Module 2 - Lists

TASK: Think about the following questions -

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Are there cetain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Wow, I was so overwhelmed!

I had never joined an “email list” prior to this course and decided to join a “truecrime” book group. Please note, that since starting study two years ago I have yet to have time to even finish a novel…but alas, I needed to join something that faintly resembles a glinch of my weird personality – true crime being part of that.

I had no trouble finding the yahoo group site and the process of signing up for a yahoo email account and then submitting an application to join the group was painless yet time consuming.

I was quite excited to consider myself an actual “groupie,” so I ventured into my new email account a few days later to see if my first message was received. Well low and behold not only had my message been received and responded to, I also had 1465 messages nicely listed in my inbox.

After browsing through the first 10 and feeling well and truly “over” the truecrime group I was lucky enough to find (for my sanity) a little box which you tick then hit delete and whaaalllllaaaaa – inbox empty.

My opinion of the email list is:

Pros

1. This form of communication may suit people who have time to check their inbox on a regular basis.
2. It is asynchronous which enables people to receive and post in any time zone.
3. No need to contribute to any discussions.

Cons

1. Depending on how popular the email list is you may find that you are inundated with emails, which becomes monotonous and time consuming.
2. If the list is not contributed to regularly then it can become boring.


I found that after perusing my first 10 emails, besides the actual welcome email I received, they seemed to have gone somewhere south of the “truecrime” topic. I found discussions on “what do I put on my lamb, I don’t like mint,” to a discussion about a lady’s son who is having financial problems.

The act of joining an email list may be a perfect introduction to a discussion board. As with the discussion board that we use in our internet studies I personally have similar pro’s and con’s except of course without the inbox bombardment.

If I had the choice I wouldn’t use either email lists or discussion boards, as I really don’t have the time. With that being said and considering the discussion board for our study requirements, I have found the discussion board with Curtin as being very user friendly and when searching for a specific topic I have been able to locate various opinions and lots of help.

Module 2 - Email tasks

I am not new to the Email world, as i have used it as my main form of communication with family and friends whom I do not see regularly, for many many years. I have a primary email account at home and also a secondary account: dream.haze@hotmail.com. I also have my work email address which we use to communicate in house and also with clients and other businesses. I also have some university email accounts which of course i use primarily for study purposes.

My work email address is used everyday and I have noticed that it is being used more each year by different businesses and also more government departments are using email to communicate with businesses. My work email address has large amounts of data moving in and out regularly and accordingly I have set up files and folders to split received emails into relevant order.

I took the email tutorial which i found interesting and very easy to read. I have addressed the task questions as follows:

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?

I use the email program Incredimail and when an email is received the first thing noticeable is the Senders name, this is made up two parts – the user name and also the domain name. eg. Tracy @ hotmail.com.au - tracey is the username, hotmail is the domain name.

The subject line briefly states what the email is regarding. The date the email is received in my inbox is also shown.

When the email is opened the email may show who the email was sent to as a CC and may also show where the email originated from. For example, curtin.edu.au tells us that it is the curtin university, as the edu stands for education, the au tells us that it is an Australian domain name.

If the email has a paperclip icon, this indicates whether there is an attached document.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of email?

When typing an email or forwarding a received email I may wish to send it to more then one person. To enable me to do this I can send a ‘cc’ copy to someone. For instance, at work I may type a memo which I would like all staff members to read; I would type the managers name in the To: box and ‘cc’ it to other staff members, they can all be aware of who has received this memo.

If forwarding a document to many people who are not staff, I often use the ‘bcc’ option, as this option sends a ‘blind’ copy without anyone knowing.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

To ensure that the person receiving your attachment is able to open the document it is advisable to ensure that the recipient has the relevant software. If unsure what software the recipient has it is often more reliable to send the information in a format that can be read by many applications, such as RTF or ASCII.

If the attachment is large it is also a good idea to reduce the size of the file by compressing the information, this enables a quicker transfer time from yourself to the recipient. This is called zipping or archiving a file.

4.What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I have filters set up to redirect emails which are not sent by someone on my approved senders list. These are junk mail; which is unsolicited emails. The junk mail is directed to a file which I check on a daily basis to ensure that no well intended emails have inadvertently be directed there. This enables me to quickly view relevant emails quickly without having to sift through various unwanted emails.

I have also blocked email addresses by filtering the subject lines of the incoming emails, for instance anything with the word Viagra will automatically be directed to my deleted mail folder.

Using filters quickens my time spent reading email messages. I am able to focus on important emails only.

5. How have you organised the folder strucutre of your email and why?

I have different folders set up on different email accounts. My work email folders consist of a client folder, important messages folder and computer folder.

