Kyle Tolle reading ‘Update on OSU Email’

What Happened

Last night I wrote the post “Forwarding BuckeyeMail” and tweeted it to 8Help, OSU’s IT service desk.  In just a few short hours, I got a tweet from 8Help, a comment from Chuck, and a detailed email from 8Help, which is included at the bottom of this post.

From the email, we see there is actually an article about forwarding BuckeyeMail, but it’s not listed on the main FAQs. Instead, it’s listed on a page of a huge number of other articles, which is why I missed it.

I’m a bit confused because they say BuckeyeMail isn’t required, but if they’re getting rid of WebMail, what other choice do you have? I guess it’s not required in the same sense that WebMail isn’t required: You can forward your email to another account, so you don’t have to use it?

What I Learned

From the feedback, I’ve gathered some insight on this whole process.

• OSU still uses your name.##@osu.edu address for all mailings. Whew!
• Setting up BuckeyeMail changes your osu.edu email redirect policy, and forwards all @osu.edu mail to @buckeyemail.osu.edu automatically. I really wish they would have an option to keep this from happening when you’re actually setting up BuckeyeMail, or at least a more apparent notification that this user-given value will be overwritten.
• Forwarding BuckeyeMail isn’t as clean a process as I thought it was.
• There’s still hope, because we can avoid most of that mess by just changing where our @osu.edu address forwards.

What To Do Now

So here’s a list of new steps to take:

1. Again, forward @osu.edu email to another account of your choice. This re-establishes the  forwarding you may have had before. It bypasses the BuckeyeMail system all together.
2. Since there is a chance someone could decide to email your BuckeyeMail address, there’re a few options.
   • Have Gmail check your BuckeyeMail. Since there won’t be much mail going here, it’s okay that Gmail only checks once an hour.
   • Set up an autoresponder in BuckeyeMail to tell the sender you’re not using that address. This feature only works in IE though, which is stupid. (I hate MS and their IE only garbage. It doesn’t even “degredate” to other browsers. It just doesn’t work.)
   • Send your BuckeyeMail to another account. There are a number of caveats with this method that I didn’t know before:
     1. Forwarded email is sent as a “Fwd:” from your BuckeyeMail account instead of transparently passed along, as I’ve come to expect Forwarding to mean. This archaic “Forwarding” is automating you opening up the email, hitting Forward and typing in the other address – so it comes from your @buckeyemail.osu.edu account. Addresses from the original email are in the body of the email, but it kills the work flow of just hitting reply, since it’s sent from your buckeyemail.
     2. Redirected mail completely kills the email headers, so you can’t tell if it was sent to anyone other than yourself. Not sure why this would even be useful since it modifies the original message by killing the headers.

Why I Screwed Up

I thought forwarding from BuckeyeMail was a transparent process, because before I set up the inbox rule I had resubmitted the @osu.edu forwarding form, and then tried sending test emails to my @osu.edu address.  I thought this form was obsolete, however, meaning I thought all OSU mail went to BuckeyeMail regardless. Since this isn’t so, the test emails never actually reached the BuckeyeMail servers, so I didn’t see the wonky forwarding setup there.

Here’s the email I got from 8Help. Very detailed and concise – These guys rock!

The Email from 8Help

Kyle,

Thanks for sharing your blog post with instructions on forwarding Buckeye Mail. We have a similar article we’ve had available for just under two weeks at http://8help.osu.edu/4093.html that goes into a little more depth and includes some warnings.

Just to clarify – students are not required to use Buckeye Mail – all official university communications should be going to your tollename.##@osu.edu address for you to read, and from there forwarding to @gmail.com.

If someone (another student, perhaps, or someone you e-mailed from Buckeye Mail hitting reply, etc.) “guesses” and tries to mail you directly at tolle.23@buckeyemail.osu.edu, however, that wouldn’t be forwarded using that process. There are a couple options for taking care of messages that might be missed due to this.

One is setting up Gmail to POP your messages from Buckeye Mail, per http://8help.osu.edu/4070.html

Another is to set up an Automatic Reply in Buckeye Mail basically saying “I don’t use this address, make sure to mail me at name.##@osu.edu (or even Gmail directly if you prefer).

