OVER 2 YOU, 088 (09/07/02)

MODERN MANNERS

Can anyone recommend an up to date guide to email etiquette? I am never quite sure how people should be addressed; so many emails seem to begin with just ‘Hi’, which I do not feel comfortable with. Also, how quickly should one respond to a personal email? To do so immediately often prompts the sender to write back just as quickly and the correspondence quickly runs out of steam.

Jean Copeman, via email

The whole basis of etiquette in any situation is politeness and consideration for the feelings of others, and I therefore see no need for a special form of it when sending e-mails.  I suppose I'm just an old fuddy-duddy, but I couch an electronic communication in exactly the same terms as those, which I use on paper.
R. B. A. Johns, Enderby, Boston

Plugging 'Email Etiquette' into a search engine will produce thousands of pages. It is rare that any two agree, but you will at least get some ideas. Use what you are comfortable with. If you don't like 'Hi', say 'Hello' or 'Dear X' or just launch into your subject. Or make it a habit, when replying, to copy the style of your correspondent. Reply as quickly or as slowly as you like. If the correspondence 'runs out of steam' then it has run its natural course. Doesn't matter whether this takes 48 hours or a month.
John Dean, Headington, Oxford.

Email replaces telephone calls, letters and memos and I use whatever seems appropriate.  As you will see I am treating this matter as something impersonal and replying as an interoffice memo, not using an address at all whereas if I were writing to someone I knew I would address her exactly as I would in conversation.  "Hello Jean", "Good Morning Jean" or even "My dear Jean" depending upon circumstance.

If the email replaces a more formal business letter then perhaps "Dear Mr Bloggs" or even "Dear Sir" is suitable.

On the "How quickly should one reply?” question, surely the answer again depends upon circumstances.  If the information is needed quickly then reply straightaway but if it is something that demands thought, then sleep on it.  I read my emails several times a day and usually bang off a reply immediately where possible although they may not be transmitted until the next time I go on air.

Whatever we do, remember that email is only a tool and use it accordingly, but please write in proper English with capitals and punctuation rather than in teenage slang.

 John Aley, West Bay, Dorset

HOLIDAY CONNECTION

I am shortly going on holiday to Florida (Orlando area) and my rented villa has a telephone. I’m taking my laptop and would like to be able to access the web and pick up my emails. Can any suggest a local ISP? I know AOL and CompuServe have local dial-up numbers in the US but these are subscriptions services, I’m looking for something cheaper, preferably free, that would be available to a non-resident!

Mike Brenner, via email

My advice is to leave his laptop at home when he goes to Florida (less baggage weight and no power/telephone adaptors to worry about; additionally, he would (probably) also have to set up a temporary account with the local telco for the duration of his stay in the villa.

He should visit the public library near where he's staying - they all have Internet computers that he can use free of charge for up to half an hour per day.

James P O'Neil

Mike will find it difficult if not impossible to find a non-subscription ISP in Florida. A friend who owns a villa there and has several computer-using local contacts was unable to do so. Juno (www.juno.com) used to provide a
non-subscription email service, but no longer do so for new subscribers. My friend ended up paying $6 a month to Juno (now looks like $9.95) - and is still being charged in spite of having cancelled by email before returning home last February, so be warned! I regularly correspond with friends in America and Canada who use Juno and are happy with the service.

Alistair Beaton,

Getting temporary Internet access when in the US is not easy. There are one or two ‘free’ ISP’s but these are not worth bothering with, they put so much advertising on the connection that it is virtually impossible to use it for anything else.

I have discovered a company called Globaltel, they are on the web at www.globaltelusa.com. Sign up on the web for their 800 Calling Card service available in the USA and Canada and you can then use their toll free number while in the USA to either make voice calls within the USA or to overseas at very attractive rates or use the same 800 number to connect to the Internet using a slightly fiddly process. There is a per-minute charge of 6 cents to connect to the Internet but I have found it worth it to be able to collect my e-mail each day.

Another great advantage is that using this card you bypass all hotel phone surcharges as you are using a toll free number, which is free from many hotels or only attracts a nominal per call charge at others. All call charges are automatically debited to your credit card every 15 days.

Terry Stone, Basseterre, St. Kitts

We have a service called NET2ROAM (www.net2roam.com), which allows anyone with a laptop, or PDA to connect to the Internet from over 150 countries at local rates. We have over 390 local access numbers in Florida alone! There is a small membership fee and you then pay as you go for the service depending on how long you are online.

To give you an idea of how cheap it is, someone travelling to the US and going online to check their email every day over a 2-week period would spend about £5.00 in prepaid credits.

We also allow you to use your existing e-mail accounts to send and receive mail. You just need to make a small change to your email program (details on our website at www.net2roam.com/sendingmail.html) and you can then send and receive your e-mail as if you were at home.

Jack Bekho, NET2ROAM Limited

Mr  Brenner doesn't indicate the area code or local dialling prefix of his hotel so it is difficult to determine exactly what ISP's are available. However, both Netzero www.netzero.net and Juno http://www.juno.com/ offer free Internet access almost everywhere. These services are available to non-residents but a credit card is necessary to enrol. The card will not be charged unless usage limits are exceeded. Both free services run somewhat obtrusive banners on the top of the screen. The downloadable program necessary to use Juno cannot be exported, so it should be erased before leaving the US.

Mr Brenner should also check with his hotel to determine if there are telephone charges.

Dave Null,

MAPWARE

Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced computer program that can be used for mapping historical sites, the distribution of artefacts and places? I particularly need the ability to place a symbol at a precise spot on the National Grid reference and the facility to draw in and colour features such as rivers, roads and escarpments etc.

Ann R. Elton, Sevenoaks, Kent

iMap is a powerful but easy to use program developed by the University of Leuven in Belgium originally for mapping biological specimen data.iMap will import maps in most common formats and these can be calibrated by selecting and entering the coordinates of two diagonal points. A pre-calibrated high-resolution relief map of the UK is one of many provided. iMap can plot symbols or characters from any installed font enabling a rich variety of attractive and informative maps to be created. Distribution maps can be exported in a range of formats and in sequence as a QuickTime movie showing changes over time. iMap runs on
Mac OS and Mac OS X and is $15 shareware:
http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/bio/sys/imap/ OS gridrefs can be converted to latitude and longitude, as required for
iMap, using this online converter: http://www.obliquity.com/astro/osgb.html
or with one of the programs or spreadsheet models available from the University of Wales, Bangor:
http://www.bangor.ac.uk/is/iss025/osgbfaq.htm
Jeff Ross, Stockport.

CAN YOU HELP?

I seem to remember a few years ago seeing programs for designing paper aeroplanes, which were apparently superior to the traditional paper ‘dart’ type design. Does anyone know if they’re still available and if so, have any improvements been made?

Ian Douglas, via email

I keep seeing adverts for ‘hard disc’ video recorders which claim to be able to record for up to 40 hours at ‘VHS’ quality, does anyone know of a way of implementing this feature on my PC which is a recent multimedia model with a large (20Gb hard disc drive), preferably with a timer facility.

J. Hughes, Brentford, Essex

Whatever happened to the ‘Domesday Project’ where an updated version of the Domesday Book – compiled I believe in the late 1980’s – was put on to the now defunct laserdisc format for use in schools and libraries. Was it ever made available on CD-ROM, and if so where can I obtain a copy?

T. L. Simmonds, via email