I've just been pondering about times when I may have received or sent an attachment that won't open. The only ones I can think of are the .docx files that word 2007 create. I've submitted assignments in a course I did last year that the teacher couldn't open due to this.
Apart from Microsoft's usual lack of conforming to a standard, I don't think I've had a problem for years. There is sort of a unwritten understanding at my company that we only send a file that we know will work such as a PDF, DOC, JPEG, etc. Our computer network uses office 2003 at the moment so we don't have the .docx problem. But soon we will be upgrading to the latest version of Office, so I'm sure we'll have an issue when people start saving press releases and the like with Office 2007's default save to docx.
The problem is these press releases go out to a lot of external parties who may not have word 2007, so I could imagine this will be a major problem. PDF is usually not applicable in this case because the press releases often need to be edited for local purposes.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A Nice Surprise
Just looked at my Calendar and remembered that each module is split into 2 weeks. Coming into Christmas I was worried I would be partying too hard in my holidays and getting behind... not now! I can enjoy Christmas in Hobart knowing that I'm safely ahead into Module 3 tasks!Although I won't forget the discussion boards!
Merry Christmas!!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Module 2 - Chat
Well... I was about to install ICQ until Jamie from NET11 added me to MSN. I started talking with him and he told me he had already installed ICQ, and that it had installed some extra software onto his computer as well as changing his homepage. There is nothing that pisses me off more than software that tries to install the google/yahoo toolbar, or try and change my home page, etc. Because of this I didn't even bother.
I'm happy with MSN. Once I install it and remove all the options like news popups, video carousel and other little annoying features it's great. Plus the fact that most people I know use MSN.
I have dabbled in others such as Adium which pretty cool. But at the end of the day they all do the same fundamental thing which is communicate and that's all I'm interested in at the present time :-D
I'm happy with MSN. Once I install it and remove all the options like news popups, video carousel and other little annoying features it's great. Plus the fact that most people I know use MSN.
I have dabbled in others such as Adium which pretty cool. But at the end of the day they all do the same fundamental thing which is communicate and that's all I'm interested in at the present time :-D
Module 2 - Lists
I use an emailing list at work, though it is an 'announcement list'. We have a database of users who sign up because they are interested in the bands on our label. Every few weeks I send an email out with the latest news on our bands and products which people can only receive and not reply to. We plan to extend the capabilities of our list further by determining whats bands or styles of music people like by observing what bands they are looking at on our website while they are logged in. This way we can target our audience more effectively.
Discussion lists don't appeal to me. I'm not exactly sure why, but I get a sense of 'email claustrophobia'. Having so many emails on my screen makes me feel like my inbox is a mess and the continuous new emails makes me feel like I have to keep up. Arrgghhh....
I'll always appreciate discussion boards more. If I want to check out or be apart of a discussion I'd rather go there in my own time and do it. Not have it constantly distract me in my inbox.
My use of email lists are to send announcements to the users in my database. The whole reason they signed up was to get this information directly in their inbox periodically, rather than having to check a discussion board for updates. I think that is the major difference. Discussion boards for people who prefer to seek out their own information, and emailing lists for people who like to have that information delivered to them.
Discussion lists don't appeal to me. I'm not exactly sure why, but I get a sense of 'email claustrophobia'. Having so many emails on my screen makes me feel like my inbox is a mess and the continuous new emails makes me feel like I have to keep up. Arrgghhh....
I'll always appreciate discussion boards more. If I want to check out or be apart of a discussion I'd rather go there in my own time and do it. Not have it constantly distract me in my inbox.
My use of email lists are to send announcements to the users in my database. The whole reason they signed up was to get this information directly in their inbox periodically, rather than having to check a discussion board for updates. I think that is the major difference. Discussion boards for people who prefer to seek out their own information, and emailing lists for people who like to have that information delivered to them.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Module 2 - Email Tasks
1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?
From looking in Outlook I've discovered that you can find the path an email has taken to get to you from right clicking on a message and selecting message options. These are in the form of headers. Some emails that are from outside our office network have 3 or 4 servers, others 1 or 2 and emails that are delivered interoffice have no headers at all.
2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
I use 'CC' to copy people in on emails who aren't directly involved with the conversation but who can be openly apart of it. This would include my department manager who might want to stay informed during any business between myself acting on the companies behalf and a 3rd party.
'BCC' I never use, but I would if I wanted to keep somebody aware of a conversation but I don't want it known.
'Reply All' is used to keep a group conversation going. I find it very annoying though when you write your reply and realise you only pressed 'reply'!
3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
The only attachments I generally send are PDF's, JPEG's and word documents. Anything else I either compress them in ZIP files or use online file services such as YouSendIt. I've never had a problem with people not receiving my attachments properly. If it was an issue I'd use the popular MIME encoding and make sure that any document file types I send can be commonly opened in all version of the required program.
4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I use a few rules in Outlook 2007 to send certain messages to their own folder. For instance I get website updates sent to me daily from our international office. I like to keep them altogether in one folder as I can find them in one place to make sure that I've gone through them. There's also a daily newsletter that I subscribe to that I get sent to it's own folder. I'm a bit of a neat freak so I want to go through my emails more and work out if I can use extra rules for the purpose of keeping my inbox organised.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
As I explained before I organise it with a few rules but do plan to reorganise it a bit more. Who else hates a messy inbox? I DO!!!!
