WINSTON Churchill knew a thing or two:
about rallying nations, about upholding freedom and democracy, the importance of history, and how to tie a neat bow tie, amongst others. He also knew the value of thinking before you speak. "We are masters of the unsaid words," he said, "but slaves of the ones we let slip out."
It has long been a truism that things that have been said cannot be unsaid; but that need no longer be the case, at least when it comes to emails. For it seems you can actually "unsend" the blessed things.
Specifically, you can unsend a Gmail message; the US magazine Business Insider reports that there is a little-known tool buried in the "Gmail Labs" section of Google's service that, once activated, gives you the option of recalling your message within 30 seconds of pressing "send". It's an experimental feature, so it may not be around for long - unlike that email you wish you'd never sent.
Most of us have done it at some point. We may have hit "reply to all" instead of "reply"; sent a missive saying: "Yes I'm up for the Christmas do, as long as I'm not sitting next to that Gorgon from accounts with the breath like a badger's bahookey" only to realise that the Gorgon in question was halfway down the recipient list, and will be halfway up the stairs to your office, intent on a spirited debate, before you can reach for your jacket and sprint for the door (for Gorgons are not blessed with great powers of self-awareness).
This feature would be a blessing for those occasions when that electronic banana skin, the spellchecker, has caused you to fall flat on your face. No longer need you blush at a message in your sent box that reads: "I am sorry to have caused you this incontinence" when what you had intended was "inconvenience".
Almost as bad is the autofill function in the address field, where that witty riposte along the lines of "What moron came up with this dim-witted idea? Did you know we employ someone with the IQ of a whelk that was dropped on its head as a baby?" gets sent, not to Donna, your opposite number in the branch office, but Donald, your boss, who invariably in these cases is the unfortunately injured gastropod.
So, thank you Google. You have performed a great service to humanity. Now, any boffins out there willing to devote a bit more time and energy to coming up with more "undo" functions? After the mail that dropped through the letterbox this morning, I'd be very interested in an "unspend" option on the credit card.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article