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Re: Test - Please ignore!!!

To: Carol <car@texas.net>
Subject: Re: Test - Please ignore!!!
From: Trevor Boicey <tboicey@brit.ca>
Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 23:11:20 -0400
Carol wrote:
> Sorry to disappoint you, Trevor! I'm not speculating. I'm reporting facts
> that reside in my in-box.

  No.

  The "fact" is that you aren't getting email.

  What you reported was "the internet is broken".

  Big difference.

  Other than mail from team.net, I didn't notice a single
hiccup for the whole period. So a machine is down somewhere,
that's to be expected.

> In your reply you left out this part: "There was some "protester" hacking
> done earlier in the week."
> That fact was on the National Public Radio news Tuesday night.

  Oh I'm sorry, the media is always correct. And they never
sensationalize either.

> My error was in saying "internet" instead of e-mail handling. Sorry about
> the oversight.

  Not to pound you into the ground, but email is carried
on the net like anything else. There is no "email system",
email is carried in packets over the normal system. The
machines along the way don't know if they are carrying
mail or news or pornography.

  There is no situation where "internet email" can be
down. One site may not be accepting it, or another
may not be sending it. That might interrupt your ability
to send or receive mail to certain people. But it can
never be a total failure where "mail is broken" for
all users net-wide.

  So not to be heavy, but you say your error was saying
"internet" instead of "email handling", but both are
wrong. I still got hundreds of emails that day, just not
from autox.team.net.

  Why does this worry me so much? Because the next time
somebody goes an hour without email, they are going to
say that "they heard somewhere" that hackers broke
a site somewhere and email is down. 

  (But they'll probably be happier anyways since it'll
protect them from the GOOD TIMES virus. But they won't
be able to send email to help that poor little hospital
boy. etc. etc. urban legend after urban legend)
 
> It won't be "broken" until the feds get their collective hands on it.

  I'll leave the American government paranoia to all
the other threads like emissions and laws. Lest we have
to rename the mailing list.
 
-- 
Trevor Boicey
Ottawa, Canada
tboicey@brit.ca
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/

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