From looking in Outlook I've discovered that you can find the path an email has taken to get to you from right clicking on a message and selecting message options. These are in the form of headers. Some emails that are from outside our office network have 3 or 4 servers, others 1 or 2 and emails that are delivered interoffice have no headers at all.
2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?
I use 'CC' to copy people in on emails who aren't directly involved with the conversation but who can be openly apart of it. This would include my department manager who might want to stay informed during any business between myself acting on the companies behalf and a 3rd party.
'BCC' I never use, but I would if I wanted to keep somebody aware of a conversation but I don't want it known.
'Reply All' is used to keep a group conversation going. I find it very annoying though when you write your reply and realise you only pressed 'reply'!
3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
The only attachments I generally send are PDF's, JPEG's and word documents. Anything else I either compress them in ZIP files or use online file services such as YouSendIt. I've never had a problem with people not receiving my attachments properly. If it was an issue I'd use the popular MIME encoding and make sure that any document file types I send can be commonly opened in all version of the required program.
4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I use a few rules in Outlook 2007 to send certain messages to their own folder. For instance I get website updates sent to me daily from our international office. I like to keep them altogether in one folder as I can find them in one place to make sure that I've gone through them. There's also a daily newsletter that I subscribe to that I get sent to it's own folder. I'm a bit of a neat freak so I want to go through my emails more and work out if I can use extra rules for the purpose of keeping my inbox organised.
5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
As I explained before I organise it with a few rules but do plan to reorganise it a bit more. Who else hates a messy inbox? I DO!!!!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Module 1 - Internet Tools
I thought that this excersise was interesting. I've always known that routers were used to shift data around the Internet, but never really had it put into perspective until seeing this site. It took 21 hops to contact the curtin server and the average time was about 2sec. It had three time outs and from further investigation this means that the packets were having some kind of problem getting to the target system and/or back.When using my mac terminal to traceroute the curtin.edu.au server I had the same problem with timeouts but this time they never ended. It also seemed to
get three extra servers after the gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au server. Could this be because of my ISP?
The IP address of curtin.edu.au is 134.7.179.53 and as you can see on the mac traceroute, it never even reaches this server.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Module 1 - FTP
Apparently CAPITALIZATION MATTERS with the Unix platform!
I've been using FTP for about a year now, as I'm a webmaster. I'm pretty used to it now so I don't really have all that 'new experience' stuff to write here.
One thing about FTP though that really (well sort of) bugs me is that if you want to check out a file such as a JPEG, you have to download it to your computer. This is the case for FILEZILLA which is one of the only FTP programs I've ever used. I guess if it bugged me enough I'd try and find a program that allowed viewing images, but as FILEZILLA is a popular program I think it'd be nice if it had the option to do this.
I've been using FTP for about a year now, as I'm a webmaster. I'm pretty used to it now so I don't really have all that 'new experience' stuff to write here.
One thing about FTP though that really (well sort of) bugs me is that if you want to check out a file such as a JPEG, you have to download it to your computer. This is the case for FILEZILLA which is one of the only FTP programs I've ever used. I guess if it bugged me enough I'd try and find a program that allowed viewing images, but as FILEZILLA is a popular program I think it'd be nice if it had the option to do this.
Module 1 - Telnet - Task B
My first impression of blinkinlights was OMFG who the hell has the time to sit there and replicate a whole Star Wars movie in Telnet. Well I think it was the whole movie. I didn't actually watch it all.
I was amused by this Telnet movie masterpiece, but it just made the whole platform seem even more geekier to me. I don't have much knowledge of the history of telnet, but I can totally understand that something like this Star Wars movie would have been significant back in the days before graphics, video and sound were available on the Internet.
I was amused by this Telnet movie masterpiece, but it just made the whole platform seem even more geekier to me. I don't have much knowledge of the history of telnet, but I can totally understand that something like this Star Wars movie would have been significant back in the days before graphics, video and sound were available on the Internet.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Module 1 - Telnet - Task A
The main thing I thought when using Telnet was that it seemed quite easy to navigate. The critical information needed to make my way through the Deakin library site are the only things available to look at. If this was a web based site then maybe I would have been bombarded with images and other non-relevant or not so important information.
The other thing I liked was the speed! Very quick to log-in, navigate the menu and search for the books by Bennahum.
It's also the first time I've used telnet. I would consider using Telnet for instances where I want to search for things quickly, such as a library book.
The other thing I liked was the speed! Very quick to log-in, navigate the menu and search for the books by Bennahum.
It's also the first time I've used telnet. I would consider using Telnet for instances where I want to search for things quickly, such as a library book.
Top 5 Tips for New Bloggers
- Be informal. Even though these blogs are for a subject, we get enough of the informal stuff in the discussion boards
- Learn about blog ettique
- If you edit your blog layout, make it so your text is still easy to read. I stopped using MySpace because I was sick of going to poorly crafted profile pages... may the animated background image R.I.P
- Please leave comments
- I am totally out of tips so I guess I'm going to go all cliche on you and say just have fun.
The Beginnig
This blog is the beginning of my log for the Curtin University subject NET11. I never thought that I would start a blog, and now here I am!
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