...is the kind in which the message starts with something like "As you are aware" and then the writer conveys bad news that you didn't already know. A few years ago I learned about not getting a SSHRC fellowship this way, and today I learned about someone leaving a job.
I think the special force of this email structure comes not only from getting the bad news, but also from the fact that it indicated that you are really out of the loop or not with it. And that's exactly how you want to feel when you get bad news.
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Hey da Google, stop creeping my email!
So da Google has totally started creeping my email, and I don't like it.
I know that they have been basing ad choice on email content for some time, but this seemed somewhat passive and easy to ignore.
Recently the have stepped up the creep factor.
Tonight I was sending an email when I encountered a dialog box. The box wanted to know if I had intended to include attachments with my message (I had not). It then went on to say that I was being asked this question because I had used the phrase "I have included" in my message.
Holy crap da Google, at least let me send my messages before you start creeping my email. Now I feel as though I need to watch myself even when preparing my message, which isn't a particularly pleasant feeling. (The best/worst part of this is that da Google already knows that I have written this and criticized it - hopefully they will place conciliatory ads in my inbox).
I know that they have been basing ad choice on email content for some time, but this seemed somewhat passive and easy to ignore.
Recently the have stepped up the creep factor.
Tonight I was sending an email when I encountered a dialog box. The box wanted to know if I had intended to include attachments with my message (I had not). It then went on to say that I was being asked this question because I had used the phrase "I have included" in my message.
Holy crap da Google, at least let me send my messages before you start creeping my email. Now I feel as though I need to watch myself even when preparing my message, which isn't a particularly pleasant feeling. (The best/worst part of this is that da Google already knows that I have written this and criticized it - hopefully they will place conciliatory ads in my inbox).
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Finally, some news from Vegas
So, a little over a week after Neil and Rebecca returned from Vegas I am now finally in a position to give people a little bit of an update on how things went down on their trip, or at least a few of the key aspects.
I guess I will cut to the chase on the particularly key aspect of the trip. Within a few hours of arriving Neil and Rebecca purchased a ring and made their way to the marriage license office. Shortly after their visit to the office, on the evening of the day of their arrival, they made their way to another office where a marriage ceremony was performed by a county employee. The witness they used was a friend/acquaintance of the security guards (had had already done at least two other weddings that day). Apparently the ceremony wasn't so simple that they got to skip the 'I dos' and associated statements of commitment to one another.
From what I can tell, much of the rest of the trip was spent either riding the pool's lazy river, taking advantage of free drink service at casinos, hunting for casino's new player deals, attending shows, or window shopping. All in all, things took a turn towards the less exciting after the first 12 hours that they were there.
I guess I should also publicly forgive Neil for not posting more while in Vegas (though it is possible he could have squeaked a single post in) as it seems that internet connections are a little bit more difficult to come by in Vegas than anyone expected. Not only do most places charge for connection time, it seems to not be particularly cheap. As Neil explained it to me, the casinos would much rather have in the casinos gambling than up in your room checking your various social networking sites or watching crappy videos.
How this impacted Neil and Rebecca was that it drastically reduced their interneting time so much so that they only went online while at the airport, where it was free, and once in a fast food restaurant to send us emails letting us know that they had been married (almost a week before).
I guess I will cut to the chase on the particularly key aspect of the trip. Within a few hours of arriving Neil and Rebecca purchased a ring and made their way to the marriage license office. Shortly after their visit to the office, on the evening of the day of their arrival, they made their way to another office where a marriage ceremony was performed by a county employee. The witness they used was a friend/acquaintance of the security guards (had had already done at least two other weddings that day). Apparently the ceremony wasn't so simple that they got to skip the 'I dos' and associated statements of commitment to one another.
From what I can tell, much of the rest of the trip was spent either riding the pool's lazy river, taking advantage of free drink service at casinos, hunting for casino's new player deals, attending shows, or window shopping. All in all, things took a turn towards the less exciting after the first 12 hours that they were there.
I guess I should also publicly forgive Neil for not posting more while in Vegas (though it is possible he could have squeaked a single post in) as it seems that internet connections are a little bit more difficult to come by in Vegas than anyone expected. Not only do most places charge for connection time, it seems to not be particularly cheap. As Neil explained it to me, the casinos would much rather have in the casinos gambling than up in your room checking your various social networking sites or watching crappy videos.
