I have to admit that I have definitely misused RFC 822. Who hasn’t? Using your example of large files (or any file for that matter), there really isn’t a better way to get a file(s) to someone who doesn’t know “any better”.

For example I had to send a photograph to someone last week that was about 10Mb (TIFF). I KNEW that the file wouldn’t fit in their inbox, so I posted it to my website so they could download it. They had no clue what to do. They were lost without the attachment. So, until we can change the culture of email so that it is used more for documenting and “CYA”, nothing will change. For those savvy enough to use tools like FTP, Sandboxes, Google Code, SVN/CVS, etc., there shouldn’t be a problem. For others, they will continue to send attachments and get viruses.

As far as IM goes, I don’t think I can count the number of people I know who DON’T use it on one hand. Even my dad gets on every once and a while. Everyone should have at least one IM. It makes things so much easier when you need a quick answer to a question or just wanna say hey. There is nothing written in stone that says you HAVE to respond to an IM; just like email :-).

This is a response to a post by NotRonWest on the illegal usage of the ARPA RFC 822 standard. Feel free to respond to his post there… or here. You should have enough free-will to make up your own mind.