In addition to being really annoying, one of the most unfortunate aspects of excessive marketing is that when something relevant does come through, it often ends up in the trash with the other messaging. It pains me to admit this, but technically speaking the company whose e-mail program I use notified me that there was a very specific thing I needed to do on a very specific date in order to keep it functioning. The company whose e-mail program I use also notified me that I could access my contacts on my cell phone, easily transfer pictures taken with my cell phone to my e-mail and to my Web site, incorporate Web cam functionality into my e-mail, streamline my contacts in a number of ways, set up profiles so that I could communicate with a predefined group of recipients, “organize” and "integrate" all of my Linkedin contacts with all of my e-mail contacts, horse around with movies and music and on and on and on. These e-mails arrived once every 48 hours or so. I don’t have a cell phone, I don’t have a Web cam and I’m not interested in doing anything that marketing monkeys refer to as “streamlining” or “organizing.” I have plenty of time to spare, but there are hundreds of things I’d rather do than read trick mail, so I simply deleted the messages as soon as I saw them.
Unfortunately, I deleted the one about the download I had to do in order to keep the e-mail working, so it came as a huge surprise to me when, on an otherwise glorious morning toward the end of August, messages to and from me simply stopped coming and going. Over and over again I tried to fix it myself but the error message my e-mail coughed up about it simply said my connection to the server that handles the sending and the receiving had been terminated, which even I understood quite well. Rather than offer a solution to the problem, there was a long, long line of numbers and letters. A friend suggested that I type the error message into Google, which I did. I needed to download a program that connected my main e-mail program with my secondary one.
Let me explain. Years ago I signed up for an instant messenger program, which happens to be offered by the same company that offers the e-mail program I use. When I signed up for the instant messenger program, a new and separate (I thought – stupid me) e-mail account was automatically set up. Since I still use the messenger program, the other e-mail address is still active. The company that offers the service that powers both of my e-mail programs and the insant messaging system decided that everything needed to be connected. I live and die by e-mail, so once I figured out the error message, I downloaded the mandatory upgrade. The lawyers would argue, and rightly so, that the upgrade was not mandatory. It's true - I did indeed have the option of not being able to send and receive messages from my main e-mail account. I declined most of the add-on options for integration, many of which were similar to the marketing e-mails in their focus on my contacts list. While I’m certain that there are all sorts of technical benefits to this “upgrade,” thus far the main way my life has improved is that I now have five separate calendars included in my main e-mail account. As of today, I have:
Unfortunately, I deleted the one about the download I had to do in order to keep the e-mail working, so it came as a huge surprise to me when, on an otherwise glorious morning toward the end of August, messages to and from me simply stopped coming and going. Over and over again I tried to fix it myself but the error message my e-mail coughed up about it simply said my connection to the server that handles the sending and the receiving had been terminated, which even I understood quite well. Rather than offer a solution to the problem, there was a long, long line of numbers and letters. A friend suggested that I type the error message into Google, which I did. I needed to download a program that connected my main e-mail program with my secondary one.
Let me explain. Years ago I signed up for an instant messenger program, which happens to be offered by the same company that offers the e-mail program I use. When I signed up for the instant messenger program, a new and separate (I thought – stupid me) e-mail account was automatically set up. Since I still use the messenger program, the other e-mail address is still active. The company that offers the service that powers both of my e-mail programs and the insant messaging system decided that everything needed to be connected. I live and die by e-mail, so once I figured out the error message, I downloaded the mandatory upgrade. The lawyers would argue, and rightly so, that the upgrade was not mandatory. It's true - I did indeed have the option of not being able to send and receive messages from my main e-mail account. I declined most of the add-on options for integration, many of which were similar to the marketing e-mails in their focus on my contacts list. While I’m certain that there are all sorts of technical benefits to this “upgrade,” thus far the main way my life has improved is that I now have five separate calendars included in my main e-mail account. As of today, I have:
· Original Calendar
· Personal Calendar
· My Calendar
· Birthday Calendar
· U.S. Holidays Calendar
Again, I’m sure I’m missing something on the technical front, but my new calendars don’t communicate with each other. Sometimes they don’t even communicate with me. I get a meeting request in the form of an e-mail, hit “Accept,” and sometimes it goes to birthdays, sometimes it goes to holidays, sometimes it goes God only knows where. Which is okay, because I like to pick up free logo-emblazoned pads of paper and pens at conventions, and I always keep one of each on my desk, right beside the computer. Directed by the force of habit, before I hit “Accept” for a conference call I jot down the time, the date, the dial-in number and the pass code required to participate. And oddly enough, I am usually the only one on the call who manages to arrive on time.
