‘This message could not be sent because of an error’.

It was just another of those messages that the AOL silo sadists leave for one. It cannot possibly be of any help to you or anyone else, but they send the mother anyway. Why? Search me – apart from the sadist hypothesis. All I’d say is remember: these people manufacture viruses.

Yet still I’m left wondering: what kind of error? Was it an unforced error – careless and stupid administration from AOL? Or was it my mistake – an attempt to use the Reply All button that represented the triumph of wild optimism over bitter experience?

Here’s a clue from Dutch News:

‘Google launched its internet based telephone service in the Netherlands on Wednesday night, but withdrew it a few hours later because the launch had been a mistake’.

There it is again: the undefined cock-up. Was it a mistake to offer the cynical Dutch something for free? An error of judgement to launch in Holland before, say, Italy – where people are more talkative? Or has the whole concept of a free phone service been seen as an error by the bean-counting Googlies? We will never know.

Meanwhile, political and business opponents tonight said that former Polly Peck CEO Asil Nadir was mistaken in his belief that British justice would prevail in his case. Perhaps Asil has seen the error of his ways, and doesn’t care either way. Perhaps he doesn’t need justice, because he has already obtained agreement to a judicial stitch-up in his favour.

In which case, this would be a mistake by British foreign policy. Judge for yourself….

Related article: Why Asil Nadir picked a Polly Peck of political pepper.