Another is to setup Inbox Rules that automatically forward or redirect all incoming mail to another address, per http://8help.osu.edu/4093.html

The warnings for this are spelled out in the article – but because of your blog post, I just want to make sure you’re aware that messages *forwarded* int his manner will appear “From” your Buckeye Mail address – NOT the original sender, so you won’t be able to just hit This option behaves just like hitting forward on a message from an e-mail client. The Subject is also appended with “FW: ”

If you choose to Redirect instead of Forward, there are other issues – the original sender and subject are preserved, so that you can hit reply and have it go back to the sender … BUT… if there were other recipients on the message (other To or Cc addresses), those are NOT preserved – so hitting reply-all would only reach the original sender – you won’t be aware of other people who may have been a part of the conversation.

That’s a lot to digest, so hopefully it all makes sense – let me know if you have any questions.

–
Max Treboni
IT Service Desk, OSU Office of Information Technology
Request forms and knowledge base articles are available on the web at http://8help.osu.edu
Service hours are available on the web at http://8help.osu.edu/1691.html

Kyle Tolle reading ‘Forwarding BuckeyeMail’

UPDATE:

Please see my ‘Update on OSU Email‘ post for the feedback I got on this post and what I learned about how the BuckeyeMail system works. Fixing the forwarding is way easier.

Ohio State is rolling out it’s new BuckeyeMail service. They’re releasing it in phases, and I only just got the chance to sign up for it.  Annoyingly, I had to muck around with resetting the password and wait several days for my account to unlock (from trying what should have been the correct password too much).

When I finally logged in today, I found that I had missed several days of emails because the @osu.edu address now forwards to the @buckeyemail.osu.edu address, which I couldn’t log in to.

For the webmail system, there was a web form you could fill out to forward your email to another account. The settings are not migrated from webmail to BuckeyeMail, however. You’re going to have to set it up on your own again.  It’s not overly hard to find this or set it up, but there is no 8Help BuckeyeMail FAQ for this. I decided to write this tutorial to show you how to set up BuckeyeMail to forward to another email account (like Gmail).

This is not the same as setting Gmail up for POP access, which 8Help does have an article on. Forwarding the email allows you to get it instantly in Gmail instead of waiting for Gmail to check the BuckeyeMail servers for new mail. It’s my preferred method. Now, on to the tutorial!

1) Go to “Options”, in the upper right hand corner of the page.

2) Go to “Organize E-Mail” in the left side menu.

3) Under the default “Inbox Rules” tab, click the “New” button.

4) In the new window, select “[Apply to all messages]” in the first dropdown.

5) Select “Forward the message to…” in the second dropdown.

6) A new popup appears. Type the email address to forward to in the “Message Recipients”, “To—->” field. Click “Ok”.

7) The email address is turned blue and underlined. Just click “Ok” again.

8) The popup closes and you’re brought back to the previous window. Click “Save” to save the rule.

9) The rule is saved and now all your email is forwarded to the address you supplied!

Now you’re ready to go about your normal business. Gmail beats Microsoft’s offering anyway.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Please leave me feedback on whether you were able to follow these steps, if you encountered any problems along the way, or you just love me!

Kyle Tolle reading ‘Ohio State University is Obsessed with Swine Flu’

A few days ago, OSU sent out three emails to every one about someone maybe having swine flu on campus.  New emails have been consistently showing up in my inbox since then.  They’re basically updates any time someone new is either suspected to have it, probably has it, or definitely has it.

I’m tired of these emails.

Why should I get an email every time someone gets sick?  Yes, I know how to cough into my sleeve so as to avoid getting myself and others sick.  I know to stay away from someone sick.  I’m not stupid.  These emails make me feel that OSU believes the students have no common sense.  Such advice as “Make sure to wash your hands” doesn’t really add anything to my knowledgebase…

Today, after getting what has to be the 4th or 5th email regarding Swine Flu from OSU, I decided to reply.

Do you send out an email for every person who gets the flu each year? No. So why is this any different?  I really don’t want to get an email 3x a day telling me about someone else getting sick because they were either in the wrong place, or didn’t follow common sense about health and wellness.  Will you soon be sending out messages when someone has the sniffles?

