So, awhile ago--January, to be specific--I griped about "over-sharing" between Microsoft Office's instant messaging ("Communicator") and its email ("Outlook"). But then "my" client hired someone whose first name is strikingly similar to that of our office's alpha-QA tester.
I suppose, in a sense, it could be considered A Good Thing that I email the client more often than the person who finds the majority of my bugs. But the downside of the upshot to that is that Outlook's taken to auto-completing with the client contact, rather than QA version of the name. Culitivating the habit of not saying in email what you wouldn't say in person isn't the worst thing you could do for your career. But the fact remains that clients typically don't need to know what's going on inside the magic software machine until there's something to demo. on the Beta server.
But the tie-in between Communicator and Outlook is such that any email address not recognized as being part of your organization is flagged with a blank white circle in lieu of the color-coded status. That's already saved me at least a few mis-directed emails already. So I thought it would be only fair to eat a heaping spoonful of my own words and give Microsoft Office credit for the color-cue that's spared my contact some "over-sharing" of a sort, and me some embarassment in the process.
Thanks, Microsoft!
