November 30, 2007 at 7:54 am
I'm actually bad about this....in the opposite way. I tend to spend too much time looking over an email to make sure that it conveys the message that I intended in the way that I intended it.
Emails, and writing in general, are tough (at least for me) to make sure that the "tone" of the message is done in such a way that it can't be interpreted the wrong way.
I think it just comes down to professionalism in the workplace. Everything I do reflects on me, whether I want it to or not. So I better make sure that the reflection is the one I want.
November 30, 2007 at 8:08 am
Personally, I've gotten better at writing the response and then throwing it away. As noted earlier, this type of 'therapy' can be great for either calming one down or helping one realize that there is no gain to sending the email at all.
Our former CIO came down fairly and squarely on IT for this very issue. For a time after that, I was my boss' official proofreader for any emails to the CIO that had any critical content. More than one I talked him down to something more pleasant and it all worked out in the end.
So make like Santa Claus. Make the email, check it twice. If necessary, get an elf to look over it for you. The embarrassment you save may be your own.
------------
Buy the ticket, take the ride. -- Hunter S. Thompson
November 30, 2007 at 8:30 am
I don't know how many e-mail clients support this, but Outlook 2007 at least offers an option in Client-Side Rules to delay sending of e-mails for a set # of minutes, along with some exceptions such as a high priority or certain To lists. I'm using this now to help catch me even if I do hit send. I still practice a lot of what has been said above, especially if I'm pretty emotional about something. However, this has also helped me stop e-mails from going out about topics that were answered in a group e-mail I just received or sometimes to add/remove people from the list.
It's been useful to delay the speed of e-mail just a little bit in case I have some second/third thought about what was in the e-mail.
November 30, 2007 at 8:42 am
I generally don't address and place in draft for some time an email especially if it is something I am passionate about so I have time to reread it. Occasionally I will pass to a teammember I trust to be honest before I send something scathing. However on a few occasions I have shot off in a hurry becuase the issue had to be addressed right then (and I have some lumps to prove I was right btw). It all depends on the situation and importance of the issue, the one you listed looks bad gramatically. However, I think that was a translation issue from the original french. But still the tone is obvious and for him all I have to say is
"Would you like a little chesse with your whine , sir"
I like Linux, Windows, Mac and even play with OS/2 some still. Nigeria is honoring their commitment but as customers they don't owe anyone an explination. Did MS use bribery or some other underhanded tacktic or is this the resounding "WAAAHHH I cry foul" mentality we see every day when someone doesn't get their way????????
November 30, 2007 at 8:44 am
Wow, great replies and thanks for the debate. Looks like most of you are probably better with this than I am.
Peter, didn't know that. Where is this in Outlook?
William, it's entirely possible that this was a language issue, but he's a CEO. He wrote it in English and French, and should have had someone run through it and try to clean things up. It's out there forever now and you can bet that MS will keep copies around.
As much as I like to see CEOs blogging, like Mr Schwartz from Sun, someone has to go over their writing and ensure it's appropriate for release. They have too much impact in what they're doing.
I'm like Grant, or have been in the past. I can be a jerk, so I try to slow down on the inflammatory emails. I actually have quite a few things I won't write down in email, blog, anywhere, specifically because I know it's out there. I've had emails forwarded on and it's sad because it means that I can't trust people.
I'd add one thing that in addition to being careful about sending what you write, be careful about what you forward. Your name is attached to the email as well and you might be breaking trust or furthering a cause. I often delete email addresses before I forward something since I don't think I should be giving out someone's email if it's not appropriate.
November 30, 2007 at 9:01 am
I went and read the original message. It's whining, pure and simple. I then read as many of the comments as I could stomach. It's kind of freaky how attached people are to an OS. I'm a Microsoft guy. I'm working with SQL Server, Visual Studio, XP (no Vista), Outlook, Office, all kinds of MS stuff. But you know what? They're just a bunch of tools. I'm not worshipping at Bill's feet because I'm using software from his company. I've used Linux in the past. It was pretty nice stuff. Unfortunately support for it was pretty crappy and involved wading through lots of "If you're too stupid to fix this on your own, go back to Windoze" posts. So I did. That attitude is on beautiful display over there. Even if there was a translation issue with the CEO's message, all the "me-too" posts that follow it up sound like a bunch of snotty fourteen year olds who aren't getting their way. There's a lot of people who could afford to read before they post.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
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November 30, 2007 at 9:18 am
The comments are crazy. You should search it out on Slashdot for some good humor.
I agree with you. Everything is a tool. Heck, I don't even care about the Mac v PC. I use what works better. I edit the podcasts on a Mac because it's easier. Don't care about the platform. I've used Linux, it works ok, but it's no better than Windows. It installed easy, text editor, web, and email were OK, and I didn't really have issues. But it wasn't any better than using my Windows PC, just as stable/unstable, so why switch?
Use what works and be effective. If MS convinced someone that their software is better, than make a better argument or change your software.
