Efficiency Tip #70 – No Attachments

Yesterday I explained how to use a zip utility to make files smaller before sending them across the Internet.  You should always use a zip utility, but you should avoid sending attachments if at all possible.

There are some efficiency issues.  Here is part of a previous post on the subject:

Do you realize the process involved in sending someone a file attachment? Since email is based on ASCII text, the email attachment must be converted to ASCII using Unix to Unix Encoding. This makes the file roughly twice as big as the binary version. This doesn’t include the extra overhead that is created by all the formatting code that goes into most binary files. An ASCII page of text is 2k. Copy the same text into Word and it becomes 4k. UUE the 4k and becomes 7k. So attaching a one page text document is like sending three and half pages of email.

Last year I received over 300 MB of file attachments. Most were only a few megabytes. The largest was 12 megabytes. If I consider only the attachments (not the accompanying email), this was more than three times the capacity of my inbox. Most of these attachments could have been avoided if senders would send links to files instead of attachments. With all the content management systems that we use to hold our information, emailing a link to something instead of an attachment saves everyone time. If I need the information, I can follow the link and I don’t have to clean it out of my attachment folder.

The last two sentences are the most important.  It is easy to give someone a link to a file instead of attaching the file.  If you have a photo you want someone to see, give them a link.  Here is a picture I took last week.  Click the link to see it.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1308/634778526_04a7fc36a8_o.jpg

The number one method of spreading a virus is through email attachments.  In the last four days I have averaged six infected attachments each day.  My anti-virus program weeds them out, but a brand new virus could get into my inbox.  If I were to open the attachment, I could infect myself.

If you have a big file to give to someone, use a zip utility to make the file smaller, but don’t email the file unless the recipient asks that it be emailed.

TSPY=1.42