The mail must get through

2005-06-23

What perfect days these have been for working from home - perfect, that is, had my ADSL connection been working. Eleven o'clock yesterday morning was the time the deity of all things connected chose to break the link between my home network and the wider world. I have been stumbling along for the past 36 hours in the nether world of GPRS, trying to cope with 9MB emails and voice calls all coming down the same line. I could resort to a good old modem connection, but there is no wall socket in my office so I'd have to perch in the kitchen, not ideal.

It is quite fascinating - just at the same time as we (at Quocirca) are putting together a report on the importance of email, that this should happen. The psychological state one finds when one's email is no longer available is akin to losing one's door keys or address book: email has become a prop upon which other functions take place, and without which we start to flounder. Or at least, I do.