1. A method of responding to a timeout of a message in a parallel computer, the parallel computer including a plurality of compute nodes operatively coupled for data communications over one or more data communications networks, each compute node including one or more tasks, the method comprising: sending, by a first task of a first node, a message to a second task on a second node; and in response to a timeout of the message, sending to the second node, by the first task, a command via a parallel operating environment (POE), the command instructing the second node to perform a timeout motivated operation.