Retractable E-mails!

[Callwaiting]

Wouldn't it be cool if MSN introduced a 'retractable E-mail'? Like if you accidentally sent the wrong email to somebody, you could just hit the retract button and it would delete it from their inbox. They'd never know unless they'd already read it, but it would tell you if it had been opened anyway.

So why the hell hasn't anyone done this already?

[Kiros]

Because of mainly one reason. You wouldn't really be 'retracting' anything at all. Technically, you would just be deleting it from their inbox. That could not only lead to massive exploitation (i.e. deleting emails that you didn't even send) but it would also bring up issues with POP, where emails are downloaded to a computer to be locally viewed. That would also enable people to send hateful (even threatening) emails to someone, wait for it to have been read, and then make it disappear, which would make cyber-crimes much harder to verify.

There are more reasons why this feature won't be seen anytime soon, but I'm posting this from a Wii, which means I've been pointing and clicking on-screen for 20 minutes just to type this much... All because my computer won't even startup now =[

Anyway, yeah, those are just a few of the reasons...

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

Kiros is right. There's so much damage that could be done. They already have a solution, you know: think before you send the thing. Man, I miss the logical thinking us humans USED to have.

Of course, you're going to say something along the lines of "well I thought I was sending it to this guy and blah blah blah", so because you can't be so moved as to think while you type, you could use this: bigstring.com

[Blahages]

We actually have this feature at work, although, it might work a little differently than you're meaning.

We use Novell Groupwise for our Email server, and have the ability to retract emails that we've sent to others within our email domain, under the circumstance that the person hasn't read the email yet.

So, for example, if I send an email, and a few minutes later, I realized I said something wrong in it, or forgot to send it to a specific person, or forgot a detail, I can retract it, choosing to either delete it from My sent box, their inbox, or both.

And, if they haven't opened the email yet, I can retract it from them. If they have opened it, I can't.

So, if I send the email to 3 people, and 2 have opened it, and one hasn't, if I retract it, it only actually removes it from the inbox of the one who hasn't read it yet. The other two people get to keep the message. :P

This feature only works within the email domain, though. So, like for example, if I send an email to say for example our domain was "nonsensicalemaildomain.com" then anything I sent to a person that had "@nonsensicalemaildomain.com" in the address I would be able to retract the email under the above conditions. However, if I sent something to, say, someone at gmail or yahoo, I would not be able to retract the message from them.

It is useful sometimes.

[Kiros]

Ah yes, the great evil that is Novell. I don't quite remember why I don't like it, as I haven't used it in years, but I still cringe at the thought of having it on a computer that I work on >_<

[Aηdy]

I'm pretty sure we use Novell at college, I've not had chance to check their computers out properly yet though lol.

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

Novell. Is. Dumb.

[Blahages]

Novell. Is. Dumb.

In what way? I haven't really had any issues with it. Not anymore than anything else I've used.

Look at Microsoft, and other companies. They're all horrible in one way or another. :P

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

When we got our school laptops, they blue screened every other period, lost battery life mad fast, and slowed them down to a crawl. Plus, there were very easy ways of getting around Novell's restrictions. Of course, I'll take that over our Macs any day...

[Blahages]

When we got our school laptops, they blue screened every other period, lost battery life mad fast, and slowed them down to a crawl. Plus, there were very easy ways of getting around Novell's restrictions. Of course, I'll take that over our Macs any day...

I can pretty much guarantee you that none of that has anything to do with Novell, or the Novell client.

Or, at least, it's very very unlikely.

The restrictions, you'd have to explain a little more details about, but it was more than likely Admins who didn't know what they were doing.

We never have any BSOD's on our machines with it, they aren't slow, and they don't have any affects on the batteries in the few laptops we have. The ONLY BSOD's I can ever recall having that somewhat directly related to Novell was the original Novell Client for Vista, which had a few bugs, especially if you had File Caching turned on, it would give you BSOD's in certain situations, but you just turn that off, and it quit.

[Whisper]

google has an anti-drunk option
where you do simple mathematics to prove your level headed at the time

if you cant do them it wont send

[Kiros]

But I'm an intellectual drunk. =<

That's when I get some of my best coding done, and half of coding is usually math D:

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

@Bill - We used something we called "The Box" It's basically Novell's program distribution system, that ran almost as a sub-os. we couldn't access anything in the Start Menu, and the only programs that would start are one's launched from "The Box", a small window containing our programs, or programs named after ones that work =P

[Blahages]

@Bill - We used something we called "The Box" It's basically Novell's program distribution system, that ran almost as a sub-os. we couldn't access anything in the Start Menu, and the only programs that would start are one's launched from "The Box", a small window containing our programs, or programs named after ones that work =P

Never heard of it before.

Is it this?

http://www.novell.com/partnerguide/product/203819.html

If so, that's not Novell's, that's something offered by a "partner."

When you said Novell's Program Distribution Program, I thought you were referring to Zenworks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell_ZENworks), which IS basically that.

It's pretty useful. Our systems aren't as locked down and ridiculously admined like a lot of schools or other places using Novell or any other similar system are. Every user has Administrative privileges on the computer they are on, and for the most part, can do whatever on that computer. We have software that runs on the computers that undoes any changes made to the computer when it's rebooted, so giving everyone Administrative privileges isn't an issue.

Internet is filtered, of course, and they're only given rights to particular areas of the network. But, I don't recall ever hearing of problems with students hacking anything we have, or getting around Novell's restrictions.

But, then again, I'm considering the restrictions to be network share rights, but you might be referring to something else.

Sounds like your school was doing some odd things. :P None of what you've mentioned has really anything to do with Novell. The restrictions put in place were probably done by that "MindtheBox" software, or were Windows group policy restrictions or something, which a lot of times, don't work worth anything.

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

Sorry, I was referring to ZenWorks, forgot the name; we switched to Macs a while back, and I've done all I can to get rid of Novell from my mind =P

Zenworks had a whole replacement for the Windows login, and basically ran Windows for you...all of the restrictions were done through Zenworks profiles, internet settings, etc. On top of that, our Vaio's were at the bottom of the food chain, so all of that taxing software didn't help.

[Blahages]

Sorry, I was referring to ZenWorks, forgot the name; we switched to Macs a while back, and I've done all I can to get rid of Novell from my mind =P

Zenworks had a whole replacement for the Windows login, and basically ran Windows for you...all of the restrictions were done through Zenworks profiles, internet settings, etc. On top of that, our Vaio's were at the bottom of the food chain, so all of that taxing software didn't help.

Hmm...

Well, I know our's works nothing like that, and have not had any problems. :P

[Falk 'Ace' Flyer]

Then you probably a combination of less implemented program functionality and better hardware. The problem with our tech is is that they're by-the-books, meaning if the software can do this, why should they manage it? They can just follow the manuals for everything that the program doesn't control; i.e. right clicking a printer to turn it offline and back on...yeah, that's what people waste their time going to the "laptop hospital" for, because they don't trust us with printers 0.o