the only thing that makes the phone system more reliable than the internet is that
you get an instant response, if you don't get a response then you know their's a
problem. by the nature of e-mail you do-not get an instant response, so after some
time of no response you have to assume the message didn't go through, if you use an
instant message program on the other hand then you will get an (almost) instant
response (as long as the person is at their desk), and will know your message has
gotten through.. JUST as reliably as the phone system.
snail mail is the same deal as e-mail (hence the similarity in names)... when you
mail a letter you assume it's gotten where it's supposed to go, but sometimes (not
often) letters _do_ get lost, and so if iut's something very importaint then you'll
usually call in a reasonable amount of time (couple days) to make sure the other
person got the letter... it's the nature of communications in general, not of the
internet... actually it's more the nature of our existance - nothing can be
guaranteed with absolute certainty, so you need to check everything...
wow, that's alot longer than I planned - sorry for the rant..
-Brian
Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> This is a real indictment of the state of the Internet.
>
> I hope that someday people will trust the Internet the way they trust
> the telephone system. How often have you heard somebody say ``You
> didn't get my fax? I guess the Telco server was down.''
>
> The Internet can and should be more reliable for this sort of usage.
>
> Ian
