Email Protocol :
If your Email Address is changed notify the persons in your Address Book.
If you receive beneficial email it is good manners to reply with "Thanks" rather than no reply.
Basic Word documents are generally better pasted into the mail message being quicker than sent as an Attachment.
Do not send .pdf documents when the recipient needs to copy & paste the infomation.
Do not hesitate to
DELETE ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS
. Regularly updated Anti-Virus software is really necessary, AVG is free and users like it !
Ten Commandments for Email : ( found on the Internet )
If you follow them, your friends will remain
your friends and will not put your email address in their spam filters.
First Commandment: I shall not forward. Think twice before you forward jokes or anything sent through email to your list of 50 current and former friends.
Second Commandment: I shall use Bcc: when writing to multiple recipients.
Use the Bcc option instead of the To: option, and each recipient will see only his or her name at the top of the message.
Third Commandment: I shall always put a subject in my email message. Email arriving with an empty or vague subject field is annoying and often deleted thought to be spam.
Fourth Commandment: I shall not write in all-uppercase letters.
Using words or sentences in uppercase in email is equivalent to swearing.
Fifth Commandment: I shall not email large files.
Most of us do not have broadband and long downloads are annoying and soon deleted.
Sixth Commandment: I shall not forward previous recipient's info.
Delete all previous recipients addresses, anti-virus messages, emotons, etc. and just send a clean email
Seventh Commandment: I shall not quote messages indiscriminately when sending replies. Forwarded email showing the complete history of the correspondence can become too long.
Eighth Commandment: I shall not respond to ALL recipients. If you get a mass mailing, make sure that a reply does not go to all 75 recipients
unless you want to make 74 enemies.
Ninth Commandment: I shall try not to annoy the recipients of my email. If someone has some medical or financial problem, do not offer tons of irrelevant advice.
Tenth Commandment: I shall clean up the message and then think before I click the Send button.
Remember the previous Commandments, watch your grammar and style, and then click Send.
Your Computer.
Ensure your important data files are backed up regularly to floppy or CD. See notes below re saving your Address Book.
Saving all your created files to My Documents / Folders makes backing up easy by using the Modified Dates.
Delete down-loaded web-pages : Start / Settings / Control Panel / Internet Options / General / Delete Files / Confirm.
Defragment your hard drive each 2 months or earlier to ensure optimum performance.
Favourites Folder. If you add a down-loaded web-page to your "Favourites" you can view it any time when off-line until you
delete the files which saves hard drive space. If you down-loaded multiple pages the mouse cursor (as a hand) accesses them.
The easiest way to keep a down-loaded page is to : File / Save As / & save it where you can find it such as in My Documents.
SPAM BLOCK ?
Email addresses on web-sites can be found by 'spiders' and then used for generating unwanted SPAM.
Spam from the same source is best deleted by using : Message / Blocked Sender /
If many Blocked Senders are recorded they can be added to : Tools / Message Rules / Blocked Senders /
These emails then appear in your Deleted Folder and remember NOT to open anything at all suspicious.
A disguise such as adding extra letters to the address is the best current prevention this but must be removed for use.
To use an Email address with a Spam Block applied :
Click on To: Address, right click and go to Add to Address Book, click Name, click Edit, remove (SpamBlock), click OK.
If you get lots of SPAM or LARGE ATTACHMENTS you DO NOT WANT :
Use Internet Explorer, go to your ISP home page, go to Web Mail, access your Email Inbox, delete all the spam, dubious email and email with large attachments, open that Inbox again, then open Outlook Express and just the remaining emails will download.
If you like this method make the Web Mail your home page via Settings / Control Panel / Internet Options / Use Current.
Then, when you go on-line you use Internet Explorer, your Web Mail comes up straight away, you enter your User Name & Password and open your Inbox.
Each email has its source, message header & file size listed. Click in the left box to mark for deletion.
Click the bottom delete box when files are tagged and reopen Inbox to confirm. Wastebox now lists the number of deleted files.
A good idea is to go to Preferences and set your download emails limit to 100.
Spam sources are usually obvious, have obvious headers and are bigger than 5kb in size. IF AT ALL IN DOUBT, DELETE !!
I tried the freebie download, MailWasher, but preferred to continue using WebMail.
