Trust But Verify

A few posts back, we discussed the use of text messages rather than phone calls on your cell phone during periods of heavy use. Our example was the Minnesota bridge collapse, where it was difficult to get a cell phone call through due to overload of the circuits.

You can view the start of that group of messages here, then look at part two and part three.

I got a few comments on those posts (well, two). One reminded me that text messages do cost (the reader said his cost was about 10 cents a message). I'll agree with that, you may have to pay for the text message. But you should be able to figure out the technique in a couple of messages. That's a small investment for knowledge that may be vital in an emergency.

Another reader noted that he did not receive an important text message sent on Christmas Eve, another high-traffic time.

There is always the possibility that an email or text message or even a phone call won't get delivered. So you, as the sender, need to determine when you need to "Trust But Verify" that the message was delivered. Perhaps you can add a short "Please Acknowledge" to the end of your message. Or resend an important message if you don't receive an expected response with a reasonable time period.

Email/text/voice usually works, you can usually Trust it. But if you don't get an expected response, then a Verify might be in order.