These emails are sent from the Emergency Management email address of OSU. I have no idea if the email address is monitored, so it’s likely the email didn’t ever reach anyone. But it still felt good to send.  Is someone getting sick with the flu honestly occasion to break out the Emergency Management system? Their use of the “H1N1 flu” makes things sound much more dire, because it’s cryptic and therefore SCARY!  I really wish they would have sent an email last winter when someone slipped on ice and hurt themselves so they could tell me to be careful because ice is slippery and falling down means you could hurt something. I couldn’t have guessed that myself.

What are your thoughts? I’m particularly interested in hearing from Ohio State students who have received these same emails. Anyone else who has been inundated with the swine flu media barrage is welcome to comment!  Shoot, even if you’ve not even heard about the swine flu, you can say so!  I have honestly not heard that much about it, mainly because I don’t watch the news, but the little I have heard is really annoying. Scare tactics for the lose.  Can we punch the government for inciting a riot over this illness?!

This quarter I took Classics H222 – Greek Myth – which was taught by Fritz Graf.  For our essay final, we were given three prompts to chose from. I picked the third prompt, which was to write my own etiological essay. Now that I set it up a bit, here it is!  Please leave comments below to let me know what you think.

The Etiological Myth Concerning the Origins of Black Holes, Humanity and Computers

Truthfully, Graflink, the mightiest Forbearer and God of Gods, has commissioned me to tell this account of Graflink’s creations, Havelmark’s fall, Fiehmel’s insight, and Humanity’s outsourcing of work. I, Kyle Tolle, can neither pass the chance to relate a story of such significance, nor bear to lose the special spot in history given to those few who act in accordance of the wishes of the lordly Graflink.  A specific time cannot be given for the start of these events because they transpired before the beginning age of the Earth, by which we Humans measure the passing of time.  The events I shall relate, though, did happen shortly after Graflink, the fairest Right, broke the siege of His awful Brothers, routed their shocktroops, and sent His Brothers’ splendid corpses and stale souls to the bleak Static, where they are now bound, for truth.

Then, the Githeons, those Gods who had fought on the side of the most honest Truth Graflink, bowed in subservience, faithfully pledged devotion, and raised loud acclaim to Him who justly deserved their attention.  Thereafter, Graflink lamented for many Earth-Ages the treason of His now-lost Brothers.  His grief eventually gave way to a desire to create.  It was then that Graflink, our boundless Instantiator, conceived a spherical mass on which many things could live and thrive, along with many surrounding masses.  And soon did He begin to assemble the masses, as well as create the complex rules which would govern the system.  So intricately did Graflink weave the threads of this scheme that, even with His staggering mind and power, Graflink, the Craftsman of all Order, spent much time performing the mathematical calculations necessary to support this far-reaching infrastructure.  I have heard rumors from the Lesser that Graflink indeed spent many eons calculating these fine details.

The sounds of Graflink’s workings did reach the ears of Havelmark, the God of Having and Hoarding, one of the Apathetic (those Gods who fought neither with Graflink nor the Brothers), and so drew the original Collector’s attention.  Within Havelmark did stir the desire to have Graflink’s creations, and this shift away from Apathy proved significant.  On the outer stretches of the system, Havelmark lurked; watching and observing, thinking and longing.  Not long did he idly crave these awesome things which Graflink produced.  Havelmark, that great Assembler, silently skirted the outlying places – gathering and heaping all he could reach without arousing suspicion from the chief Architect or those loyal to Him.  The more Havelmark took on, the slower he moved and the larger he grew.  It eventually happened that Havelmark took one too many things and, with a blinding flash of light and terrific boom, turned into a gaping Void; Havelmark became the first Black Hole.

