Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
any. further. correspondence. from. that. same. e-mail. address.
be.stored.therein.as.well..So,.it.is.possible.that.future.e-mails.
from. your. sister. will. then. be. automatically. relegated. to. the.
Junk.Mail.folder.
Of.course.in.most.modern.e-mail.applications.you.are.also.
able.to.create.and.store.a.task.list,.contacts.information,.and.
calendar. items.. Again,. each. of. those. pieces. of. information.
are.stored.in.the.database.in.a.particular.way.so.that.when.
you. use. your. e-mail. application. to. look. them. up,. they. are.
revealed.to.you.in.the.place.you.expect.them.to.be.and.in.the.
correct.format.to.indicate.whether.you.have.read.them.yet,.or.
completed.them.yet.
Sometimes.in.the.case.of.calendar.items,.they.can.be.for-
matted. to. indicate. if. they. are. family. related,. work. related,.
birthdays,.holidays,.and.so.on..All.of.this.information.is.stored.
and.managed.by.a.back-end.database.
In.many.cases.those.databases.are.based.on.what.is.known.
as.
proprietary
.programming..This.means.that.the.organiza-
tion.that.created.the.e-mail.application.and.its.back-end.data-
base.chose.to.use.a.database.programming.language.that.can.
only.be.read.by.that.application.and.is.speciic.to.that.applica-
tion..In.other.words,.there.is.no.way.to.locate.that.database.
and.ind.the.information.you.stored.in.it,.other.than.by.using.
the.e-mail.application.for.which.it.was.created.
And.here.is.one.way.that.you.might.know.perfectly.well.
where.your.data.live,.but.be.unable.to.access.the.data..Any.
application.can.fail,.go.out.of.date,.or.be.accidently.deleted..
So. if. what. is. lost. is. an. application. that. used. proprietary.
programming.to.store.data,.it.might.be.impossible.to.access.
that. information. without. recovering. and. reinstalling. the.
original.application.
Here. is. an. example. of. that. problem. from. my. own.
experience.
As.the.family.geek.and.oficial.tech.support.guy,.I.cannot.
say.I.was.terribly.surprised.one.day.when.my.Mom.called.to.
say.that.their.computer.was.no.longer.working..When.I.began.
my. troubleshooting. process,. I. again. was. not. too. surprised.
