If i have to wait for 20 minutes for an email, i've started skype already.. You know what, why don't we simply turn the smtp servers -off- and use skype and msn for everything... saves electricity :P

By that argument, why don't we turn off the Internet and use SMS for everything?

It may be a bit too late to fix the protocol itself to be real-time and peer-to-peer again, but this time without spam ofcourse, as the market has been flooded with better protocols already anyway (the problem with these however is that they're propriatory and vendor dependant).

When was email *ever* expected to be real-time? If you need real time, use IM (the clue is in the "I"), or pick up the phone. Part of the beauty of email is that it doesn't require all participants to be connected at the same time, and everyone can deal with it when it's convenient to *them*, not convenient to the sender. Use the right communication tool for the right job. I can remember email being batch-transferred over dial-up lines, hop-by-hop, and taking hours or even days to cross the globe - and I'm a long way from being an Internet "old-timer". Regards, Tim.