Latest NEWS on SPAM at Oct 2007 :
The level of malicious code distribution by all players on the 'net has been very high and we really need to be much more vigilant ourselves.It is no good relying 100% on virus checkers and the like any more. The organizations that traditionally were allegedly combatting malicious use of the 'net seem to have lost the will to do it and there
is not much incentive for them to do it anymore anyway - there is hardly any money in it and they are losing the battle. Their efforts have been largely ineffective for some time. In contrast, there is far more incentive, mainly financial, in SPAM and 'net crime. When you have companies releasing malicious code to prevent "music theft" (ie. DRM software that can permanently disable your PC if you attempt to copy their CDs, but often goes wrong even if you don't) and companies that use their "free" email services to harvest any information they can use or sell, then there is little hope. These "free" email services are now the major source of selling your email address to SPAMmers who then onsell to crime syndicates. So if your email address is ever referred to in any email that passes through their "free" email server post offices then you get SPAM and then a bit later on get malicious code such as keystroke recorders that are used to milk your bank account. Don't encourage any use whatsoever of any of the "free" email services unless you want to support 'net crime. DRM has been a disaster for the 'net being used by everyone from crime syndicates to what would be normally regarded as legitimate companies for all kinds of alternative uses. In part it uses the "root kit" class of malicious code. DRM prevents virus checkers from "seeing" it. Apart from those "free" email services, the other way of distributing malicious software is to either design some attractive email gimmick such as "emotons" or more likely hijack a genuine source such as animated "Xmas cards" that are not originally contaminated and then contaminate them and redistribute them. It is very hard to detect the good ones from the bad ones without a lot of trouble. What could start out as an innocent but attractive email gimmick soon becomes a major source of malware distribution. The most famous of these was the "Magic Mushroom song" way back when floppy discs were the main means of distributing anything. More recently, there is a bank fraud known as "phishing" where the sender attempts to get banking details for malicious use. Banks may make a "financial decision" to only pursue cases where they have some reasonable chance of saving more than it costs to carry out investigation and legal procedures. They budget for losses of tens of millions per year to 'net fraud so obviously the crime cyndicates are doing well and not often being pursued. Two 'net crime cyndicates in Melbourne apparently dried up, not from any attempt to get them for 'net crime, but because they were killing each other or gaoled for other criminal activities. Web crawlers are not used as much now as the "free" email services and email gimmicks that are for obtaining SPAM lists or distributing malware. SPAMmers rely almost entirely on lists obtained from the "free" email services. All the email addresses are current and completely valid with no interpretation or decoding necessary. It is a sad situation with no resolution in sight. All you can do is implement as many safeguards and evasive procedures that you can yourself such as only sending or encouraging the use of paid-for email services where you have some legal rights and using plain text for all emails. Those "free" email services have virtually no legal rights, especially for us when they are overseas based, and anyone who corresponds with you that uses them has probably agreed to waive most of their legal anyway. As far as other email content is concerned, jpg photo attachments seem fairly safe so far, but most of the doc, Excel, etc. file attachments can be used as vectors for malicious software and should be used only between trusted correspondents. Attachments are sent in emails using MIME encoding that is a way of transmitting binary using ASCII printable characters to represent 6 bits at a time. You can see the entire email message, including any MIME content, if you right click on a message in your email Inbox listing, select "properties", "details", "message source", and probably go to full screen to read it.)
Your own Web-Site ?
No costs involved, no special software, just your time but remember KISS ( Keep It Simple Stupid ) as kept simple it down-loads quicker.
The main culprit in slow down-loading is artwork and images which may look nice but will deter visitors from waiting for your website to download unless on broadband.
Here's a way to create your own one page, or more pages, web-site. When off line, create a new folder direct on your C: drive, name it Fred Web or something short you will remember and save this web page to it. Picknowl ask for this page to be named ( default.htm ), Adam require it to be named ( index.html ) your ISP BigPond may specify otherwise ( note that the l in html can be important, not just htm ).
Now open the page as lots of time may be spent learning and it's fun ! Then click on the top menu, View / Source and you will see the notepad where all the formatting for web html is laid out. Use this as your base document and insert all your info replacing mine but leave the "tags" <___> as they are commands. When happy with this and still in the notepad go, File / Save. Then return to the saved ( default.htm ) page and click Refresh. Bingo !! You now have your own web-page. Experiment to get it how you want it and also save an image (.jpg) if required to the same Folder. All your web-site .htm and .jpg files go in this Folder for uploading when ready.
When you initially save your .htm file it usually inserts your local details which you must delete for it to work when uploaded.
For example "< A href="default.htm" >" may save as < A href="c:\\new folder\default.htm" > so you delete the "c:\\new folder\" bit.
Your ISP or their web-site should supply how to upload your web-page information which is easy after the first time.
A free easy to use web upload program ( FTP Client ) is FileZilla which you can find on the net and download ( about 3Mb so will take about 10 minutes on dialup to download )
so you may end up with something like www.bigpond.com/portadrotary
Before you choose a name try various searches to see if your proposed name is already being used.
A domain name is not necessary (ie: www.nike.com) as you can easily insert your URL at the bottom of all your emails. If you look at the top of your home page via View / Source there is Header info that should also be included as it allows Search Engines to find your web-site once submitted and this usually takes a few weeks.
Put in likely search terms and combinations that people could use to find you but remember you are part of the World Wide Web and may need identifiers like Adelaide or S.A. or Australia. Check similar web-sites to see what words they use.
If you have multiple pages the layouts should be similar so users know they are still in your site and check the navigation and all other links work.
The same photo on each page helps achieve this and only downloads once.
A photo scan at 75dpi produces a 7Kb .jpg which downloads very quickly. This page of text is currently 21Kb.
