[MR] missing digest posts

[David Chessler]

At 10:22 PM 6/24/2007, Hulan family wrote:
>Has anyone who subscribes to the digest had the suspicion that the digest
>occasionally misses messages? This is the second time in three months that
>I've had someone tell me they posted something to the Merry Rose, and it has
>not appeared in my digest version. Is there any way to check on the accuracy
>of the digests?
>

About 10 or 15 years ago Cliff Stoll wrote, in "Silicon Snake Oil" of 
an experiment he and his brother performed. Every day for a month he 
sent himself Emails from every address (account) he owns, and his 
brother sent him a postcard from Buffalo NY. Every post card arrived, 
though never in less than 2 days and some took 2 weeks. Most Emails 
arrived in seconds, a few in minutes, a very few in days. But some 
never arrived at all.

There are many traps on the internet, spam filters, etc. And 
sometimes bad connections. Servers down, etc.

If you think you are missing Emails, you are probably right, but it 
is likely not the server, and, short of an enormous effort, you are 
unlikely to figure it out.

I have heard rumors about Verizon.net sometimes being slow, but not, 
I think, that it loses mail. But who knows?