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Thread: E-mail is a curse - discuss

  1. #1
    Senior Member Tobeman's Avatar
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    E-mail is a curse - discuss

    I'd like to know your feelings and opinions on this, out of interest, I thought it would make a good ICT essay too as our tutor as given us a choice of what we wanted to talk about.

    I've narrowed it down to several categories, like social aspects, archiving of material, security risks etc.

    Let me know your views on the above title

    Cheers

    Tobe

  2. #2
    Senior Member Kezzer's Avatar
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    Well obviously there's downsides to e-mail, but it's 100% definitely not a curse, and if you argue that fact in your essay I don't think you'd do very well. There's security risks to everything when it comes to computing, it doesn't mean that computing is a curse.

    E-mail is very good, i'm constantly e-mailing colleagues keeping them updated on projects and even contacting friends and family the other side of the world. It saves paper

    Yes there are security risks if you want to divulge into that. People may gain access if they obtain you username and password, but if you take the necessary precautions then you wouldn't have to worry about it. Receiving viruses through e-mail? Use a decent e-mail client and virus software and it's not a problem as well as some common sense to not open e-mails with .exe attachments

    Social aspects, such as? Obviously you should include the use of netiquette in there as well as that's an important factor of e-mailing.

    Shame I don't have my work from my OU course anymore, I did a unit on this area.

  3. #3
    hi unreal's Avatar
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    Email is a blessing, but with every good thing, it's inevitable there are drawbacks

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    Senior Member Tobeman's Avatar
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    Thats some good ideas there, I think I might add a more positive spin on it like you suggested.

    When I mentioned social aspects I meant things like lack of personal interaction, avoiding confrontation by e-mailing someone (I do it at work ) and the like.. hazy area I know...

    I know none of us open e-mail attachments from people we don't trust or know, but I still have to take into account the majority of people who use e-mails and computers don't know of the risks and the protection they should make use of.
    Last edited by Tobeman; 09-09-2005 at 11:46 AM.

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    Senior Member Tobeman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by unreal
    Email is a blessing, but with every good thing, it's inevitable there are drawbacks
    Elaborate

  6. #6
    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    Email is a curse when you get so called 'friends' sending you those chain emails...the ones that threaten you with bad luck if you don't pass it on...

    I quote from a reply I sent to a 'friend' who sent me one recently...

    You know what?

    I’m not having a go or anything but I absolutely DETEST these so called ‘good luck’ emails… If the people who send them to each other care so much, why do they threaten you with bad luck if you don’t send them on?

    Not exactly friendly, is it?

    And anyone got any proof these things ‘really do work’? Of course they have, they know a bloke who saw his mate’s girlfriend telling her aunt that a man she knows met a girl who’se Auntie got hit by a bus after deleting the message…

    Of course, those people will believe ANYTHING, especially when they believe that Alexander Fleming’s dad saved Winston Churchill, even though even his own official biography makes no mention of the incident, him ever meeting Flemming in his early life or in fact ever even coming close to drowning in Scotland under any condition…

    Oh, and Penicillin is used to treat viral infections and the Pneumonia Churchill had was bacterial, so it wouldn’t have done anything. In fact, Churchill is noted as saying to his nurse “Dear nurse, pray remember that man cannot live by M and B alone” during his illness, M&B being the short name for sulfadiazine produced by May and Baker Pharmaceuticals, hence the M&B name.

    So, lovely as the whole thing is, it’s all a huge load of untruths… and for not believing them and for not passing them on, my so called ‘friend’ wishes to curse me with a year’s bad luck… Looks like I already have the bad luck in having a friend like that!
    The email in question was the one about Alexander Flemming's dad pulling a young Winston Churchill from a pond in Scotland...

    Here's the original rubbish I was sent:
    I want this back. It DOES work.



    His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby ! bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

    The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

    "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
    "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

    "Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.
    "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
    "I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of." And that he did.

    Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

    Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

    What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

    The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.

