A very common task that I help computer novices with is how to work with email, which is an essential part of the Internet. This article will appear as part of a three-part series with the first part talking about the user interface.

Email interface classes

Webmail (Web-based email)

GMail - an example of a popular Webmail interface

A webmail service is based around you using a Web browser pointed to a particular Web server to read and send your email. It is as though your Web browser is effectively a “terminal” for your email service.

Typical examples of these services are Hotmail, GMail and Rocketmail but if your ISP or company sets up your mailboxes, they may set up a Webmail front-end for your inbox. This option may be set up primarily as a portable client-independent email option for travellers or nomadic users.

The main advantage of these setups is their portability and the reduced need for software to be configured. On the other hand, you are limited by a user-interface speed that can be affected by the number of users using your service and the Internet connection that you have.

A trap I often see with email novices who use this interface type is that they will work on an email but start to browse around the Web for other material. This would then cause the email that they are working on to be “effectively” lost and better-designed Webmail interfaces warn users that they could be losing their email if they navigate away from the page. Here, they would have an opportunity to save their work-in-progress as a draft.

But if you are intending to browse around the Web, including other emails in your Webmail user interface, open up a new browser window (Ctrl–N / Command–N) or tab (Ctrl–K / Command–K) and do this browsing from there. Then come back to the email by switching windows or tabs in the browser.

Client-based email

Windows Live Mail - an example of a client-based email interface

The client-based email service requires that the device you are using to view your emails uses an email client program to manage your emails. The typical clients that you may use are the email software integrated in your iOS, Android or other mobile device; or Apple Mail, Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird on your regular computer.

The email service will typically be provided by your ISP, Web host or your employer as a mailbox. On the other hand, some companies who run Webmail services do provide a client-based email option for these services and there are some companies who simply provide client-based mailbox services for Internet users. These setups will use one or more of these protocols: POP3/SMTP, IMAP4 or Microsoft Exchange.

The main advantage here is that you have quick response for your email tasks and you use an interface that is native to your computer operating environment.

Key folders in your email user interface

List of folders and views in a typical email user interface

In your email user interface, you will see a few folders that are very important to your email use. The folders and views are typically listed in a column on the left of your email interface’s screen if you are using a Webmail or desktop email client.

Inbox

This folder is where all incoming email messages, henceforth known as emails, first land. It is like your mail box where all your postal mail will land, waiting for you to collect it. Typically, the new unread emails will he highlighted in a bold font so you know what has been read.

Unread Mail view

Most email user interfaces will have an “Unread mail” view which only shows the messages that you haven’t read. As well, a lot of client-based email software will flash up a notification icon and sound an audio prompt when new email arrives. The notification icon will disappear when you visit your inbox.

Starred or Flagged Messages view

An increasing number of email interfaces have a “starred” or “flagged” view where you can mark a message with a star or flag as you go through your Inbox. This feature works more like a bookmark system for your Inbox. Here, you select a “starred messages” or “flagged messages” view which only shows those messages so you can focus on them easily.

Messages From Contacts view

Another feature that is part of many desktop email clients is a “messages from contacts” view which only shows those messages that have come in from your contacts that are in your interface’s Contacts List / Address Book.

This feature allows you to separate the email that comes from your contacts form the newsletters and similar material that end up in your Inbox.

Drafts

In a typical email user environment, the Drafts folder is where any email that you are working on is saved. This will happen if you close an email message that you are working on without you sending it, and some email user interfaces will automatically save emails that you are working on in this folder regularly until you actually send them.

Outbox

The Outbox folder is where all of the messages you have composed and sent will land before they are despatched over the Internet to your correspondents.

Typically, the messages will appear there for a short time but there are a few circumstances that may cause your messages to be here for longer. One is if the email server is not functioning as it should or you are offline. This may be the case if you operate your client-based email system in an offline mode and click “Send / Receive” to check for email.

Another is if there is a large attachment such as a batch of photos and the email is taking a long time to send with some consumer email servers.

Sent Items

Once an email is actually sent out over the Internet, it will appear in your “Sent Items” folder so you know what has actually been sent

Deleted Items / Trash

When you delete an email, it will end up in this folder as a safeguard against you making a regrettable mistake. But if you delete an email from this folder, it is gone for good.

Conversation View

Most email user interfaces provide a “conversation view” which shows all emails with the same subject name and between you and the same correspondent. They will typically ignore the “Re:” or “Fw:” prefixes that are used to indicate a reply or a forwarded message; as well as showing the messages in reverse chronological order with the latest message first.

Contact List (Address Book)

The Contact List or Address Book is where you keep your regularly-used email addresses. You can add a contact to this list using the “Add New Contact” option in the Contact List view or you can add an email address for a sent or received email to the Contact List by clicking on an “Add this to my Contacts” option.

Here, you may have the opportunity to add further details or amend the details about the contact so you have better information for that contact.

Next, I will be talking about how to perform the various tasks that you need to do when you use your email facility as well as writing some useful tips for this facility.

As I was reviewing the Fujitsu Lifebook SH771 business ultraportable computer lately, I had a chance to use the Fujitsu-supplied Softex Omnipass password vault that came with this computer. It worked with the Fujitsu laptop’s fingerprint reader to permit a “login-with-fingerprint” experience for the sites I regularly visit. For example, I was simply logging in to Facebook, this site’s admin panel, LinkedIn, ProBlogger forum and the like simply by swiping my finger acrss that laptop’s fingerprint sensor.

What is a password-vault program

A password-vault program stores the passwords you need for various applications and online services in an encrypted local file which I would describe as a “keyring file” and inserts the correct usernames and passwords in to the login forms for the applications and Web sites. You can only get to this password list if you log in using a master password or similar credentials.

This works well with a security-preferred arrangement where you create separate passwords for each online service that you use and avoid using single-sign-on options of the kind that Facebook and Google offer with other sites. Some of these programs work with varying authentication setups such as a fingerprint reader or a smart card. They can even support two-factor authentication arrangements like using your fingerprint or a Trusted Platform Module token as well as you keying in your master password  for a high-security operating environment.

Some of these programs also have a password-generation module so that you can insert a random high-security password string in to the “New Password” and “Confirm New Password” fields of a password-change form.

The login experience with these programs

When a password-vault program is running, it works with the browser or some applications to detect login screens. Then, you can set them to capture your user credentials from the login screen, typically by invoking a “Remember Password” function.

Then, when you subsequently log in to the Website, you authenticate yourself to the password vault with your Master Password, fingerprint or whatever you set up and the program logs you in to that site with the correct username and password for that site. Some programs may require you to authenticate when you log in to the computer or start the Web browser and persist the authentication while you are browsing the Web.

You can have a situation where the behaviour of these programs can be very inconsistent with capturing or supplying passwords. For example, it can happen with single-sign-on user experiences, admin-level / user-level setups or some newspaper paywalls that show the extra information after you log in. The same situation can occur with applications that the password-vault program doesn’t understand like some content-creation tools that allow uploading of content to a Website.

When can they be handy

The password-vault program can be handy if you maintain many different passwords for many different applications and Web sites; and you want to log in to them without trying to recall different passwords for different sites.

They also come in to their own if you are using a computer setup that uses advanced authentication setups like like most business laptops and you want to exploit these features.

What needs to be done

An improved user experience for these programs could be provided in a few ways. For example, there could be a standard “hook” interface that allows a password vault to link with the login experience without it looking for “username-password” forms when catching or supplying user credentials. This can deal with the way paywall setups expose the full article on the same screen after you log in; or other difficult login environments. Similarly, the standard API could also work with desktop applications that require the user credentials.

Similarly, there could be support for a standard file format and public-key / public-key encryption setup to allow a “keyring” file to be used with different password-vault programs. This could also cater for transporting authentication parameters between the two different programs; and could allow the “keyring” to be used on different computers. It is more so if you offload the “keyring” file to a USB memory key that is on the same physical keyring as your house keys for example.

Conclusion

I would like to see further innovation occurring with “password-vault” programs, whether as third-party software or as part of an operating system, browser or desktop-security program. This is to encourage us to keep our computing and online experience very secure as it should be.

Article

NBN Co – National Broadband Network – Australia | Will the NBN fix my TV reception?

My comments

The question that was often raised in this article was the feasibility for the National Broadband Network to be used as a conduit to providing a reliable high-quality TV viewing experience. This is more so in areas around Australia where TV reception quality is next to hopeless and is something regularly encountered in rural areas.