How this impacted Neil and Rebecca was that it drastically reduced their interneting time so much so that they only went online while at the airport, where it was free, and once in a fast food restaurant to send us emails letting us know that they had been married (almost a week before).
Saturday, August 29, 2009
A Few Quick Notes 350
-Today (Friday) was an absolutely beautiful day. The skies were clear, the temperature not oppressively hot, and there was even a nice breeze. This is exactly the kind of summer weather that I really like.
-Today I had to head into Dal to run to take care of some paperwork. Afterwards I made my way over to Quinpool to take care of a sale purchase I wanted to make. Last but not least on my list of errands, I made my way to a friend's apartment to pick up an aloe plant that she was giving me. My friend and I eventually decided to go get a coffee and ended up spending quite a while talking and having a good time.
Just after 4:00 we realized that it was after 4:00 and that we both had things to do and needed to get going. She made her way back to her place and I to mine.
Not to long after I returned home I noticed that the stove's clock was flashing. A little while later I was going through my RSS feeds and I learned that the South End had experienced a power outage for the better part of the afternoon. So it turns out that, inadvertently, I was able to use time that would have otherwise been unproductive to socialize. Slacking win.
-At a point this afternoon, while walking between Quinpool and my friend's apartment, I noticed a number of flashing lights and emergency vehicles ahead of me. In many ways it looked like the scene of an accident, but it appeared to be missing the requisite crashed vehicles. As I drew closer to the emergency vehicles it became clear that it was an accident with two vehicles, but that one of the vehicles was a motorized scooter (as might be used by individuals with problems walking) that appeared to be on its way across a cross walk. Talk about a downer of a scene.
Not too long after I found the story about the power outage, CBC also had a story about this incident.
-For some reason I wasn't able to go to sleep until about 5:00 AM this morning. Not surprisingly, this left me quite exhausted today. After returning from my errands and then having dinner I ended up crashing for about an hour and fifteen minutes. It turned out that it was one of the most intense naps that I have had in weeks. I was really out. The best part, of course, was that I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to work.
-At about 1:15 AM this morning, after several hours of work, I decided to take a break to make some humus. Though it isn't as nice as my last batch, it is still pretty tasty. I am eating some of it as I prepare this post.
-I have alluded to today's productivity already, but I guess I might make a more conclusive statement for the sake of posterity. Though I got a bit of a late start, I eventually managed to put in a few hours of good work. My plan for tomorrow is to do some tidying of footnotes and my conclusion. I can't wait to get the party started.
-The seems to be an overwhelming, almost deafening, e-communications silence coming from Las Vegas these days. Since shortly after their arrival in Nevada I have heard nothing from either Rebecca or Neil. Even more troubling is that our user stats suggest that no one in Nevada has been checking the blog.
This evening I realized that Neil could even phone his reports in if he wanted (we could use Google Voice and then post the messages) if typing is too trying. I hope that he at least remembers how he as been passing his days so he can eventually post a rather nice, well-researched travelogue that would outline what he and Rebecca did while they were in the proximity of such opportunities for sin, and winning money.
-Today I had to head into Dal to run to take care of some paperwork. Afterwards I made my way over to Quinpool to take care of a sale purchase I wanted to make. Last but not least on my list of errands, I made my way to a friend's apartment to pick up an aloe plant that she was giving me. My friend and I eventually decided to go get a coffee and ended up spending quite a while talking and having a good time.
Just after 4:00 we realized that it was after 4:00 and that we both had things to do and needed to get going. She made her way back to her place and I to mine.
Not to long after I returned home I noticed that the stove's clock was flashing. A little while later I was going through my RSS feeds and I learned that the South End had experienced a power outage for the better part of the afternoon. So it turns out that, inadvertently, I was able to use time that would have otherwise been unproductive to socialize. Slacking win.
-At a point this afternoon, while walking between Quinpool and my friend's apartment, I noticed a number of flashing lights and emergency vehicles ahead of me. In many ways it looked like the scene of an accident, but it appeared to be missing the requisite crashed vehicles. As I drew closer to the emergency vehicles it became clear that it was an accident with two vehicles, but that one of the vehicles was a motorized scooter (as might be used by individuals with problems walking) that appeared to be on its way across a cross walk. Talk about a downer of a scene.
