GeekSugar

Tech Dating 101: He Texts, But Won't Call - Am I Being Played?

GeekSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:30:32 -0700

Welcome back to my Tech Dating 101 series, where I help guide you through the rocky terrain where tech and love collide. It's a wired world out there, and if this next story is any proof, it's hard to tell the difference between a geek and a player. A friend of mine offered up this situation that she recently went through in hopes to gain some insight from me, as well as from you.

She met a guy through a friend who was a total charmer and seemed to be right up her alley in the looks and personality department. After a few weeks of arranging meet-ups via text and email, she realized she couldn't get him on the phone. He somehow got out of every telephone conversation, and ended up conversing online or through a series of texts. She wants to know: "Am I getting played?"

Find out my answer to this question and hear my advice to her about this phone call challenged dude when you read more.

My first instinct is to tell her to drop this guy like a hot potato - anyone who can't converse with you over the phone has got to be hiding something, right? Maybe he's sending you texts because he's too busy with his bevvy of other babes to risk speaking to you when you call. It seems kinda shady.

But on the other hand, maybe this guy isn't wise to the rules of dating, or perhaps he's just text obsessed. In any case, someone has to lay down the law about proper texting etiquette, and it looks like it may be you. If you can't carry on a normal phone conversation with your prospective beau (and that type of thing is important to you), you may want to move on. However, if everything seems normal in person (with great conversation to boot), he may just be one of those guys that doesn't like to chit-chat over the phone.

Either way, my only real advice here is to follow your gut! If the situation seems fishy to you, and you can't shake the uneasiness about this phone call road block, then swim on. There are plenty of other guppies in the sea, my friend, and there's no need to spend this much time worrying about a guy you just met.

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Geek Tip: Quickly Emailing A URL Link

GeekSugar — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:00:05 -0700

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to email co-workers, friends, or family members cool links from your MacBook, give this geek tip a whirl.

Press command-shift-I, which will open your email and automatically insert the URL from the website you were visiting into the body of your email. Just type in the recipient's name, give it a subject and click send, and in seconds your website will be shared with others.

Do You Use an Email Signature? What Does It Say?

GeekSugar — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:40:03 -0700

This morning I was making plans with friends via email, and after reading through our short exchange, I realized I was the only one not to include an email signature. At work, I use a signature that includes my name, title, and email address. I don't include one in my personal email at all (which according to this post on decoding email signatures, makes me cool). Conversely, one of my friends has a super-thorough email signature including full contact information - address, phone number, email - plus her Twitter username, instant message contact information, and link to her Flickr page.

Do you use a signature on your work emails? Personal emails? What does it say?

Do You Delete Old Email Addresses?

GeekSugar — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:14:21 -0800

I have finally gotten used to the weekly, "Did you get my email?" phone calls from my mother. Predictably, every Sunday around late afternoon, she calls to tell me about something cute my nieces have done, or fill me in on the latest gossip about someone I went to high school with. "I wrote this in an email, didn't you read it?" she'd say. Of course, I had never received the email, and just assumed my less-than-tech-savvy mother was doing something wrong. This time though, I asked a question that I don't normally ask: "What email address are you sending it to?" She rattled off an address I hadn't even thought about for at least a year. Oops.

I logged into the old account and, lo and behold, amid a ton of spam in my inbox were a bunch of emails from Mom.

Most of you leave old social networking profiles online even if you don't use them, but what about old email addresses? Do you close old accounts when you open a new one?

Do You Still Receive Chain Email Forwards?

GeekSugar — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:07:32 -0700

There was a time in my life where I really wanted to help that terminally ill child whose family was reaching out to me vial email forward, or grew seriously concerned about the risks of my deodorant giving me cancer. I call that time 1999, when chain email forwards were coming at me in all directions, namely from my friends, who also sent me email questionnaires about different aspects of their life, which were interesting the first 50 times I received them.

Now, my friends have realized how annoying and scam-worthy these forwards all were (though the questionnaire people moved on to MySpace bulletins). But that doesn't put me in the clear; it seems as some of my (let's say, older) relatives have finally "figured out" email, a certain email forwarding abuse has come with this newfound skill. So, I sort through them, scanning for anything new under the forward sun. Occasionally, if it's someone who won't be offended, I'll reply with the Snopes article disproving the forward they just sent. Hey, they have to learn too.