There are some IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) services in place through Australia but these are offered by some ISPs as a way of delivering multichannel pay-TV service to their customers. Similarly, the regular free-to-air TV stations run Internet-based TV services typically in the form of on-demand TV content. This is where one typically can catch up on past episodes of a TV show or see “12-inch” (extended-length) versions of particular content like TV interviews.

But the National Broadband Network could be used as a platform for delivering an IPTV service similar to what has happened in France with their “n-box” triple-play services, and also what happens in some other European countries. There, one could use the set-top box which is connected to the Internet to tune in to regular free-to-air TV broadcasts. There is even the ability to gain access to extended content offered by the broadcasters like “catch-up” TV from the comfort of your couch.

This is also augmented by the main TV manufacturers rolling out “main-lounge-area” TV sets and video peripherals that have an extended-TV platform and can connect to the Internet. These sets, commonly marketed as “smart TVs”, have been pitched with apps that have access to various functions like broadcaster

Freeview, who represent the free-to-air digital TV platform in Australia, could extend their remit for this service beyond the classic terrestrial-based technology. Here, they could set up a “Freeview IP” environment which uses IPTV and the National Broadband Network to distribute regular “scheduled-broadcast” TV content via this infrastructure. This could be extended to a “couch-based” user interface for extended on-demand content such as catch-up TV.

Questions that may be raised concerning this would include negotiation with sports leagues and cultural bodies concerning using Internet infrastructure to broadcast their content. This may be seen as treading on “online rights” contracts and may break sports-code ideals like “delay-to-the-gate” blackouts (where a fixture can’t be shown live in a city unless a minimum number of seats are sold) or similar requirements. As I have covered before, if the intention is to broadcast in the regular manner on to the Internet as would be expected for a regular TV service i.e. verbatim broadcasting with own talent calling the event and use of regular commercial and continuity material specific to the area, there shouldn’t be a difference.

As the NBN gets rolled out around Australia, we need to take action on being able to deliver the free-to-air TV content through this infrastructure in a similar manner to how it has been enjoyed.

Article

Acer unveils bevy of Window 8 devices at Computex | Windows 8 – CNET Reviews

My Comments

With the imminent release of Windows 8 and its Metro touch-based user interface, most of the Asian computer manufacturers are trying at making the touch-screen a mainstream item in the consumer-focused computer.

Previously, as Microsoft integrated tablet and touch abilities in to the Windows operating system, either through a special-delivery pack in Windows XP or as part of the build in Windows Vista and 7, manufacturers tried running with some business computer models that had this feature. This appealed to some usage scenarios like kiosks or point-of-sale / point-of-service applications but didn’t progress further.

Now, through the popularity of the Apple iPad and the Android-based tablets, touchscreen computing has been positioned in to the mainstream. A few manufacturers like HP and Sony have started to make the touchscreen a standard feature of some of their “all-in-one” desktop computers in order to capitalise on its popularity. But they wrote up their own touch-enabled shells and applications to exploit this feature and some of these shells didn’t serve a practical or proper purpose. For example, they didn’t work well with “reading” or similar tasks that are touch-intuitive.

Microsoft have capitalised on this factor by building in the Metro touch user interface in to the Windows 8 operating system, thus making it work properly as a touch-centric user interface. Now this year’s Computex trade show, held in Taipei, has become a point where most of the Asian computer manufacturers are releasing more of the touch-enabled computers for this operating system.

For example, Acer have run with two touch-enabled Ultrabooks which can lie flat as well as two “all-in-one” desktops and two Windows-driven tablets. As far as the tablets are concerned, one of them even uses a keyboard dock in a similar vein to the Android-driven ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime and Lenova ThinkPad Yoga tablets.

Some of us may be skeptical of the idea of consumer touchscreen computing occurring on anything other than Android or iOS devices but as we see the arrival of touchscreen-enabled all-in-ones or laptops running Windows 8, who knows whether this would come to pass.

In my opinion, the Windows-based touchscreen computers would need to work with online bookstores and newsstands so that users can purchase and download ebooks and other content delivered in “electronic hard-copy” formats. Here, the apps that are used to read these ebooks need to support an intuitive reading experience that the touchscreens do offer.

The current situation

USB storage device types

Single-volume USB devices

Most USB memory keys and similar devices do present themselves to your computer as a single volume or “logical disk”. In Windows, this would be represented as one drive letter and volume name for the device and a Macintosh would show up one extra drive icon on the Desktop when you plug the device in. These devices do work well with specific-function USB host devices like printers or audio/video equipment.

