"Yo! Wazzup?" he asked, breathlessly.
Keitu pointed at a message she was trying to open. Still working, the system shrugged. Keitu grimaced. "This badwidth really sucks wet dogs!" she grumbled."It's like, now you see it, now you don't!"
"Perhaps that's what Celia was referring to with digital wonder bras," Bob suggested.
"Well, I don't feel very uplifted," Keitu muttered. "Nor displayed to my best advantage. Having no email isn't exactly an advertisement for a world class African university, now is it?"
"You could always go and get some coffee while you waited for it to make contact and load?" suggested Bob. The coffee outlet across the road would likely be open by this time, and with campus deserted, the queue ought not to be too long.
"It's raining cats and dogs," protested Keitu. "My hair would mince. And I might miss the microsecond of connectivity!"
And sure enough, her mailbox opened. In it was an ominous looking email from the ICT Services Department. Keitu clicked on the message and read:
Dear ICTS Customer,
The current bad weather is negatively affecting our Internet link. This results in intermittent connection problems which may affect your Internet access.
Our Internet service provider is aware of the problem. Together we are looking at alternative options and work has been scheduled for the monthly maintenance slot on Sunday, 20th July.
The Internet problem will also affect connections to certain services on campus.
- Mail from outside hosts (like Gmail,Hotmail, etc,) might be delayed.
- Connections to services like WebAccess, IMAP and iFolder might also intermittently be lost.
- Access to websites hosted on campus may be affected.
ICTS CommunicationsBob chuckled. "It's not only you who's reluctant to go anywhere in the wet weather," he shook his head. "It seems the electrons want to stay warm and cosy too!"
cross-posted from e/merge2008 blog