Life without Microsoft

was interesting - for some. It was also frustrating. 

Above all it made me realise that we are far too dependent on "things working", most of all the internet. It is just over twenty-five years ago that I started to communicate with most of my work colleagues using an "email" address. That address has gone the way of the company which provided it. I have been using other addresses since then. 

My personal email has remained the same. My work email addresses have expanded and contracted in number according to the levels of availability in other parts of the world and the levels of security required. One of them is a very ordinary "Outlook" address - ordinary until it failed. 

I could not log in at all. The page kept coming up with an error message. As the other things I needed were working I assumed there was something wrong at the other end. I went to look at the news site I keep a background eye on and saw it was indeed a problem at the other end.

There were messages that needed to be sent. This required thought. In the normal way I could transfer some information and send it via another account but nothing about what I do is particularly "normal". People do not open email from addresses they do not know if they are in the middle of a crisis situation. They will not take the risk of being shut down completely because someone has hacked in to their accounts.

There was someone in a refugee camp in Somalia who was trying to locate someone else. That someone else might be able to help with something which would allow something else to happen which would eventually end up bringing in some hospital supplies. Yes, I thought I knew where that person was because I had provided some words and symbols for him recently. 

There was a civil engineer in Nepal who was waiting to find out the name of an interpreter who had helped in the past. I had been in touch with the interpreter. Now they needed to get in touch with each other. Bridge building saves lives. 

There was a doctor in Israel who is doing something I can say nothing about. All I can say is that I admire her courage and commitment to the most severely traumatised. Waiting for the systems to come up was not an option in that instance.

So I sat there and thought and tried not to worry. There would be a way around this. I tried to think it through from the other end. How would they get a message to me? Could this give me an idea of how the reverse might work. Who else did I know they might know? Could anyone I could contact get a message to them? 

In the end it was quite simple. I realised "X" was working. My colleagues use "X" to send brief messages to each other. It is reserved largely for emergencies. There are good reasons for that. It is not something anyone wants to abuse. Yesterday was different. I looked at the messages going through and saw several people were thinking the way I was thinking. 

Getting the first message through would mean a tiny number of vital hospital supplies would get to their destination. Getting the second message through meant that something vital to constructing a bridge could be put in place before the engineer needs to return to his home country. The final message went through a different route but I found myself in the unusual position of silently thanking X instead of cursing it. 

They were little things perhaps. They may not matter much to other people but for those involved they do matter. It is also the way the world usually works now. 

It is often said future wars will be fought over water. They will be but they will be fought not just over resources but our ability to communicate with one another. Shut down the internet resources of your opponent and you will win the war.