Multiple-volume USB devices

Single USB socket on Kingston Wi-Drive to connect two logical volumes

But there are devices out there that don’t present themselves as a single logical volume. These can range from a memory key or external hard disk that has been formatted as two logical volumes to USB memory-card drives that have multiple slots for the different card types and devices that have fixed storage and a memory-card drive. It can also include mobile phones and MP3 players that have internal storage but also have a microSD card slot.

The former situation is best represented by the Kingston Wi-Drive which I just reviewed here. It presented itself as two logical volumes – one being a read-only volume for the Wi-Fi access point user interface and another for users to store their data at.

How different hosts handle multiple-volume USB devices

Regular computers

This class of device would show up as two or more different drive letters and volume names in Windows or show up as two or more drive icons on the Macintosh desktop. You may have to make sure each volume is safely dismounted in the operating system before you disconnect the device from the computer.

Specific-purpose devices

USB memory key used to play music in a NAD C446 Media Tuner

But an increasing number of specific-purpose devices are being equipped with USB ports for connecting USB storage devices to. This typically allows you to print documents or photos held on the USB storage device or play / show audio-video content through the screen and/or speakers attached to or integrated in the host device. Infact this setup is used in cars as a preferred alternative to the multi-disc CD stackers that used to exist in the boot (trunk) or dash.

Some devices even write to the USB storage device, typically to store configurations, recorded audio / video content or locally-cached BD-Live online data.

The main problem with these USB storage devices that present themselves as multiple logical volumes is that most of the specific-purpose devices cannot successfully mount the multiple-logical-volume devices at all.

Typically, they would give up the ghost at such attempts, as I noticed with the Kogan WiFi Digital Radio when I tried to connect the Kingston Wi-Drive which had some music on it to the radio. As well, the host-device manufacturers stipulate that you cannot try to use such storage devices with their devices. One person I talked to tonight mentioned that he had to be careful about how he formatted the USB memory key he used for storing music to play in his car’s stereo system.

What can be done

The idea of mounting multiple volumes of the common file systems could be investigated with these dedicated-purpose devices. Here, it could allow the volumes in the device to be presented as multiple “disks” if multiple suitable volumes exist. They could then be listed using a generic “USB+number” name for unlabelled volumes and the volume name for labelled volumes. Most applications would need to mount and use one volume at a time whereas some applications may allow for concurrent multiple-volume access.

The volume-selection option could be provided as part of selecting the files or folders to work with or, in the case of audio-video applications, the USB port used by the multi-volume storage device could be “split” as extra logical sources for each eligible volume.

Conclusion

This may require a small amount of extra code so that different volumes at a physical interface can be enumerated and made available but the idea of supporting multi-volume USB storage devices by dedicated-purpose host devices could be worth investigating.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Kingston Wi-Drive mobile network-attached storage unit which works in a similar manner to the Seagate GoFlex Satellite. This is where the mobile NAS works as an access point and storage device for a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet based on the iOS or Android platforms. The mobile clients require the use of an app available from their platform’s app store to be able to function properly.

The unit iteself

The Kingston Wi-Drive is just about the same size as one of the smartphones it serves

The Kingston Wi-Drive is a small glossy box about the size of a smartphone and runs from its own rechargeable battery when it is functioning as a wireless NAS. This is charged through the USB port, which is also used to connect the Wi-Drive to a computer for transferring files in and out.

When this unit is connected to a computer, it is presented to the host as two logical drives. One is a CD-ROM drive for the unit’s firmware and other essential files while the other is the user storage space. The file transfer speed is typical for a USB 2.0 device which I noticed when I transferred a batch of music files to it to assess multimedia reliability and USB transfer behaviour.

USB socket for connecting to desktop computers or charging the Wi-Drive

On the other hand, the way the Wi-Drive uses the two logical volumes is a limitation if you want to do something like connect it to a media player that has a USB socket. Some of these devices expect a USB memory key which presents itself as one logical volume to be connected.

Network use

The Kingston Wi-Drive NAS presents itself as an access-point for the mobile device, but has the ability to work as a wireless router between an existing Wi-Fi network segment and the network segment it creates. It uses a weird routing setup which is dissimilar to the typical wireless router where you don’t have the ability to pass through ports between client devices and the NAS.

