There are several benefits to having your own domain email address. The main reason for anyone who uses the web to sell services or any kind of product is simple: it looks more professional. And yet many freelancers and business owners still use free email providers as their main contact details, even if they have their own website. These can range from the businesslike (yourname@gmail.com) to the downright ridiculous (hotchick05@hotmail.com.) Your email address can say more about you than you might imagine, just like your real-world address. It affects how people see you, your business, and the level of quality that they can expect from your work or product. If you were selling something face to face, you wouldn't admit to a potential client that you were homeless unless you were selling empties. But having a free email account is the online equivalent of homelessness.

There are a plethora of free email providers, but the King is Gmail. With available storage that is far beyond anything that the vast majority of users could ever need, (this is also the reason that they can offer this amount of storage - most people won't use it) a free Gmail account comes with over 7 GB (and climbing) of space. The service is reliable and highly functional, and Google Labs provide increasing extensions. Gmail's praises have been sung at length elsewhere.

So it would seem that a second-level domain owner is stuck with two choices: either forfeit the massive functionality of Gmail in favour of the increased professionalism of a personal domain email address, or use Gmail and be technologically homeless. Every domain you can buy comes with email addresses, but these are generally only accessible via POP, or a clunky, buggy, non-intuitive webmail interface. This is fine if you aren't really looking to get the most out of your email, but with any kind of volume this can start to seriously affect your productivity.

Fortunately, there is a third option that combines the best of both worlds: Google Apps For Your Domain. It takes a small level of savvy to set up, but is easily do-able if you can follow instructions. Not only does this mean you have all the functionality of Gmail with the benefit of a yourdomain address, but it also allows you to use a couple of Google's other most helpful apps: Calendar and Docs. You can also set up Sites, although for anyone who has their own domain and hosting this isn't likely to be a priority. NB: Setting this up does not mean that Google will become your webhost, just your email provider. Here's how to set it up:

1. Go to the Google Apps - Compare Editions page. Click Get Started under the Standard Edition (there is also a Premier edition with more space etc which costs a fee.
2. Select Administrator and enter your domain name. Click Get Started.
3. Enter your information. Click Continue
4. Enter your desired email address (username) and a password. Click I Accept.
5. Click Verify domain ownership.
6. You have a choice of two ways you can verify that you own the domain in question. By far the easiest is the html file method. Select this from the dropdown. Create a HTML file in your favourite text editor called googlehostedservice.html and copy the text specified into it. Save the file and upload it to your root html directory. Click Verify. You are returned to the Dashboard and a message says that it may tale up to 48 hours to complete. Chances are that it will actually happen almost instantaneously.
7. You're nearly there. The last part is the hardest. You need to alter the MX records in your domain name control panel. Sign into your domain control panel and go to the MX record page. This could be in DNS management, Mail Server configuration or Name Server management. (The Google Apps Help page gives specific instructions for different Web Hosts if you need them.) Change the mail server listed to aspmx.l.google.com and save your changes. Set any TTL values to 1 hour (3600). The help page also lists other mail servers you should use if you can assign priorities. Save your settings.
   
8. Go to the Google Apps Dashboard and click Activate email. Scroll to the bottom of the next page and click 'I have completed these steps'.
9. You're done! It might take a while for the changes you've made to filter through, but most likely it will work instantaneously. You can go to http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com to access your email.
10. You can set up further email accounts, customise settings, and brand the email service that you and your users see in the Dashboard.

So that's it. It isn't a long process, but it can be a confusing one. It's well worth it though. Of course, you can still access your email with your client of choice on your computer using the regular gmail settings for pop or imap, but simply using your email address (you@yourdomain.com) as the user name. If you're feeling particularly bothered, you can also change settings so that mail.yourdomain.com points to your gmail sign in.

n., pl. -tus·es or hiatus.

1. A gap or interruption in space, time, or continuity; a break: “We are likely to be disconcerted by . . . hiatuses of thought” (Edmund Wilson).
2. Linguistics. A slight pause that occurs when two immediately adjacent vowels in consecutive syllables are pronounced, as in reality and naive.
3. Anatomy. A separation, aperture, fissure, or short passage in an organ or body part.

[Latin hiātus, from past participle of hiāre, to gape.]

Moleskine is a brand of notebook, bound, as wikipedia tells us, not in moleskin but in oilcloth covered cardboard. This is a review of several of the different versions I have owned.

