exCUSTOMSnet
Welcome & Introduction
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Net Directory : World Wide Network
Ex-Zimbabwe Customs & Excise - Old Boyz & Girlz |
Welcome to “our” net:-
You may notice too that our married / divorced / widowed / etcetera ex-colleagues have also been recorded under their maiden / former names. This has been done deliberately in an effort to make it easier to find long-lost former colleagues (and, also, as a prompt for the failing memories of some of us older dudes!). The start & finish years of service are also included, along with each officer’s last station, and current town, province, & country of residence (when such information is provided)
Therefore, do please tjek out your entries and let me know if I need to make any corrections (either now or at any time in the future).
The only rule for membership is to have been an ex Federal / Rhodesian / Zimbabwean / Customs member - or a surviving spouse of same. Any kidz of qualifying exCUSTOMSfolk are automatically eligible for full membership. There are no fees or costs, other than your own use of your computer and your own on-line time.
I have been “nudged” into setting-up this “old-boy-net” only for that purpose, and for no other (well ok, - and also because we’re all getting a LOT older and very much more globally scattered). My motivation is simply to provide a communal "self-help" tool to enhance our collective "keeping-in-touch-ability". There is no central control. My involvement and initiative is only to maintain the directory for us all, and to update & re-issue it from-time-to-time - as & when necessary).
There is NO editor nor any editorial rules; so emails for the whole group are initiated and actioned directly by their authors. In this way, no one person gets lumbered with any unnecessary workload….. although, I am always happy to pass on newsletters to our group from time-to-time. ANY member can address the GROUP on any subject matter, and there are no sanctions on content – save self-sanction (it should never be any member’s deliberate intention to publicly embarrass or hurt another member .
Please use the Directory to contact selected individual acquaintances; or to post a Christmas or other greeting, newsletter, or notice to the whole list....... or simply to be on the list to receive whatever news is doing the rounds. Each member decides how much or little they make use of it. Of course I do encourage the emailing of newsletters and family updates to the whole group, as that will help keep it vibrant, interesting & useful...... Andre Guernier has already promised us all one of his "newsies" in the New Year (he is winding down from consultancy work in Cambodia - into retirement in Australia - and his annual update newsletters are fascinating, and a joy to receive).
So,…… If you want to put any stuff onto the "exCUSTOMSnet", please just do so.
This "net" belongs to all of us and each member is entitled to and, indeed, should initiate correspondence onto it directly wherever possible,……. and without prior reference to / through me. To do otherwise simply "lumbers" me with a lot of extra work that I don't want...... as well as dumping onto me editorial decisions which, also, I do not want.
Initially, all of the names & e-ddresses need to be keyed into your email address book. If using OUTLOOK or OUTLOOKexpress, then these can also be GROUPed - so that you have a one-click facility when wanting to write to all of us.
Anyway, enough of my intro-speak.
Please feel free to "recruit" any other exCustoms dudes whom you think might be interested about joining in. Meanwhile, happy networking.
Aussie Austin (& Joleen) J J J J
PHOTO GALLERY eALBUMS
Arthur Adams (see his current email address in our E-dresses.doc that you already have) manages our PHOTO GALLERY of eALBUMS under the following album collection headings:
1. MEMBERSHIP ALBUM = all dudes and spouses/family currently in our membership;
2. WE REMEMBER ALBUM = all dudes and/or spouses and/or immediate family..... deceased, for whom we would like to post a remembrance;
3. CUSTOM HOUSES, PORTS, POSTS, & PLACES ETC = all those old pics from places and postings of old;
4. 331(2) NEE = anything else, nee (as we say, in our own-speak).
5. 331(3) NEE = more of 331(2)
We have webAddresses (URLs) for all of these eALBUMS, but we only make them available to our membership. If you are eligible for membership do please sign.
b. The URL addresses for our e-albums are created by Arthur, initially, as category "private". This means that they can ONLY be accessed if you have the URL (http://) addresses. As you can only get these by being a member of our exCUSTOMSnet, the URL addresses will not be readily available to web surfers. So, come on then, don't be shy in sending all those pics to Arthur;
c. No special software is required to view any of the e-Album pics. Moreover, they can be downloaded by any of us as required (see d. below);
d. Downloading of pics from the site. Either right click the pic and select "Save Image As" and then select the folder where you want it saved.
e. Help each other out…… Some of us have expertise, others have hardware (scanners, digital cameras, fancy computers),…… so help one another. Those old photographs in dusty albums can ALL be digitally captured and shared with us all via this facility. So, let’s do it, dudes & dudesses. No, not tomorrow, do it NOW!!!!
