Ah.... Friday again :)
Love the bit about personal emails :)
"I just need you to go through it for me once," the user whines down the line at me. "You mean once more?" I reply. "Once more?" he snivels. "Yes, as I already went through this with you a few weeks ago. You said you understood, you even wrote something down." "Really - are you sure that was me?" "Positive." "How can …
Oh yes the joy of users who absolutely insist they never received an email, and that the email system must be faulty, despite one or all of the following being true:
1. You have a read receipt
2. You have an Exchange delivery report
3. You have proxy access to their mailbox and can see the f***ing email in their inbox
4. You're standing right next to them pointing at the f***ing email on their screen on their PC (after them not believing you about the first 3, and even with point 4 they insist the message wasn't there before you came into their office).
"I saw it was from IT so deleted it, I never read them"
Depending on quantity I can perhaps understand that. While not always IT, the number of distributed emails of pointless "news" means that most distributed mails are ignored by me. The emails triumphantly informing me that the tireless efforts of the maintenance staff have resulted in a fixed vending machine rapidly turns all such mails into spam.
" there are the people that use deleted items as some kind of store. But that's for another day."
What is it with those people, every so often during "maintenance" we go into their machines and turn on the "empty trash on exit" ... or when it gets to be over 500Mb my colleague cat's devnull to it :)
"Can you get it back it was full of important stuff" ... what like you keep all your important files in your waste bin next to your desk?
However the "read-receipt" thing doesn't exist at my work, not only do all the clients have it turned off, but the mail server strips the header from the emails.
"the mail server strips the header from the emails" really? that's wierd.
Are you sure it's not just because your e-mail is Exchange so you don't get email headers like you do on conventional SMTP. The info that would otherwise be there is dealt with differently and can be found through delivery reports.
Also getting your management to agree a mail policy that automatically empties deleted items after X number of days is a VERY good idea.
"Nothing good will come in an unsolicited recorded delivery letter..."
Bearing in mind that we were talking about read receipts in the context of work email, I'll address that statement about recorded delivery letters in the context of work post.
Here are the things I can think of in under 15 seconds that might arrive at work unsolicited (where I'm meaning unsolicited as not in response to a letter you've sent).
1. Job applications
2. Bills
3. Communication from government departments or regulatory bodies
4. A letter from another division of the company
5. A letter from a prospective new customer
6. A complaint from an existing customer
Ok, now explain to me which of these you consider good. I can see 1 possible good and 1 neutral.
In my experience, the kind of person that tends to send read receipts is the kind of person who continually pesters people to do things that don't really matter yet they take far too seriously.
I make a point of refusing them specifically because I know the ambiguity will wind them up.
The situation of people using them to pester has arisen because they're generally not on by default.
If read receipts were on by default and automatically silently responded to by your mail client, it would mean they would simply be treated as a notification that you'd received the message.
In a work context that is extremely useful because it prevents lazy arses from saying they haven't done work weeks after it should of been done because they never got the email.
Um, that's what delivery receipts are for. The recipient generally cannot affect these.
The point of a read receipt is to inform the sender that you have read it. It is optional and the recipient can choose in each case whether they think it is appropriate to send one.
The clue is in the name, really.
.PST files are the worst. There's not really a good backup solution when they have them stored locally on the machine. And, Micro$oft doesn't support them on a network share. We found that out the hard way.
We used to have a utility that would copy the PST about every 15 days to there home folder on the server when they were logging out or shutting down. It would take a while for some of them to complete as they were close to a GB in size. I'll bet you can guess what they would then do because they couldn't wait for the copy to finish.
-Paris coz I got something she can find out the "hard" way.
"We used to have a utility that would copy the PST about every 15 days to there home folder on the server when they were logging out or shutting down. It would take a while for some of them to complete as they were close to a GB in size. I'll bet you can guess what they would then do because they couldn't wait for the copy to finish."
Yep...know EXACTLY what they did. Hit "Cancel", and went home. PST file never backed up.
I use that "pfbackup" utility at home on my personal network DAILY, to make sure I have copies of the wife's messages...because she is another one who uses the "Deleted Items" folder for storage...but I still love her.
[snip]However the "read-receipt" thing doesn't exist at my work, not only do all the clients have it turned off, but the mail server strips the header from the emails.[/snip]
Send email as HTML, include a 1x1 white pixel on an external server you control. That's what I do, at least.
@technos
"Send email as HTML, include a 1x1 white pixel on an external server you control. That's what I do, at least."
Thankfully: "To help protect your privacy, Outlook prevented automatic download of some pictures in this message" and any other client I use offers similar.
I'd be suspicious of anyone who went to such ominous lengths to determine whether I'd read their email or not. When and if I read an email is my f*&^ing business and any cretins that try to figure it out would be wise to pick an alternative method of communication if their message is so important.
Then there are the people that use deleted items as some kind of store. But that's for another day.
The first thing I do when someone calls about email problems is delete their deleted items. I used to have people that store things in there, they don't now. It may take a few times to realise what 'deleted' actually means but they get there eventually.
"Then there are the people that use deleted items as some kind of store. But that's for another day."
I am aware of one Head of IT who used the Exchange dumpster (deleted deleted items) as a storage area for crucial work-related email.
This cunningly avoided any problems with mailbox quotas as the dumpster is not part of the mailbox.
However it also means that if the person concerned does something like authorise an upgrade of the email system which involves moving mailboxes they lose all this mail because it is not part of the sodding mailbox.
I'll leave Reg readers to judge for themselves how much the subsequent suggestion "Maybe I should not have done that" calmed the situation. Thankfully it was not followed with a "but ...".