Graflink diligently and precisely calculated the formulae and numbers necessary to bring our world to fruition, until His concentration was rent by Havelmark’s transformation. His surprise turned into confusion as He saw nothing where He looked.  So He questioned the Githeons, “What fiendish disruption is this? Who stalls my progress?”  After receiving no response, He turned His question to the Apathetic.  One sluggish god came forward and said, “Havelmark is he. The Having now has but still gathers more.”  Graflink had His answer and went to confront Havelmark at the outskirts. As He approached, Graflink felt Himself pulled strongly toward the black disc which encased Havelmark.  Graflink situated Himself so as to not be pulled toward Havelmark’s mass and looked around.  All manners of matter were moving from the very universe Graflink was creating toward the Black Hole.  As the pieces of matter drew closer, they sped faster and faster, until they disappeared beyond the desolate horizon of Havelmark’s greed.

Graflink asked Havelmark, the fell Hoarder, “What reason for such interruption can you give?” The clearest Wisdom waited for some time, expecting Havelmark’s answer, but no reply did return.  Graflink put forward the question again, and again heard naught but silence. Then the fairest Right rephrased His inquiry, in hopes of resolving the issue by other means than force.  A battle would certainly be lengthy and delay His efforts toward completing His cosmos.  Still no reply was ever made and after substantial postponement, Graflink could no longer bear to see His universe slowly consumed.  Graflink again enlisted the ranks of the Githeons, who number too many to enumerate here, to battle the rogue Havelmark.

Graflink and the Githeons launched a brutal assault on Havelmark’s Void; first with volleys of power, force and dread. These missiles only disappeared beyond the horizon, like the matter the Black Hole ate at an alarming rate, and fed the strength of the yawning Oblivion.  A second attack of fearsome brute strength came shortly thereafter, only to quickly end in disaster.  Any God who attempted to wrestle, grasp or move Havelmark stepped past the horizon, which was not a tangible barrier as first believed, and was never seen again.  Graflink ordered the Githeons fall back, and pondered what next to do.  Despairing, Graflink broke from His worry and created a tool to assist Him with His now-delayed calculations and formulae.  On the face of the half-completed Earth, He placed us Humans and gave us instructions to reckon, gauge, and determine the variables, constants and identities which support the great infrastructure.  A vast number of Humans were created so that, even though our individual contributions are small, a large group might supply some meaningful data.  As Graflink turned His will back to the chasm of Havelmark, our ancestors toiled and wrestled with thought and numbers.  And so the beginnings of science were early laid.

With work on the universe resumed by the early Humans, Graflink felt a brief bit of hope.  He next summoned the craftiest, most devious and trickiest of the Githeons and picked their wily minds for any idea of how to deal with the immovable Havelmark.  None of these proved fruitful; much energy was spent with nothing to show.  Graflink sighed and the Githeons’ morale sank as yet more pieces of the universe disappeared into Ruin.  But then, from seemingly nowhere, the meek, slender-throated Lesser Goddess Fiehmel appeared beside Graflink and said, “You cannot move Havelmark, but can You not move Your system from his reach?”  For all the craft and wisdom of the Githeons and Graflink, this side of the solution had never occurred to them.   Graflink quickly roused the Githeons and tasked them with the relocation of His universe.  Pieces which had already been pulled too close to Havelmark were reluctantly accepted as lost, but the rest they laboriously moved out the Void’s deep gravitational pull.  Without a source to feed the Oblivion’s insatiable hunger, Havelmark consumed what he had gathered up to that point, until it was eventually gone. Left with no choice, Havelmark devoured himself; after which the Black Hole finally shuddered and collapsed – the Having had and lost.

Relieved, though weary, Graflink turned His attention back to His system; something He had not done for many an Earthly eon.  The mightiest Forbearer was surprised to see Humans not calculating as He had originally set our course. Rather, He saw us relaxing or farming or some even sleeping.  Curious about our disregard for His divine appointment, He questioned many of the throngs of Humans.  A single reply was heard: “Computational Engines.”  Our ancestors told the boundless Instantiator of Fiehmel’s visit to earth, before she appeared to Graflink with the Havelmark solution.  Empathetic for the toils of the Humans after watching the labors of her kin, she worked so that an engine might calculate and Humans relax.  How much more appropriate for an inanimate machine to suffer such computational drudgery than the creative minds of our kind.  Graflink argued not with Fiehmel’s insights and so she is the reason why today machines do toil: so that we might enjoy the universe created by the honest Truth Graflink and saved from the hoarding Havelmark and his Black Hole by the slender-throated Fiehmal.