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Tales from the world of ICT

By Sharky | Framingham | Monday, 12 March, 2007

Getting the message
A big IT services organisation starts a new internal mailing list for its hundreds of IT architects around the world. The results are predictable: someone sends a reply to the whole list with an “unsubscribe” message, others follow and soon most of the traffic is people trying to unsubscribe and others irritated about the “unsubscribe” spam. “The whole situation is reduced to a farce when someone on the list takes the opportunity to ask the mailing list where he can buy an inexpensive Armani suit,” says a pilot fish on the list.

A phishy tale
A company had been using a spam filter on its local mail server, but the number of summary reports was getting to be as much of a problem as the spam, says pilot fish on the scene. “Corporate headquarters mentioned they were looking at a new spam filtering service, but failed to mention they were turning it on over the weekend,” fish says. “They broadcast an email explaining the new service. You guessed it: the old product blocked the announcement and everyone was afraid it was a phishing attack.”

Too quiet
A receptionist is having problems with the new VoIP system with unified messaging. “She said she couldn’t hear her voicemails, and every time she tried to adjust the volume, the phone would ring,” says a helpdesk pilot fish.

“It turns out the volume on her computer speakers was turned down, so when she clicked to hear the voicemail she couldn’t hear it. She would then reach for the volume control on the phone and turn it up. Even 18 months later, when the phone rings in the lobby, everyone knows, because it’s so loud.”

Message not understood
Pilot fish needs to restart the company’s main server, so he sends out an email to everyone. “I added a ‘request read receipt’ to make sure that at least half the company has read my email,” fish reports.

“One of the receipts I got back stated: ‘Your message has been displayed to the user. There is no guarantee that the message was read or understood.’”