Email

A Neat Email Tool

anderskb — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:34:49 -0500

I recently discovered Xobni ("inbox" backwards), a tool that seems like it might have a particular appeal for librarians. Xobni is a sidebar that works with Outlook and offers analytics, searching, email organization, a social networking method of organization and more.

Digital Deception: Cracking CAPTCHAs

Blake — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:42:48 -0500

The Washington Post: With a test, Web sites let people in and keep out computers set to unleash spam attacks. Now, computers are cracking the code.

E-mail management a mighty struggle for US agencies

Blake — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:30:10 -0500

One From NetworkWorld.com A report issued today the Government Accountability Office said that while of the four agencies it reviewed e-mail policies generally contained required elements, but about half of the senior officials were not following these policies and were instead maintaining their e-mail messages within their e-mail accounts, where records cannot be efficiently searched, are not accessible to others who might need the information in the records, and are at increased risk of loss.

Do You "Do" Email?

Blake — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:41:20 -0500

I was just reading a post on PUBLIB and noticed a pattern, I think that a particular author "does" email. That got me thinking, is email part of working for most people now, or is it still something that needs to be done separately? For me it's like eating, or breathing even. My email program is always running, there is no "doing" email, it's just always on. Email is not a distinct part of my day, it's how many reference questions come in while I'm at work, and it's how all support requests come in for LISHost. Email isn't something that can be put off until I have free time, it's how work begins. Because of LISHost I can't go more than an hour or two without at least checking on email, the servers and support requests; ever. While I know I'm probably an extreme example, even during a regular workday I wonder if people still "do" email. 5 years ago when I worked in a huge academic library I was surprised so many people would block out time special time to "do" the email.

So I'm curious, do you "do" email? How do you handle it? Do you "do" your feed reader or twitter or something else?

2008 Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report: Threats to stabilize but get more complex

Blake — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:16:03 -0500

The 2008 Annual Google Communications Intelligence Report: At the end of 2007, Google conducted an annual online survey of messaging professionals. Providing insight into the major communications trends in the past year as well as the pressing issues and concerns for the coming one, this survey is the result of 575 global interviews with CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs in large, multinational enterprises as well as small organizations. This report summarizes the key findings of the survey, including detailed statistical analysis of the key trends in business communications in 2007 and how these trends translate into priorities for business communications professionals in the year ahead. Following the summary of the research findings, the report touches on Google’s expectations for the coming year as well as defines some best practices in business communication to help organizations address the expected challenges in the industry in 2008.

Email Is Changing the Way We Communicate and Historians Are Worried

Blake — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:10:29 -0600

There's a treasure-trove of computer-generated communications sitting out there amongst business, government and significant people that is not available to historians and biographers. There is no way to access, manage and use it. So, what's the problem? Apparently, it's the future. Without these digital communications, generations who follow will lose opportunities for valuable insight and understanding as to the who, what, why and how of our lives, says Peter Gottlieb, State Archivist of Wisconsin. The Rest Of The Story.

First spam felony conviction upheld: no free speech to spam

Blake — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:28:50 -0600

First spam felony conviction upheld: no free speech to spam: Virginia's Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first US felony conviction for spamming. The spammer will serve nine years in prison for sending what authorities believe to be millions of messages over a two-month period in 2003.
Jeremy Jaynes is the man who will make history. A Raleigh, North Carolina, resident who made Spamhaus' top 10 list of spammers, Jaynes was arrested in 2003 even before the CAN SPAM act was passed by Congress. Jaynes was convicted in 2005, but his lawyers appealed the conviction. This past Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld that conviction, but the vote was a narrow 4-3.

Report: NARA doubted White House e-mail archives in 2004

Blake — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:00:36 -0600

As early as January 2004 the National Archives and Records Administration warned the White House that its e-mail archival method was operating at risk, and the Bush administration has yet to address those concerns, according to a report released by Democratic lawmakers today.

The document released at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee provides the most detailed public account to date of the White House’s decisions regarding its e-mail archive system — the subject of ongoing litigation and congressional inquiry.

Mailing Lists

Blake — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:12:31 -0600

The Joys Of Email

Blake — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:03:40 -0600

If there's anyone who has a more messed up email system I'd love to hear about it. My main email address, I've been using since 1999, is btcarver, but at lisnews.com, not lisnews.org, which is where LISNews lives now (.com just does a redirect to .org). All the LISNews domains live on one of my LISHost servers, but the email (aka mx record) all goes through gmail. I also have a gmail rule set up to cc an account at LISHost, just in case. So this means I have 2 primary email accounts that are essentially on 3 different servers. I use the gmail hosted email for domains for a number of reasons. First and foremost, if one or both LISHost servers go down, I still need to be able to communicate with everyone. So that worked just fine, until recently. Work decided to firewall all major providers of web based email, including gmail. Luckily they're not blocking ALL web based email and luckily I'm already ccing all my email to LISHost for just such an occasion. So while I'm at work I check my mail via my account on LISHost, while I'm home I use Outlook Express, which I have set up to check the lisnews.com account @gmail, along with my blake account on LISHost, and my other rarely used account at eblake.com.

I have sent items on lishost, gmail, and my computer at home. I've done a good job of having at least one copy of all sent emails in my "sent items" folder at home. I actually have just about every single email I've send for the past 8 years The trick to managing all this has been making sure all my email comes "from:" my lisnews.com account, so it's all routed through the gmail servers when people reply to me.

When I go looking for email addresses I'll usually fire up the gmail web interface, and same goes for old emails I can't seem to find or have deleted from Outlook Express. I've written extensively about how the gmail web interface drives me crazy, but I do love the search and the address book.

So yes, it's as confusing as it sounds. To make matters worse, sometimes people email me at my lishost.org account, and I don't always check that one as much as I should while I'm home. It also means my mail gets routed in odd ways. I've tried 3 times to email myself the list of non-librarian blogs I have at home so I can work on it while I'm at work. Each time I've done that from Outlook Express. But I have to program set up to move anything from me and to me into the sent items folder, so the email ends up not getting CCed to my LISHost account, which means I can't work on the list. Now, after three times, I finally figured out why the email was never making it.

So all of this is my really, really long excuse for why I don't have that list done yet.