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!
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Ahh, the holiday season is upon us: People have begun bargain hunting, department stores are donning premature decorations, turkeys are being shot to death, and email inboxes everywhere are being graced with season-appropriate promotional materials so absurd, one might think they were actually written by the clinically insane.
Considering President Obama went and took the Nobel Peace Prize this year (attention hog, much?), Internet Evolution had to settle for a nomination for the second best prize in the world: a MIN Editorial & Design award. And we're happy to say that we won. Big time.
NEW YORK -- Web 2.0 Expo -- Here at the Javits Center in New York City, several industry innovators have come out to take the stage at the Web 2.0 Expo. But some are having a hard time keeping the audience's attention. The culprit? What else? Twitter.
The debate over whether Google is fairly aggregating newspaper content online has been going on for a while, with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. leading the discourse. Typically it's followed a consistent pattern: Murdoch complains about Google stealing its content to no real benefit to his company, someone suggests hiding the content from Google, and things get quiet on the News Corp. side of the room.
While Google introduces its new Chrome OS (which I'm hearing will be widely available in one year? Did I mishear that?), IBM announced 10 new products today to help companies using IBM System z mainframe technology.
Smarter Collaboration: How to Thrive in a Challenging Business Environment Market conditions are changing faster than ever, and organizations need to improve their agility and adaptability in order to provide better service and improve processes. The ability to work with customers, business partners, and employees as effectively as possible - while at the same time holding down costs - is a key to success. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
More companies are trolling social networks to find and vet potential job candidates. Beware the pitfalls of blurring the line between personal and professional lives.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
How do you recognize an Internet bubble when you see one? Saunders explains how all bubbles have four symptoms in common – and takes a swipe at Google and Twitter into the bargain.
The sky is falling! And in other news, Saunders explains why he’s predicting a second Internet bubble – this one based around the current craze for social media.
Evidence shows that you can tweet too much. Sites and services like Twitter and Facebook are a good place to reach your audience, but think quality over quantity.
The Google backlash continues. After seeing their Project 10^100 submissions disappear into the bowels of a Google server farm, a group of irate developers has started their own site to re-collect and vote on the ideas.
The city of San Francisco is on the leading edge of using the Internet to provide government transparency. It is providing WiFi for its have-nots, and its DataSF.org initiative is putting the city's valuable data back in the hands of its citizens, with innovative results.
Industry initiatives and government stimulus funds are giving enterprise software vendors a great opportunity to help build out and manage smart grid technologies.
The problem with telepresence is that it's not universally accepted, because video calling isn't. While we can all do video calling, we also apparently worry too much about how we look. If we want HD telepresence in our future, we have to dress down, mess up our hair, and dive into our online life.
The US loses about $20 billion a year on pirated software, movies, and music. But public policy can help stem the tide of digital theft. For example, France has recently passed a 'three strikes and you’re out' law, whereby if after two warning letters an individual continues to download pirated software then his Internet access will be cut off. US policy makers should consider adopting similar policies.
Financial management planning does not need to include Voodoo economics, but it does help to tap into the knowledge base of your team through some sort of real-time system. We explore your options.
When Reiter gets incensed over incompetent Verizon FiOS order-taking and support, he broadcasts it via Twitter. Did it do any good? How should your company offer Twitter support? Watch this for all the answers.
The successor to the BlackBerry Bold 9000 – the Bold 9700 – will be available soon in the US. Is it worth upgrading? Reiter's got one, and offers advice.
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Email This
TWEET THIS
