Starter For Ten's Net34 Blog

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Personally, I prefer discussion boards to email lists. I have been member of a health discussion board for some time, and like being able to post a comment and then view the threads. Sometimes if another member is on line and answers straight away, the reply is practically instantaneous, and the discussion keeps flowing. Other times I can post a topic and then view the answer threads a few days later. With an email list the message is sent to all who have subscribed in the group, and then the replies will come in over time.

With Yahoo groups there is no private message function. Every post is viewable by the group, whereas on a discussion board or forum there is usually an option to private message another member.

I asked my husband this question and he said he preferred discussion boards because they 'are light years ahead of yahoo groups'. Specific things he mentioned were that a discussion board is usually better moderated than in the discussion lists, and there is much less spamming. If anyone does spam it is usually removed within hours by the discussion board moderator. Some groups are set up and then very rarely moderated.

Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?
I think if you had some specific interests then a discussion list is useful. You would be able to receive updates and share information with other people with the same interests or have the same problem. For example if you were a sufferer of Crohn's disease you could join a discussion group and then receive emails from other sufferer's and hear about new medications/treatments etc.

With the Net11 subject, I think I would prefer to use the Discussion Boards in Blackboard rather than the Yahoo group. The discussion board is well set out with each Module, and then threads within that. In the Yahoo group it takes a while to look through all of the messages to find what you are looking for.

I found this topic slightly difficult as I hadn't really heard of discussion lists before now...I find it difficult discussing pro's and cons when I am not very familiar with what I am discussing! Maybe I am biased to using discussion boards because I've been using them for a few years now.

Well I am finally up to the Module 2 tasks. I've had an incredibly busy two weeks, with a change of job and illness to cope with. Also, I've had 2 assesment tasks (worth 25% of my total mark) due in the other uni subject I am doing at the same time as this. So unfortunately Net11 has taken a bit of a lower priority for me recently.

Anyway, I'm now back into it, so onto the tasks!:


1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

To answer this question I had a look at an email sent to me from Countrylink today. I right clicked on the properties tab, and saw the following information:

Return-Path:
Received: by cpms01.int.iprimus.net.au (8.0.022)
id 497E01000199F161 for samtek100@primusonline.com.au; Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:11:26 +1100
Received: from mx03.syd.iprimus.net.au (210.50.30.228) by mx03spool.syd.iprimus.net.au (8.0.022)
id 497E155E01D590CA for samtek100@primusonline.com.au; Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:11:26 +1100
Received: from clmail.mincom.com (HELO clwebbux01.client.root.tequinox.com) ([203.19.232.185])
by mx03.syd.iprimus.net.au with ESMTP; 29 Mar 2009 16:11:26 +1100
Received: from clappbux01.client.root.tequinox.com (clappbux01 [10.20.27.98])
by clwebbux01.client.root.tequinox.com (8.13.8+Sun/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n2T5BPQN019453
for ; Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:11:25 +1100 (EST)
Received: from clappbux01 (localhost [127.0.0.1])
by clappbux01.client.root.tequinox.com (8.13.8+Sun/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n2T5BK24028535
for ; Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:11:20 +1100 (EST)
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:11:20 +1100 (EST)
Message-ID: <16435982.1238303480054.javamail.oriapp@clappbux01>
From: CountryLink
To: samtek100@primusonline.com.au
Subject: Ticket Printing
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="----=_Part_35385_21331111.1238303480052"

The return path shows the senders address. As the sender has "nsw.gov.au" at the end of the address, I know that the sender is a NSW government department.

What surprised me with this was that the message was received and redirected 5 times before ending up in my inbox. When I looked at these addresses, some made sense - the iprimus.com for example, well my email address is at primusonline. I googled 'tequinox.com', which is the first "received" address. Tequinox is the world's leading Application Service Provider (ASP) to the mining, transport, utilities, and government service industries. Well, this makes sense because the email is coming from Countrylink, a government transport organisation.
I can also tell the time that the email was sent, and the time it was received in my inbox - the whole process took about 6 seconds.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all functions of email?

I rarely, if ever, use 'cc' or 'bcc' in my private emails. I do however use 'cc' in work emails. I find 'cc' useful if I want to send an email to a colleague asking for information on a matter, and then I cc a copy of the email to my supervisor if it is something she has asked me about, or if it is something I believe she needs to know as well. I also find this function useful if I am not entirely sure of who the correct recipient of an email is, I can send it to one person and then cc it to the others who I think may also be the ones I should be asking.

I had never heard of 'bcc' before! But now I know what it is I would probably use it. It would be handy when sending an email to a lot of people, I could send one message to everybody without publicising everyone's email.

I use the "reply all" function in emails quite a lot of the time. I mainly use it when I have sent someone an email, but then think of something else I need to add. If I click on reply in the email from my sent items then the reply goes to me, rather than the intended recipient. Instead I click on 'reply all', then just take out my address. This way the email gets sent to the correct recipient without me having to type out their whole address.

Also, if I have sent a message to multiple recipients, I would only use 'Reply All' if I really needed my message to be seen by each person who received the original message.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?
If sending pictures, you can save the attachment in a .jpeg format rather than your photo software (ie kodak) format. This way, the receiver can open the attachment without having to have the correct software to open it. Similary with text documents, it is better to save it in .rtf (rich text format), rather than as a word document for example, in case the recipient does not have word, or has a mac pc.

