Part One
What information about a user’s email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
When viewing my email through Microsoft Outlook or Windows Hotmail, the initial deatails made available to me is the name of the person/organisation, subject and time/date of recieving the email. From this quick glance, I can determine if I know who the sender is, what they have sent me based off the subject line and when I was sent the email. Once I choose to open the email, I am then presented with further information, such as the main body of the text and often a signature. This signature will often state who and where the email was sent from. By looking at the actual email address as well, if it contains a domain of an Autralian business or ISP, I can tell it was sent from within the country or state.
In what cases would you find it useful to use the ‘cc’, ‘bcc’ and ‘reply all functions of email?
The ‘cc’ function of email is great when records are needed of emails being sent. For instance, in my line of work, if I am emailing an important client, I can ‘cc’ my boss a copy of the email. This shows productivity on my end, as well as the client seeing the boss has been informed of my communications. There are many other pratical applications for this. ‘bcc’ is handy if you want to present yourself in a private email discussion or communication, but relevant people also need to be notified of it’s content privately or the reciepient unecessarily needs to be aware of anyone else reading it. ‘Reply all’ is convieient if after a group email has been recieved, you would like to reply and have all other reciepeints aware of your response.
In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
Depending on the attachement, there are various way to ensure attachments can be opened on the recieving end. With text based attachments, saving in RTF (rich text format) will ensure reading compatability on most machines. Picture’s are often distributed as .bmp and .jpg/.jpeg which are common file types, especially on the WEB. Another format is known as Printable Document Format (PDF). Produced by Adobe, PDF is a file format that can uniformally be opened on most systems with the correct software Adobe Reader (freely available for download). Many use this format for attachements while inlcuding a link to the software’s download page in email signatures. This allows high resolution and quality documents to be easily attached to emails for ease of reading on most machines.
What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I have various email accounts, with two major one’s managed with filters. At work, I have filter’s set up to seperate email’s from individual people in my office. Some are sales reps and some are in administration, which helps to have these seprated to make browsing and searching content esier. With my personal account, I have filters for Uni contacts, social netwroking sites (FACEBOOK in particular which slams my account with emails, nice to have them all go to one folder).
How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
With my work account, I have folders for emails from various other staff members, various material (such as advertising proofs, editorial requests, media releases etc…) This makes my job much easier at finding material that I may need to complete my daily duties. Some of these are filted and some are self managed, depending on the level of intricasy.
Part Two
Lists
What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Lists:
Pros: Topics are well modertated to stay on topic.
There are many different topics to subscribe and interact with through many list services.
Your message will be viewable by all subscribers to the topic to comment and build upon.
Cons: As it is email based (posts/messages are made by email), there will not always be an instant answer.
Some groups moderate all emails before poting, if there is a back log, your post may not be submitted for some time.
Discussion Boards:
Pros: Is often web based with User/Password login, allowing for access at most terminals.
Posts are instantly uploaded onto the discussion board.
Cons: Moderation occurs after posting, so off topic posts can be seen before removed.
Usually centralised on one server, if it crashes, the whole thing goes offline.
Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?
This is a given yes. There will always be a more sutiable means of communication in any circumstance. Email is great for having stored eveidence of a discussion, lists and forums are great for leisurely discussing a common topic etc… Email is not great for instant response communications and forums/lists are not suited for official communications as not everyone may see the post etc…
Part Three- Newsgroups (TBC)
Part Four
Chat
Using mIRC
I used to love mIRC as a young teenager but somewhere lost all interest in it. This task was a good excude for me to revisit the system. The current version looks fresh but is very familiar to the older versions I was using around 2000-2002. mIRC uses a system where the user must know how to use server commands in able to utilise the client efficiently. For instance, joining AUSTNET can be done by choosing from a list, however, more knowledgable users will know that typing ‘/server au.austnet.org’ into the main console will join you to the AUSTNET server. The user is then presented a list of rooms to join (called channels). This can also be accomplished by typing ‘/join #[channel name]‘ into the main console.
I used this techneque to join Austnet, and proceded to join the Perth channel. My actions were:
/server au.austnet.org
/join #perth
This is where trouble appeared, stating I needed to have a registered Nick to join. I was then presented some instructions how to register my nickname.
/NickOP REGISTER <choose a password> <email address>
This automatically registers the current nickname i have chosen and sets my status to ‘+r’.
I then need to identify myself each time I log in by using.
/IDENTIFY <password>
Only works if using current nickname
Then I was able to join the rooms I wanted and chat away! (and feel 13 again hehe)
