Thursday, December 28, 2006
16:31 by FoxTwo Dang, the earthquake in Taiwan is certainly causing havoc in this part of the world. Not only are lives lost, homes destroyed, and damage is caused in the millions of dollars, now, Asia itself is almost cut-off from the rest of the Internet world.
Funny thing is, we have come to rely on the Internet too much, for too long. A common complaint we hear in the IT Dept is this:
"Hey, my email is down... when can fix ah?"
And, when we tell 'em is out of our control, need to wait for the service providers to fix the undersea cables, the next thing that comes is this:
"Yah, but when can fix ah? My customer waiting for my email confirmation lei!"
Geesh.... USE THE DANG FAX!!! Internet might be down, but good old telephones and faxes still work, most of the time anyway. You don't have to sit around and wait for your IT Dept to "fix the Internet"... most times, problems arise OUTSIDE of the company's IT control... like you, we have to wait for the right people to go fix the problem.
It's almost as funny as users demanding why their "return receipts" don't work in emails going out of the company (for those who still don't know, return receipts only work when the other side is using the same email software as you do. If you use Lotus Notes for mail, and your supplier/customer is using Outlook [Microsoft Exchange server], chances are, no return receipts will be returned as they don't understand each other 100%). It's the same for marking your email "private" and "uncopy-able" in Lotus Notes. When your mail reaches your customer/supplier who is using Outlook for their email, they can happily print, copy, fax your email to the rest of the world.
Of course, within the same company, they work. After all, everyone's using the same software.
And, here's the kicker - emails, by nature, are NOT "private and confidential". Any system admin out there on the internet can look and laugh at your email if they choose to view them. Note the word - if they CHOOSE to. System Admins are usually busy people, but when a problem crops up, they can pore through all the emails passing through their systems and read EVERYTHING you write (to attempt to trace a problem of course. We aren't so bo liao as to read someone else's emails every day). Emails are NOT secure forms of communications!
So, now that we're cut off from the rest of the world, kinda, here's a good chance to do your filing, shredding, and whatever housekeeping you have been meaning to do. Less emails will reach you, you have less to read, and also, for the first time in your life, LESS SPAM in your inbox! Yay! Spammers can't reach you here in Singapore thanks to the broken cables under the sea which connects us to the rest of the Internet!
Unless of course, you are still using "Hotmail" kind of email system - those are based in the USA and spammers still can reach you there :)
16:31 by FoxTwo Dang, the earthquake in Taiwan is certainly causing havoc in this part of the world. Not only are lives lost, homes destroyed, and damage is caused in the millions of dollars, now, Asia itself is almost cut-off from the rest of the Internet world.
Funny thing is, we have come to rely on the Internet too much, for too long. A common complaint we hear in the IT Dept is this:
"Hey, my email is down... when can fix ah?"
And, when we tell 'em is out of our control, need to wait for the service providers to fix the undersea cables, the next thing that comes is this:
"Yah, but when can fix ah? My customer waiting for my email confirmation lei!"
Geesh.... USE THE DANG FAX!!! Internet might be down, but good old telephones and faxes still work, most of the time anyway. You don't have to sit around and wait for your IT Dept to "fix the Internet"... most times, problems arise OUTSIDE of the company's IT control... like you, we have to wait for the right people to go fix the problem.
It's almost as funny as users demanding why their "return receipts" don't work in emails going out of the company (for those who still don't know, return receipts only work when the other side is using the same email software as you do. If you use Lotus Notes for mail, and your supplier/customer is using Outlook [Microsoft Exchange server], chances are, no return receipts will be returned as they don't understand each other 100%). It's the same for marking your email "private" and "uncopy-able" in Lotus Notes. When your mail reaches your customer/supplier who is using Outlook for their email, they can happily print, copy, fax your email to the rest of the world.
Of course, within the same company, they work. After all, everyone's using the same software.
And, here's the kicker - emails, by nature, are NOT "private and confidential". Any system admin out there on the internet can look and laugh at your email if they choose to view them. Note the word - if they CHOOSE to. System Admins are usually busy people, but when a problem crops up, they can pore through all the emails passing through their systems and read EVERYTHING you write (to attempt to trace a problem of course. We aren't so bo liao as to read someone else's emails every day). Emails are NOT secure forms of communications!
So, now that we're cut off from the rest of the world, kinda, here's a good chance to do your filing, shredding, and whatever housekeeping you have been meaning to do. Less emails will reach you, you have less to read, and also, for the first time in your life, LESS SPAM in your inbox! Yay! Spammers can't reach you here in Singapore thanks to the broken cables under the sea which connects us to the rest of the Internet!
Unless of course, you are still using "Hotmail" kind of email system - those are based in the USA and spammers still can reach you there :)
Technorati:
