Slashdot Mirror
New York Red Cross Needs Tech Help
zosa writes: "The New York American Red Cross is in dire need of technology equipment and services. The field workers and sites have little, if any, means of communication and the central office is processing way too much on completely paper systems. Your help in acquiring these resources would be greatly appreciated." You can read more over at this page. Finally something that the average Slashdot reader can do to help.
Sprint PCS is donating Cell phones to the red cross as we speak.
I'm sitting at my desk right now writing a script to activate the phones to the network elements and create the account.
cvg
My girlfriend works for Continental, so I fly for pretty much free, and ordinarily I'd jump at the chance. However, there seems to be a bit of a transportation problem these days. :-P
What's your damage, Heather?
I wonder what the most effective method of quickly achieving mass connectivity after a disaster like this is.
I'd think you'd want to use as much commodity hardware as possible -- maybe series of 802.11 hubs with integrated satelite uplinks? Definately useful for mass email, downloading instructions, etc....
Frankly, I'm a little shocked that the Army can't set 'em up on this front.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I'm so glad there's something my pasty ass can do besides give money to the Red Cross at Amazon. (Can't give blood. Too much time in England as a carnivore.)
"Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life." -- Marcus Aurelius, _Meditations_, Book 9, 37
This call for help is almost 24 hours old.. I would like to think they have most of the list already.. except for some of the rarer things...
this British News Site is reporting both that the body of a terrorist and a stewardess have been found, and that the Taleban is holding Osama bin Laden under house arrest in Afghanistan.
I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, since I haven't seen either of these things mentioned on any U.S. news channels today, and this is the first I've heard of these things.
"You can take our lives, but you can never take our Flerbage!!!!"
I assume those specific items are for integration to existing infrastructure.... although it does seem strangely specific.
Time to put the power of free software to work, and get a serious installfest going.
E-mail below:
---------------
Thank you for your inquiry to Microsoft.
Microsoft Corporation has announced that it will make a donation of $10 million cash and technical services to support the relief and recovery efforts in the areas devastated by the tragic events of September 11.
The company will make a $5 million cash donation to The September 11 Fund, created by the United Way of New York City and The New York Community Trust. A remaining amount up to $5 million in services, software and volunteers will be made available to organizations serving people in the affected areas who are seeking technology-based solutions.
Microsoft will begin an outreach program to governmental agencies, nonprofit agencies and other community-based organizations to inform these organizations of the availability of technology assistance. Microsoft has already asked NPower New York, a recently created nonprofit technology service provider, to assess and dispatch technology services through their network of local agencies.
The technology assistance could possibly include:
- Providing internet access in temporary shelters,
- Creating a tracking system to assist in relief and recovery efforts,
- Coordinating technical volunteers to set up networks,
Microsoft's intent is to work with the various organizations active in the disaster and recovery response that may be ready to deploy a technology solution though an assessment of the technology needs must be made first.
For more information, please visit our website at
www.microsoft.com/giving.
Sincerely,
Microsoft Community Affairs
Because everyone already knows how to use MS Office, and this isn't the time to learn how to use anything new.
Christ, should we ground all the F-16s because there are defense contractors out there making money off them? Or stop using plasma from places that pay students for it then charge hospitals?
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
" Finally something that the average Slashdot reader can do to help. "
you mean other than donating money, giving blood, and generally supporting the rescue workers and the families effected, right?
This is the perfect situation for all those people who like wireless networking to jump in-they need a flexible, field communications system! Lesse here... WAP11s (in repeater mode)linked to eachother with yagis or parabolics, and each having on the other connecter an omni (8dBi or so) for APs and some el-cheapo D-Link client cards... A network on a budget.
This
This is a perfect situation to deploy 802.11 equipment in the area of the relief effort...too bad i dont have any equipment to give...
-teknopurge
Website Hosting
I submitted this story earlier about how Microsoft donated $5 million in cash and $5 million in software and tech support to the relief fund, and it was rejected almost immediately. Typical /. bias.
"Gates Kills Bin Laden with Bare Hands -- Slashdot users critical of 'selfish' move"
I can't belive they have to ask for Office licenses, the least a huge software company like M$ can do is donate software. If GE can donate $10 million and Cisco $4 million, M$ can afford to do SOMETHING.
Where is the amateur radio community in this? I know that many ham radio operators practice emergency communications simulations just for situations like this, and I'd guess that there are quite a few ham radio ops in NYC.
Yet another reason why the FCC shouldn't auction off the amateur radio spectrum to corporations for a little bit of extra $$.
Aargh. It needs a real-time list, with all the people seeing that news I bet items are being fulfilled already. I just got our peoples to try and get them the Citrix and PC Anywhere licenses but by the time it's done they may no longer be needed. It's got to be worse for people scrambling to gather and transport hardware to find out the need has already been met. Well, just a thought and certainly insignificant in the big picture but it would be nice.
Seems like some OEM will just jump in and do whatever the RC wants. IBM, Compaq, and HP have serious resources and the support infrastructure to back it up.
Welcome to the brave new world of interruptive advertising. It worked for the TV stations, and now it's catching on in netspace. Annoying isn't it?
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
I would imagine that something similar would be helpful in the NY area to help with the healing
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
However, some web sites with disaster related stories are still displaying ads. This seems to be one instance in which the so-called "old media" still has more savvy than the "new".
Note: If you do help...
Leave advocacy for later!
Do not push Linux. If people can't use it, it won't help right now.
There probably won't be 802.11b links. This will probably networking Pentium class machines so people can do data entry. They will almost certainly run Windows.
This is good, because this will make sense to the people who can directly help. If you go there, be prepared to deal with these systems and don't bitch about it.
Not to mention, you'll give Linux a bad name if you still push it in this time of crisis.
-Dan
Microsoft is donating millions of dollars to the relief funds, and they're matching employee donations as well.
Why don't you take your head out of your ass, and get real for a moment. This is not a time to be a Linux zealot and force Linux on people. That is what they ***need*** to do their job. If they wanted Linux or a free office suite they would have asked for it.
I'd also like to see Linus or perhaps a larger Linux company pony up some $$ for the relief fund. That would bring Linux some good press, think it will happen...no.
..and I know most people will take this as MS bashing. Has Bill Gates donated any money to the NYC effort? Amazon.com has taken in 3 million$ last time I checked from almost 100,000 people, surely Gates himself could spare more than that to help out with the effort.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Not to mention the code in their page that disables usage of your back button. Maybe thats just my computer though (doubt it). acm
I tried to get in touch with him early early today, and still have not heard from him. Please don't bog him down with useless stuff, I am sure his e-mail was strained to the max at 9am eastern when I tried, and it is sure to get
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
Red Cross asks for only wintel and MS stuff and support staff... most Slashdot might not be able to help? Will Linux solution be use in place? Or ever in rescue mission???
They're all going out of business :) (except for Sun and Red Hat)
On ZDNet they have a story about 2 more Linux companies going out of business.
Actually, being the technical director of ad ops for a dot-com I feel obligated to go OT for a sec: we've been getting mercilessly flamed for sending out an email ad campaign the morning of the tragedy. People don't realise that these things are booked in advance, frequently happen overnight, and aren't easy to shut off (especially when the company hosting our email delivery servers was in NY and was understandably unresponsive). The same goes for ads on a website - we're all running around taking care of business (and reading slashdot as a brief escape) and something like a rich media ad on the site can be easily over-looked. I mean, my company is having to take care of things like adding tons of news content, taking down the British Airways campaign that just went live, putting up Red Cross ads, etc, etc. Cut them some slack. TechTV is located in SF but as they were a client I can tell you for a fact that a lot of their employees are New Yorkers - the ad is probably low on their thoughts right now.
As if their share prices weren't low enough, they're all probably about to be sold out of existence by stockholders on Monday.
Sad, but true.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
The article says...
50 Microsoft Exchange CALs
35 Microsoft SQL CALs
50 Microsoft Office Professional licenses
Fuckit, its a national disaster just break the god-damn licensing issues.. Love to see MS try to sue the Red-Cross in their time of need.
Then of course, after this disaster switch the gear over to publicly-licensed software.
"Be glad you sailed for a better day, But dont forget there will be hell to pay" - Dave King/Flogging Molly
thats awesome, love the efforts. I've got a compilation of all the info i could grab from newsgroups, forums, here, cnn, other news sources, etc. at http://matt.plebian.com
BY THE WAY.. THE CANADIAN ARTICLE GOING AROUND THE EMAIL FORWARD LIST IS FAKE. Twas written in 1973, after US pulled out of Vietnam, and it was doctored. Visit my website for info
No jab at VA intended, but wouldn't $10 million practically be their entire market cap now?
Whatever folks think of Microsoft, they have donated $5 million in cash and $5 in software, including consulting services to relief groups and government agencies.
Reuters articles is here.
So people are dying or suffering because the Red Cross doesn't have sufficient licensing for their proprietary software?
Lovely.
Twoflower
--
Twoflower
ABC News just reported that contrary to earlier reports, rescue workers do need "small" things like gloves, work boots, Neosporin, flashlights, rain ponchos (rain is coming to the area), oxygen tanks, Kleenex, Band-Aids. If you are in the area, maybe you can point people to the proper places to help (and verify this info).
Some pages have replaced their normal ads with ads for the Red Cross...I can't remember where I've seen it.
Right now I'm seeing an ad for RLX servers.
You may be surprised to learn that more than 1,200 IBM customers were located in the World Trade Center or within a two-block radius.
...
Currently, we're managing or have already resolved 20 full-blown emergency situations. We're rolling in large servers, thousands of ThinkPads and workstations; we're providing thousands of square feet of data center capacity; re-creating data processing environments that were destroyed; and relocating customers' operations to IBM facilities.
I read this early this morning and the lest seems suspiciously detailed.
3Com NICs
Licences? (How long are you planning to use this stuff?)
10/100 Hubs (All the 10 hubs I was going to bring down there (20 ish) would be refused?)
I don't like this at all. I am on 14th I could have dropped the stuff off in about 10 minutes after Stern told us where to look but to be honest there's something very weird with this list. I will help any other way they like.
This
Microsoft is donating millions of dollars to the relief funds, and they're matching employee donations as well.
Here's what is actually in the forefront of the Borg's mind the day after the attack.
since /. readers are a bunch of skinny geeks, they don't meet the weight requirement for donating blood. :)
Meanwhile, the world turns foolishly on and ants tickle his butt.
And this "burden" differs from a traditional media outlet how? The major networks are all based in New York as well. You think they have tons of people sitting around with free time? They just have a much better developed feel for appearence and prioritize accordingly.
In the meantime, my company would LOVE to put some stuff together. We've already started helping a bit. rational software is putting together a van full of equipment and people to deliver. Please contact Ali Kaufman to see if you can help at all.
If you know of anyone else who can use computers or equipment in the NYC area in relation to this disaster, please tell her or me, dave, and we'll try to coordinate!! It's better than just sending a bunch a stuff and people down and saying, "TAKE IT!"
Dave
I already contacted Joe Leo and he told me straight out that they are just looking for people to do data entry.
Now the big battle is in how to get there from Queens...
rrdejay
Gone but not... ummm
Microsoft matches its donations and there are a number of grassroots donations being put together. Wont hit $500M but it will be significant.
I work in that sector as well, I'm not aware of any flames that we've gotten yet. However, it's not just the fact that it's an ad, it's that it is so intrusive and annoying. Especially since it popped up about two seconds after I started reading and right over the paragraph I was on.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
MCI's doing the same... cellular, calling cards, etc
good work marking this down moderators... there's no trace of anyone complaining about the "only 10 million" thing until at least 10 comments down from here.
I mentioned this link on the Long Island Linux Users Group Mailing List. Unfortunatly I cannot make it there until this weekend if that, but at least one member can go down there.
One problem, he can't get through to the contact number for the red cross.
So if anyone figures out how to actually get them on the horn please post it here or on the LILUG Mailing List.
Matthew Newhall
President of LILUG.
Novel theory: Modern Man evolved from psychopath
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Even the REAL Great Satan (X10) suspended its' ads on Tuesday!!!
The last thing anyone needs is a stupid religious type scuffle when stuff just needs to be done. If Linux is the tool you need, use it. If Windows/Mac/BSD/whatever is what will do the job best - use it. Don't think - just do.
:-P
(Aside - isn't a stupid religious battle at the root of this evil?)
The Red Cross needs technical smarts on the ground right now - you're not in a board room, not in a data center. If you volunteer, just do the job and move on to the next. Concentrate on the users - now is not the time for training, so use what they're used to, or as close as possible to it. Heck, you may even learn something about other systems by deploying them.
I just wish I could get on a plane right now.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
No because the average slashdot reader is an anaemic, sunlight-starved teenager...
Slashdot: Tabloid for the nerds. Stuff that doesn't matter.
I live in the Maritimes of Canada, and work for the local telco here (Aliant Telecom). We do all the telecom for the Maritimes. Upon recieving some 25 or 30 Airliners originally intended for NY, our company donated literally hundreds of cell phones with unlimted airtime and long distance in all our relief centres. They also installed some 140 landlines with 0-area code long distance and installed some 20 or so DSL internet access sites so the people could get in touch with relatives. The company is saying they are experiencing traffic volumes over 2.5 times the amount they see on Monther's day (the busiest day of the year).
I am running a "Disk Drive" amongst my employees
to get CDR/Ws, floppies, power cords, etc to send
to NYC.
Hope others join in.
This is actually a great idea. Someone should donate some cheep'o laptops, some cards, and a few 802 routers. This would be fantastic. It'd be a lot easier to get info out if people had this ability. Heck, those old ugly clam shell iBooks would be perfect fo this kind of stuff. They have a huge antenna, a handle, they are strong, and no one will care if the get thrashed.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
The average Slashdot reader can't bleed into a syringe? Can't donate to Red Cross? Hmmmm
INSIGHTFUL My Arse! I'm deeply offended by this comment. I would imagine that I am a fairly average Slashdot reader, and I can't "bleed into a syringe." I'm not allowed to. There are several categories of people that the US just doesn't want blood from. In my case I just happen to have lived in the UK for more than six months.
Please don't claim that giving blood is something that everyone can do. I'm not obese, I'm not underweight, I'm healthy... but I'm a Brit in the US.
Z.
-- Under/Overrated is meta-moderation, and therefore is Redundant.
A friend has posted a quickie mirror of the techtv.com site up here.
Technically, if the software is free, then the donations would all add up to $0! ;-)
---
Information wants...you to shut your pie hole.
Mod parent up to insightful, you dolts!
Before I donated, I checked Netcraft hoping like hell they were not running IIS. Yep, I still made the donation, but I would have felt better if I hadn't also been making a donation to MS. I know, NOW they're getting thousands of free copies of Office XP because Microsoft is being so generous...
And to all those fucknuts who think it's acceptable in a time of crisis, please don't forget that not everyday is a disaster, and they have an IT staff knowing full well that they are spending donation money on inferior products.
sadly enough, many hospitals in New York are no longer taking blood donations. Some have more than they need or can use; very few live people are expected to be found at this point, besides firemen and rescue workers continuing to work in the increasingly dangerous disaster area.
The nanog list has had tons of posts from people willing to lend a hand in networking and communications. Check http://nanog.org/mailinglist.html for the list archive. Contact info for a lot of people that want to help out can be found there.
-WetDog
(ran into them twice in my surfing today)
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
The following document is being placed into a time capsule, to accurately record this week's events for future generations.
....
In A.D. 2002
War was beginning.
CNN: What happen ?
Arab: Somebody set up us the bomb
Arab: All your tower are belong to us
Bush: You are on the way to destruction
Bush: You have no chance to survive make your time
Bush: HA HA HA HA
Pentigon clean up crew: We get signal
CNN: What!
CNN: Main screen turn on
Bush: Take off every 'zig'
Bush: You know what you doing
Bush: Move 'zig'
Bush: For great justice
(Aside - isn't a stupid religious battle at the root of this evil?)
No, but your other points are all excellent.
Special Relativity: The person in the other queue thinks yours is moving faster.
The TechTV article was posted Tuesday. It's late Wednesday. Has that Red Cross office gotten everything they need?
More to the point, does anyone know of other organizations (managing this crisis) that need tech equipment or services?
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
X10 has done this. Probably the only good use of "pop-under" ads that I have ever seen.
If you don't understand anything I post, please accept that I ate paste as a small boy...
Following is the list of equipment that the Red Cross needs for its field workers
and expanded Emergency Operations Centers. It also needs certified Citrix
engineers and Microsoft-certified consultants.
a <drool>Beowulf Cluster!</drool>
The last thing the Red Cross needs is a bunch of Linux zealots with chips on their shoulder.
So is the network up yet?
Hold on a sec, I just reformatted your hard drive and I'm installing slackware. You didn't want that stupid Microsoft stuff, KOffice is just as good if not better, since you're not beholden to 'the man.'
Yeah, great 'help' you guys would be.
Sure, when the company I work for, Abbott Labs, gave $2 million to the same fund. My company is large, but it does not have the cash stockpile or market cap that Microsoft has...
Well, I beleive that right now the blood banks are full, so right now this is about all the average Slashdotter can do besides donate money. However, that's not an excuse to not give blood in a couple of days/weeks when the blood supplies are depleted.
With all this computer power, there should be something the geek community can do to locate the support network of the terrorists who did this.
I'm not suggesting any illegal hacking, but rather some organized information gathering. Using bots to mine the net for data.
I submitted this exact article this morning and it was rejected. Given its time sensative nature, it probably would have been in prudent judgement to post it then.
Regardless, I find it troubling that they've listed certain software licenses as necessities! Even in a time of crisis, can't we forget this silly licensing crap? Any word from microsoft on donating the licenses in question? Would companies now consider special licensing for emergency service organizations after seeing what we are seeing here? Just some thoughts to ponder.
God bless.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
I dont know much about hams in NYC but communication in disasters is what ham radio organizations such as ARES(http://www.ares.org) are for. Does anyone have any information on the use of ham radios in this disaster and how hams can help? Is it even being used at all? If they are having difficulties with communication im sure ham radio could help. I know cell phone systems are there, but as was shown during the attack, they arent reliable.
When i first heard about it and now I am very glad that I have my ham, No matter what disaster strikes and what communcations systems go down, I will always have a way to contact people. I highly recommend that anyone wanting a reliable means of communication get licensed and get a radio, its not hard to do and is a great thing to have. Plus you are able to provide a valuable service in disasters.
KD5LLI
This seems like an ideal situation to set up as many free wireless access points as possible... or even better...
All we have to do is convince people who already have the networks to open them up to people who need them. When is a better time than now to open some of those corp. networks?
Yesterday morning, the Networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN) were getting back to "normal" during their morning shows, i.e., commercial breaks.
Is it me, or is Diane Sawyer overrated? She was sounding pretty idiotic yesterday.
What? Not simulation? Gee the teal world is hard :)
50 Microsoft Office Professional licenses
Ok, do you really think that Micro$oft would even think of taking legal actions against the Red Cross at a time like this for copying software that can help save lives? Sooo sad
See the forbiden post Here
Wow, I'm amazed by what you're saying. I fully agree with the parent. In situations such as this, when someone asks for something, it's required to give them what they're asking for.
...and the usual M$ bugs won't matter.
I have a few questions for you:
1 - Do you know why the Red Cross needs this software? Are you sure there is a fully functional Linux alternative for each requested piece?
2 - Do you feel it would speed up and help the relief effort to have the users learn new software and new interfaces or slow it down and hider it? NOTE: I'm not saying the interface is bad, but just different, which requires additional education which takes additional time, which is something that cannot be spared right now.
I'm sure the Red Cross will be happy to have anything up and working and that volunteers will follow their directions to the letter with good humor.
IF this happened, the directions from the Red Cross would be "Input data X". I don't think the Red Cross can provide user assistance as to how to use the new, unfamiliar software software. Even if hardcore Linux hackers get involved with supporting the software, it wll only slow down the efforts, to what extent I do not know.
They may then contribute more with the Free software in their hands. You're correct, they may. I feel, and others will agree, the situation warrants "give them what they want, not what we think they should have".
It's doubtful that the Red Cross is dependent on such things...
In response to this statement I'll ask you the same thing you asked the parent: What the hell do you know about Red Cross ops? Do you work for them? Have you ever? I have but not much. They are not a lame bunch.. It seems you're speculating, the same thing you ripped into the previous poster for.
More Microsoft bashing and at a time like this. I think you need to re-assess your priorities right now.
Would you prefer that Microsoft didn't do anything? we need to work together on this. Your crying on /. isn't helping at all.
No replies made to AC posts. Please log in.
Although I hate to get into partisan nonsense at a time like this, I feel it's important to note that half of the items on the request list appear to be licenses for expensive, proprietary software. Considering that MS made $7 billion in profit last fiscal year, I'd say $10 million is the least they could do. And there should be none of this having to ask for licenses-- that's ridiculous (and wouldn't be the case if the Red Cross was using Red Hat or most any other Linux, now would it?).
As for Sun, they had offices in the WTC and at least one executive on the plane that went into the building, so please have a little respect. Sun have bigger problems than how much they are donating to rescue efforts.
As for VA and RH? I dunno. Maybe just as soon as they have a monopoly on overpriced software and turn a profit, we can expect those companies to donate headline sums as well. In the meantime, consider that Slashdot provided news to a lot of people during this past week and a forum to discuss the events. Slashdot is a free service provided by VA at considerable expense in terms of hardware and bandwidth.
If you want to act three flavors of righteous, first do something yourself, and then take quiet pride in being a good person instead of bitching about what others haven't done. Sheesh.
I do not have a signature
Linux may not be hard to use, but it sure is DIFFERENT. In an emergency, there's no time to learn something different. I wasn't saying Linux was bad. Just not appropriate. Often, people paint Linux as a panacea on this site. It isn't. This is one of those places where it would be detrimental.
If we can get the slashdot effect in real life, they should have no trouble getting what they need...
I think it would be great if a software professional could get their needs for software and we could start an open source project for the Red Cross to meet their needs and help out.
Please. Don't be ridiculous. For anyone who has seen the cloud where downtown used to be... I can't imagine any sane person in this city giving the Red Cross a hard time.
Televsion doesn't have ads unless someone actually does some switching and button pushing. Web pages automatically have ads unless someone re-writes them.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Cisco gave $6 million.
General Electric gave $10 million.
All three deserve our respect and thanks for their actions.
Breakfast served all day!
I think the point was that they could install 50 StarOffice copies without asking for donations and get up and running straight away; but OTOH they would consider MSO tried and tested and want to go with what they know.
Can anyone lead up a team to find their needs for custom logistics software? Open source it and get it up and running in days?
15 Aeron chairs
30 registered copies of Railroad Tycoon II
and 5 Microsoft USB SideWinder wheels with force feedback
--
Simple. They are major networks with major resources. Most dot-coms are not and don't.
A little background on TechTV: it was purchased by the mogul Rupert Murdoc (I think it's still owned by him, ZDNet, the online part of ZDTV which became TechTV, was sold to CNET. TechTV.com I believe is still Murdoc owned.) and in theory the parent company has gobs of resources but I can tell you in practise, the TechTV.com child company does not.
And as for how annoying the ad is - well yes, it annoyed me too. I'd make some justification about advertising being necessary to pay the bills, the death of the banner and the need for intrusive rich media ads to perform, etc, etc. But no, I just found that particular ad unnecessarily annoying too.
cheers,
zama
come one guys....breaking lameness filter MOD This MAN UP!!!
"Don't mess with him, he taunts the happy fun ball."
Critical, hell - more power to him.
I can't confirm/deny the items you mentioned above (though I'm quite sure they need those items) but a caller to a radio show said they need lots of new/clean underwear and socks. These guys [rescuers] are in water up to their chests apparently. I can only imagine what else they may need... toilet paper? Port-a-potties? A caller yesterday said that the dust masks they're giving to the rescue workers are the 39 cent ones you use for spackling, when for like $2 they could be handing out ones that protect against asbestosis and all that stuff that may be in the air. I know Mayor Giuliani said that the air quality is good, but this seems like a rather small investment in the future health of these guys who are risking their lives for everyone. Then again, this is based on some woman who called into the Don and Mike show yesterday, so I dunno how much of that to believe. I am sure they need underwear and socks though. Blankets, sleeping bags, cots... not just for the rescue workers either.
Send in the Hanes!
rooooar
They also are matching employee donations. Considering how rich MS employees generally are, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual figure is a couple extra million. At least one person I know donated $100,000 of his own money (he's worth about $25M doncha know)
I could not find anything on the American Red Cross site about this... But I found this disclaimer :
1 3fraud.html.
"The American National Red Cross is aware that false Red Cross Websites and e-mail campaigns directing donations to sites other than those authorized by the American Red Cross have begun to appear. We have also learned of a number of Websites soliciting donations, allegedly on our behalf." at this address : http://www.redcross.org/press/mediarel/me_pr/0109
Most of the requested hardware has probably already been donated/paid for by corporations. Of cours eit has to get there fast. On the other hand, volunteering for technical works will probably help.
Ah, if I could find a way to go from Belgium to NYC...
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I've been very impressed lately with the frequency and size of donations from businesses/corporations:
Microsoft donated [www.microsoft.com] $5M in cash to United Way in NY, $5M in licenses/support/tech help.
Sprint has donated [www.sprint.com] handsets and redirected a cell from NJ to NYPD. They've also provided phones for city, state and local government officials and to the American Red Cross for use in recovery efforts.
GE has pledged $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. [from www.ge.com]
AT&T has donated [www.att.com] $1M to American Red Cross and $10M in prepaid calling cards.
Verizon has offered [newscenter.verizon.com] free local calling to and from payphones on Manhattan streets.
I'm sure there are many more. As I look at Amazon's donation center, it looks like it's going up at about $4000/min.
This makes me proud to be an American.
... that's all i wrote...
I thought the equipment request a little strange when I saw it yesterday. But a discussion on a list I'm on raised some questions about the Red Cross. A couple of people on that list said they had done volunteer work for the Red Cross, and had witnessed all sorts of bad things during disaster operations...Red Cross people staying in nice hotels, charging people for bottles of water, etc. I have no reason to believe that these people were lying.
My take on this is that the Red Cross is a big organization, and there will no doubt be problems here and there, and that if it was widespread throughout the organization, it would have come to the public's attention. Just curious if anyone else has seen problems like this with the Red Cross.
Not entirely on topic, but I just heard a brief report on ABC that already there are already spammers soliciting bogus donations for WTC relief. Pretty bloody disgusting...anyone who would stoop so low is in serious need of a buckshot enema.
You're using her as bait, Master!
When the markets reopen their stock price is going to vanish, so why don't they just liquidate the company and donate the proceeds?
They want 50 MS Office licences and some PC Anywhere licences. What?
If that doesn't make the case for free (as in speech and/or beer) software, nothing will.
I can't even imagine the gall it would take for the BSA to try to audit the Red Cross now.
The video clips at CBS Marketwatch were plain ol' video clips until the afternoon of the tragedy when some switch was changed so that when you clicked on the video clip, an advert for Absolut vodka played before the video of dying people. Someone made that decision at CBS Marketwatch, and maybe at Absolut as well.
Red Cross Disaster Services only deals with new items and money, and new items are generally donated in bulk from manufacturers or retailers. Even there items are generally things that are needed for immediate care - sweatsuits, blankets, toiletries. The main exception to this is cleanup kits, which generally consist of a mop and cleaning supplies.
The preferred way to distribute assistance is money (in a way) when possible, particularly for major disasters. By providing Disbursement Orders (DOs) that local merchants have agreed to accept, the Red Cross is able to get money flowing back through affected areas. For the merchants, the DO is treated pretty much like a check, except they send it to the Red Cross instead of depositing it at their bank.
In general, Disaster Services is geared to provide support only during the disaster itself (Mass Care/shelters) and for a few days afterward while people get back on their feet (Family Services). In addition, it regularly provides other services such as canteening for disaster workers and others affected.
I suspect that the need for computers is so they can get more people set up for access to some of the existing systems they have for dealing with disasters. A lot of the software is client-server and even terminal-based, but without enough computers for the staff to use it doesn't do much good.
fencepost
just a little off
I notice they need PC Anywhere and Microsoft Licenses. I am pressed for ATM but someone post emails of company officials so we can encourage the companys to donate them.
Will armed officers be put on flights?
Yes, FAA Federal Air Marshals who are armed and trained in the use of firearms on board aircraft will be flying anonymously. Federal Air Marshals are FAA civil aviation security specialists who are specially trained for deployment on anti-hijacking missions. The FAA will not reveal the number or identities of the marshals. The DOT is working with the Department of Defense to see if other highly trained agents may be deployed to augment the Federal Air Marshal force.
As seen on the FAA's website http://www.faa.gov/apa/faq/pr_faq.htm
Anyone knows of a list of WHO gave WHAT to help the effort? Just curious about the amount of donations of the various organisations, companies etc...
oh and please stop bitching about M$ cause it's off topic. I have someone missing and I have seen some really retarded off topic remarks here.
That's me ;)
http://wsulug.org
Lots of TV-cards and radio cards might help.
:)
The hard disks in these systems, can be filled up with a lot of useful data, kind of a mirror of some important medical information sites, or movie files demonstrating emergency steps. Additionally, the systems could come with a lot of empty slots where some standard medical instrumenting devices can be connected.
As an aside, probably fill 'em up with some therapeutic music
So, I donate $1000 of my hard earned dollars to help the innocent victims of terrorism in whatever way possible. And what do I get for it? Flak! People telling me things like "Why bother? the government will pay for it" and "You just wasted your money, dude."
Heartless, bitter souls who have no spiritual persuasion to do good by their fellow citizens. All they can do is watch the stuff on CNN and crack jokes and make stupid remarks about how much something like this sucks. "That bin Laden... he has to pay." Great, stupid asshole. Get off your ass and donate either your blood, money, or labor and stop excersizing your fat pie hole.
Tomorrows edition of German Newspaper "Neue Presse" from Hannover has an article (http://www.neuepresse.de/np-index.html) about ignored warnings about the WTC attack, which translated reads like this:
"It is a shock. Tracks of the terror lead also to Hannover: A Iran inmate in Langenhagen wanted to warn the American President and the Secret Service. Nobody did take him serious.
Riddle about Ali S.(29) from Iran. The man, who weeks ago immigrated illegaley into Germany. He was arrested in Goslar by Police and was to be deported to his home country until November 6th. For about one month he urged into officers at Langenhagen Deportation jail.
"I habe important information for the USA", he said the to the prison officers. He has to call there at all cost.
This was allowed to him. Consequence: The White House hung up, as soon as Ali S. identified as an inmate.
To the secret service the warnings of the man were just drool. Ali S. depite of this has mentioned this week as time for attacks, which "would change world order".
The Irani was estimated in Langenhagen as psychically disoriented. Yet he didnt give up, turned to the head of the department. He would knew, that something was about to happen next week.
Even hours before the the two airliners rammed into the WTC and another one into the Pentagon, Ali S. talked about information of a danger for world order. He wanted to fax the american president. This was rejected. Prison authority scored this behavior as pomposity.
According NP-information investigators are now taken it granted, that the Irani really had been looking for contact to USA-authorities. It may well be possible, that he has information, which can be useful for the clarification of the attacks.
Only Wednesday the lower-saxxony department of justice heard about the phone calls. The department of state in Hannover was informed. From there the schily-ministry in Berlin was brought into.
Thursday Secret Service and the federal attorney interviewed the Irani. Outcome unknown. "
I had some hope that at least during a time of crisis like this, zealots would get off their soapboxes and help out, even if it means possibly having to deal with MS.
Lobby the Red Cross to change to open source after all this is said and done.
This isn't the time to make a stand for the cause.
Call on God, but row AWAY from the rocks!
Let me do it for you.
That's a pittance.
Moreover, MS is up to their same tricks, giving away software licenses and claiming the full retail value as a donation.
It's cheap. It's deceitful, and IMHO the IRS should be banging away at the door.
If we're cynical about MS the rest of the time, why can't we be cynical now? Bill has proven time and again that he's willing to lie to a judge and break the law just to make a buck, why should we assume all of a sudden that he's a great humanitarian?
Oh, I forgot... his company (not even Bill himself) donated $5m... And they make how many billion per year? It's a pathetic gimick, like tipping $.05 in a restaurant, to make a statement.
What wonderful human beings. I want, desperately, to carry Bill's child, because he is such a beacon to the world. [/sarcasm]
All the newspapers and articles - well the brittish ones at least, are reporting that blokes name as
Osama Bin Laden
whereas www.fbi.gov is reporting it as
Usama Bin Laden
which one's right?
Will the moderators please blast this twit(ter) back to the Stone Age? Even in our nation's darkest hour, he can't help but blather on with his mindless "Linux good, Microsoft bad" drivel. There is a time and place for most things, and this is absolutely not it.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
Thanks mods... this one deserves a negative (-) rating I think...
-- I'm sure my 2 cents is worth 5 bucks somewhere in the world...
>>(Aside - isn't a stupid religious battle at the root of this evil?)
>No, but your other points are all excellent.
I hate to tell you it is. Binny has taken Islam and twisted it into his own fucked up religion. To say that this isn't a religous battle is insane. It might not be on our end, but the other side certainly believes it to be.
I fully support any military retaliation that the United States follows through with.
The sole purpose of the Internet is to get porn and bomb making plans into the hands of children.
I was just thinking while coding madly at work... Is there some way that I may be able to offer my expertise in web and database development to help out?
/. community thinks of this. If it would be beneficial, I could have something developed within a few hours.
Thanks goes out to all that have mirrored and posted news sites and people searches.
What about the fact that so many want to donate items? Items that need to be transported to NY. I personally live in Canada and would ship my personal computer there in a second if it wasn't a Mac. There must be people throughout the US and Canada that will be driving even close to NY. What if we developed an online database of people that will be travelling to the area and have people that are close to them be able to send items with them?
It would take little time to set it up and if anyone with the Red Cross had some time they could say yes or no to things people want to send.
We could also post locations including directions within the area that things could be dropped of at.
Just an idea... I want to know what the
That's pretty pathetic when WMT is worth about $200 billion, and MSFT is worth around $300 billion and WMT is only willing to put up about a 7th of what MSFT is.
I talke dwith the volunteer office in my area, and they siad there are MANY federal regualtions regarding patinet confidentiality, etc. They were worried that having a bunch of volunteers, while having good intetntions, might violate some of those regulations. I was eesnetially turned away as far as tech support goes. And hardware will probbly have to be scrutinized too. I think the best bet would be to offer support in the form of non-conspicuous stuff - liek monitors and printers. Software too. But if you really want to help, you can still volunteer as 'labor' I asked my boss if I could have work off to do this, and she said it would be paid leave! Get out there and volunteer for other stuff too, dammit. Sure, we've got lots of brains here onn slashdot, but right now they need BODIES. This is about human life, not technology. Just because you're a scraney nerd like me doenst' menat you cant get out and tie up ribbons, or devote a section of your site to the victims, etc. Get to work!! I'm off!!
Assuming the cell towers were still up, or new ones could be put up, cell modems and regular dial-up servers would probably give you the most range and flexibility. It wouldn't be the fastest, and it would be expensive if the cell company didn't chip in for the service, but they would, so that's moot.
In addition, if they aren't RAIDing their database servers, they really need to. What if sore bad shit happens?
I'm the stranger...posting to
This I can speak to. There is no such thing as "mass connectivity" during the disaster. The issue is Money.
There are two issues here. (Caveat: I used to work for FEMA. I left FEMA four years ago, so things might be better now.).
1. There has been a "movement", for years, to try to get all government agencies on one "bandwidth", technically. during the emergency. To my knowledge, it hasn't happened yet. NO FEDERAL MONEY. (For some reason, the Feds, such as FEMA, the Army, etc., haven't been too enthused about this. Not sure why.) Check out the Extreme Information Infrastructure Initiative, pushed by the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue. Still not happening. No money. During big disasters, every single agency and department is on a different wavelength using different info. Literally. Ideas like dedicated Secure Internet bandwidth have been floated, but not enough big dogs are buying into such ideas. Literally. There has not been enough money or agreement to get everyone in the same boat. The XII or something like it needs more consideration. It can work.
2. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has done great stuff getting all Federal agenies communicating together, but mostly in a post-emergency framework. The rebuilding needs,(money, again) and interim needs, the needs of those who have lost everything and sometimes everybody, both personal and commercial, are stunningly huge. To that end, in any big emergency in the USA, as soon as authorized by Presidential Declaration, FEMA rents an empty buildings, both away from and near to the area and completely installs, usually within 24 hours, a telephone system and network system for approx. 300 people. About 20-30 big blue or white trucks pull up with everything inside from telephone switches to servers to network routers, to miles of Cat5 cable and reams of connectors. Sometimes, these trucks get flown in via C-130's or C-5's cargo planes. A small army of experienced, highly qualified technicians fly in from all over the country and work 24-36 shifts to make it happen. All this stuff is for the long-term problems -- coordinating tent city needs, water supplies, electricity generators, hospital supplies, etc. Lots of etc, etc. This is the one agency that goes to "war" many, many times every year. The morale is amazingly high as these people can see everyday how they help make a difference. The stress is unbelievable. You have to get it right the first time since the People who have just lost everything don't need excuses for why something like water and basic help still hasn't arrived, yet.
Emergency Preparedness is, and always has been, the last priority on every gov't. list. It's not glamourous. It used to be worse. Until around 1990, it was considered demeaning to ask for States to ask for Federal help. It wasn't until the State Governors realized that Uncle Sam would practically give away hundreds of millions of dollars for disaster relief that FEMA started getting proper funding, at all. (Actually, FEMA sponsors grants up to around $12k and low-cost personal and commercial loans. I do wonder how much gets repaid. ) (Note: You can scream about big government or you can have good federal programs. You can't do both. ) FEMA is one agency that taxpayers can be very proud of.
ps. I just realized that the Red Cross guy mentioned in the original SlashDot article is someone I used to work with at FEMA. I think he used to be the main IT guy for FEMA in New York for that region. An outstanding person and technically brilliant across the IT field from telecomm to networks to app. development. They have the best man possible in place in NYC.
You're a little bitch. At least they're giving something. Would you rather they didn't help at all?
Oh yeah, what the fuck have _you_ done to help?
The guy was just trying to say that suing the Red Cross would be impractical - not that he wants MS to try.
I'm the stranger...posting to
There's no red cross conspiracy to score free software here, man. It's just that they're so in the habit of needing liscences, they're not realizing they don't need them for now. Maybe the guy who made the list wasn't their real tech guy, just who he told to make a list. The guy hears the region high-ups say "we need so-and-so copies of Office" and assumes that they must need liscences as well. No harm, just ignorance. I'm sure MS already told them to forget the liscences for now.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Yes, hams are in operation. See the arrl site for several articles related to this (like this and this). I live about 2 hours south of NYC in eastern Pa, and several of the area repeaters had RACES/ARES nets going for all of Tuesday and part of Wednesday. We didn't have much need for them, thank goodness, but they were active anyway. The hams of NYC and the surrounding area are pulling together to do an awesome job of helping. 73, KB3GQZ
ABC News again repeated the call for help - it is for the state workers (aparently the federal workers are well supplied).
The places to bring the donations (especially the rain gear) are Chelsea Pier (I believe this is the staging area), and the corner of 7 and 14th.
The licenses are enforced by the software - you can only run office 50 times before it disables itself, unless you register it.
You can't register the same copy on multiple machines.
This is the real danger of closed software - what if the M$ licencing center was in one of the towers - 'Blue screen of Death' takes on a new meaning when you say 'sorry, can't crossmatch any blood for you, I don't have a licence'.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
data entry will be needed more and more before this is over
Hmm, first I read that Microsoft donated $5 Million in software to the Red Cross. Now I read the NY Red Cross needs tech help.
Why am I not surprised?
"Brown University? We have one of those in Providence!" -- Outside Providence
Think of it this way: If you made $60000 per year minus 30% for taxes, divided by 4 and multipled by .2% you would only be giving $21.00. Most people I know that have donated have given atleast $50 and all make less that $60k.
This makes me ill. Thousands died, hundreds of thousands of people will suffer some kind of financial loss and M$ can only cough up $5M. It really pisses me off ...
pherris
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Microsoft's revenues in the last fiscal year were $25.3 billion; their net income was $7.72 billion. The total value of Microsoft stock is $309 billion, though that could change as soon as the markets re-open. Microsoft's "book value" is $47.3 billion.
I did some HAM radio stuff in high school, but never got a licence because of the morse code requirement. I think that's been dropped now. Perhaps I should have another look.
BTW: What about CB?
It may just be that when the old media does it they cut into profits, and when the "new" media does it they move their bankruptcy date closer. The one is noblesse oblige, the other is simple survival.
How many dot-coms have but no longer use perfectly good equipment that they could donate for the cause. Of course, the government can sweeten the deal for everyone concerned by offering tax incentives for donations.
I'm being redundant to make an important point
I simply can not STAND people who judge other charity givers. I personally make a large income for my age, and whenever I give people ALWAYS comment, "Well, that's not much for him". How dare you even have a thought of critisism against a donor. How much have YOU given? Why don't you get a part time job (on top of your full time job) so that you can donate more money. You're not doing enough. Why did you upgrade your computer? You could've donated that money. What, you bought an MP3 player while people go hungry?
What makes ME ill is your arogant attitude. You feel that you have some God given intelect that allows you to determine how much is the "right amount" for an organisation to give to the "right cause".
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Having seen this request a day ago on TechTV I fowarded it to some friends who do software for Citrix, the company will be giving all the licenses required as wellas offering to send tech's to NYC to assist.
Skyshadow, your profanity is not needed, but your point is strong and apparently goes against the /. grain. It's said that you so accuratly predicted the arrogance of /. readers and moderators. Moderators: Stop moderating based on opinion.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
Just wanted to let you all know that Handspring has fulfilled the need for wireless PDAs by donating 500 Visor Deluxes, along with 500 activated VisorPhones. Voicestream is providing service.
See http://visorcentral.com/page/0-2-1119-2.htm for the complete story.
I just sent (way late) email to the address provided. Although I can't go to NYC, I may be able to help making cables, give tech support, etc. But I can't help but think this is NOT the "average slashdot reader" that can help. Note the link below, Amazon's link to donate to the ARC:
We Support the victims of the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks. God Bless America.">
The link above is associated with CoffeeCup Software (don't go there today - the second next-mentioned email was sent to 1,300,000 addresses and the effect shows) in that I was directed to it by way of an email subscription I have from trying some of their products on behalf of clients. Their CEO gave me a boost on the day of disaster with an email urging us to stay productive in order to not give the terrorists their intended results. Today, an offer for free software was given in return for including a link and banner on one's website.
The average /. reader is a non-m$, non-Citrix, Linux (I'll exchange "zealot" for) enthusiast, which by the content of the link from this article, would only be able to make cables and provide "spare" 3com and IBM stuff, as well as cellphones and other gear.
As stated above, I am offering free tech support on Windoze NT and 2000, as well as offering to make cables as long as the remnants of my CAT5 cable and ends hold out...but I need to know: why do I not see more MCSEs or Citrix Engineers participate in /. conversations? If they are there (lurking), maybe they are as sheepish as me to admit that they have to be main$tream.
If I'm wrong, flame me; at least reply with your thoughts. Next, I feel compelled to present:
Brigadier General John A. Brooks, USAF Retired passed away at 84 last Friday at 7:30 AM from a massive heart attack. He was standing up as he waited for the ambulance. A great man has passed - not important to most, but it is to me. Please check it out - tomorrow is his funeral. His family and I agree that it's good he wasn't watching CNN Tuesday. Yes, I know the site is amateurish and somewhat lame...but the USAF *was* going to do a fly-over tomorrow and send a color guard to the local VFW. Nix on both - they are not allowed to take rifles off-base, and the jets are needed elsewhere. At least a hundred of his friends and family cannot attend because of restictions on commercial aviation. =(
db
Cig:
ôô
Not PC anywhere - VNC.
l
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.htm
http://download.cnet.com - search for vnc.
I find it highly ironic that an ad professional who recently sent out an e-mail ad campaign has "NO SPAM" in his e-mail address :)
Yes, I've been watching that. Please check out my /. post in this same thread regarding that. Makes me proud also.
db
Cig:
ôô
That MS is donating $5M in cash and $5M in software will undoubtedly be helpful to the recovery effort, but really what does it mean to MS?
1) Some good PR in this time when they can really use it...
2) $5M = some amount of a charitable tax credit. IANAA (I Am Not An Accountant) so I don't know how much... but it's gonna be something...
3) $5M in software = No real cost at all. They produce this people! They get cheap advertising, and get this - future upgrade dollars! That $5M in software won't cost them a cent, in fact, it will likely make them 3 times that amount...
If MS really wanted to put on a good face, lets see Gates and Ballmer out there in the bucket brigade for 36 hours...
On another note, I tried to donate blood today. Wanted to do it since the attack, and saw the signs all over town saying "Blood Drive 1pm - 8PM at Highland Park Hospital (IL)". So about 4pm, I went over there. Found a place to park, hiked in the hospital, worked on down to the basement, and stood in line for 10 minutes before some genius came up to me and asked me if I had a number. I said "no" and asked for one. She then had the audacity to tell me that they weren't taking any more donations! That they had enough numbers to keep them busy until 8pm, and then they were going home.
I told her I thought this was the most ludicrous thing I'd ever heard - especially since there was a National call for blood from people with type O, and that I had that type. Moreover, rescue workers were working for 96 straight hours digging in filth and wreckage looking for about 10,000 people that were killed, but that the LifeSource people weren't willing to work some overtime to help as well?
She said something to the effect of "sorry", and I walked out with about 5 other people in complete and utter disbelief.
If you'd like to express your disbelief with Highland Park Hospital and the Life Source people, give them a call at:
HP Hospital 847.432.8000
LifeSource (800) 486-0680
I sent this e-mail to the red-cross, however I'm sure with the flood of e-mail they won't be able to get to it -- thus I post it here also.
/.s posted about what is done about communications during a disaster:
BTW this also answers the questions that many
Hello,
I read your article that you need communications and computer equipment for your efforts.
I am a member of the 267th Combat Communications Squadron of the Massachusetts Air National Guard (http://www.267cbcs.org/) and we provide voice (telephone) and data (internet) services for the
military anywhere in the world.
Our squadron alone can support around a hundred voice and data customers, we are completely self-sufficient (our own trucks, shelters, generators, satellite links, food, etc.). We provide standard office like services (aka standard "princess" telephones and standard internet access) in non-standard scenarios anywhere in the world and train to do so within 36 hours.
I can not speak for the squadron (I am just an enlisted member), however if you contact the brass at the 253rd Combat Communications Group at Otis ANGB, Falmoth MA (our governing body), I'm sure that they will be willing and proud to offer our services as well as the services of all the rest of the Combat Communications Squadrons across the country.
Sincerely,
Chris Gleba.
Blood also has a short shelf-life. Sure it can be seperated and frozen but that takes much more resources to do. Another things is that very little blood has been used so far in this rescue. There have been very few people pulled from the rubble. No nearly as many as we'd like there to be. The blood isn't getting used very fast.
One doctor also said that they needed proper breathing masks. Apparently there is a lot of asbestos floating around in the air and their standard paper masks aren't quite adequate. I realize that most people don't keep gas masks in the kitchen drawer, but if you find some they can use them!
Maybe it's just another $10Mil of the $Billion plus that Bill has donated for many different causes?
Naaaah, we can't allow Bill to be credited for doing any good.
Fuck you too.
Nope. You're completely missing the point.
Most people (those not in the NYC area) went to Amazon, or Paypal's donation page, and quietly gave $100. They might mention it, but only to encourage others. People on Slashdot are effectively anonymous, they aren't posting "I gave $100" to make themselves look good, they're doing it to encourage others.
Now, Microsoft gave essentially sweet fuck all, and they're making a big deal of it.
I have no problem with people giving a lot, or not at all. Whatever, it's up to you. What I have a problem with is people who make a big deal about how holier than thou they are, and yet give essentially nothing.
Microsoft is giving fucking licenses, something of NO real value. And they're crowing about how wonderful they are.
Oh wow! Let me send my old OS/2 licenses, that's just as useless.
If Bill just went to the Amazon page and gave money, any ammount, and someone found out, I wouldn't care how much he gave.
It's the ulterior motive that's disgusting, they give just enough to justify notifying the press. Why did they do that? Why not send the money and not waste people's time with yet another useless press release? Because that press release and the tax write-off are the only reasons they did it.
I go through the comments on /. every once in a while and find some of the Linux vc Windows debates and the M$ sucks comments humorous...
But today, when people are attacking MS for "only" giving $10 million (total) and commenting the the Red Cross shouls just use Linux, I find myself shaking my head in shame at even being considered a "techie". Who cares how much money MS gives? Even a $20 donation is better than nothing. Who cares that they will write off the full value? Thats how things work in this country. What matters is that MS is doing SOMETHING, even if they will benefit in the end.
For now, consider the bigger picture beyond your Linux desktop - there are bigger problems for all of us. Anyone that can should do whatever they can to help and not attack those that are trying to do what they can. Give blood if you can, send money (www.amazon.com is a good place to start), go to NY and help (I'm leaving tomorrow for NYC)... just realize that this problem is bigger than YOU and frankly, if you can't either help or give encouraging words of thanks for those that DO help(such as MS), then push your keyboard aside and do something else.
Scott
Hey, I steel your wallet and donate half of it for AIDS medication for Africa. Does it make me better person? Or am I still the same bloody thief?
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
One day you'll wish you weren't such an arrogant, heartless prick. One day you'll realize what a cynical self-centered crap head you've been. You'll realize that when you compare the good versus crap you've produced, you've produced a huge surplus of pure crapola like what you just posted.
I think that you're completely missing your own point. Have you any proof that Bill Gates has not made any anonymous donations by means other than the Amazon donation page? No, I didn't think so.
And what's to say that he isn't arranging at this very minute to make a payment (anonymously or publically)?
To others, remember that the cost of replacement licenses or routers for those machines lost in the collapse will be covered by insurance in the vast majority of cases.
I wonder if many of the free/open software companies have made donations as generous...
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
There is a database up at http://www.srcdst.com where offers of technical help, space and equipment can be registered. This one is really intended to keep the Internet running around all of the problems its now seeing with power etc, but its all part of the same effort.
Enjoy Y2K? Roll-on Year 2037!
You know what the first ad I saw on Slashdot was when I came to check on the news situation, maybe two hours after things started happening?
A Thinkgeek one. One of the "All your base" ones.
The caption at the precise instant the page finished loading was "Somebody set us up the bomb".
Bit of a poor choice there, what?
Ham is a nice thing ot have in an emergency and you no longer have to pass a morse code test. All that it takes to get your license is a 35 question written test that isn't very hard at all to study for. Many ham radio's also have a wide recieve and work great as scanners, I have yet to see any with trunking abilities though.As for CB, It is license free and works for communication but in my opinion not nearly as well as ham radio, you will find many more people to talk to on the ham bands and if you ever need help (even if your car just broke down) there are lots of hams that are more than willing to give you assistance (atleast in my experiance).
If you want to see what the licensing test is like goto http://www.aa9pw.com/radio/exam.html and take a practice test, if you goto the resources section you can download the actual question pool that they use for the test that includes every question you might be asked.
KD5LLI
...
lots of hardware
...
50 Microsoft Exchange CALs
35 Microsoft SQL CALs
50 Microsoft Office Professional licenses
15 PC Anywhere licenses
DSL lines
PDAs with wireless capacity and service
...
What?? I thought the Red Cross just handed out food and gave medical aid. I'm just curious, but why does it need to all this hardware and network equipment and crap??? Exchange? SQL? Is somebody creating a startup or something?? "Wait here sir while I just enter the data about your mortal wound into our database - clickity, clickity click"
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Sadly, I was a regular blood donor for years and hard core platelet donor for a couple years -- double units every other Tuesday and they got a triple from me once by accident, thankyouverymuch -- but recent changes in the FDA's blood donor standards made me ineligible too. I have a friend who works in a blood bank and he's amazed that the FDA has been, relatively speaking, stampeded into this: IANAP (I Am Not A Phlebotomist) but my understanding is that there's no epidemiological connection between my eating (crummy) British beef in the 80's and 90's with me possiblying carrying CJD. (OT: I just found my British blood banking ID folder from the times I donated when I lived there. After each draw, they offered me tea, Fanta, or a stubby of Guinness!)
Anyway, I believe in the need of every person to donate blood enough that I periodically send out email to my healthy, non-British friends and ask them to donate because *I can't*. Think of my scarred elbows and my fat, untapped veins and make an appointment to give next week, or the week after -- because once the injured are all found and healed, and the rubble is all hauled to New Jersey, there will always be a need for blood donors, but a smaller pool of people from which they can be drawn.
We might be able to help even more by putting together a group to build a support site where organizations can request assistance and contributions from the American public. This site would capture the needs and locations and would also allow the contributors to 'bid' on making a contribution based on their ability to get the equipment/resources on site on time. We'd need a service provider with sufficient bandwidth to host the site, a decent database and a scalable web server. Does anyone have an active environment they could volunteer for this? Is this a project that would interest anyone here? We could use this as a coordination point for transport vendors to provide assistance in moving any contributions to the rescue site and coordinate collection points. Has anyone noticed any significant delays in the shipping industry?
I actually just wanted to know if they needed people to pull the cable, set up systems and such... whatever... I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be willing to drive up there and help.
Just an update to my short post yesterday
Yesterday about 1,000 phones were sent to both the washington DC and NYC areas. (this is a pretty big deal since customer care workers activated all these by hand).
Last night we batch activated and programmed an additoinal 850 handsets (in about 25 minutes). These phones should be distributed today.
And to clarify...I don't work for Sprint PCS...but rather a Cincinnati based company called Convergys. Sprint is one of our clients.
I hope that these phones will be helpfull to all who need them.
Bullshit, if Gates did just this and donated $1M you would still be writing how he was such a cheap bastard.
Russ - NTBugtraq Editor posted:
"Sources at the corporate level of the American Red Cross have told me that
they are still looking for the source for the story. They've had no requests
from the NYC Chapter for any sort of computer assistance."
We use NT at work. The Red Cross deserves better and it's money could be better spent than paying the M$ tax.
"Linux good, Microsoft bad" drivel. There is a time and place for most things, and this is absolutely not it.
Bingo, you hit the nail on the head. More Linux FUD by the original poster was outrageous. I've clearly stepped into a nest of trolls who could worry about nothing more than filling Slashdot's pages with such uninfomative, intentionally missleading and outrageous material.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Buzzzz! Wrong! I've sent in $100 this month, in addition to my annual $200 pledge for more 'routine' disasters. Percentage-wise, I think this would be many times more generous than Microsoft's paltry donation.
I expect to continue donating some small portion of my income, at least until I join the rest of the unemployed tech support people.
You bet! They have made all of their open source products available at no charge to the victims and anyone else who can make use of them.
I spoke with Joe Leo to pledge the software and help and to get him the install discs in the interim. He told me that the day before the NY MS office gave the Red Cross a 1 year blanket license for all MS products.