My home email has my inbox split into three folders, family, jokes and university as shown below




I believe that email is a major function of todays communciation system and will continue to grow in the future. I am considering spending more time perusing different filtering functions in different software programs in the future to enable quick sorting of my emails. My email mission is complete for the time being.

Apology

Hey, just re read my last post and realised that it is the most boring post i have ever read or written. I apologise for this as it is Sunday night and I am sooo tired

I have added a consolation Kermit



In the hope that he might put a smile on someone's face.

Internet Tools

I started reading the section regarding Internet Tools and the idea of tracing the packages of information to the required site really got me interested.

I thought that it was great being able to trace the connections and which connections were made and how long it took to actually access other computers from mine. I previously had a limited knowledge of how information was transmitted but this exercise has really made the process clearer.

I logged onto the Network-Tools.com and pinged curtin.edu.au, which gave me the following results:



RESULTS: 18 hops at a speed of 262 ms to reach curtin.edu.au IP address 134.7.179.53

I used the inbuilt tracert program by typing tracert curtin.edu.au into the Run Window. I was really excited, how easy is this huh.... but.....it didn't work, it showed the screen and the downloading hops...but as soon as it got to the end, the window closed.

So alas, after putting on my thinking cap I decided to go through the C prompt.
This time it worked and it showed the following screen:



RESULT: 18 hops to get to curtin.edu.au IP address 134.7.179.53, arriving on the 19th hop at a speed of 64 ms.

The two differing results show that my computer seems to connect to the site at a faster speed then the Network-tools system.

I decided to download the suggested PC: A-Tool bar and see if using a different program would produce the same results. I am not sure what happened, but when i Ping'd Curtin.edu.au, it only took 5 hops at a speed of 64ms.



I decided to try another test between the inbuilt tracert and the PC: A-Tool bar so I thought a search of the University of China at www.ouc.edu.cn.

Using Tracert on my Windows XP it took 21 hops to reach the University of China at IP 22.195.158.135 at a speed of 347 ms. Using the PC: A-Tool system it took 5 hops and arrived at a speed of 346 ms. This has confused me a little as i am unsure why it only takes 5 hops using one system and yet 21 hops using another.

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmm I ponder !!!

FTP - Filezilla

After success with the Telnet and also managing to master the posting of screen shots to my blog page, i moved onto the next task which was regarding the transfer of files from one computer to another using File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Our mission was to find the README file, download the file, look at it and answer the following question

"according to the README file, '_______ MATTERS' - what word goes in the blank?".

I opened Filezilla and connected to recall.curtin.edu.au site without any problems.


I found the README.TXT file and saved it to my desktop, where i opened it from.



According to the readme file, 'CAPITALIZATION MATTERS'.

My mission was complete.

Telnet - Blinkenlights

After playing with Telnet and being very successful with my email task (refer previous entry - Note to readers: send all acknowledgements and applause directly to my email address).

I decided to move onto the blinkenlights task.

I found using Telnet this time quite easy (yes i am the Master of Telnet..hehehehe). The actual blinkenlights Star Wars thingo I found very clever but very boring. It made me realise exactly how far technology had come.

This is an example of what i saw on towel.blinkenlights.nl

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This was a program which was used in my High School years (ooops showing my age), and wow haven't things progressed - nicely i must add.

To the creators I give you a bow, the time and patience is probably unheard of in todays technological world. Quick and easy is the motto for todays computer users, no more waiting for screens to load, we want it all and we want it NOW.

Task A - Telnet

I finally managed to work out how to get into the Telnet feature on my computer. I clicked on Start/Run and then typed in Telnet, up popped a black screen.

I was completely unsure what to do at this stage so being female and not scared to ask for help, i pressed the ? key, which threw up a very basic help guide.

After a few key clicks, and after taking a stab in the dark and confirming that I was indeed using a VT100 compatable pc...i was indeed in the Library Site....YAY !!!!

I was able to follow the basic instructions and email the required list of books to my student email address. I felt great. I was able to master this after much intrepidation.

My opinion of the Telnet feature is "wow", this stuff is hard work. If I was working in my position today and having to use this type of system, lets just say, I would be bald from ripping my hair out. It is slow and tedious, although I am sure that in the past this was technology was the best and many many people (hey Mum !) used this system and managed to perform their duties effectively and efficiently...all I can say is thank god for the evolution of technology.

I decided to do a search regarding the uses of Telnet and found the following interesting points at

http://www.walthowe.com/navnet/faq/telnet.html

1. Telnet is a text only protocol

2. If you are a gamer, there are a number of text based games still available through telnet. See Yahoo's page on MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons).

3. Outside of games, unless you already know of a particular use, such as connecting to a particular government database, you probably have no use for it.Today a few game site still have some applications that are run on Telnet.

Even though I found it slow and so "old fashion", if the World Wide Web was to go down this would at least enable a connection to be made to another system if required.

All in all a very good learning experience for me.