Webthoughts

After a few experiences at work over the past few days, I got to thinking about how E-Mail fits into the business world. Should e-mail be relied upon for mission-critical business?

Okay...another work-related rant today.

At my place of business, we offer customers a public-use fax machine for outgoing faxes (all incoming faxes are in a secure location and we have to retrieve them). The public-use fax is a self-service machine. Customers can just walk up to it and use it at their convenience. We offer step-by-step instructions for them to follow. If they would like, they can ask for assistance.

When we are asked for assistance (which is quite regularly), the most common reason is because the customer did not dial the fax number correctly. Invariably, the number they need to dial is a local number, but they added the area code anyway, or it's long distance, but they didn't prefix the number with a "1".

Mistakes happen, and that's fine. What astounds me is the frequency with which this particular mistake happens. And, most of the time, the customer will tell us "I didn't know I was supposed to dial that way." Um...it's a phone. A specialize phone, granted. But it's still just a phone. Dial it like you would any other phone.

Pretty much, it boils down to the fact that many people are simply intimidated by a fax machine. I have no idea why. I've seen people who can find their way around a computer like no other, but the moment you stick them in front of a fax machine, they're not sure what that number-pad is for.

I really just don't get it.

As many have already noticed, Mozilla recently released Thunderbird 1.0. Thunderbird is the e-mail counterpart of FireFox.

Although I've been extrodinarily intrigued by FireFox and, as I've noted here several times, have been using it as my default browser, the Thunderbird 1.0 release doesn't really interest me as much. I'm very comfortable with my current e-mail client (Microsoft Entourage) and prefer the additional options that a program such as Entourage provides that programs like Mail, PowerMail and Thunderbird don't appear to provide. Perhaps I'll have to, sometime soon, write a comparison, from my eyes, of many of the popular Mac e-mail clients and why I don't use them (except, of course, for Entourage) on a regular basis.

That said, I will evaluate Thunderbird simply for the fact that it's being trumpeted like FireFox and the group obviously hopes to make a dent in the Outlook-dominated E-mail world. But, Entourage will maintain a fast hold on my e-mail usage for the forseeable future.

It turns out that the problem with MT-Blacklist was much bigger than I originally anticipated. So, I've had to keep comments off for the time being.

I'll have something nifty to show you all very soon (probably tomorrow evening) in regards to a certain iTunes-related utility that you might be familiar with.

I'm not even sure what to say. [link]

Whether you celebrate the religious significance of the holiday, or merely celebrate a time of "good will toward men", I wish you all the Merriest of Christmases!

Off to spend the day with family now...