Not too long after I found the story about the power outage, CBC also had a story about this incident.
-For some reason I wasn't able to go to sleep until about 5:00 AM this morning. Not surprisingly, this left me quite exhausted today. After returning from my errands and then having dinner I ended up crashing for about an hour and fifteen minutes. It turned out that it was one of the most intense naps that I have had in weeks. I was really out. The best part, of course, was that I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to work.
-At about 1:15 AM this morning, after several hours of work, I decided to take a break to make some humus. Though it isn't as nice as my last batch, it is still pretty tasty. I am eating some of it as I prepare this post.
-I have alluded to today's productivity already, but I guess I might make a more conclusive statement for the sake of posterity. Though I got a bit of a late start, I eventually managed to put in a few hours of good work. My plan for tomorrow is to do some tidying of footnotes and my conclusion. I can't wait to get the party started.
-The seems to be an overwhelming, almost deafening, e-communications silence coming from Las Vegas these days. Since shortly after their arrival in Nevada I have heard nothing from either Rebecca or Neil. Even more troubling is that our user stats suggest that no one in Nevada has been checking the blog.
This evening I realized that Neil could even phone his reports in if he wanted (we could use Google Voice and then post the messages) if typing is too trying. I hope that he at least remembers how he as been passing his days so he can eventually post a rather nice, well-researched travelogue that would outline what he and Rebecca did while they were in the proximity of such opportunities for sin, and winning money.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Internet scammers might be after your money
In a break with tradition, I am going to try to include a post that may actually be of interest to people other than my friends and family.
This morning as I was checking my email I found that I had received a message from my father. He was forwarding me a message from a mutual acquaintance that looked a little suspicious. As soon as I read the message I noticed that it was almost identical to messages associated with new scam I recently read about.
The scam works by obtaining access to an email account. Message are then sent to the person's contact list. The message suggests that the account holder is traveling and run into trouble overseas. The idea is that you send the person money to help them get out of a bind. In this case, they were looking for about $2000 dollars, supposedly to cover hotel costs so the person could have their travel documents returned to them.
Of course all of this was a lie.
The person from whom the message was supposedly sent was not in trouble (though the matter was confused because the person was traveling, giving the message an air or reality).
Fortunately, in this case, the family of the person in whose name the scam was being committed figured out that it was a scam almost instantly. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to determine if any of the person's contact's were duped as the family doesn't have access to his email account.
Anyway, just thought that you might want to be on the look out for such email or at least know that they are circulating, seemingly with some frequency (later in the day a similar scam was reported upon by CBC Newfoundland).
I think what disgusts me about this particular scam, unlike the Nigerian money scam, is that this one plays on people's goodwill towards their friends (instead of personal greed). Sadly, such a scam is likely going to make it more difficult for people to get money while overseas when they actually need it.
This morning as I was checking my email I found that I had received a message from my father. He was forwarding me a message from a mutual acquaintance that looked a little suspicious. As soon as I read the message I noticed that it was almost identical to messages associated with new scam I recently read about.
The scam works by obtaining access to an email account. Message are then sent to the person's contact list. The message suggests that the account holder is traveling and run into trouble overseas. The idea is that you send the person money to help them get out of a bind. In this case, they were looking for about $2000 dollars, supposedly to cover hotel costs so the person could have their travel documents returned to them.
Of course all of this was a lie.
The person from whom the message was supposedly sent was not in trouble (though the matter was confused because the person was traveling, giving the message an air or reality).
Fortunately, in this case, the family of the person in whose name the scam was being committed figured out that it was a scam almost instantly. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to determine if any of the person's contact's were duped as the family doesn't have access to his email account.
Anyway, just thought that you might want to be on the look out for such email or at least know that they are circulating, seemingly with some frequency (later in the day a similar scam was reported upon by CBC Newfoundland).
I think what disgusts me about this particular scam, unlike the Nigerian money scam, is that this one plays on people's goodwill towards their friends (instead of personal greed). Sadly, such a scam is likely going to make it more difficult for people to get money while overseas when they actually need it.
