Iowa State likes to pride itself on its technology and connectivity. However, ISU seems to think that having a “cutting-edge” server requires only a one-time expenditure.

It seems that in one breath, ISU encourages its students to get online and then complains about the workload for the servers.

In order to have servers that can accommodate a growing number of users, the university must also upgrade the servers in kind.

It’s ludicrous to think that servers built nearly 10 years ago can support the number of users who use e-mail on a regular basis today.

The problems that ISU is currently having are not dependent on the e-mail program.

In fact, when only command-line e-mail and EasyVincent were supported, e-mail was terribly slow then, as well.

ISU and W. Scott Thune are quick to point fingers at programs like Eudora Pro that check for e-mail every 10 minutes.

Checking for e-mail every 10 minutes should not be enough to pull a server asunder.

However, W. Scott Thune also implies that people should take a technological step backwards in order to accommodate the aging servers.

Using a program like mh would undoubtedly cause more problems as users who are unversed in text-only mail clients and UNIX in general fiddle with it and break things, then ask the computation staff to fix it.

I could possibly understand suggesting pine or elm, but when I was at ISU they steadfastly refused to use anything affiliated with GNU. Pine and elm are two UNIX e-mail programs that are about as intuitive as UNIX gets, but it does not have the same user-friendly level as graphical programs such as Eudora Pro.

Unfortunately, in this scenario, Iowa State cannot have it both ways. I don’t know how they can keep a straight face while touting their “advanced technology” and then chastising users for running a modern e-mail program.

Having worked for an internet service provider, my experience is: Don’t blame the user — fix your servers.

Heather Scrutton

St. Paul