ANYWAY, let's get down to business. Like, how do we send stuff to Arthur and what other tips concerning digital contributions that we send to him. Well then, here are a few pointers for your consideration:
i. Please send all pics to Arthur as ".jpg" files whenever possible;
ii. Arthur can handle all file sizes. However, I realise that many of us are still reliant on 56.6 dial-up modems and so, therefore, it would be helpful to send your pics to Arthur as LO-resolution scans for the time being. Screen resolution is not affected by using LO-res. If you have a hi-speed broadband connection on your computer, then the resolution of the picture doesn’t matter – so go for MED-res;
iii. Pictures sent to Arthur should include advice concerning, inter alia, mutatis mutandis, etcetera, & moreover (sorry Jarv), the following data -
A. Which eALBUM applies..... see 1 to 5 above, and
B. DOB + DOD & age in the case of the "WE REMEMBER ALBUM", plus full names & nickname, cause of death (optional), copies of any newspaper obituaries (optional), and
C. A caption to include all names of folk in pic, place & event, year or decade; and
D. Anything else that will help Arthur log them in..... (and the rest of us find them again).
E. Year began + year ended service, last posting & grade, are also required for the alphabetical ROLL OF HONOUR album.
TIPS for SCANNING………… and other optical attachments
Go on, include a picture with your next newsy to the network & copy it
to Arthur Adams for one of our e-Albums (see above)
BUT,
please bear in mind a couple
of important tips and do’s & don’ts. You see digital scanners &
cameras
are actually immensely more powerful
tools than many users realise. They come into their own in the creative
industry, where
a picture or subject digitally
scanned (by scanner or camera) at high resolution has the ability to be
projected onto a screen
or paper to produce good quality
when enlarged to street poster, movie screen or motorway billboard size.
The price in memory
for such high resolution creation of
say an A4 image will mean the creation of a file size that could well
take several minutes
to send as an attachment to an email.
What
about quality? Won’t
low resolution snaps be inferior quality? The answer
is not really (not unless any of us
intend our likenesses to be posted onto election posters, motorway
hoardings, cinema screens,
and the like). You see a computer
monitor doesn’t have sufficient pixel ability to make use of anything
above low resolution
anyway. Moreover, the printing of
odd pics at postcard size is not going to be jeopardised either. (e.g.
When Kodak and others in UK offer to print & process ordinary
camera film, one has the option
of additionally having them all
digitally scanned for £2. These days, they deliver the scanned pics on a
cd, but originally
they used to be delivered on one by
1.44mb floppy disc --- or as julle okes in SA call them,
“stiffies”. So, to get 24 to 27 pics onto one 1.44mb floppy/stiffy,
they could only have all been low-resolution scans).
Finally,
choose one (or two) good pic(s) to
crop (electronically) and scan into .jpg format on low resolution.
Remember .bmp or other
formats can usually be additionally
“saved as” .jpg files. And then send that one good snap as your
enclosure
(i.e. not a whole set of snaps from
your last holiday).
The
overall principle is to keep file
sizes down, so that we can all successfully and easily receive each
other’s news and
pictures. So the idea is to keep the upload and download times short.
Go
for it……… We all look forward to seeing how well we’ve all matured!!!!! JJJ
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TIPs for FORWARDING…… (maintain neat presentation)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Netiquette
simply means ‘Network etiquette’ and refers to the do’s and don’ts of
online communication.
When you write an email it’s easy to
say things you would not say in a normal conversation as you are not
face to face
with the person your are
communicating with. What’s worse is that unlike a conversation an email
remains with the person
you have written it to for as long
as they don’t delete it- as a reminder of your pleasant or unpleasant
thoughts.
