You Should Have Mail -- But Don't!

From Chuq Von Rospach, a possible explanation why I can't seem to reliably send mail to my brother:

Over the past week or so, I've been getting increasing complaints from AOL users about e-mail that hasn't been getting to them from my mailing lists. In many cases, they're seeing the last part of a conversation, or random messages in the middle of a discussion thread are disappearing. In every case where I've been able to, I've checked my logs, and in every case my logs show that I sent it to AOL and it was accepted. In none of these cases did AOL ever send me an undeliverable notice.

...

That's beyond broken. I've known for a while that AOL was flakey, but if a typical user is seeing 1/3 of the email I'm sending him get lost, AOL has a serious problem, and my indications are it's getting worse.

If you have users on AOL, or are a user on AOL, be warned. It's worse, because AOL won't admit or comment on the problem, to sites sending the email OR its users. It seems to be trying to stonewall on the issue. [chuq]

11:56:12 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Barefoot in the Grass

The boy put the leash on the dog. The dog jumped at first but then sat on the mat by the door as the boy took off his socks. The boy started to open the door. The sit evaporated in an instant.

Sit, Guinness.

The dog sat back down. The boy took off his other sock. (Why he had not taken them both off at first, I cannot say.) And then he started again to open the door. The dog popped up.

No, Guinness. Sit.

The dog sat back down. And the boy tugged at the door again. The dog popped up.

No, Guinness. Sit.

And so it went, back and forth a few times until eventually the dog got the hang of it.

Ok, the boy said. The dog popped up, and they went outside, the dog pulling hard on the leash that the boy gripped tightly.

It was cold. The sidewalk and lawn were aglow in the golden litter of fallen ash leaves. The two of them walked away, stirring the leaves as they went: the dog on leash, the boy barefoot.

... The boy barefoot!?

Ben! Put on your shoes!

What? he asked in mock innocence as he looked back.

Put on your shoes.

But why?

It's cold. And you won't walk him for long. You see, I knew this from past experience, otherwise I wouldn't have cared.

Put on your shoes.

He mumbled as the walked back to the door, But it'll just wear them out.

Wear them out!? One point for creative thinking.

8:11:43 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []