AT THE START of every academic year, I ask new students to send me e-mail with a specific subject, in a specific format, to a specific address with a specific payload. If done correctly, the incoming mail weighs less than 50kb. I rarely download mail onto my mobile phone if it weighs more than 100kb. In fact, most bloated mail gets killed at my server without me knowing its fate. I set that up and it's served me well because at the moment I'm somehow exceeding two gigabytes of monthly data usage over the air with O2-Ireland. Until recently, I was synching my Exchange Mail to my Nokia N86 handset. That resulted in some memory issues on the handset because my work colleagues can't stop themselves from attaching bloated documents to their emails. They never learned to correspond differently. But one thing for sure: if you don't respond to an email with some sort of acknowledgement, people think you haven't received it. Currently, I have 55 inbound emails from new students about a C902 low-resolution video shot in Iraq and I cannot walk onto the college campus without getting stopped by the question, "Did you get my email?"
Previously -- "My mail weighs less than 100k", 20 Sep 03 on IrishEyes.