*Thank God For Tim – Don’t lose that, you’ll need it later!

It’s Friday!

I’m in Dodds Studio B working on a project with some people. I get a text asking me to e-mail my classmate an assignment, since he missed class yesterday.

“Sure,” I say. “Thank goodness e-mail makes it so quick and easy to transfer digital files from me to you! Imagine life in the ’50s!”

So I send the e-mail, and finish up the project.

A few hours later, I’m sitting in the Alumni Lounge watching the SCOPE movie of the week. Gotta love SCOPE! I get a text asking if I sent the e-mail out yet. “Yeah, right after you texted me earlier,” I proclaimed. Apparently, the e-mail was never sent.

“Must have been something to do with the tides,” I explained. Tim Fasano told me that the tides can affect the delivery of electronic messages. TGFT*!

So I send the e-mail again and carry on with my weekend. Message received, but not before Monday morning. Tim was right ’bout them tides!

In 1961, MIT demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System – CTSS. This system allowed multiple people to login to a computer from remote locations and store files online on disk. This new technology allowed users to share information in new methods. E-mail, which officially started in as a way for multiple users of the CTSS to communicate, began in 1965.
Forty-three years later, UNH can’t get it working for its students.

Granted, many situations that arise with technology are unpredictable and unavoidable. I get it.

But the truth remains, that excuse is only for certain situations. It doesn’t account for bad e-mail service. Every. Single. Weekend.

I don’t blame any specific individual in the office of information technology, because I know that those UNH employees are doing a great job and an incredible amount of work. I do blame the entire UNH system, however, for not getting up-to-par with the rest of the country when it comes to e-mail. It’s 2008, people.

But whatever you do, don’t talk about this situation! They’ll just say it’s a technical problem; while true, that completely avoids the fact that it’s a constant technological problem. And they will be stalwart in their proclamation that simply nothing can be done! Then they’ll pull a Sopranos move on you and stop you from finishing your