Tip 2. Use Attachments Only When Necessary

Email messages can be in two different forms:

• inline text
• attachment

Inline text is the normal text that you write in an email. An attachment is a file from your computer (for example a Word document or .gif image) that you "attach" or add to your email. When someone receives an email with inline (normal) text, they can read it immediately. When they receive an attachment, they have to "open" the attachment with the right program (for example Word or PhotoShop). There are several problems with attachments, including:

1. Recipients may not have the right program to open the attachment
2. Attachments can contain viruses (so some people don't like to open attachments)
3. Really big attachments can take a long time to download, especially on mobile phones

Many people do not like to receive attachments. Usually, it is better to send inline text. Only send an attachment when it is not possible to send the information as inline text and you are sure the receiver agrees.

Tip 3. Don't YELL!

Do not write everything in CAPITAL LETTERS. In English, it is not polite to use a lot of capital letters. In fact, text written in capital letters is difficult to read. You never see a book written only in capital letters. Using all capital letters is called "yelling", which is the same as shouting. Why is it difficult to read capital letters? Look at this word:

1. ENGLISH (capital letters)
2. English (initial capital + small letters)

In No.1 the word has no "shape"...it is a simple rectangle. In No.2 the word has a shape...it goes up and down. When we read, especially when we read fast, we read the shape of words. We do not read each individual letter. The shape of "ENGLISH" is exactly the same as the shape of "SPANISH". But the shape of "English" is not the same as the shape of "Spanish". For subjects, it's sometimes ok to use capitals. But if you must make some words in the text more important, don't do it with capitals. Use asterisks, like *this*, or use bold.

Tip 4. Be Careful With Abbreviations

Examples of abbreviations are "btw" (by the way) and "damhik" (don't ask me how I know). Abbreviations are a good way to save work on typing if both correspondents understand the abbreviations. But if the recipient does not understand your abbreviation, you are not communicating successfully.

Tip 5. Sign Your Email

It's a good idea, and more polite, to put your name at the end of your emails. You can even add other information like address, telephone and fax, especially for business. You can create a "signature block" that you add to the end of all messages. Many email services let you create an "auto-signature" that appears at the end of every email you send.

English Checker

• character: a letter or symbol, like a, B, 1, 2, &, * etc
• recipient: the person who receives your email
• shape: the external form of something
• typeface: a particular design of type
• virus: a bug or coding designed to damage a computer

E-ENGLISH IYKWIM ;-)

Josef Essberger

KWIM? I thought not.

For e-English read "electronic English" and for IYKWIM read "if you know what I mean".

And for KWIM? Yes, that's right. You'll have to FIOFY.

The internet has created a whole new way of speaking when we write email, post messages or chat online.

It saves time and typing effort, but it's no joke if you don't know the "secret". So just to help you if you're not already a netspeak expert, here are a few of the basic rules and codes people use on the internet.

Remember, these are for use on the internet with friends. We do not usually use them in formal letters or faxes.

Emphasis

If we want to emphasise a word (make it more important), we often use asterisks (*), like this:

"I *love* EnglishCLUB.net."

Sometimes people use capitals to add emphasis but it is not a good idea. MOST PEOPLE DO NOT LIKE A LOT OF CAPITALS. THEY LOOK RUDE AND CAN BE DIFFICULT TO READ.

Emotion

If we want to express our feelings and emotions, we can use "smileys". A smiley is a combination of symbols that looks like a face sideways. The original, basic smiley (eyes, nose and smiling mouth) is very popular and shows that we are happy:

:-)

We can also do this with eyes and mouth only:

:)

Of course, if we are unhappy, we can change the mouth: :-(

There are many possibilities. Here are a few more:

• ;-) wink
• :*) kiss
• :~) tears

Abbreviations

To save time when typing (and maybe to save money if you are online), people often abbreviate commonly-used phrases. There are hundreds of possibilities and you certainly do not need all of them!

Some of these codes are just the first letter of each word, for example:

imo = in my opinion

Some of these codes use the sound of the letter to represent the sound of a word. For example, the letter "c" sounds like the word "sea" or "see":

cu = see you

Some of these codes use numbers because the sound of the number is the same as the sound of another word (not the spelling!). For example, 4 (four) sounds like "for". And 8 (eight) sounds like "ate". So if we write L8 we get "late". If we write W8 we get "wait"!

Here are some more examples:

• aamof = as a matter of fact
• asap = as soon as possible
• b4 = before
• b4n = bye for now
• cul8er = see you later
• damhik = don't ask me how I know
• eta = estimated time of arrival
• f2f = face to face
• gf = girlfriend
• gmt = Greenwich Mean Time
• hth = hope this helps
• icbw = I could be wrong
• jam = just a minute
• k = okay
• lmk = let me know
• mcibty = my computer is better than yours
• oic = oh I see
• pls = please
• plz = please
• q = queue
• rumf = are you male or female?
• sil = sister-in-law
• tia = thanks in advance
• uok = you ok?
• vr = virtual reality
• wdymbt = what do you mean by that?
• y2k = year 2000

Journey to the future

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Over the past 40 years computers have transformed social and business life, despite remaining pretty unintelligent. Now the challenge is to get them thinking for themselves, writes Cliff Saran

When we began looking back on the 40 years of IT since Computer Weekly was launched, one thing became apparent. No matter how much technology has improved, no matter how far microelectronics has revolutionised the computer industry, computers are basically doing the same type of job.

In the 60s and 70s, science fiction writers presented a bleak future as artificial intelligence battled with human beings. Experts spoke of mass redundancies as automation took over. And the latest buzz was the paperless office.

Yet, by and large, computers still only do what they are told to do, and they are pretty useless without a program that instructs them, step by step, how to perform a task. Luckily for the human race, intelligence within these machines is still rudimentary. There is little chance that microchips will rule the world.

Instead, the past four decades has seen the use of IT explode in ways few people could have predicted. Computers do not have much intelligence on their own, but they have supported billions of business decisions by providing users with business intelligence data.

IT has enabled businesses to connect both to their customers and with suppliers and business partners. Call centres have given the public a way to keep in contact with a business or government department 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sales orders, financial transactions and communications are sent in microseconds around the world. Customers can order products directly over the internet and the supplier's warehouse automatically dispatches the goods.

PC maker Dell came from nowhere to become the largest PC manufacturer in the world by going direct to the ­customer and allowing them to customise the PC they want to purchase. Amazon.com changed the way we buy books, CDs and DVDs.

The electronics industry has been revolutionised as researchers push the boundaries of integrated circuit design, allowing the creation of faster, smaller, more complex chips. And this has driven the adoption of IT into every­day lives. Even a humble toaster has a microprocessor with a program for the defrost, toast and cancel controls.

Who could have imagined we would all be carrying mobile phones with built in video cameras, capable of sending and receiving e-mail and accessing the internet? Not too long ago this was real James Bond stuff.

When Sony introduced the Walkman in 1979 it changed the way people listened to music - 60 minutes of music in a portable tape player. Today, thanks to breakthroughs in computer memory and hard discs, MP3 players can hold thousands of hours of music on a single memory stick. A computer that used to be the size of a room now comfortably fits on a wristwatch.

Today there are two main challenges. The first is finding a use for the massive amount of computer power at our fingertips. After all, computers are still pretty dumb on the evolutionary scale of artificial intelligence.

Even if an application can be found, the second problem is the management and technical difficulties that must be overcome in rolling out any IT project.

It is not that hard to demonstrate a proof of concept. But can the application scale, and will end-users be prepared to run it? Will the technical staff and the business consultants be sufficiently skilled to implement and deploy the system?

Can the software and hardware be rolled out cost-effectively? Is licensing prohibitive? Is the IT architecture and coding resilient enough to enable all end-users to run the application, without risking crashes, hacking attacks or the need for constant patching?

One of the themes of Computer Weekly during our first 40 years has been the need for strong project management. It can be the difference between success and failure. As the IT industry continues to mature, project management will move further up the agenda.

If we can get this right, maybe one day intelligent IT systems will improve the quality of our home and work lives, computers will be self-managing, and downtime will be a thing of the past.

http://www.english-online.at/news-articles/technology/google-plans-driverless-car.htm

Google plans driverless car

In 2009 Google announced plans to develop a driverless car, a vehicle that can drive all by itself. Five years later the Internet company has tested the car for hundreds of thousands of miles. In the near future Google plans to build 100 such fully automated cars for testing purposes. The driverless car will use Google’s own software to drive around. Currently only a few states, including Nevada andFlorida, allow the driving of such cars in public.

Google's new car does not have a steering wheel or brakes but just two stop and go buttons. It can drive at a maximum speed of 25 miles an hour. The prototype has a series of expensive high-tech equipment, including radar systems, GPS location finders, precise maps and several sensors.

Up to now, the vehicle has been tested mainly on Californian roads. It has crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and driven up San Francisco’s famous Lombard Street with 180° curves. The system does not allow humans to take control but they can stop the car whenever they want to.

Google claims that a driverless car would be an important step for road safety. They could take over driving on roads, just like autopilots take control of airplanes, while the pilot often has nothing to do but just sit and wait for landing. There would be fewer car accidents and road fatalities.

Several European countries have also started to test cars without drivers. Prototypes of such cars are on roads in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

According to Google, mass production of the car is still a far way ahead. With almost $100 000 dollars’ worth of high-tech equipment the company estimates that customers won’t be able to buy one in this decade.

Google's self-driving car

Words

• announce = to say officially
• automated = using computers instead of people
• autopilot = machine that takes over flying or driving from a person
• brakes = pedals used to make a car stop
• currently = at the moment
• develop = create from the beginning
• equipment = machines and other tools
• fatality = death in an accident
• including = also
• location finder = machine that finds out exactly where something is
• mainly = mostly
• near future = soon
• precise = exact
• prototype = first form that a new design of a car has, or a model of it used for testing
• public = where anyone can see it
• purpose = intend; the reasons for doing something
• radar = machine that uses radio waves to find the position of things and how fast they move
• safety = not being in danger
• sensor = metal plate that you can use to detect movement, light heat etc..
• several = some, a few
• speed = how fast something is
• steering wheel = wheel that you turn in the direction you want to drive
• step = move, action
• vehicle = car, truck, bus etc..

Google’s future is Chrome

The world’s number one search engine , Google, has developed a new operating system called Chrome. It automatically connects the user to the internet where people write their letters, emails, post their photos and do many other things they would normally do on a desktop OS .

The development of Chrome started in 2008 when Google built its own browser , also called Chrome. Today 12% of net community uses it regularly.

Google thinks that the operating systems of today, Windows, Apple’s MacOS and Linux areold fashioned and do not meet the needs of the people. Computer users of today we spend most of their time on the net and not with a desktop application .

Google’s vision of the next generation computer goes even further . It wants to put its Chrome OS on laptops and netbooks , so that the user just pushes a button and automatically gets connected . Chrome’s main aim is speed . It wants to make the computer fast. The first tests on netbooks showed that you could get connected to the internet within seven seconds from startup . Chrome OS skips everything from starting up the PC to getting connected.

Google also wants to make a computer cheaper. People who buy computers today often have to buy the operating system, anti-virus software and office programs before they can really work with it. This kind of software often costs hundreds of dollars. With these applications on the web you wouldn’t need to buy such expensive programs.

Chrome is not the first operating system that comes from the search engine. Android is already successful on tablet PCs and smartphones .

Windows is still the most successful operating system. Windows 7 has become verypopular after the failure of its predecessor Vista. But this may change. By 2012 laptop and major netbook manufacturers are expected to offer machines with Chrome OSpreinstalled .

Not everyone will use Google OS . Gamers will avoid it because need better hardware and those that use high-tech software will also stick to normal PCs. But for many normal users, pressing the button and getting connected to your Facebook account may soon become reality .

Words

• account = name and password that a person has in order to use a special program on the internet
• aim = plan, what someone wants
• anti-virus software = program that protects your computer from computer viruses
• application = program
• avoid = keep away from
• browser = a program that finds information on the internet and shows it on a computer screen
• community = internet users
• connect = link
• desktop OS = an operating system that works on a PC without an internet connection
• develop = build
• development = growth
• failure = not a success, flop
• further = more, extra
• gamer = a person who spends most of their time playing computer games
• hardware = physical part of the computer
• high –tech = most modern
• manufacture = make, produce
• needs = wishes
• netbook = small laptop computer
• offer = present, sell
• old-fashioned = not modern any more
• operating system = a system in a computer that helps all the programs work together
• popular = well-liked
• predecessor = here: the operating system before Windows 7
• preinstall = it is already installed when you buy it
• reality = it can really happen
• search engine = a computer program that helps you find information on the Internet
• skip = leave out
• smartphone = a mobile phone that works like a small computer
• speed = tempo, how fast something is
• startup = when you start your computer
• stick = stay with
• successful = liked by many people
• tablet PC = small PC with a touch screen
• vision = dream, idea