Pocket Ruled Reporter Notebook
(Buy)

The Pocket Reporter Moleskine notebooks are a little difficult to use on the go, paradoxically. By the time you are a few pages in, the loose part of the notebook is heavy enough to make it difficult to hold steady, and the whole thing is a little unwieldy. Unless you happen to have hands the size of small infants. They are best used (I found) on a desk, open like a book, with the spine at 90° to your torso. I would recommend the plain or squared variant for this reason, as the ruled lines go the wrong way to be any good, unless you are illustrating a book about prison windows. The last 24 pages are detachable, which means that this notebook is handy for writing notes to people (which you can give with a certain flourish.) It could be used lined if you held it like a reporter or policeman, but the question of whether to write all the way down two pages as if they were one long page, or to rotate the book 180° for each new page, or possible even to just use the bottom pages... it was too much for me.

Pocket Squared Notebook
(buy)

This is my favourite variant. It is ideal for most Moleskine GTD systems, although some people prefer the greater amount of space afforded by the full-size Moleskines. The Moleskine website, in a fairly typical example of hyperbole and arty-farty verbiage, states that "the large sized notebook provides greater
space for freedom and imagination." Maybe. I prefer the pocket versions for their portability, and because they look cooler. The grid means that you can write either horizontally or otherwise, and it also helps when drawing diagrams or mock-ups. It also makes it easier to work with figures, and especially when using time-ladders or other GTD components.

Pocket Ruled Notebook
(buy)

This variant is best suited to longer prose or notes. It is essentially the same notebook as the squared version, but the paper seems to be a slightly different weight. Or maybe I am losing my mind. There is something nice and classic about the lines, although they do bring to mind the atrociously notional marketing campain Moleskine Srl have foisted on the consumer, that "Hemingway" nonsense. Hemingway used a notebook. Moleskines are notebooks. That's as far as it goes. Chatwin is the only person they can actually tie to Moleskine-using, and let's be honest... Bruce Chatwin? Over-rated. That said, I don't buy the notebooks because Hemingway used them, (or didn't) I buy them because they are bloody good quality.

Sketchbook
(buy)

The paper in the sketchbook is thicker than I expected it would be. It is almost card. The only problem with the sketchbook is that it is such good quality that I'm hesitant to doodle in it. However, I have this problem with all new Moleskines. If I was any good at sketching I would probably appreciate the sketchbook even more.

Memo Pockets
(buy)

I was ordering some other Moleskines on Amazon (which is the best place to buy them in Europe, but still a bit of a bummer: it costs more to ship to the Republic of Ireland than to the UK) and I decided to get one of these just for the craic. As you might expect, it looks and feels like quality. It isn't useless, but it certainly isn't the Moleskine I pull out of my backpack most frequently. At the moment I use it as a sort of extended wallet/survival kit. It will definitely prove its worth if I ever need to re-sew a button whilst getting books out of the Strathclyde University library.

Features

• Accordion back pockets - One of the big selling points, this isn't a handy way to store your pocket accordions, but rather a little pocket inside the back cover. It is very handy if you carry your Moleskines everywhere (sad, but I do.) I keep my debit card and bus tickets and receipts in the pocket of my main Moleskine. As I take it everwhere, it has eliminated the need for a wallet, negating that awful unsightly bulge in the back of my jeans... The problem with the pocket is that if you put too much in it, it can damage the notebook, straining the binding and causing the spine to crack. I realised this too late when it happened to my current main Moleskine (I was over-enthusiastic about discarding my wallet.) I managed to effect an ugly, extremely durable fix with some clear plastic and superglue. This has added some more character to the notebook, like an old man with a wooden leg, or an old man with clear plastic superglued to his head.
• Elasticated strip - Snaps around the notebook to keep it closed.
• Bookmark ribbon - Only on some notebooks. It frays, but who cares?

Implements

I have used a number of different pens and doodads to make marks on and in my Moleskines. I started out using a pen I can't remember the name of. It was OK, but everyone online seems to favour the Pilot G-2, so I started using that, and it really is pretty darn good. I use a Tippex pen to write on the spine of the notebooks to quickly identify them with a one-letter code (I need to do this because I have so many on the go at once.) I use a Pentel 120 mechanical pencil (0.7mm) when sketching, and a Staedtler rasoplast to erase the rubbish drawings I do. I bought a set of coloured Stabilo point 88 mini pens, but they are, frankly, awful. Don't buy them. They bleed like a stuck pig, and they are anything but even when colouring something in. I also use a bit of string with the Reporter notebook because it doesn't have a bookmark ribbon. Finally, Postit plastic index tabs are excellent for marking sections.

This is a brilliant physics/design based game in which you can build and control your own robots, cars, anything really. Literally days could be wasted spent messing around with this.