“Reply-By-Email: Respond to and moderate comments via email.”

The real goal or problem that lead me do IntenseDebate’s door. Not so much the moderation, but responding via e-mail is much desired amongst WordPress.org users, as well it should be as this feature is currently available through the offerings of the WordPress.com platform.

(See Comment Reply Via Email: Open To All)

Thumbs Up

• If you already have a WordPress.com account you are able to authenticate in IntenseDebate without going through the process of creating yet another internet account.
• IntenseDebate is an Automattic joint, as they were acquired by the company to round out their set of social blogging buzz-word integrated offerings. I can only imagine IntenseDebate is one of the reasons Automattic has not added the Comment Reply Via Email option to the WordPress.org platform.

Thumbs Down

• I have been receiving the “Finalizing… almost done” message while syncing my comments for far too long.
• You have to sync your comments? I will further investigate this, but a bloggers comments are and should stay the property of that blog’s database. While the comments claim to be kept in both places, I still find this unnerving.
• The restyling of the comment section and whatever code the plugin is adding to my blog is not kosher and seems to be causing some float or alignment issues out-of-the-box.

More to come.

1. Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground – Kay Kay and his Weathered Underground – February 19, 2008
2. Q-Tip – the Renaissance – November 4, 2008
3. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes – June 3, 2008
4. Mates of State – Re-Arrange Us – May 20, 2008
5. Islands – Arm’s Way – May 20, 2008
6. Al Green – Lay It Down – May 27, 2008
7. 31knots – Worried Well – August 19, 2008
8. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night – September 23, 2008
9. The Mars Volta – Bedlam in Goliath – January 29, 2008
10. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular – January 22, 2008

Honorable Mention

11. Man Man – Rabbit Habits – April 8, 2008
12. Apollo Sunshine – Shall Noise Upon – August 5, 2008
13. Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping – October 21, 2008

More Sources:

Although Pitchfork and I seldom agree, here is what they enjoyed this year: The 50 Best Albums of 2008 according to Pitchfork.
Rolling Stone certainly has the time each year to let you know what they got down to: The 50 Best Albums of 2008 as told by Rolling Stone

What Shook Your Booty In 2008?

I am sure I missed a few albums this year, but I am always interested in what my friends are listening to. Enter your top ten, fifteen, whatever below. And, if you have another source to list, link that as well. Thanks.

Send. Easy Email Encryption. Simple. Powerful. Secure.

“Send.^tm encrypts your email using the same algorithm the NSA has deemed fit for the encryption of TOP SECRET information. The email is then sent on to the recipient(s).”

I will cover the ins and outs of the new service provided by Send^tm (Send Technology, Inc. or STI) but first I want to point out one fact that you might overlook. They trademarked the word “send”. I find that amazing. I have since tried to think of more verbs that would work as grounds for a killer startup/business idea, but haven’t come up with anything as solid as “send”.

Who Trademarked Send?

Send is the brainchild of a great friend of mine, Daniel Stevens. Dan has a knack for entrepreneurial ventures and also founded Punch Code, LLC (with whom I work freelance for occasionally) and MX Force. These are in addition to all the crazy ideas he had growing up like rockndrums.com which was a great outlet for two high school drum line band nerds who were curious about development, design and the new fangled internet. (Those nerds being he and I.) These days Dan does it right and you can read more about the company structure on the “company” page of their site.

How Does Send Work?

The simple interface on the front page is all you need to send and sign up for the service. If the system doesn’t recognize you, it asks you to create an account without any kind of redirection. Once you fill out your email simply check your inbox for the activation code and complete the sign up process. Finally, send your encrypted email just like any other email service. You can include an attachment up to 10MB, which is very reasonable. Send does not store a copy of your message or the attachment, remember its encrypted. The recipient will receive a “.html” file attachment with a link back to Send which will take them through the same signup process if the system does not recognize their email address and finally the goods, the encrypted email message, and any attachments. The html file actually includes the encrypted data. I tested this with a pdf of my print pass for ACL. It worked perfectly and was super fast. AMAZING!

How Can Send Help Me?

Send’s service is really simple and useful, the application interface easy to use and fast (ExtJS), and best of all its free. I run a small freelance business myself and I can think of many times when this will come in handy. I have clients who like to have personal information like SSN or even W9 forms on file. I don’t know about you, but I really feel uneasy about sending these files or information via email and reject fax machines and traditional phone lines, which I leave in the 90′s. This is where Send comes in handy.

Send Is Everything It Claims To Be

Some final notes you may be wondering about, but don’t have the inside scoop (or the time to read the FAQs): Why is this service free? The basic functionality is free, but I hear there are a ton of advanced features planned. This will undoubtedly result in some sort of enterprise services geared at businesses at all levels, small or large. FREE!?!? What are the limits? Well, you can send up to 20 messages a day with 10MB attachments, which I think is more than fair.

What an awesome service. I encourage you to test the service out. Chances are you can benefit from the peace of mind that comes with encrypting some of your email interactions, but if not at least you can see how a well built fast web application functions. If you can think of any more uses for Send or any verbs you would like to trademark and turn into a rock solid business, please comment.

Sna fu – DORIAN from laurent Gillot on Vimeo.

Note: I looked up SNA-FU, the band on wikipedia and found this instead:

SNAFU – Situation Normal: All Fucked Up