Newsgroup & Chat

Newsgroup

I tried the Usenet Google newsgroup for my newsgroup task. I selected the "Cooking Nook" group. I had fun reading all different kinds of recipes, cooking tips and housekeeping ideas. It was not easy to join them because I had to get the presidents permission via email and then only able to become a member to contribute. But it was a good newsgroup to join as I am a mom of two I enjoyed all the postings.

After observing and reading thier contributions I posted one of the simple reciepe that i always do at home for my kids. The following is my post;

Jana
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More options Jul 17, 7:15 am

From: Jana
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:15:59 -0700 (PDT)
Local: Thurs, Jul 17 2008 7:15 am
Subject: MARS BAR SLICE
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Hi friends,
Mars Bar Slice is my all time favourite sweet. Try this out and let me know how you all feel.

Mars Bar Slice
Ingredients
3 x 60g Mars Bars 3 x cups of Rice Bubbles 1 x tablespoon of Golden Syrup 1 x 150g block of Cadbury Milk Chocolate 75g butter
Method
Place chopped Mars Bars in a heatproof bowl with butter and golden syrup. Microwave until ingrains are melted (about 1 minute) Stir until mixture is smooth Add Rice Bubbles and mix together until all Rice Bubbles are covered by chocolate. Line a square cake tin with foil and spray with cooking spray or rub with butter. Press mixture firmly into the tin on top of the foil Place in the fridge until firm (about 2 hours) Melt the Cadbury Milk Chocolate in the same clean bowl in the microwave (be careful not to burn) it will take about 2 minutes. Spread the melted chocolate over the now firm mixture until it covers the top completely. Cover tin with foil and place in the fridge until firm. Removes slice from tin and leave out of fridge for about 1 hour before cutting into slices. Enjoy!
Regards Janaki

Comments as follows;

From: ...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:59:01 -0400
Local: Thurs, Jul 17 2008 9:59 am
Subject: Re: {TheCookingNook} MARS BAR SLICE
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These sound good - will try them instead of Rice Krispy treats real soon.
Thanks for sharing, Janaki :)
Sheila

Gigi
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More options Jul 17, 8:45 pm

From: "Gigi" ...@rogers.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:45:26 -0400
Local: Thurs, Jul 17 2008 8:45 pm
Subject: Re: {TheCookingNook} Re: MARS BAR SLICE
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What are rice bubbles, please? Are they the same as rice crispies?

Jana
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More options Jul 18, 6:33 am

From: Jana ...@yahoo.com.au>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:33:35 -0700 (PDT)
Local: Fri, Jul 18 2008 6:33 am
Subject: Re: {TheCookingNook} Re: MARS BAR SLICE
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Rice Bubbles are cereals (tiny yellow balls) that come in a big blue box it should be similar to rice crackers.
On Jul 18, 12:12 am, ...@gmail.com> wrote:

Chat

I guess this is the most interactive part of this module so far. I chatted with Gaynour and Julian for my chat task using Skype. We discussed about other chats and upcoming concept assignment. It was fun typing and chatting. I have chatted with my sister before using skype but I used the logitech cam coder so I did not thave to type. I guess it'll be quite a challenge for some one who is not up to speed with typing in this kind of chatting by typing.

I could not take part in any ICQ or IRC chats due to my computer at not letting me download the operating systems. I had difficulties and then I gave up. So I am not in a position to compare other chats. So please do not penalise me for not completing this task with other chat services.

Email List

For email list task I joined the yahoo list and met all the NET11 buddies. It was very easy to join and move around in the list. The only problem was every day my email box flooded with all the posts in the yahoo list. Some of them are relevant while some are off topic.

Email 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?

A basic email message will contain the senders and receivers email address, a subject heading, date and time and message.
Email address will have username@domainaddress. Eg: puvanarajah@yahoo.com.au. In this case Username is puvanarajah and the domain address is yahoo.com.au. This should be written correctly for the message to reach its destination. So anyone looking at the email address will know that the above stated email address uses yahoo.com.au as the domain.
The date field shows the sender the time it sent the message and the receiver the time their mailbox received the message.
The subject heading is very important especially at work places. Some times in busy working environments people look at the subject and decide whether to read or not straight away. So it is important to have a proper subject heading in the subject field.

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

These functions are very helpful at work place. I use the ‘cc’ function when I want my manager to know what I am doing or when sending some important reports I cc her to receive the copy of my correspondence. I also use this function to make my colleagues act more efficiently. That is when I ask for some information some times they are too busy or reluctant to provide, as soon as they see that I have ‘cc’ my manager in it the relevant information is provided quickly without a reminding email. This ‘cc’ helps me to work efficiently at work place.

‘Bcc’ is a function where a blind copy is sent to a third party without the knowledge of the receiver. I personally use this function mostly when I am sending forwarded messages to others or sending a common message to a group of people. My logic behind using the ‘bcc’ function is – I do not want others to know who and who I have sent the message and some may not like their email address to be known by others. It leaves the recipient wonder as to who else have received this email. And on the other hand the same message may be sent to the recipient many times from different people.

Reply all function is good when you receive a group message and you want your response to be known by every one in the group. This is kind of communication where every body in a group will know what other person is deciding to do on a subject matter. This is helpful when organising a meeting or day out etc…

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

There are some commonly used programs which we could use to avoid complications of attachments. At work places we use Microsoft word, excel and Adobe Acrobat very commonly to attach files. But sometimes we receive the very latest versions or non compatible versions of those programmes which we can’t open. So the best way may be to confirm before sending what program other party is using. Otherwise sending it as a plain text document or rich text file will guarantee of recipient reading the documents correctly, but this also can cause formatting problems such as bold, italics etc.
For my personal use of sending photos to my family and friends I used http://www.flickr.com/ to upload the photos and then sent this link to everyone. In my personal opinion this is a very effective and easy way of sending photos. There is no need for the recipient to have any special programme to view the photos.

4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I have set up a filter to put all unknown email addressed into a mailbox called ‘Unknown’ and then organised the rest with relevancy to and type. That is all emails received from Open Uni to go into Studies email folder. That is I setup the filters to find emails with words such as open uni or Curtin or students to go to “Studies”. I have set up several rules to separate emails from family members to friends and work related separately. I also have a special interest in cake making so I receive all cake decorating emails into my “Cake” folder.

I setup mail alerts when I want to read some specific emails as soon as they arrive and to make decisions or reply to them back ASAP.
These setups help me organise my time to read what is important first and then at my leisure I read the other less important ones. I am much organised person at work and home so these filters help me organise my work related and personal emails for me to function more effectively at work and home.

5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

I have organised my personal use email into folders of family, friends, studies and hobby. At work I have organised in the names of individuals. This is very important for me to keep track of when some one sent and what actions I have taken. If an email needs action then what I do is I act upon it and then reply to the original email and save that as the Completed tasks email. I have a separate folder for those emails. These folders are easy to use and they are good filing methods.