Major Search Engines usually have a submit to Search Engines link to which you submit your URL for no charge.
Include contact information and content, content, content in your web-site and update it regularly. Have fun !!!
Your FREE Web-page on this Web-Site.
For amateur entertainers without a web-site I can create a free page for you in the same format as the sample, click on FREE.
This means you have web presence without any work or cost and it's updated after you advise me by email. How easy is that !
Your Events are listed in the Coming Events page for everyone to see and also are sent to the print & radio Media.
Check View / Source to see how and where the colour above is inserted. Try other colours.
To Copy and Paste quickly : ( Handy all the time and particularly when building a web-page )
Select image or drag mouse over required area to copy and go, Ctl / Insert.
Open new document or Alt / Tab to it, select paste location and go, Shift / Insert. Can repeat unless Esc or Enter is used.
Storing info you use a lot, such as your name, address, email address, phone, etc. can be inserted into Notepad
and then "Save As" / "Save In" / "Desktop" as, say, Steve's Notepad.txt
Go to "Desktop" and drag the shortcut to the bottom task bar. One click accesses it, copy required item, paste it as required !
To export your Address Book to Excel for saving in your backup and it is handy to also have a print.
Open Address Book, go, File / Export / Other Address Book / Text File (Comma Separated Values) / Save as ? / Next /
Select all the Fields / Finish / Close.
Then open Excel, go, Exported File / Delimited / Next / Tab to Comma / Next / Finish / reset column widths / .txt to .xls / Save.
If you have a huge Address Book an easy way to categorise it is to use the 3rd column after Name / E-Mail Address / 3rd column.
Whatever the name of this column you can access it via Properties and enter a category. I use words like Media, Choir, Orch. etc.
A click at the top on the name of any column resorts it alphabetically A - Z and another click resorts it Z - A.
Very handy as one click puts all your say, Media, entries together, then just click them into your Bcc: box ( 2nd Commandment ).
Bare Bones Guide to HTML lists all the tags that current browsers are likely to recognize.
The 4 Ways to Grow Any Business, including Entertainment.
. . . Increase the number of your Customers.
. . . Increase the times they return.
. . . Increase the value of each sale.
. . . Increase the effectiveness of your processes.
Networking. . . . Do it, get out there or your competitor will be.
. . . Be prepared, what is the function, do you have a goal ?
. . . Practise self introductions & conversation starters, prepare questions, take business cards & blank cards.
. . . Remember the 3 E's : Energy - Effort - Enthusiasm.
. . . Plan arrival & departure transport.
. . . Research the organisation holding the event.
. . . Be positive, do not criticise the venue, the speaker, etc.
. . . Be polite, always RSVP, good manners open doors.
. . . Avoid the sleaze factor, use appropriate dress & behaviour, avoid drugs & alcohol.
. . . Thankyou & goodnight, know when to leave.
. . . Have fun & good luck !
The Author : Steve Garie has enjoyed Community Entertaining for 40 years playing brass in Campbelltown, K & N and
Adelaide Village Bands and horn in ARPA and Mitcham Orchestras. He is usually active in administration in these groups.
He has been convenor of the Adelaide Eisteddfod Brass Division since their 50th year in 2005.
His independent and unfunded web-site helps promote Community Entertainment by listing all S.A. amateur groups
and their contacts so they can be easily found by potential hirers and potential new members.
The groups "Coming Events" are listed and then regularly sent to the media.
This should enhance but not replace groups own publicity endeavours. Early listing also helps groups scheduling
so that Events or personnel do not clash and many publications require details months ahead.
The current Events list also helps co-ordination and finding "gigs" !!
The service is all FREE and email is used to minimise costs.
Groups can even have their own web-page thus having a web presence with no site to maintain.
Steve enjoyed 40 years with Telstra and retired life is full of music making or music promoting and other hats are
Volunteer "Behind The Scenes" Tour Guide for the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust, former secretary of the Wine Guild
of S.A. Inc., which organises educational and social events for members,
a radio segment Thursday evenings with Peter Goers chatting about entertainment in the coming week and
he is on the new Orchestras Australia S.A. committee which promotes orchestras. Recently a 100 member
orchestra composed of school and community orchestra musicians performed under Nicholas Braithwaite and
Joanna Drimatis with renowned pianist Alexey Yemtsov, a wonderful and inspiring performance for all concerned.
He organised the Out Of The Square matinee concerts featuring Eisteddfod talents presented in October 2007.
A current project is to seek interest to form a French Horn ensemble.
Food for Thought !!
Historically most of the Community Entertainment Groups that exist rarely co-operate so do not have a unified voice.
A unified voice could achieve an annual Festival of Community Entertainment State-wide and create real recognition.
Perhaps even an Australian Convention for Community Music ?
Any thoughts you may have are most welcome.
Please Email "Steve Garie Home Page" URL to everyone you know who is interested in Community Entertainment.
The URL ( address ) is http://www.adam.com.au/sgarie
