on Engin’s website.

Engin issues metropolitan subscribers with a telephone number. If two Engin customers call each other, the call is completely free. However, there are some slight drawbacks. You must have a broadband internet connection, a network (at least a router), and must buy a telephone (unless you have a spare) and the Engin Voice Box, which retails at $149. The voice box is a small box that transforms your telephone line to an Ethernet connection (a network cord). It can be purchased at Officeworks or ordered when you sign up online.

Engin has two plans; a $9.95 or $29.95. The latter plan includes either $25 national or local calls OR $25 international calls OR $25 mobile calls, whereas the former just provides the service. Both plans are not contracted, so you cancel them at any time without any financial loss. It is recommended to choose the $29.95 plan as you will save even more.

Visit engin’s website at www.engin.com.au to sign up online. Before signing up, please contact us because we will both get a discount in engin’s refer a friend promotion.

Update: Engin’s prices have recently changed to 27c/min to mobiles. There are two new business plans as well that include up to 400 free calls, and charge from 20c/min to mobiles.

Welcome to the first entry in the Machets’ Blog. This will eventually take over the old website, with links pointing to new additions on machet.com.au. The blog supports RSS Feeds, meaning that you are able to receive new posts in your email box or through a RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader. The simplest way of subscribing to this blog is by going to r-mail.org, typing the link http://www.machet.com.au/blog/feed/ in the RSS field and your email address in the latter field. From then on you will receive each message in your inbox. You can always unsubscribe as there is a link in each email received.