Monday, June 16, 2008
A Few Quick Notes 182
-Not surprisingly, today was filled with rain and overcast skies. As was the case yesterday, winds were low, and temperatures were at least approaching ten for much of the day. Apparently, though I don't know on what basis this is being suggested, we are due for some temperatures in the teens and maybe even a clear-ish day in the the near future.
-It seems that when writing my post about our foray into the realm of usage stats with Google Analytics I hadn't noticed that we seem to have actually had one hit apiece from both Indonesia and South Korea, though I can't imagine why. I guess in the future I will need to pay more attention to the light shades of green on the map displaying the origins of our visitors. Sorry if anyone's feelings were hurt through my omission.
-Kirsten and I took another trip to the library this evening. I did a little reading in one of the books that I checked out last trip and also skimmed/read sections of political science journals. My general goal is to re-familiarize myself with some of the literature of the field before I return as a student in the fall.
-Today I was able to set up my Dalhousie email address. Unfortunately, this was much more complicated that in should have been. Instead of quickly creating a NetID and password I hand to dink around for a long time and then eventually use a backdoor that Neil found to finally have a password issued. Though I couldn't believe it at first, I think that Dalhousie might have a less user friendly system than McGill.
The big plus of the Dalhousie system is that they allow me to get my university email in my Gmail account (which is particularly important considering how cumbersome the webmail application is). While McGill allowed this for a period of time they eventually clamped down and disallowed the access that was needed, costing me valuable minutes a day.
-On Thursday I should be sending a few more things to Halifax, this time with Rebecca's father. I guess I really should start to box some of this up so that it will be ready to go when he arrives in two day's time.
I am particularly looking forward to being able to use the mixer once I arrive. While in Montreal I was forced to return to the stone ages and mix everything by hand. A few of the other kitchen related implements will also be quite nice (particularly when complimented by those already possessed by Neil and Rebecca).
-It seems that when writing my post about our foray into the realm of usage stats with Google Analytics I hadn't noticed that we seem to have actually had one hit apiece from both Indonesia and South Korea, though I can't imagine why. I guess in the future I will need to pay more attention to the light shades of green on the map displaying the origins of our visitors. Sorry if anyone's feelings were hurt through my omission.
-Kirsten and I took another trip to the library this evening. I did a little reading in one of the books that I checked out last trip and also skimmed/read sections of political science journals. My general goal is to re-familiarize myself with some of the literature of the field before I return as a student in the fall.
-Today I was able to set up my Dalhousie email address. Unfortunately, this was much more complicated that in should have been. Instead of quickly creating a NetID and password I hand to dink around for a long time and then eventually use a backdoor that Neil found to finally have a password issued. Though I couldn't believe it at first, I think that Dalhousie might have a less user friendly system than McGill.
The big plus of the Dalhousie system is that they allow me to get my university email in my Gmail account (which is particularly important considering how cumbersome the webmail application is). While McGill allowed this for a period of time they eventually clamped down and disallowed the access that was needed, costing me valuable minutes a day.
-On Thursday I should be sending a few more things to Halifax, this time with Rebecca's father. I guess I really should start to box some of this up so that it will be ready to go when he arrives in two day's time.
I am particularly looking forward to being able to use the mixer once I arrive. While in Montreal I was forced to return to the stone ages and mix everything by hand. A few of the other kitchen related implements will also be quite nice (particularly when complimented by those already possessed by Neil and Rebecca).
Friday, October 12, 2007
A Few Quick Notes 122
-For the past few days we have been making up for the lack of rain we had in September. Skies have been generally overcast with intermittent rain.
-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.
-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.
-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.
-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.
-The heaters have been turned on in my building. This means that even with windows open I am uncomfortably hot. I wonder if we live in a building that heats at a uniform level all year, or if the level of heating is adjusted to outside temperatures.
-Moments ago I bought our apartment’s first plant, a basil plant. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months we can develop this trend, though I have no idea where this or any other plant might go. And as I like my plants to either bare fruit or be edible my options are more limited.
-As of a day or two ago McGill has changed there email service in such a way that no longer allows me to import my messages to my Gmail inbox. The reason is supposedly security. A more reasonable explanation might be that things were to easy before, students should need to work to access any ‘official’ communication.
-Tonight is another work night. Fortunately I should be able to punch out early and have a few drinks with the library school types, or at least those that are still there at 10:30 or so.
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