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For a lot of amateur computer users switching to Gmail, figuring out how to get the emails to show up in Outlook or Thunderbird can be a pain in the butt. Luckily, Google has a Help Center, where it takes forever to find what you’re looking for. Or at least, that was the case for me.

In the mess that is the Google Help center, I found this really helpful video that goes through the steps of configuring POP for your Gmail account, and then configuring Outlook 2003. You can view the video here, or if you you just want to read through the steps in plain text, I’ve included them below.

Here are the steps for configuring POP:

1. Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page.
3. Click Forwarding and POP.
4. Select Enable POP for all mail or Enable POP for mail that arrives from now on.
5. Choose the action you’d like your Gmail messages to take after they are accessed with POP.

Here are the steps for configuring Outlook 2003:

1. Open Outlook.
2. Click the Tools menu, and select E-mail Accounts…
3. Click Add a new e-mail account, and click Next.
4. Choose POP3 as your server type by clicking the radio button, and click Next.
5. Fill in all necessary fields to include the following information:
6. User Information
   Your Name: Enter your name as you would like it to appear in the From: field of outgoing messages.
   Email Address: Enter your full Gmail email address (username@gmail.com) Server Information
   Incoming mail server (POP3): pop.gmail.com
   Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.comLogin Information
   User Name: Enter your Gmail username (including @gmail.com)
   Password: Enter your Gmail password
7. Click More Settings… and then click the Outgoing Server tab.
8. Check the box next to My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication and select Use same settings as my incoming mail server.
9. Click the Advanced tab, and check the box next to This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) under Incoming Server (POP3).
10. Check the box next to This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) under Outgoing Server (SMTP), and enter 465 in the Outgoing server (SMTP) box.
11. Click OK.
12. Click Test Account Settings… After receiving Congratulations! All tests completed successfully, click Close.
13. Click Next, and then click Finish.
14. Also, make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft, so you will avoid some stupid errors that their programs have.

That seems like a little too much work just to read Gmail emails on your desktop, but “ya gotta do what ya gotta do.”

Everyone is always looking for some way to get free music, yet some people don’t want to break any laws while doing that. Well, I used to think getting free music legally was simply impossible. But I guess as Adidas says “Impossible is nothing.”

Purevolume is a promotional website for music artists to post their music for people to listen to. About 80%-85% is only available to listen to through the flash music player. The other 15%-20% of the music is available to both listen to in the flash music player, and download. Most artists have one to three tracks that you can download. One example of such an artist is My Favorite Highway, they currently have three tracks available for download out of a total of ten tracks.

Purevolume isn’t, just a place to download music from your favorite artists. You can also use this website to discover new artists using the top charts or by browsing the site’s index of artists. If you love music, then you should definitely be visiting Purevolume everyday.

There are many web applications out there. Some are great, and some… well, not so much. It can be hard fishing through them all to find the best web apps. This list should help you find quality web apps that won’t let you down.

The first web application I will discuss is Gmail. Yeah, it’s an “Email service” but I’m talking about the web interface that you can use to check you Email account. It is very clean and simple, and you can use labels in it, just like Google Reader, which I will point out later. A major plus about Gmail is that you can customize almost any aspect of it with Greasemonkey. I use the Super Clean Skin to make my Gmail look white, clean, and more professional than the default skin. There are also many other tweaks you can do to Gmail through Greasemonkey, just look at this page.

The next web app on the list is Google Reader. One of the coolest features of Google Reader as compared to other feed readers is that you can view you reading trends and subscription trends. You can also star items. I use that feature to tell me which posts of the blogs I have commented on. There are also a couple options of views you can have. Overall, it is a solid reader, which I like because the interface is very similar to Gmail. I work better in more comfortable interfaces, but that is just my personal preference.

Next on the list is Zoho Writer. Yet again, you can see that I have chosen a web app with a clean, professional look to it. This is also has most of the basic features that Microsoft Word has. There are a few differences, though. First off, Zoho Writer is free. Second, you can export into seven formats including .doc and .odt. You can also “go offline” with it, using Google Gears. Lastly, you care share and publish the creations you make with Zoho Writer online and they can be viewed anywhere with the new Utility, Zoho Viewer.

Number four is Meebo. Meebo is like Pidgin inside a browser. You can connect to all the major chat protocols, including AIM, MSN, Jabber, and ICQ. It works great, and removes the need to download and install an IM client on to your computer.

Plaxo’s HipCal is simply the best Calendar/To Do web app available. The scheduling interface sort of reminds me of Outlook, so it has a very familiar interface. You can import and export CSV contacts, join and schedule group events, and for you Mac users, you can even integrate with iCal.

While HipCal is well suited for professionals, Notely works perfect for students. Being a high school student, I find that Notely, with its simple interface, is much better than using an old fashioned student planner and still better than other calendar and to do apps, because of its ability to handle school specific things. Using Notely, I keep track of all my courses, organize my notes, manage my homework, collaborate on projects with my friends through the Facebook app, and manage my school schedule. Notely really is the dream web application for students who love to use the computer.

If your favorite web app isn’t included here, by all means tell me about it in a comment and I might include it here. I will be extending this list in time, as I find more, and your suggestions are welcome and encouraged.

The Facebook Toolbar is a must have for any Firefox user who also uses Facebook. With this toolbar you can easily search Facebook, access you profile, get Facebook notifications, share any page you are on through Facebook, and much more. My favorite feature has got to be the notifications. They pop up for about 5 seconds and allow me to click them and they take me to the place where I decide what to do about them. If I don’t click them, they just slide away. Pretty nifty, eh? Which feature of the toolbar is your favorite. While your checking out the toolbar, you can add me on Facebook, and give me one of those cool pop up notifications that I love.

PicLens allows you to view pictures full screen inside of Firefox. It supports picutres from Flickr, Facebook, Google Images, Yahoo Images, and more. It also allows you to play a slideshow of search result images. Overall I think it’s pretty nifty. The only drawback I see is that it’s for Windows XP or Vista only. So it shows no love for Ubuntu :(. Oh well, this is a treat for you Windows users, then.