I had configured my Lotus Notes system to display a window of the Wall Street Journal along with my mail and calendar. Like most people, I keep my e-mail system running at all times during work hours. I finally had to shut down the Wall Street Journal window so that I could get some work done. Before that, I fired off a complaint to the Wall Street Journal accusing them of invasion of privacy, threatening to cancel my subscription, and advising them that I would inform my readers of this incident.

I had absolutely no hope of getting other than an automated reply. I was wrong. This morning, I got a personal e-mail from Wall Street Journal’s customer support department advising me that this was a technical error that has been fixed and apologizing for the mix-up.

If there is anything I have learned in the past two months, it is that for every bit of bad news, a little good news tags along. So I’m here to bring you the bad news…and the good news for the past couple of months.

The bad news: during the layoffs I took a ten per-cent pay cut. The good news is I’m still employed.

The bad news is the US economic downturn has hit the already-embattled technology sector even harder than before. The good news is that our difficulties are giving rise to new inventions to promote security, safety and communications, and even happiness.

Some examples from the headlines:

The Navy is using palm top computers to download e-mail, access the ship’s plan of the day and track equipment and food supplies. The Army can use them to track enemy troop movements. A more advanced device even pinpoints targets by interacting with laser binoculars. More software is in the works for these devices to allow them to map enemy locations, track personnel and conduct heat-stress surveys.

The city of New York is giving the E-Team software a real-life beta test. New York purchased the software in August. E-Team allows emergency management workers to coordinate thousands of workers and hundreds of agencies over the Internet. After the disaster, the (Canoga Park, California) E-Team company couldn’t reach New York officials by phone, so they communicated via e-mail and installed the software on their own servers. They had the system up and running by September 12. New York set up a command center by Friday, the 14th, at Pier 92 in Manhattan. Representatives from the Office of Emergency Management, the Red Cross and other agencies sit at rows of computers running the E-Team software. City officials monitor supply orders and status reports and use online maps to track the location of bulldozers and other equipment. Some managers log on from Ground Zero using laptops with wireless Internet links.

More bad news: New York restaurants, an American institution, have taken a pounding because of the disaster. The good news is that Yankee Ingenuity is helping to bring them back to life. The story of TanDa is an amusing example.

Scheduled to open in Manhattan September 23, TanDa almost didn’t open at all. Although the building was not close enough to Ground Zero to be damaged, the owners had no communications to take reservations or process credit cards. And they were deep in mourning for a friend who was killed at the World Trade Center.

But they also had an obligation to investors, many of whom had put up almost all they had for this venture. So they had no choice but to forge ahead.

Communications tools were at least as important, if not more important than having gas to cook with. What to do? They bought 200 feet of phone line at Radio Shack and ran it out the back door of the restaurant, up the fire escape, across to the adjacent building's fire escape, and into the window of a friend’s apartment to attach to the phone jack.

Credit cards could be processed, but they still had no phone line to take reservations. So they bought three cellphones. Anyone calling the restaurant's main number would be automatically forwarded to a cellphone. If that number was busy, the caller would hear a voice-mail message explaining the circumstances and asking the caller to try the two other cellphone numbers.

Opening night was a benefit for their friend and other victims of the disaster. The good news is that opening night, October 9, they raised $40,000 for the effort.

More bad news: in the chaos of September 11, airplanes bound for the US from other countries were diverted to Canada where travelers were stranded for days. The good news is that passengers from these flights used their time to develop  Websites devoted to keeping in touch with their hosts and fellow passengers. One such site is www.gandercanada.com/news. Our CEO, flying in from London, was stranded in Toronto. When I mentioned this phenomenon, he said he had talked to one of his flight-mates just yesterday.

Even The News itself is bad news: Terrorism, war, Anthrax, long waits at the airport. Even the media itself is called into question-- cornstarch customarily used to dry ink in magazines now causes a panic. The good news is also The News: Dan Rather mentioned in a recent interview that the past two months have been perhaps the greatest time in history for US journalism. People are paying attention to The News. As someone who rarely listened to any news besides tech news, I now listen to the world news and even read editorials (something I never did, even when I had a husband serving in Viet Nam.) Now I find some of the news so inspiring, I make note of it and have my columns half written by the time deadline week rolls around. (Clarke, you should appreciate this.)

Other bad news takes a more personal toll. No one will ever again look at an airplane in the same way. Seeing an old picture of the New York skyline brings tears. But there are compensations for the individual as well. For example, (with the exception of OJ Simpson), a decrease in Road Rage. Lower gas prices. Great prices on automobiles. Low interest rates. The stock market is up in spite of the government-announced 0.4% shrink in the economy (which is supposed to herald a recession.) This shows that people still believe in America.

The bad news is that we have lost postal workers to another terrorist-sponsored attack. The good news is that the Postal Service is having no difficulties hiring seasonal personnel for the Christmas rush. Analysts attribute the large number of applicants to widespread layoffs. But even someone laid off would think twice about applying for a job that could kill them. I like to look at the large number of applications as a sign of good old American stubbornness.

The bad news is that terrorists have made a concerted effort to cripple our communications systems. They have hit our transportation industry, destroyed communications equipment in New York, and killed postal workers with Anthrax. The good news is that we’re still communicating. New Yorkers with Blackberry pagers brought home this point shortly after the nightmare began, when they used wireless e-mail to let friends and loved ones know that they were safe.

If ever there was a communications poster child, it should be e-mail. Now e-mail has fought terrorism on two fronts. Anthrax in our snail mail has taught us how benign an e-mail virus can be by comparison.

We’re already familiar with the convenience of e-mail: no printing, no stationary, no stamps, no drawers full of old letters. It has made communications for the hearing impaired as easy as for the hearing. Its brevity, informality and multiple addressee feature makes it easy to keep in touch with friends, family coworkers and even former coworkers.

My daughter and son-in-law used it recently to send out baby announcements. They provided links to a Website that showed the baby’s first pictures, and had the first announcements ready the day after Gavin was born.

In the mean time, I tried repeatedly to reach my sister by phone to tell her the good news. Here, I admit that, although my sister lives about five miles from my house, I do not know my sister’s e-mail address, or even if she has an e-mail address. I began to despair of ever getting hold of her. Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail from my cousin in California telling me it was so nice to have Jean up there visiting. So I e-mailed my cousin a baby announcement, and told him to show it to my sister.