You’ve Got Mail…

372 words that don’t seem to mean too much is how the RFC code 2821 read, and that’s all before the introduction. I thought maybe I was tough enough to read the RFC code that established the rules for email, but I quickly found out I was wrong. There wasn’t too much I got from the RFC code, and in a way I felt the same about this edition of Gizmo’s as well.

Let me explain that in no way am I attempting to blast the presenter or the class in this blog. Possibly it was simply a problem with me, but the overall time spent on this didn’t exactly make sense to me. I’ll start with what I did like first. Nearly all of his talk on email security seemed helpful and interesting. In all honesty, this class may have been more effective had that been the only focus. Knowing that 95% of all the incoming messages at Quicken Loans are spam shocked me. I knew spam was prevalent, but I had no idea it was that overbearing.

 

I also found it helpful in the area of email security when he spoke on the importance of not using email for anything even mildly important. I had no idea that all emails with social security numbers or credit card numbers were blocked, but I think that is boldly important especially with all the sensitive information that Quicken carries.

 

At the same time it was interesting to know the legalities of email. I had heard around from individuals I would in no way call experts on the law or the internet about the legalities of work email. This was the first time I had ever heard a definitive answer on those legalities and I found that useful. I found it useful to know that the establishment that and individual works at owns the emails sent and received on that computer. I also did not know that work email is saved for a predetermined amount of time set by the employer. On this note, I liked how he tied this in with the current lawsuit that is going on with Quicken Loans and the former, disgruntle team members.

 

Now to my criticism. I eluded it to it early, but all in all my only gripe with this session of Gizmos was the lack of direction and clarity. This is to say, I didn’t really need to know how contact between servers happened, and things such as that, and if that’s what the class was on then we should have gone deeper on that. More and more I’m starting to believe the tighter any idea is focused the better it will do. I used to be a shot gun type of guy. I’d throw anything out there and hope something stuck; now I’m beginning to realize that aiming for the target with eagle like vision is much more deadly.

So Al Gore Really Didn’t Create the Internet?

I found the presentation on the internet interesting. It’s hard to believe that in the 70s there were only 23 servers that consisted of the entire internet. Yet now everything is online. If the internet were to shut off then the entire economy would shut down. It would have nearly the same impact as a Y2K epidemic. Cell phones, On Star, customer services, inventory and the World Wide Web are all part of what make up this wild world of the internet. Yet still about 30 years ago there were only a handful of servers around.

 

The speaker seemed extremely smart. He seemed very knowledgeable about the subject. I especially liked the tie in with him being an entrepreneur. He seemed to embody the entire simplicity of being an entrepreneur. He didn’t seem like he had some fabulous idea, or he had a great background on writing a business plan, but he had the initiative to start a business when he saw an opportunity.

 

He said he’s been open for only 6 week and has had about $1,300 cards sold. The best part was that he used free open source software to accomplish start his company. So basically apart from purchasing the inventory that he will sell he’s had an extremely low start up and has to do very little labor to his business.

I Feel Lucky; Hit my button

The google.com presentation was great, and I’m not just saying that because I got a free hat either. I learned a lot about a service that I commonly use. The first thing that stuck out to me like a sore thumb on a European hand model was how the instructor pointed out what the “I feel lucky” button on Google was for. I realized for years I have used Google, but never once had I used that button, never once had I even thought to click it, I was so used to just hitting enter after I typed in my search criteria that I wasn’t even aware it was there. Now how is that for a perfect example of raising your level of awareness?

I also learned a great deal about basic task Google could perform. I always saw Google as simply a search engine. I never knew it could do task such as math. Also I didn’t know things such as currency exchanges and measurements conversions could be done right in the search bar of Google. I have for years used Google to search for sites to do those things, never knowing I was creating extra steps for myself.

Gizmos on the 9th

 From thecoolhunter.com

What stood out to me most in Gizmos and Gadgets this week was the netvibe demonstration. At first glance the site full of RSS feeds seemed great, then I got to using it and it seemed a little less than that. There seemed like there was so much clutter on the site to begin with and an awful lot of confusion. I almost wrote it off and then I realized it was much more manageable if I simply deleted the majority of what was available and then worked from there.

I also liked the site the cool hunter website was also a great site. I used to think I was somewhat internet savvy, but in this class I quickly found out how little I did know about what the internet had to offer. All and all I found out about some great website during this class.

The First Post

Every great post starts with a first post…