It's a funny thing when you work for the Internet and get to work only to
find out you have none.
Arriving at my desk today, I went through my usual morning routine: wash
hands, place salad in the fridge, water bottle on my desk, shed a few tears,
sacrifice a lamb, and turn on the computer. But unlike every other day, where
turning on the computer usually leads to a flood of demands, troubles, and
hate-filled emoticons via IM and email, instead I was met with eerie silence.
Apparently, email had gone down at some point, as my last incoming message
was received at 7:54 p.m. yesterday evening. And to make matters worse, AIM was
frozen and would not restart.
At first I thought it was just me (God finally getting back at me for that
sarcastic blog
about the Pope), but, slowly, other, less punctual coworkers started to file in only to find
themselves in the same predicament. Even our colleagues all the way in the U.K. were cut off.
The issue was getting serious, and when, at 9:24 a.m., my Outlook folder was still donning the lie "this folder is up to date," I immediately began thinking of ways to
save my job should the problem persist. (Perhaps we can quietly rename the site "Internet
Devolution”...)
But despite its repercussions (e.g., productivity loss, missing out on Robert
Scoble's latest Tweet, etc.), it's always illuminating when the Internet goes
down. Aside from the fact that it emphasizes that our reliance on
email or anything in the cloud is vulnerable, it also brings out a new
breed of human that often goes unseen. People become giddy and start talking to
one another out loud, cracking jokes, and acting genuinely friendly and
interested in the people around them -- rather than the dancing avatar cats who just sent them a Zombie invite on Facebook.
At around 9:41 a.m. we began receiving emails
dated 7/23 at 9:05 a.m. and thereafter. But, as it stands right now, everything
between 8 p.m. ET yesterday and 9:05 a.m. this morning has gone missing. At
this moment, there's a certain chunk of my life lost somewhere out there in
cyberspace, and I'm not all that sure that I mind.
When we (frequently) lose e-mail or internet service at my office you would think it was the end of the earth....people in a panic, getting mad calling our tec suport guy (i feel bad for him), running around like crazies trying to use other methods of communication.....it's actually kinda comical to watch as long as i don't hav anything time pressed to get done, or any buyers to take around that day!
Due to storms last summer and this summer, we've had repeated power outages. No Internet, no microwave, no TV ...
It's interesting and scary to re-discover how humans lived before 1994 (approx.) when Internet became part of life. It's amazing how fast life has changed, and how nice it is to take a vacation FROM the cloud.
From various perspectives balance is important. It is nice however when you choose to take a day off (e.g.) versus what you’ve experienced for consecutive days. Good that you have good weather. Good always to have good friends. Perhaps you and yours will plan to do something special 28 March 2009. Perhaps then you will not have any mixed feelings. Sorry to hear about your prolonged outage. Have nice weekend. Best regards, R.
PS: for the "e.g.", if the link to the story on Yahoo! goes missing; here is the related site
The post is really timely. Thank you, Nicole! This is my sixth day of not having internet connection at home. Spending more than two hours in the summer heat without internet is a real test of mind serenity. I start to figure ways to spend the suddenly abundant time. First, I write postcards to my friends in my hometown. Then I sift my piling papers and documents, read more articles, play computer games, hear songs, get sleep earlier, and wake up later.
Is having more time with myself and uncluttered mind is better than tapping more information from rss feeds, online newspaper, mail-list, and errr ... social network? I am still thinking about it. And in the meantime I try to spend more time outside to meet my friend and see more summer events, more because of the heat than the disconnection.
A few years ago I went to Europe for the first time. I went with an over the shoulder bag, a very small over the shoulder bag. I was gone for four months. I was going to travel, not to lug around stuff. Deciding to take neither a lap top, nor a cell phone was a major decision. Have no fear, there are internet cafes everywhere. Remember that we are in a first world country. Most of the world does not have the infrastructure that we do. Most people don't own their own computer, let alone have internet access in their homes. For these people, there are the ubiquitous cafes. I was happy only emailing once a week to my mother, but she got a bit freaked out at that pace...so I pretty much tried to write every day. It was not hard at all. And it served as a nice addition to the journal I was keeping. The hardest time I had finding internet cafes was, believe it or not, Paris...not because there was a shortage of them, but because I was there in August, and everyone who lives in France goes on vacation for the month of August...so most of the cafes were ferme jus que septembre...but my tiny hotel did have a computer for guests to use, so really, there was no problem...
Bon Voyage!!! Don't connect unless you have to! Libertad!
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