4. What sort of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?
I was going to answer this as that I don't have filters or rules, however I do have a spam filter as part of my anti-virus software. I also have some senders blocked and these appear in a list. I mainly did this because I was getting junk/spam mail from the same source.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?
I am not usually a very organised person, however surprisingly my email is sorted. I have set up a number of folders in my inbox with the names "work", "uni", "health", 'bills", "family & friends", "recipes" etc. About once a week I go through my inbox and then move any emails I want to keep into the relevant folder, deleting any emails I do not need.

Picture is of an exhausted bunny (having a well earned rest after hopping all over the place, attempting to find curtin.edu.au!) courtesy of: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Well, I finally got to finish the task. It looked quite straightforward, download a program called Filezilla, then ftp to recall.curtin.edu.au, look at the directory structure, find the README file, download it and answer the question '_________ MATTERS'.

I had a spare half an hour before I had to pick up my daughter from school so I thought I'd give it ago, it certainly looked easy enough....

Well, I downloaded Filezilla, but I could not find anywhere in the screen or in help as to how I could 'ftp curtin'. So I went to the discussion boards. Another student had the answer - they had downloaded Filezilla Server instead of Filezilla Client - I realised I had done the same thing. So I downloaded the other Filezilla, the correct one!

I managed to download this after a couple of attempts. My computer was attempting to block the download, but I got around that. I typed the curtin address in the 'host' box, clicked on 'quick connect' and I was in! I came to the part where I had to 'locate the README file', and found that after a few minutes, tucked away in the MSC folder. So far so good. Then came the 'download file' part - I just could not figure a way of downloading the file. I tried 'export', but when I opened the file, all I saw was a few lines of gobbledy gook, certainly no sentences there with the word "matters" in it - I'd obviously done something wrong (again). At this point I gave up in frustration and went to pick my daughter up from school.

Later on, I went back to the discussion board and found a post by Robert, bless him. He had suggested that the simplest method is to 'drag and drop' the file, saving it to a planned location. Finally, I had the answer! I opened up my 'NET11' folder, and dragged and dropped the file, then opened it up in Wordpad and hey presto! I could finally answer the question - CAPITLIZATION MATTERS!

Tonight I am going to do as suggested and read the "Quick Introduction to FTP" - its probably what I should have done in the first place!

I have been continuing on with module 1 (slowly), its a bit difficult as I'm also enrolled in another subject (SSK12) which had two assessments due in by Friday 13th March - so I've been concentrating on that subject and neglecting NET11 to some degree.

Although I haven't been recording much, I have been thinking and discussing the concepts I've learnt so far. My (software design) student daughter was very interested in telnet and blinkinlights! This led to her telling me about a short video she had watched at school (Karl Fischs "Did you know" presentation). The second half of it in particular is very relevant to what we are learning (I thought) as it brings up the subject of computers in the future. The scariest part for me (and my daughter) was that it is predicted that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will EXCEED the computational capabilities of the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE!

Its certainly a long way from blinkinlights isn't it!

If anyone is interested in viewing this short video (its about 5 minutes long) it can be viewed at
http://theclosetentrepreneur.com/karl-fischs-did-you-know-presentation-remix

I suppose its not really too far fetched when you think about it. 2049 is still 40 years away, and look how far computers have come just in the last 20 years alone.... But then again, as I said to my daughter, human beings will always have the ability to turn the power off ! Unless they invent a computer that can plug itself back in again, maybe we won't have too much to worry about!

"Your mision, should you chose to accept it, is to telnet to the Deakin library database computer and find books with the author name Bennahum".

Well, perhaps the task wasn't quite worded this way, but that's basically what I had to do for the first Module 1 task.

The log entry requirements are to "record your outcome and reflections of your experiences and thoughts on this task in your learning log". So first of all here's the outcome:

Subject
Email from DEAKIN UNI LIB
module 1 task You searched for the AUTHOR: bennahum 2 AUTHORS found, with 2 entries; AUTHORS 1-2 are: 1 Bennahum David A 1936 ................................. 1 entry 2 Bennahum Ninotchka .................................... 1 entry

and C is for Concepts.... the part of the course I am completing at the moment!

Its all very interesting actually, and I couldn't believe that I remembered what Asynchronisity was (after reading about it last night) and was able to tell a colleague all about it whilst we were sending a fax at work today.



I also had a discussion about George Boole with my daughter. She already knows about Boolean because she is a Yr 12 student doing Software Design as part of her HSC (this could come in handy....)

(Picture of George Boole from georgeboole.net)

I was surprised later on to find out that he was born in the 1830's - surely he could never have imagined the technology we have now, and the part his logic would play in it?

I got about a third of the way through the introduction, learning about netiquette, metadata, the invisibility of difference - as I said its all very interesting. How many times do we quickly type an email & send it, or do a google search automatically, without thinking about the processes and concepts behind what we are doing? Well, I for one won't be taking it all for granted anymore!

LEARNING LOG ENTRY

Today is the official commencement day for this unit, and what I am doing? Playing around with the layout of my blog! I suppose I shouldn't call it playing around - I am experimenting with different designs and colour templates, while at the same time learning more about navigating this site. Now I am going to go back to Oasis and see what I should really be concentrating on!