My old boss, who in all other respects was a competent and sensible IT professional also used to use the deleted items folder as his slush pile and only keep important stuff in his inbox. He was not happy when I emptied his deleted items, although I did point out he didn't keep his files in the waste-paper bin.
Yes Malc, I'm talking about you ;)
"Then there are the people that use deleted items as some kind of store. But that's for another day."
What the actual f*ck is that about?
I have come across this a few times now and promptly deleted their deleted items.
One guy had a whole elaborate folder structure going on.... not for long though.
re: deleted items as a store
I had a call once from a user that used the system trashcan as his documents folder, he called me in a panic because he'd emptied it due to finally running out of space, no backups, I wonder how some people get through each day without maiming themselves.
I've also pencilled 'space' on the spacebar for a user that was struggling with the concept. She was thankful at the time but in retrospect, it's probably why she never called again.
"cross to the other side of conference venue drinking area to avoid." had me chuckling.
"Think of me as a meteorological expert as far as IT support beatings go." had me howling with laughter.
Now they are ringing up HR... time to hit the pub.
(Mines the one with the 'leave early on a long holiday weekend' pass in the pocket. TTFN)
"I never got your email"
"It is in your misc . folder, you have a rule to move it there."
"no I deleted that rule I do not have any rules like that"
<clickety> "yes I see a rule that says from IT in your mailbox.. it is at the bottom"
"Oh that, I did not make that rule"
"..."
<clickety> "Ok I have deleted your IT rule so all our mail will go straight to your inbox"
"does this mean all my email will go there?"
<click>
though the enforcing of emptying deleted items after 30 days has really helped the Deleted items is a storage folder thing.
we recently had to increase the storage for rules in exchange because all our CSR's have a rule for each client (sometimes more when they lose their mail)
Sounds like a project manager at my previous employer. Shortly after she left I needed some storage space for reference books, so I cleared out the cupboard next to her desk. I discovered that she'd printed out every email that she had ever sent or received over a five year period and neatly filed them in folders.
"I know someone who has a boss who prints all his emails, whether he needs to or not. If he needs to bring up a previous conversation he finds it in the pile, scans it and attaches it."
Go you one better. The Dean of my college doesn't EVER turn her computer on...for ANYTHING. She has her assistant go through ALL of her e-mail on HER computer, then print out what she thinks the Dean needs to see/respond to...then her assistant sends out the replies from the hand written responses she gets from the Dean. She's been the Dean here for about 35 years. Never warmed up to computers...obviously.
I've been the Net Admin here for 10 years, and have NEVER seen that computer on. And I don't dare turn it on for her either. Never been updated, as far as I know. I true time capsule, if there ever was one.
That machine might be just what CERN are looking for - a copy of TBL's first ever web page...
On the plus side, I guess the Dean isn't consuming much IT budget, wasting it on getting every new toy that comes out as being 'essential'. One manager I know of seized the delivery of a sun sparc on the basis that he had to have the most powerful computer in the department for his emails (never mind that it didn't run outlook, it was more powerful therefore his buy rights!).
"She has her assistant go through ALL of her e-mail on HER computer, then print out what she thinks the Dean needs to see/respond to...then her assistant sends out the replies from the hand written responses she gets from the Dean."
Is she the *real* Don Knuth then?
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html
1) people who claim to have returned a laptop power supply but have actually lost it, and have the guts to lie to my face
2) people who steal keyboards and mice from other desks, then abandon their original filthy equipment elsewhere on the floor
3) people who request file restores of personal resumes (strangely, no-one has been foolish enough to request restores of their batch-deleted MP3s)
4) people who want personal educational course material burned to CD
5) a pretty woman who regularly shows up to the door and requests IT equipment (mice, keyboards, etc) and who knows that she can get away with it
"5) a pretty woman who regularly shows up to the door and requests IT equipment (mice, keyboards, etc) and who knows that she can get away with it"
That's actually my number one peeve. So I operate on the principle that, since merely looking at a woman the wrong way constitutes "sexual harassment", then so does attempting to use femininity to elicit special favours.
As a result, a "pretty woman" (i.e. flirty manner, provocatively dressed etc) is less likely to get anything out of me than one who presents and conducts herself in a professional manner.
As a result, a "pretty woman" (i.e. flirty manner, provocatively dressed etc) is less likely to get anything out of me than one who presents and conducts herself in a professional manner.
In certain areas of work this *is* considered a professional manner (and readily get something out of the customers).
Those read receipts are a handy weapon in the world of records management, because their 30 day document retention review window plops open the instant they read the email with the offending spreadsheet attached. And slams shut exactly 30 days later, whereby anything that hasn't been reviewed is presumed to be worthless, and fit only for landfill.
The panic that ensues when the 28th day reminder goes out is priceless. Gotta be cruel to be kind when dealing with lemmings. Red carpet to the cliff edge.
It was the mid-1990s. The employer decided that being an ISP was the thing to be, in addition to the real business of the company, which involved dirt, shovels, and lots of forensic-looking field action. Boss has employees rewire offices to create network and setup an ISP server room where tie in to the ISP servers and carriers lines will be. Because the boss' sanitiy appears dubious, they insure that the "real" work of the company can proceed as needed by setting up two sides to the LAN - one for ISP stuff, one for "real" stuff. New ISP admin decides that HE is the final word in how what computer and LAN gets used. Quite suddenly the "work" side is short the printer and database server that hold critical job related material and support all the "real
work. Hmmm. Looks like competing BOFHs may butt heads on this one, but .... heh, heh, heh .... only ONE operator knows the actual, physical wiring of the net work, because he did the physical wiring. There can be only one.