In
her book “Netiquette”, Virginia Shea
describes netiquette as “a set of guidelines for cyberspace behaviour”.
Here are some of those guidelines:
Remember the human: Remember that you are not just typing words onto your
computer screen. Someone is going to read those words and have to deal with them.
Behave online as you would in
real life: If you wouldn’t do it in real life then don’t do it online. Be ethical.
Respect other
people’s time: Don’t send out
junk mail to others. This wastes other people’s time. Chain letters are
a good example of this. It is
annoying to have to waddle through scores of junk emails in your inbox
to find the important
ones.
Respect other people’s privacy:
Don’t read other people’s mail. In many workplaces,
computers are shared by several
users. For some people it may be tempting to read someone else’s mail.
Well unless you
have permission to do so, DON’T.
It’s unethical and the embarrassment and possible repercussions if you
get caught
just aren’t worth it.
Respond:
It is annoying to keep on sending emails to someone without any
response
from them. It is good practice to
respond to emails as soon as you get them, even if it’s just to
acknowledge receipt
of the email while you give yourself
time to prepare a proper response.
Proper grammar and spelling please:
Ever read an email that had no
punctuation, no capital letters, numerous abbreviated words, etc.? In
business that is just
unacceptable. If you are going to
write it, write it properly. Check your spelling before you send it off.
Remember
“please” and “thank you”: Even
online, “please” will get you what you want faster
and “thank you” will increase your
chances of getting it again when next you want it. Use them often.
Be
forgiving
of other people’s mistakes: Don’t be
too tough on those who offend you online. Inform the person who does so
by
all means, but do not offend them in
return. As Virginia Shea puts it: “If you do decide to inform someone
of a mistake,
point it out politely, and
preferably by private email rather than in public. Give people the
benefit of the doubt; assume
they just don't know any better. And
never be arrogant or self-righteous about it. Just as it's a law of
nature that spelling
flames always contain spelling
errors, notes pointing out Netiquette violations are often examples of
poor Netiquette.”
More NETIQUETTE STUFF…………. Compliments of Gibby
WORK “NETIQUETTE” ( e-MAIL ETIQUETTE )
When writing e-mails and/or replying to/forwarding them, it’s important that we observe the necessary ‘protocols’,
as follows:
I. SUBJECT LINE
Summarise the contents of the message here.
As such, this is the most important line in the e-mail and ultimately determines whether the message is viewed of binned.
2. DON’T ‘Cc’ (CARBON COPY)
EVERYONE
As it is, we receive too many e-mails, so rather direct your message to a particular person. Also, when responding to a message addressed to several/ many recipients, don’t ‘Reply to All’
and broadcast the message to everyone.
3. USE ‘Bcc’ (BLIND CARBON
COPIES)
When addressing several/many people who don’t know each other, use ‘Bcc’. You wouldn’t dish out their ‘phone numbers, would you?
4. SHORT & FOCUSED
Reading a computer screen is no fun. Reading a cellphone, PDA or Blackberry screen
is torture. Keep it simple & slick.
If your message looks like a thesis it’ll be dumped.
5. LEGIBILITY IS PRIORITY
Don’t use all CAPS (upper case) – not only is it difficult to read, but it looks as if you’re shouting
– nor, for that matter, all lower case. And, while we’re at it, don’t
use colour
fonts or italics and never – ever – resort to Comic Sans MS.
6. MUM’S THE WORD
Anyone
can ’Forward’ your message, which can lead to embarrassment or even being fired.
Personal and confidential information should be saved for the telephone (or, better still, for personal discussions).
7. NO ‘EMOTICONS’
You
should have done enough schooling to be able to write a message clearly. If you
need to stick a smiley face to ensure your statement isn’t misunderstood, rewrite it.
those Chimpanzee-behind-the-computer, thank-God-
it’s- Friday things, they’re the reason condoms were
invented.
9. NO SMS-SPEAK
U
R not so busy that you need to
bastardise the English language like this – and BTW abbreviating phrases
is just as bad. Contractions like ‘I’ll’ and ‘we’re’ are fine,
but LOL – WTF.
