As far as my e-mail is concerned, the "Delete" key is a last resort - at least when it comes to messages with friends, family, colleagues or business transactions. Of course, the junk messages are incinerated, but my tendency is to hold onto e-mail forever, and I've taken great steps to ensure my e-mail archive stays intact, even as I change e-mail addresses, upgrade computers or migrate from one e-mail program to another. All told, I am fairly confident that more than 90 percent of my e-mail with known contacts since 1996 has been retained in an easily-accessible, searchable database on my laptop, and is backed up daily online through Apple's .Mac Backup service.

For me, it's not just the ease of finding data or people when needed, but there is something both funny and embarrassing about dredging up messages I sent years ago to people I haven't spoken to in years, now seeing the event in 20/20 hindsight, or simply noticing the way I have adapted my writing style from then until now. As time passes by, people do change, yet I have point-in-time snapshots of myself, friends, family and colleagues that will not be changed or edited for history. With the right keyword searches, I can cringe at my struggles with finances in college, wince at attempts to gain somebody's attention, or root myself on as I look back at challenges and changes in their infancy. I can also run a quick search to remind somebody of what they've said or use an old conversation to make a point.

What I have, using Apple Mail and the Mac's built-in Spotlight functionality, combined with a pack-rat like attention to e-mail storage, is what Google is hoping the world will move to with its integration of GMail and Google Desktop. You should never have to delete an e-mail, and you should be able to find any message with a well-defined search and parameters. While this is the future for some, for me, we're already there, and in case you were curious, the few times I need the data, its interesting, but not revolutionary. Fully 90% of all my archived e-mail will never be seen again. The good news is that it doesn't take up any physical space - only theoretical bytes from a hard drive with plenty of headroom.

Listening to ''Tribe & Trance (Voyager Remix)'', by John Digweed (Play Count: 5)

I'm unapologetic in my dislike for almost all things Microsoft (MSFT). With the exception of their Webmail version of Outlook, I am generally unimpressed with their product line - from their Operating System to their office suite, Web browser, E-mail clients, online communities and whatever else they choose to cook up. I don't know when my dislike for Microsoft started, or if I was raised to think this way by a horde of Apple (AAPL) bigots, but in my decades of impressionability, the software behemoth/monopolist hasn't done much to make me change my mind, and their leadership doesn't exactly inspire good will and warm feelings.

It's easy to think all these things as universal - and ignore the fact that the global company employs thousands of intelligent, hard-working individuals who truthfully want their products to be top-notch and care about the consumer (or most do anyway). Of late, I've enjoyed reading the unsupported, non-sponsored "Mini-Microsoft" blog, which has become a sounding board for the company's employees on recent management trends, memos and news. In the site's most recent post, titled "Passionate Microsofties", the anonymous author shows that the company's army of coders and marketers cares about the company - the way we've always expected Apple and Google (GOOG) (among others) to have their own monopoly. Instead, we get a clear view into the struggles and triumphs and wishes that are true in any corporation - small or immense. People want to be proud of what they do and be recognized for it. It's that simple.

Listening to ''Europop'', by Eiffel 65 (Play Count: 27)

Tonight, the official Google blog was temporarily off-line, and while many speculated that the site had been hacked into, it turns out, according to the Blogger Product Manager, that the official blog had accidentally been deleted. "D'oh!" was the official quote given. Now... let's give this a second of thought. These are the guys with the biggest search archive on the planet, the company with the largest available online e-mail boxes, and they seek to store 100% of all the world's information on Google GDrives with your local desktop becoming the backup or cache instead of the main storage option? I should let that sink in... I'm supposed to give all of my data to a company who "D'oh!"... accidentally deletes their own blog? That's not reassuring.

Listening to ''H.H.C. - We're Not Alone'', by Paul Oakenfold (Play Count: 4)

On March 7th, we started tracking how well our own individual investments were producing, in comparison to those selected by a "professional" running our 401k, through Fidelity. What we've seen is that while my peaks have been higher than those of the fund, the valleys are of course, lower, and with the 401k slowly trending flat to slightly up, a true measure of my progress vs. the 401k is instead just how many up days I have versus down days. If I'm up, I'm up higher than the 401k, and if I'm down, I'm down more than the 401k. It's that simple. It's rare that I would go one direction and the market another. So... a few weeks into our little unqualified, unsanctioned, nobody wins anything contest, the current standings are eight to seven, with my pulling ahead today at the end of market close. We'll keep watching.

Listening to ''Blue Fear'', by Sasha (Play Count: 7)