While visiting friends in Manitoba a while back, I noticed something while going for a walk in their neighbourhood.
Every fourth house or so, there was a green plastic box on the lawn. And down the street, we could see a boring crew that had been installing this new utility.
"Fibre optic," I was told. MTS was installing it in every house in the neighbourhood. My jealousy abounds, because SaskTel has informed me it will be several years before we see fibre in my neighbourhood. As in, my son in kindergarten will likely be in Grade 5.
Fast forward several months, and I harangued my friends about switching to MTS. Our households transfer many large files between each other, and the lightning fast speed would be helpful. I personally pay an arm and a leg to get the fastest Internet service possible in my home, but it's nowhere near as good as fibre. Yet it's a crucial part of my infrastructure, not only for uploading and downloading massive photo files, but also for my newspaper work.
The Manitoba friends can get fibre for the same price. But the husband refused to switch. He had used the same email - his name @shaw.ca for years, and that address was crucial for him to stay in contact with various people across the country. It was his address staked in the cyber world, and he was not going to part from it.
As a result, they continue to use slower Internet than what is available to them.
I scoffed at this at first, but have grown to see their reasoning.
I personally have used the same email address for roughly 14 years, if you can believe that. While I have had, at one point up to seven email accounts, I have steadfastly used only one - [email protected]. I didn't care what other account I was supposed to use - send it to me there, I said, or I won't get it.
Over the past month, I've realized this choice has also become a trap.
I built a new computer, which meant reinstalling scads of software, much more than the average user. It also meant extensive online ordering from different suppliers.
Invariably, this is how it works:
If you want to buy the software, or purchase hard goods from their online store, you must create an account. Almost all now ask you to use your email address for your username.
If you lose your password, they will send you a reset email, to the above email.
And therein lies the problem. What happens if you decide to switch primary emails, and totally get rid of your old email? I expect if I tell SaskTel I am done with their email, my access is done for. Ergo, my access to my online accounts (including invoice records, previous orders, warrantee confirmation that yes, I did indeed buy this item from this store) is kaput.
Then there's the issue of passwords. You should have a different password for each and every service you sign up for, and each and every store. But does that really happen? Ever? Who could remember 30 different passwords? Perhaps I should say at least 30? I'm sure I have more online accounts than that.
At some point I want to adopt [email protected] as my email. I bought the domain zinchuk.ca a long time ago. My website is www.zinchuk.ca. It looks more professional to have your own domain than some Internet service provider as your email, especially as a small business person. One says I'm serious about my business, the other says I just use what the phone company gave me.
My buddy David Murphy, the computer expert, says there are online services to help you transfer emails. But I can't see how any service could consolidate all my disparate accounts to a new address.
So, like my friend with his @shaw.ca email, I anticipate I will be [email protected] for a long time to come.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected] for as long as he can foresee.