If they're both free (as in beer), then what does it mean if Windows is chosen?
November 30, 2007 at 9:24 am
For the Outlook Delay, go to Tools - Rules & Alerts. Create a new blank rule for "after sending".
Choose the account for this rule (or whatever other criteria - maybe you just want to delay sends to certain people).
Under the "Select Actions" screen, the last option I have is "Defer delivery by a number of minutes." Choose that.
Choose whatever exceptions you'd like to this rule (High Importance, etc).
Save it and turn it on. That's pretty much it. Something that you could find on your own if you use Rules a lot, but otherwise you'd probably never know it was there. Credit to Lifehacker as they brought it to my attention. (original credit unknown)
November 30, 2007 at 9:30 am
BTW, as far as Linux goes I think that there's a reason MS is dominant over Linux and that is the fact that most in the Linux community don't really "get" the desktop experience. While it may work fine for servers, it's just not ready for desktop until everything can be done through the GUI with little thought for the average computer user. Once you mention "command line", "shell", or "compile" in order to accomplish a task, you've pretty much lost the average user.
Personally, I'd love to see Linux as a viable alternative on the desktop. I think that the competition is good for all of the OS companies. I'm a little put off by Windows prices - I still remember when a fully functioning Windows 95 or even 98 was < $100. (Great gaming platforms for the time, too.) It's hard to look at the cost of MS Office or MS Windows and not wonder about alternatives. Sadly the only real alternatives are "get a Mac" or "deal with Linux".
In this case, I think that with MS competing against Mandriva with the price being equal it's hard to justify going with Mandriva. I pretty much skipped the rest of the story - I kind of figured it would disintegrate pretty quickly into an OS war.
November 30, 2007 at 9:41 am
I've tried Ubuntu Linux 6.06 and it's waaaay more stable than the Win 98 SE that it replaced on my old Sony laptop. It recognized all the hardware without having to search for drivers. I know almost nothing about Linux but I got it installed very quickly. But without MS-Office or SQL Server, it's more of a laboratory curiosity for me.
November 30, 2007 at 9:47 am
Yes, I pause and reread things. However I do not go out for a smoke every time other wise some days that would mean smoking 4 packs of cigarettes at work !
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
November 30, 2007 at 9:49 am
WILLIAM MITCHELL (11/30/2007)
I've tried Ubuntu Linux 6.06 and it's waaaay more stable than the Win 98 SE that it replaced on my old Sony laptop. It recognized all the hardware without having to search for drivers. I know almost nothing about Linux but I got it installed very quickly. But without MS-Office or SQL Server, it's more of a laboratory curiosity for me.
I have played with Linux (Ubuntu) and the only thing I could not get working was USB wireless. If I could get that working I would use it for my personal PC. It has internet, email, and Office so I could do all my personal stuff no problem.
Jack Corbett
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November 30, 2007 at 9:57 am
Experience with RedHat, Abit, Madrake, Corel, and a couple of others I can't recall, some are more user friendly and some are a pain (RedHat 9 took 3 hours to install and failed the first 3 times to complete correctly). And yes all were labs for me and not my day to day. Finally went and created Virtual PC files of all older OS's I play with (lots of older software laying around) so I once I got am image the way I wanted I could write to DVD and restore whenever. I loved BeOS and was sad it died but Windows remains the dominate force for my work related stuff so it is what I live on.
November 30, 2007 at 10:04 am
I had similar bad experiences with SUSE 9.2 it took forever & was as resource-intensive as Windows. And I had to BUY that one 🙁
November 30, 2007 at 10:27 am
I tried various flavors of Linux for a week on my home machine. I actually preferred PC Linux OS 2007 over Ubuntu 7.04, Mandriva 2008 and Suse 10.3 were pretty nice too. I was surprised I could go a week without Windows at all and not really need it. I mostly use my home machine for gaming and surfing the Net but I ended up taking a break from gaming that week. I think Civilization 4 is for Linux and Unreal Tournament 2004 is so I could've had my games on it. Some of the visual effects you get with Compiz Fusion, or its older incarnation Beryl, are amazing and either surpass or are on par with the visual effects from Mac OS or Vista. Even though I'm a techie at work I really don't like being one at home and didn't have to go to the command prompt much at all.
My main gripe though is that no version of Linux I tried could successfully put my computer to sleep and resume. Some could put it to sleep but after it woke up my mouse or keyboard wouldn't work right, or the display would just be black, either way I was forced to reboot. PC Linux OS recognized my mouse correctly and I could use the back and forward buttons on it with Firefox; other Linux flavors required a trip to the X config files (which I used the GUI for).
Overall I was impressed, Linux has come a long way in regards to being used on the desktop since the last time I tried it. KDE 4 is supposed to be coming out pretty soon and it's supposed to make desktop Linux even nicer. I think desktop Linux is ready now for certain people, non-techies I mean.
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