Yes, we do take e-mail for granted. No, it doesn't always work. Yes, it is the sender's responsibility to make sure critical communications are completed. But, no, the industry has not done everything it can to make the Internet (and e-mail) reliable. My big issue is that one's e-mail service provider is a single point of failure; that's just the way e-mail is architected. But this could be fixed so that, for example, a redundant POP/IMAP/whatever site holds a message until it is certified as delivered to the end user. And e-mail service providers can do more to enhance the reliability, robustness, and fault-tolerance of their systems as well. Hey, this could even provide a leader here with some market advantage and justify a higher price.

Thx. Craig.