So tell me - are you still getting email forwards?

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Email Etiquette: Six Things to Keep in Mind Before Clicking "Send"

GeekSugar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:00:21 -0800

We've all been there. You write the email (either to a friend, family member, or co-worker), pause for a quick second, then hit send. Afterwards, you go back to your sent folder, and re-read emails that you may have worded wrong. Will she think I'm being too vague? Will he take offense to that last sentence? OMG, I can't believe I just said that! Well in February's issue of O Magazine, Mirabai Bush, a senior fellow at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, tackled this very topic and suggests incorporating the following steps into your daily email routine:

Compose your e-mail.
Stop. Take one long, deep breath, counting to five on the inhale and again on the exhale.
Think of who you're sending your message to, and of how you want him or her to receive it. Could this person misunderstand and become angry or offended? Or think that you are being more positive than you intend?
Look at the e-mail again.
Change it if appropriate.
Send.

How Many Email Addresses Do You Have?

GeekSugar — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:00:32 -0700

When someone asks for my email address, I have a quick debate: work email or personal email? Before, it was school email or personal email? Now with all my social networks, I feel like I have a million other inboxes to check too.

Over the years, I used to switch email carriers as well; I had Hotmail when it was hot, Yahoo when I got sick of that and I remember how fancy I felt when I got invited to Gmail. I probably have a smattering of email addresses in my name that I'm not even aware of anymore (I am a total deadbeat).

What about you? How many email addresses do you currently have?

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Can Email Ever Be Replaced?

GeekSugar — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:33:47 -0700

I'll admit, I'm guilty of notifying friends and family of what's happening in my life via Twitter and Facebook, instead of taking the time to send an email. And it seems a lot of friends are doing the same thing - a personalized email from a good friend is becoming more and more of a special treat.

Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal is boldly saying that email is on its way out. Their justification:

In its place, a new generation of services is starting to take hold-services like Twitter and Facebook and countless others vying for a piece of the new world. And just as email did more than a decade ago, this shift promises to profoundly rewrite the way we communicate-in ways we can only begin to imagine.

The article cites constant streams of information in real-time, gathered via services like Twitter, Facebook, and Google Wave, is starting to replace email. It also asserts that email was better the way we used to use the Internet - logging on and checking it from time to time. What do you think? Do you ever see real-time updates replacing email?

De-Coding Email Signatures

GeekSugar — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 09:00:04 -0700

As soon as I saw "What does your email signature say about you?" on lifehacker, I knew I'd be just as entertained as with Yumsugar's Starbucks Oracle. The good news? According to this analysis by Mitch Wagner at Information Week, important people don't bother with e-mail signatures, so I'm guessing my signature - or lack thereof for my personal email - means I'm super cool?! That or I'm just super lazy for not creating one. My work signature is a tad more intricate with contact info and all that jazz, so I may not be a lost cause. Read on to see what yours apparently says about you!

Billionaires are most likely to write emails in lower-case and sign it with one-syllable nickname you had in prep school.
The longer your e-mail signature, the lower down the food chain you are.
Your e-mail signature reflects how powerful you are. For instance, if you were profiled on "60 Minutes," you don't need no e-mail signature.
Some people's signatures are way too long. Ex: including name, job title, street mail address, business phone number, three instant message IDs, email, URLs for two sites, and Second Life avatar name.
Marketing people have company slogans in their e-mail.

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Valentine's Day Spam Emails Have Started Rolling In

GeekSugar — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:02:08 -0800

Just when I thought my tough and mighty Google gods would keep my Gmail account free from love struck spammers luring unsuspecting email users to visit malicious websites - what do I get in my email? Emails similar to the"ILOVEYOU" worm email, that infected ten percent of all computers connected to the Internet and caused around $5.5 billion in damages!

Ok, I'll fess up, the emails did arrive in my spam folder, fortunately, which was a giant red flag to begin with. But not all spam filters are this good, so be careful of what sneaks into your inbox and NEVER open anything that looks strange, let alone download attachments, etc. . . even if it says "I love you." Also, make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and mark any suspicious emails as "spam" so that they go straight to your junk box next time. Valentine's Day is when a majority of these threatening emails get sent so please be cautious before opening anything that tells your gut something isn't adding up!