Tag: e-mail

RANT! PC’s and the Disabled: 20 Molehills that Become Mountains

RANT! PC’s and the Disabled: 20 Molehills that Become Mountains

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I recently came across a post on a different kind of top 20 (or worse 20) list. This list is of bad software (or at least poorly behaving software). The focus of the article was on web applications but, too be honest, I think there are still some ‘regular’ applications that make these same mistakes as well.

I don’t want to reproduce the entire 20 items, you can go to the original article here and read those. I would like to point out that that author forgot some of my personal least favorites:

I did like some of the items on the original list. Especially

4. Amnesia

5. No Undo/Redo

6. No Cut/Copy/Paste

13. Tiny Fonts

19. Not Eating Their Own Dog Food (although I prefer the statement “Not drinking their own champagne”

20. Bugs – what is up with “beta” releases of software that go for months, if not years!

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS – YOU NEED TO THINK ABOUT USABILITY WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR SOFTWARE (and yes, I did intend to have my caps lock on when I was shouting despite number 7).

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! Desktop Index ideas

RANT! Desktop Index ideas

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Like a lot of people, I have become hooked on “desktop search” products. These products index your hard drive’s documents so that you can quickly and easily search for that piece of information you know that you have but are missing. The most popular version of this is Google Desktop but there are others and I particularly like Copernic Desktop Search because I find it more stable than the other utilities on the market and it can read my calendar in Outlook which is a big deal to me.

As much as I like these tools, I find that there is one big thing that they all miss. They don’t rank my favorite sites higher than other sites if I am doing a web search. This simply doesn’t make sense. Obviously, I have been to that site before (or else it wouldn’t be in my Favorites/Bookmarks folder). Therefore, I trust that information more than other information.

So to all of the developers of desktop search: PRIORITIZE MY FAVORITE SITES ABOVE THE REST OF THE WORLD WHEN YOU SHOW ME SEARCH RESULTS!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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RANT! emails again – 2 of 2

RANT! emails again – 2 of 2

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Your signature on an email is essential. It should contain the information that allows the reader to contact you without sending you an email. It should not contain images as these will only slow down the transmission of the email and may not be read by the reader’s email program (remember, assume they are reading this on their phone).

Your original email should have quite a bit of contact information. This may include your full name, phone numbers, address, and a link to a website about you or your company. However, don’t be a bandwidth hog and include that same signature on a reply email since it is likely the person already has most of that information. For replies, you should only have the basics e.g. your name and a pertinent phone number.

INCLUDE A SIGNATURE AFTER EVERY EMAIL BUT DON’T OVERLOAD IT WITH WASTED JUNK – EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Incomplete emails
RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

RANT! emails again – 1 of 2

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It is time to rant about email again. Yes, I know that email is the greatest thing of the Internet. It has become the “killer app” that has truly driven corporate America to provide computers to all of its white collar work force. More than Word or Excel, email has become essential to today’s workforce. For this reason, we need to chastise those that screw it up.

EMAIL IS ESSENTIAL SO DON’T SPEND TIME TRYING TO MAKE IT PRETTY!

Putting tables and graphs in an email is bad. You should use the rule of thumb that the reader is going to look at it in a pure text view (like on a phone). Don’t use bullets – use dashes instead or an asterisk (*) instead.

If you must have a highly formatted document, put it into an attachment also so that it can be viewed with another program with the formatting. I suggest you simply save the email as HTML to your desktop before you send it and that attach that resulting file. This allows the reader to open the document in a browser to see the formatting.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
RANT! Incomplete emails
Become a Master of E-Mail Etiquette
Email Etiquettes to use

More on this topic later!

Did you know that you can have these articles emailed to you? Click on the Email link in the upper right corner Subscribe section, fill out the details, and you are set. No one will see your email address and you won’t get more spam by doing this.

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RANT! Incomplete emails

RANT! Incomplete emails

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Why do people write emails without finishing the process?

I despise it when someone writes me an email saying that we should talk, have lunch, etc. but then don’t suggest a time and place. Asking someone if they want to go to lunch is not any easier than asking someone to go to lunch next Thursday at McSnoops at 11:30AM.

The former method simply creates more work if no one takes charge. You ask me to go to lunch. I say yes. You ask me where. I say McSnoops. You ask me when. I say next Thursday. You ask me what time. I say 11:30. 8 emails that should only take 2.

FINISH THE THOUGHT!

TAKE CHARGE!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
http://www.iwillfollow.com/email.htm
http://www.emailreplies.com/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/to-bcc-or-not-bcc-email-etiquette.html

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RANT! Airports and electricity

RANT! Airports and electricity

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I travel a fair amount in my job. I also need to be connected to the web regularly so I carry a Windows Mobile based phone so that I can get email quickly and occasionally go out to a site.

Even though I carry this phone, I still need to hook up my laptop on an occasional basis. This allows me to grab emails that are too big, have attachments that I can’t read on my phone or check a site that doesn’t format down to my phone (I am sure that I will rant about these things in the future).

But as I sit here on the floor of an airport leaning against the wall just so I can get some more power, I am fuming. Why can’t airports realize that their best customers are businesspeople that need access to power? As I write this post, I have had a dozen people look at me with envy because I found the outlet. Two people have even whispered to me to let them know when I am almost done so that they can get in line for my wonderful floor seat.

Maybe I will start a website that has electrical outlet in airport hints! I bet I could sell memberships in such a needed site. Of course, this would be totally unnecessary if the airports would just PUT IN MORE OUTLETS WHERE PEOPLE SIT!

I am done with this topic for now but I reserve the right to rant more on it someday.

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