As far as discovering files via the network, it presents a mobile Web page or uses a client app available for the iOS platform or the Android platform to view the files in an interface-native way. The current iteration of the iOS app works in a read-only manner where you can just view files rather than offloading your iPhone’s files to it.

The Wi-Fi functionality works properly with multimedia in the way that it can stream without any jittering or similar problems, which would be important when it comes to playing music or video files. I have observed this with the Wi-Drive loaded with a bunch of MP3s and it streaming to my Samsung Galaxy S Android smartphone via the Wi-Fi link.

The Wi-Drive can work in its network capacity if it isn’t connected to a computer as a USB storage device. This means that it can be connected to a USB battery charger, self-powered USB hub, high-capacity external battery pack or similar device to charge its battery or avoid compromising its battery runtime. It is something I have done with this Wi-Drive where I connected it to a high-capacity external battery pack that I use for my phone so it can run for a longer time.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

The Kingston Wi-Drive could benefit from some improvements as far as network functionality goes.

The network setup routine could work well with a proper WPS push-button method when used with Windows 7 laptops or Android mobile devices. It can then create a secure wireless segment out of the box with these devices without the user falling to the default open-network setup which makes the device’s content vulnerable.

Then , it could be able to work as a Wi-Fi client so that it can share its file resources to an existing Wi-Fi network rather than the network it creates. This can be useful if you are using a “MiFi” router as an existing edge for a mobile WiFi network and you want to simply make files available to that network segment, or simply load this device with files from computers on your home network.

It could subsequently benefit from SMB/CIFS network-file-transfer support using Samba. This means that computers running most desktop operating systems like Windows, MacOS X or Linux can discover the NAS and transfer files to and from it like you can with a regular NAS. This could then make the Wi-Drive a useful wireless file-transfer point for a small mobile network.

Similarly, the Wi-Drive could have native support for UPnP Discovery and DLNA Network Media Server functionality. The former function can allow a Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer to discover it and have quick access to the user interface. The latter function can then allow it to be a mobile media server for WiFi enabled media devices like Internet radios that support this functionality and are used “in the field”.

This is important if we move towards Wi-Fi-enabled car-audio equipment and you want to use this as the equivalent of that old glovebox full of tapes or CDs.

Conclusion

Primarily, I would see the Kingston Wi-Drive as a USB flash-drive storage for use with a regular computer. But it also works well as a network-based “file-pickup” for laptops and mobile devices.

If the software was worked further, the Wi-Drive, like other mobile NAS devices, could serve a greater purpose. As well, I would like to see Kingston innovate rather than imitate Seagate.

Articles – French language

Le département de l’Oise déploie la fibre optique pour tous ses habitants – DegroupNews.com

From the horse’s mouth

Conseil Général de l’Oise – Local government for the Oise département

Le Très Haut Débit, Une Ambition Forte Pour L’Oise

Web Site

My Comments

In Australia, work is underway in some towns to have the National Broadband Network fibre-optic infrastructure in place. But the local government of Oise in France have put up a goal to have fibre-to-the-premises next generation Internet past every household in that départément.

This départément is located 25km north of Paris and is a mixture of rural and urban living as well as being home to some of France’s classic chateaux. But the main problem here is that a lot of Oise has areas that don’t “cut the mustard” for triple-play broadband. Here, you could just service basic Internet needs but wouldn’t service multimedia, a busy home or small-business network or triple-play Internet to the French competitive standard.

Technically, the network will be based on FTTH/FTTP technology and will be part of a buid-out of the TelOise fibre-optic network that has been already laid out. This places Oise on a par with most of urban France where there is a fibre-to-the-premises setup in place or being rolled out. The project will target areas where theire is substandard bandwidth first before covering the rest of the département.

This project will be supported with €265m worth of local public money, courtesy of the Conseil-Général who is the local government for the département; and will have a timeframe of around 15 years. I have touched on the issue of public money being used towards improving Internet service in this site as there has been a lot of conservative moaning about this practice in Australia with the NBN and in the USA with wireless hotzones set up by local governments.

What I suspect that would be going on would be a further push for some form of competitiveness in the way the service is delivered, as would be expected in France.

Whatever way I see it, France, like the UK, is an interesting country to observe when it comes to how Internet is delivered in a competitive manner and how local public money can be engaged in these projects.

Build out on TelOise network