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.
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.
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 $$.
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.
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
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
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 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
They could probably use new underwear, blue jeans, and work shirts too.
It took me a moment to realise that "underware" wasn't the proper spelling. Been messin' with computers too long.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Not to crap on MS too much, ten million is a nice sum, but how much do you think MS will get from selling new licences for the thousands of boxes that will eventually be replaced?
Same thing with cisco donating 4 million, how much do serious cisco routers cost? At least there is a tangible object there.
I don't want to sound overly negative, but at $10 million, it's not like MS will lose any money overall. I'm sure there is some cold hearted motherfucker who calculates this shit out to the penny. I'm sure Bill can spare a bit as well. His house _did_ cost FIFTY million.
Overall, every bit (or $10 million) helps the people in NYC, but I'm sure some more imaginative things (like actually bringing in a "shelter on a truck", or implementing a person finding system would be more productive.
I can't complain too much, something being done is still better than nothing at all.
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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.
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
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.