Gmail has continued to build Labs with features that would continue to make emailing and reading email faster and better.

I wouldn’t say that I completely trust Gmail because of the blunder of mis-sending an email intended for another person with a legitimate Gmail address into my own Gmail account, but I have to admit that all these newly introduced features like converting Gmail (email) into Google Docs or the ability to view .pdf files without having to download the attached .pdf file, let alone have a .pdf viewer installed on the computer, make Gmailing a better experience than it was when it first launched.

The thing is, after five years or so, Gmail is still in beta and I think that it’s too bad that nobody acknowledged my complaint or perhaps one should say, feedback, about receiving an email that was meant for another. It’s awfully unsettling!

I was surfing the internet looking for the exact legal term to use in an official document when coincidentally, I came to know of RealDealDocsâ„¢ which has a website that stores Legal Documents and other professional letters and text that would provide us a fine example in the drafting of our documents.

Although we are able to browse and search the website for free, to use any of these documents, we are required to subscribe to a monthly, quarterly or yearly membership. Membership offers unlimited access to these documents so we just have to determine how long we need to have access to these documents. Of course, if we need to refer to legal terms and clauses all the time, a yearly unlimited access to these documents at $37 per month, saving you 45%, is well worth your money.

I don’t know about you but for someone like me who is always in need of legal reference, having all sorts of documents at my fingertips helps me greatly in streamlining my research work and saving my precious time. That’s why I find it most convenient to have a website to head to when there is a need for me to refer to certain agreements from different countries. That’s what I like about it.

Microsoft will be issuing an emergency security patch for all versions of Internet Explorer and a little later, for IE 8, which is still in beta.

My friend told me that the only way to be free from such security threats is to never connect to the internet and I am thinking how true this is!

This security threat, which has said to affect over two million computers already, exploits a security flaw in Internet Explorer and allows hackers to steal log in IDs and password from victims’ computers. At this point, it is said that most of these data stolen are of gaming sites which are then sold in the black market.

However, with more than 10,000 phishing sites already on the web, it is feared that other more personal log in IDs and passwords, particular for financial and banking sites, are compromised as well.

Some people say that IE users should use an alternative browser first before a security patch is released. Microsoft says that this patch will be released Wednesday but I think that if you have set your Windows to update automatically, then I guess you don’t have to check Microsoft download center.

That’s why it’s so important to use only original software, no matter what it is. But I so wish that as a chronic internet user, I don’t have to worry about these security threats all the time!

If you are familiar with Google Docs, you may already be viewing your .pdf files in your web browser. Well, with the same principle, Gmail has now provided us the ability to view .pdf files that come in via email to our Gmail inbox.

How many times have you wished that you could view a .pdf file without having to download it, particularly if you were using a public computer? Personally, though, I prefer to download all my .pdf files and view them later because opening these files in my browser could cause the browser to freeze or hang, and I can’t have that because I surf the web using multiple tabs and I hate to have to reopen everything should my browser close.

However, if I receive a .pdf file anytime soon, I surely would try it out. I’d love to see if it is buggy or if it would be a smooth view, just like opening a .pdf file with Adobe Reader.

Last month, a blogger friend asked me if I could help him to renew his domain name and he would like to transfer it to me. I said, OK, it’s not a problem. He previously had the domain name registered under a domain reseller, who is also a blogger based in Penang.

So, this domain reseller contacted me and said that my friend, his client, wanted to transfer the domain and he asked me to pay him RMXX. I replied and said that I just wanted to transfer the domain from his name to my name and this should be free but how come there’s this RMXX fee? The guy told me it’s for a year’s domain renewal and a year of hosting.

I replied and said that I don’t want any hosting and why should I pay him the renewal fee when I am going to register it under my name with my regular registrar?

I told my friend about it and my friend called this guy up who agreed to let us transfer it for free. After all, we are not subscribing to any of his services, right?

So I initiated a transfer and as you know, an EPP is required for domain transfers. Soon after, I emailed this reseller and told him to send me the EPP so that I could complete the transfer. That was on 20th November, 2008. I emailed him twice and he did not respond. I told my friend that I am unable to communicate with him in early December. Since that day, my friend has called him on the phone, which again, he agreed to provide the EPP code.

I checked with WhoIs just now and this domain has already expired on 10th December, 2008. WTF is wrong with this guy? Is he doing business or not?

You know, a little while back, when another friend asked me if I know of a cheap host, I gave him the details of this reseller and said that his rates are really cheap and that my friend (the domain owner), has been pretty satisfied with the services. I am so glad that this friend did not host with him and instead, opted to host with another company.

This domain reseller is really shortsighted. While he may not have earned anything this round, even though he has held my friend’s domain name for a few years and did all the renewals and such, which I am sure he made a small profit from, he would be able to gain some business if my friend and I recommend his services to our friend’s right?

Now, with so many problems, who would want to recommend him? Not only would we not recommend him, he’d be lucky we don’t smear his reputation!

If you have many websites or use a server, you may want to know instantly if something is not working right. Many of my friends make a living online and they have more than fifty websites, forums and blogs and some even have dedicated servers.

I have often wondered how they are able to monitor all these sites and know when these are down. As you know, downtime costs money. And let’s not even talk about the money his not earned during downtimes.

This morning, I came across this website monitoring service, SlashDot, and which is free to sign up but charged based on the number of URLs or servers monitored.

By subscribing to this service, you will be able to know instantly when your site(s) or server(s) are down via SMS text message. Each SMS received will cost you EURO1 only.

Another benefit of subscribing to the web monitoring service of SlashDot is that you could set the frequency of monitoring your web properties and pay a flat monthly fee only. I think that for companies and even individuals with a slew of sites, it is well worth the money for this instant information on downtimes so that appropriate action could be taken to reduce downtime.

The other day, I wrote about a worm that affected Facebook users via private messages and link sharing because the nature of social networks and the success of it depend on “trust” among members of a community.

Because these private messages or shared links seem to come from our “friends”, we don’t give it a second thought clicking on them.

Anyway, recently, I have been posting links on my Facebook account via link sharing and private messaging and each time I am required to pass through word verification, or some people call this Captcha.

I hate it because I could never get this right the first, and sometimes second, time and it’s a waste of time to me. However, if Facebook thinks that this is a good deterrent then by all means put it in place. After all, the most important thing is the security of the website and safety of its members.