Michael Winser, Microsoft SDE
Many counties across the country have Amateur radio Emergency Services (ARES) which assist in cases such as fires, floods - on very short notice. A volunteer computer/IS service based on this model is essential! Does anyone know of such activities?
Networks like Ericsson's Mobitex network have hardware that is "base station in a box". Worth about (at a guess) $30-50K, these litte units come in a big yellow (think high seas waterproof impact proof) plastic box, open them up, power them (wall plug), boot up.... bingo you've got another cell data tower in your network.
Conventional towers cost $100K+ (sometimes ++) and need some serious construction to erect sometimes. These fast "base station in a box" options were developed for research, for testing purposes, and for fill-ins where coverage isn't adequate (in a weak area between two full sized cells). I think they can pump out quite a bit of wattage and we ran a lot of high volume public safety data through them during some testing and they were fairly snappy.
I'd think solutions like this would allow fast fill-in of holes in network coverage. Of course, if you NCC (Network Control Center) is taken out/down, then you've got a whole other category of network problems. But usually they have redundant NCCs physically separated by a fair distance.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/09/14/brief /0 000011003
Way to go Via!
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Am I the only one who thinks this is a scam? Wake up!
None of the links in this e-mail are to legit domains. The pages at the domain names looked put up in a hurry by an amateur.
When I did an ARIN WHOIS search on the domains, they were so fresh that no names were registered for them.
The Red Cross says it never sends unsolicited requests for such services....
And when I called the numbers in that e-mail, no one said they were affiliated with any proper organization.
I think Americans should vent some of their bigoted hate at these scamsters for capitalizing on people's willingness to help injured and murdered people.
dkap.info
The Symantec sales team has contacted the Red Cross and sent 25 client access licenses for the software.
I just wanted you all to know that Slashdot DID do something to help. I wouldn't have known about the need without this article.
Nope.
.1% of their income.
Listen, I'm saying two seperate things here, I'll spell them out for you.
1) Donating licenses is useless and costs MS nothing.
2) If you're going to crow about it to the news, make sure your donation is bigger, %-wise than most other people are making.
The Amazon donation page says people donate an average of $35 each. Now, consider my friends make a rough average of $1100 month takehome, this is 3% of their wage, MS makes 3.2B/month, and gave 5M (real cash) which is
Ok, let's look at it another way...
Let's say a kid saw this horror, so he donated six months of saved allowance, for which he'd raked leaves and done odd jobs, and that came to $300. Now, I take $350 out of my wallet, just a couple days wages, and donate that, saying "Look how great I am. I donated a large sum of money!"
Who would you think was the generous one? The one who was willing to send in the fruits of six months of labour, or the one who sent it the most money, even though it was pocket change by equivalent?
Now, if I just silently let the kid inspire me, and I donated what I felt I could, and didn't try to make everyone think I was such a great guy, when we'd both be generous and kind.
You're right, I don't have any info about what Bill is doing, other than this announcement.
Do you have any information on how much your next-door neighbor is donating? No. And that's because even if he gave, he's not going to hold a press conference to discuss it.
If Bill makes a private donation, then cool. I won't try to hack into the payment system to find out how much.
How many open source companies have made donations as generous? If you mean just by dollars, then I ask you how many open source companies make $5M a year, let alone can afford to donate it. $50 is more appropriate for them.
If you mean by licenses and stuff, then as the other reply to your post said - all of them. They give everything away to anyone who wants it.
Personally, I'd rather have donated to a charity that would help us work out race-relation difficulties. People here talk about how the Muslims in the USA are still supporting Osama, but then they drive past mosques and shoot at them... Maybe there's a reason they don't feel at home.
I am saddened to say, but I think that with a few exceptions, everyone in the tower collapse is dead. And the government is throwing its full weight behind getting them out.
What everyone is overlooking is trying to make this never happen again. Sure, if we kill Osama, he'll never do it again, but others will, as long as they hate Westerners, and they will as long as we're awful and foreign.
I just wanted to say a few things about this World Trade Center situation.
1.) I applaud anyone and everyone who has donated anything to help the cause. The people there need it.
2.) I wouldn't care if MS, Sun, Cisco gave just $500...they are helping the greater cause. So if its software or sugar packets, they are doing the right thing.
3.) Everyone has been talking about the executives killed from certain companies. The loss of any life is great, but for the whole good of these companies look at the loss of the grunt workers! The one executive was important, but the 200 behind him were far more valuable.
4.) Donate blood, and not just because of this incident...do it year round. The Red Cross is turning people away left and right because of the inability to process so much blood. If all of us that are able to donate once a year at the very least they could focus those workers efforts on different things (like disaster area first aid). Its sad that everyone wants to donate now because of the incident, but not the rest of the year when the Red Cross needs it so badly.
Lastly, tell the people in your life that mean something to you that you care. Even if its just the mailman who delivers your NetFlix movies. It might make someone's day that otherwise might have been gloomy.
"Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps." ~ Emo Phillips
Tsk tsk. You know the saying about assuming things? It makes an ass out of you and, uh, you. Yeah...
It's an opt-in list that is targeted to interest segments that people specify they want to receive promotions, coupons, etc for. It is NOT spam. We do NOT cull email addresses from websites. We do NOT buy or sell email addresses.
I know you meant it as a joke but it's actually insulting to company that really goes out of it's way to do the right thing. And based on high open rates, high click-thru rates, and low unsubscribe rates our userbase is fine with it and in fact appreciates it. They also understand that the free services we provide cost money and ads are one of the ways that we recoup our costs. There's a big difference between spam and legitimate advertising. If I ever culled an email address from a website without that person's permission I'd let you shoot me.
hey, my girlfriend works for them too..isn't convergys just a renamed AT&T wireless?
Slackware: old school feel, new school gear.
Hey, I steel your wallet and donate half of it for AIDS medication for Africa. Does it make me better person? Or am I still the same bloody thief?
You would be a thief, and a mindless anti-MS dipshit to boot.
Bill is a shrewd businessman, and not a thief. He is stealing from nobody, and has shown more generosity for worthy causes than the entire Czech Republic. No, "worthy causes" is not "his pocketbook." He donated $10mil so far for the relief effort - how much has your entire country done for the rest of the world? For this? For anything else? How about you?
That's what I thought. Now take your mindless hatred and go away.
This made me so mad I had to vent somewhere. I came across the following website today, http://mindprod.com. Check it out. You won't believe what this guy has to say about the bombings.
*** *** You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me... ***
There is a site which is collating offers of geek assistance, hardware, telco circuits at sourcedest.org.
Last time I looked there were 50+ assistance offers there, if you can offer facilities, services or hardware, just register and enter them into the database.
Please could folks mod this up and try to get the word out.
Some Ham in NYC should take the live audio from the local repeater and put it on a web site, promote ham radio (which is losing bandwidth) and interest in the hobby. We need hams for these types of situations.
How do you know bill hasn't? Just because Microsoft gave a press conference on their donations doesn't mean Bill hasn't given anything. And moreover, people complain that Microsoft gave a press conference to generate publicity out of their cash. Would you be complaining if they hadn't given a press conference? You probably wouldn't know they gave money, and so you'd probably be complaining how this rich corporation doesn't donate money, out of your own ignorance of their actions. It is this same ignorance that allows you to claim that bill gates has not donated any money, and results in your suggestion that he gives money anonymously through amazon.
$50 is more appropriate for a company making $5m?
/.ers be accusing them of not making one?
So by your suggested ratio, Microsoft (based on their *cash* donation only) should be making a profit of USD$500 000 000 000 (they might be, but with thousands of employee's salaries, I doubt it).
Consider this -- If Microsoft didn't announce a donation, would thousands of anti-MS
There are worse out there than bin Laden, and recent reports suggest that these masterminds were behind the attack.
The solution, I think, lies partially in solving the problems of these source countries (namely poverty). The past actions of the US (like giving $43m to the Taliban for them to declare that growing opium is against the will of god), are not helping anything (not even the drug problems of the US).
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'