The bizarrest email I’ve ever received

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I was having quite a bad day, if I’m honest, but then this dropped into my inbox:

Hiya – This is a slightly odd question, but I’m hoping you may be able to help me…

Can you tell me whether a full computer hardrive weighs more than an empty one ? And if it does what does the extra weight comprise of?

Again, I know it’s a strange question, but I would be v grateful if you could shed some light!

Names and email addresses removed to protect the innocent, needless to say.

But it does raise the important question of whether spreadsheets are, metaphorically speaking, heavier than word-processing documents. Are TIFFs heavier than JPEGs? Is Windows heavier than Linux?

Answers on a postcard. And if anyone’s received a stranger email than that, I’d love to hear about it.

The problem with mobile broadband

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

I’m a big fan of mobile broadband. In theory. The idea of a connection wherever you go, the promise of lower costs than fixed broadband, the possibility of even higher speeds than fixed! The reality, which I’m living through right now, remains frustrating.

For the last few days, I’ve had to “rely” on mobile broadband as I wait for my broadband connection to go live in my new house. The trouble is, it doesn’t work at all well. The first problem is reception: I don’t live in central London but in deepest Bucks, and that means I can only get a GPRS connection. (more…)

Email etiquette – rules 1 & 2

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

I’m optimistically titling this post “Email etiquette – rules 1 & 2″ in the hope that I’ll go on to work out the remaining xx over the next few days/months/years, because if there’s one thing I know it’s that the world isn’t very good at them.

Now there are already some sites that cover email etiquette, but as their advice tends to be along the lines of “DO NOT WRITE IN CAPITALS” I think it’s safe to say they’re not targeting the more experienced of users.

I’m starting off with a more complicated one: when you send someone an email, and they send you one back with the answer, do you reply to thank them? It’s a tricky one. Risk appearing rude and ungrateful, or adding to people’s considerable email burden.

My conclusion: reply, but be brief and don’t give them any reason to send you a reply back.

Number two is related: if someone sends you an email, but you know it’s going to take you a day to reply, do you ignore it until you can send a meaningful reply or send an immediate acknowledgement?

Again, I go for brief acknowledgement, but I know others disagree.

So what do you think? Am I alone in even pondering these things? Should I, just maybe, get a life? Feel free to send in your own email etiquette suggestions… and indeed various forms of verbal abuse.

How to break the Google monopoly

Friday, July 18th, 2008

You may not have noticed this, but Google is quite a dominant company. Chances are that almost everyone you know has a Google email account, a sign-in for Google Docs, and uses its search engine every day. So you do have to wonder how anyone is going to break its stranglehold – something I asked one of its email competitors today.

The chances are that you will have heard of GMX, but the chances are that you also won’t have used its services. (more…)

Self-deleting sent emails

Monday, May 12th, 2008

I’m not sure if it’s the worst thing about being editor of a national magazine or the best thing, but I get many, many emails from readers every day. Sometimes they’re nice; other times they’re not. And sometimes they’re quite simply useful – such as this one.

“Hi, I am looking for a program for deleting (my) sent emails over a short period of time. I have heard of such programs, but I do not know if there is one out yet/name of it.

(more…)