Back in the 80s, Kelly Temporary Services was called Kelly Girl, and the term ‘Kelly Girl’ was frequently a synonym for anyone employed as a temp.  Kelly were a brilliant company, who used to hold little get togethers for their temps, and they were fun to work for. It was working as a Kelly Girl paid my rent while I was struggling to make ends meet as a musician.  There were quite a few male temps at the time, which is probably one of the reasons that they took ‘girl’ out of the title.

It was during that period that I learned most of my basic computer skills, and I learned them from women – older women (i.e. women who will now be pushing 60). How things have changed. IT is now often regarded in companies as a masculine domain, and there is a myth that if you’re a) a woman and b) above a certain age, there’s some natural reason why you won’t be any good at it.

Since my site advertises itself as being about music, dance and IT, it’s now time for a bit of IT. Not nerdy stuff, but the kind of thing that saves you time to get a life and go and do something interesting.

We’ve all done it – you send an email saying “I’m attaching my essay/file/picture” or whatever, and then if you’re lucky, 30 seconds later, you realise that you’ve sent it without attaching it. If you’re unlucky, you wait 10 days for a response, then get all incensed at the person you wrote to, and say ‘Didn’t you see my file?’ then realise they never got it because you never attached it.

Everyone does it, no matter how intelligent or IT savvy they are. I do it regularly. It’s always struck me that since computers ask you if you’re sure about every other darned thing, why the hell couldn’t they ask you, before you send an email ‘Is there anything you want to attach to this email before you send it?‘. Spellcheck, signatures, virus checks, yes, but the most common error in emailing, no.

Until Thunderbird: in Thunderbird if you write the word ‘attach’ or ‘attaching’ or ‘attachment’ or ‘attached’ (and maybe a few more versions of ‘attach-’) up comes a little yellow window at the bottom which says ‘Found an attachment keyword’ and then an option to add the attachment or remind you later.

That’s one big step for mankind. Well done Thunderbird.

Thunderbird website: download it and free yourself from Micros**t