    His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

    Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

    Work like you don't need the money.
    Love like you've never been hurt.
    Dance like nobody's watching.
    Sing like nobody's listening.
    Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

    It's National Friendship Week. Send this to everyone you consider A FRIEND.

    Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.

    AN IRISH FRIENDSHIP WISH: You had better send this back!! Good Luck!

    I hope it works...

    May there always be work for your hands to do;
    May your purse always hold a coin or two;
    May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
    May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
    May the hand of a friend always be near you;
    May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

    OK, this is what you have to do... Send this to all of your friends.

    But - you HAVE to send this within 1 hour from when you open it!

    Now.....Make A wish!! I hope you made your wish!

    Now then, if you send to:

    1 person --- your wish will be granted in 1 year
    3 people --- 6 months
    5 people --- 3 months
    6 people --- 1 month
    7 people --- 2 weeks
    8 people --- 1 week
    9 people --- 5 days
    10 people --- 3 days
    12 people --- 2 days
    15 people --- 1 day
    20 people --- 3 hours

    If you delete this after you read it, you will have 1 year of bad luck!

    But, if you send it to 2 of your friends, you will automatically have 3 years good luck!!!
    So yes, email is a curse when used to spread this sort of supersticious crap around.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

  7. #7
    Senior Member Tobeman's Avatar
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    Haha, thanks for making my free two hour period in the library slightly less mind numbingly boring Nick! Mind if I quote you in my essay?

  8. #8
    Asking silly questions menthel's Avatar
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    Hate to say it nick, but penicillin is an antibiotic and doesn't treat viral infections. It would happily treat a pneumonia!
    Not around too often!

  9. #9
    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    Oops, my bad... in my anger I got it the wrong way around... Chuchill had pneumonia caused by a viral infection... oh well, the point is still the same... bloody e-mail spamming spammers....

    (not you. Menthel old bean, the email spamming spammers...)
    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

  10. #10
    Mike Fishcake
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    Nick - any time I get these types of email, I always send them the link to www.breakthechain.org which is an absolutely FANTASTIC website (no, i don't have anything to do with them) because the people there research all the nonsense that's going round.

    For instance: http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/fleming.html

    It's a site to keep in your bookmarks!

  11. #11
    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tobeman
    Haha, thanks for making my free two hour period in the library slightly less mind numbingly boring Nick! Mind if I quote you in my essay?
    not a problem, as long as you give a reference... HEXUS.gaming.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

  12. #12
    Mike Fishcake
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  13. #13
    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    And, without wanting to appear sexist, but has anyone noticed the simply MASSIVE about of 'girl power' emails?

    My wife gets loads of them, all about how women are so cool, so hip, smarter, more intelligent etc etc.

    Now, is it any wonder why women moan about not getting equal pay? No, not to me it isn't.

    Blokes achieve a higher output, purely cos they DON'T spend 2 hours a day forwarding mails on or filling out 'freindship questionnaires'...

    Apologies to the girls, but an IT mate in a locally based national company recently logged all mails with the words friends and luck in them that had 'FWD' in the subject title... Suffice to say the shock of just how much is passed around made him never need Exlax again.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

  14. #14
    Senior Member Kezzer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nick
    And, without wanting to appear sexist, but has anyone noticed the simply MASSIVE about of 'girl power' emails?

    My wife gets loads of them, all about how women are so cool, so hip, smarter, more intelligent etc etc.

    Now, is it any wonder why women moan about not getting equal pay? No, not to me it isn't.

    Blokes achieve a higher output, purely cos they DON'T spend 2 hours a day forwarding mails on or filling out 'freindship questionnaires'...

    Apologies to the girls, but an IT mate in a locally based national company recently logged all mails with the words friends and luck in them that had 'FWD' in the subject title... Suffice to say the shock of just how much is passed around made him never need Exlax again.

    That's SO true. I've received those "girls are so much better. Men are sexist" Wow, spot the contradiction there!

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