{"id":1016,"date":"2008-01-03T16:34:22","date_gmt":"2008-01-03T21:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/03\/long-term-away-messages\/"},"modified":"2012-12-18T10:32:29","modified_gmt":"2012-12-18T15:32:29","slug":"long-term-away-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/03\/long-term-away-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-term Away Messages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I’ve started using Instant Messaging software<\/a> again after a long hiatus. I stopped using it (for a variety of reasons) shortly after I left college (back in 2001). Now that I’m back “on IM,” there’s some things I’ve noticed \u2013 some of which I used to do myself, but that now just annoy me.<\/p>\n

The main one is this: leaving your IM client on all the time \u2013 as in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week \u2013 but for most of the time, your status is “away.”<\/p>\n

I was guilty of doing this back in my college days \u2013 leaving IM running all night (usually with some away\/status message that I thought was very clever), and then again all day during my classes (again, with some not-really clever status message). Now, granted, being a CS (that’s computer science for the rest of you) major, I did spend a fair amount of time in front of my computer \u2013 but even still, something like 75+% of my time was spent “away.”<\/p>\n

I never thought of it at the time, but really, in a world where sending an email is free, why in the world would you leave your IM client logged in all the time like that?<\/strong> If you’re not around, why get people’s hopes up by having your client logged in and broadcasting your status to the world? Isn’t it enough to say that if you’re not signed in, that you’re not at your computer<\/em>? I mean, really, what’s the point of putting up a message saying “I’m not here,” when just \u2026 not being there \u2026 would send the same sort of message? You might as well put a sign on your empty seat at your desk that says “I’m not sitting here right now.”<\/p>\n

Again, I have to say \u2013 I was guilty of doing exactly this for many years during college. But now, I just don’t see the point. If you’re going to be away from your computer for a little while (such as for lunch, or just the classic “BRB” \u2013 be right back), fine, put up a message. But if you are going to be away from your computer for a long time \u2013 for example, you’re going to work and you won’t be back for several hours, or you are going to bed for the night \u2013 then just sign off!<\/em><\/p>\n

Or, at least, that’s my opinion. And with that in mind, I’m signing off. Goodbye!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, I’ve started using Instant Messaging software again after a long hiatus. I stopped using it (for a variety of reasons) shortly after I left college (back in 2001). Now that I’m back “on IM,” there’s some things I’ve noticed \u2013 some of which I used to do myself, but that now just annoy me.… Continue reading Long-term Away Messages<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[35,100,97],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-technology","tag-internet","tag-opinion","tag-software","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-go","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":884,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/05\/20\/graduating-college\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":0},"title":"Graduating College","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally went back and finished the last 2 courses keeping me from my college degree - and in return, I got a new digital camera! Yay!","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/12\/joel-on-software-back-to-basics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":1},"title":"Joel on Software – Back to Basics","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"This article makes a good point about something very important; namely, that to be a good software programmer, you have to know a lot about the nuts & bolts of how the computer works - from raw CPU instructions right up to drivers & other high-level nonsense.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2549,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/05\/08\/upgrading-from-vista-to-the-windows-7-release-candidate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":2},"title":"Upgrading from Vista to the Windows 7 Release Candidate","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My attempt at upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 RC ends in disappointment - I blame directory junctions for the problem. Guess I have to wait until I make the switch to 64-bit to get Windows 7 goodness on my computer!","rel":"","context":"In "My Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":313,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/11\/no-more-winamp\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":3},"title":"No More Winamp??","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I just heard the news - Nullsoft, the makers of Winamp... is pretty much closing down. The original development team has left, leaving only 3 people to keep the AOL-owned company alive.","rel":"","context":"In "tech"","block_context":{"text":"tech","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6148,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2024\/06\/16\/unexpected-failure\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":4},"title":"Unexpected Failure","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Surprise! Your hard drive is dead!","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2024\/06\/ssd-boot-failure.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1060,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/03\/10\/speech-recognition-and-artificial-intelligence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":5},"title":"Speech Recognition and Artificial Intelligence","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often, I'll get a little pissed off and start wondering aloud, \"where the hell are my talking computers?\" Seriously, though - it's 2008. 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