I0. NO FLASH
What are you, a Korean schoolgirl?
II. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
If
initiating contact, consider the
person who’ll be reading the message as you write it – i.e. write as if
you were
talking to him/her.
I2. STATE YOUR NAME
How
are we supposed to know that pimpingainteasybutsomebodysgottodoit@yahoo.co.za is Steven Hendry?
I3. INCLUDE THE MESSAGE THREAD
When
replying to a message, always click
‘Reply’ instead of ‘New Mail’, so that the context is known immediately. However, this will NOT include any attachment/s – if you want the attachment/s
to be included, hit ‘Forward’.
I4. CHECK BEFORE HITTING ‘SEND’
Read
for ambiguities and check all names, addresses, spelling and grammar before sending.
I5. AVOID ‘HIGH PRIORITY’
Who
are you to tell me what’s important? Unless
you’re my brother pleading
for a life-or-death kidney
transplant donation, chill – I’ll read your mail just as soon as I
delete this erectile
dysfunction spam.
Adapted
by R.A. Andriés from GQ@WORK, a supplement
to the March 2006 edition of GQ magazine.
RAA/Netiquette
The following provided by Quentin Gibson (Gibby)
THIS INFO
IS IMPORTANT AND SOMETHING WE ALL SHOULD KNOW ABOUT.
THE
LETTER
BELOW WAS WRITTEN BY AN EXPERT IN
THE FIELD AND IT HIGHLIGHTED POTENTIAL TRAPS THAT WE NEED TO BE AWARE
OF.
THERE MAY
BE IDEAS HERE YOU'VE NOT THOUGHT OF, TOO, SO PLEASE READ ON…
----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you really
know how to forward e-mail messages? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.
Do
you wonder
why you get viruses or junk mail
(Spam)? Do you hate it? Every time you forward an e-mail there is
information
left over from the people who got
the message before you and sent it to you, namely their e-mail addresses
and names.
As the messages
get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds and builds and builds.
All
it takes
is for some poor sap to get a virus
and his or her computer can send that virus to every e-mail address that
has come across
their computer. Or, someone can
take all of those addresses and send junk mail to them or sell them to
spammers in the
hopes that you will go to the site
and they will make five cents for each hit that they sell. That's
right, all of that
inconvenience over a nickel and
because someone included visible email addresses in their forwarded
message!
How do you
stop it? Well, there are four easy steps:
1.
When you Forward an e-mail, DELETE
all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at
the top). That's
right, DELETE them.
Highlight
them and delete them or backspace
them or cut them – whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a
second.
You MUST click the "Forward" button
first though and then you will have full editing capabilities for the
body and headers
of the message. If you don't click
on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.
2.
Whenever you send an e-mail to more
than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: columns for adding e-mail
address. Always
use the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy)
column for listing the e-mail addresses. This way the people you send
to only see
their own e-mail address and no one
else's. If you don't see your BCC: option, click on where it says To:
and your address
list will appear. Highlight the
address and choose BCC: - and that's it, it's that easy. When you send
to BCC:
your message will automatically say
"Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive
it, providing
extra security and privacy to all
the people in your Address Book.
3.
Remove any "FW:" in the subject
line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even correct spelling.
4.
ALWAYS hit your Forward button from
the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails that you have
to open
10 FW: pages to read the one page
with the information on it? By Forwarding from the actual, final page
you wish someone
to view, you stop them from having
to open many e-mails just to see what you sent. (Many people will not
open all those
e-mails for fear of getting a virus
so your message may go unread.)
FACT:
The completed petition is actually
worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth
of valid names
and e-mail addresses contained
therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own
personal letter to
the intended recipient(s). Your
position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list
of names and
e-mail addresses on a petition -
and, again, you will protect the privacy of those in your Address Book
and provide them additional
security against viruses and
spammers. Please remember this when thinking about forwarding
petitions.
So
please,
in the future, let's stop the junk
mail and the viruses by working together and respecting the privacy and
security of one
another.
Finally,
here's an idea!!! Let's send this
to everyone we know (but please strip my address off first!). This is
something
that SHOULD be forwarded.