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Geek Guard to the Rescue
Ant sends a link about the Geek Guard proposal that is floating around. Supposedly technology companies would form the backbone of a fast-response technology force. But Verizon was and is part of the problem with regard to communications, not part of the solution. A lot of technically-inclined people and groups like NYC Wireless did assist in lower Manhattan after Sept. 11, and they're still helping out businesses and people with no internet/phone connections and not even an ETA from Verizon on when Verizon might get around to hooking them up. If Verizon fulfilled their Geek Guard duties with all the rapidity that they, say, install DSL lines for competing DSL providers, they would have "rescheduled" their disaster response three times and we'd have an appointment for early November right now.
it's gotta be extension 31337 ;-)
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
And they said NYC Wireless were just a bunch of bandwidth theiving hackers.
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eeww, I'll have a crab juice.
Well, it's Friday night at 10:30 EST and it seems as I'm the only browsing Slashdot. I think I should be one of the first appointees to this Geek Guard ;-)
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
I read it three times and I'm still not sure that actually understood it.
"If Verizon fulfilled their Geek Guard duties with all the rapidity that they, say, install DSL lines for competing DSL providers, they would have 'rescheduled' their disaster response three times and we'd have an appointment for early November right now."
Dear God, someone call an editor, quick!
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
As a person with 24 hour restoration contract with Verizon, and it now being nearly 1 month since the "outage" I am not having to pay them around $1000 a day for not delivering to the SLA. Verizon's own Account team called me and told me I wont be billed for this month.. Something good finally came out of this..
my eta for my circuit to be repaired, Mar 2002
`find / -name "*your_base*" -exec chown us:us {} \;`
but then I saw this:
If it is not some federally agency, then the rest of the businesses in the country are likely to not support it.Never mind that the transportation system was also knocked out for a while.
It needs to be a federal thing, I think
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I can just picture RMS in military fatigues ...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The name "Geek Guard" has to go... there's a negative stigma associated with it.
-Berj
I'm young, I want to learn, where do I sign up?
Seriously, this sounds like an excellent idea. But, who runs it, where's the money from and how do we follow any progress?
How can I sign up?
If there was any alternative I would use them. Since April, I have been waiting for them to pull a fibre for our T3. Our entire business has been down. Their damn switching office that they have to pull it from is right accross the parking lot from our office.
April! It is now October. Last month some idiot from Verizon finally came and pulled that fibre. Big job, down near a man hole on the block their building is, and up over a few poles. Must have taken a whole 2 friggen hours. The guy pulls it to the wrong friggen building.
Two weeks ago, they send him back. Yes, he gets the address right this time. Way to go Homer. I bet his wife has to tell him to check his nuts when he leaves in the morning to make sure he hasn't left them behind.
Oh, glory, he even gets it up to where the termination and router has been waiting, sitting on the wall, since April. That's all he does. Seems he's not permitted to do anything else. So time for the brain trust.
Last week, dummy 2 arrives, looks at the wall, and scratches his ass for a bit. Seems there is a problem. Nobody tipped the bloody fibre. Dummy 2 doesn't do this, and dummy 1 was lucky he could even find the building, even though it is right accross the street. Maybe it's a union thing. Well, a dummy 3 is needed to tip the fibre so dummy 2 can plug it into the socket. Gee, wouldn't it have been brighter to train Homer over there to do a complete job rather than have three seperate idiots?
As of today, the fibre is still dark. Dummy 3, you see, also went to the wrong address, and a different one at that! Dummy 3 can't come out later today because he's only allowed to make one visit per day. No sir, Verizon isn't the sort of company that after f**king up a job for 6 months would trouble itself to have somebody work a little overtime to fix anything. Monday, you see, is also Columbus day. Maybe we will see Moe Tuesday, and after that Larry can come by later to plug in the tipped fibre.
So, you see, having them f**k the rest of lower Manhatten is probably just normal business practice for them.
"National Emergency Technology Guard"
That's better =)
We have recovered fairly well in NYC but there still is a lot of work to be done. I see it everyday, 1/2 mile north of what was the WTC.
On side note, does anyone want to go spelunking for the gold and silver that is buried under the rubble. Also does anyone know if this is the same gold stolen in one of those Die Hard films?
Email requests for assistance to wtcreliefrequest@nycwireless.net
Please only send direct request from the affected organizations and individuals.
If you have resources and would like to contribute, the following would be useful:
Email offers to wtcreliefoffer@nycwireless.net
NYCwireless has been very busy working with the affected businesses and organizations in New York. We apologize if we do not respond to every email offering support.
Everyone is welcome to use the latest public NYCwireless access point at Tompkins square park or other NYCwireless locations, especially those affected by the WTC attacks.
Thanks,
--Terry Schmidt
NYCwireless
Before Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to form Verizon, there were long standing problems with BA. Back in '98, I was assisting 2 local ISPs with contracted systems engineering... BA was a large problem because they would sit on a phone loop installation order for 6 months before doing anything. Meanwhile, we'd have customers complaining about busy signals because BA would only install new lines on their special schedule.
Most of the ISPs in maine got together and formed a consortium and persued legal action against BA. I'm not 100% sure of the outcome from that, but I'm sure its still a battle being fought with Verizon.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Where do I sign up? I'm willing to do the artwork, too.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
if this isn't the best reason to browse at -1, I don't know what is!
propz!
Haven't you heard? God not only uses emacs, he wrote it.
-- MarkusQ
I have no mod points at present, but this post belongs much higher than (1).
-- MarkusQ
Yeah, tell me about it. The word "gguard" always makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end... oh, you meant, "geek" didn't you? oops, I did it again.
http://newscenter.verizon.com/wtc/
Yeah they got screwed pretty good by this thing. But they do some bad things too. Things with natural monopolies are tough. If you want to see someone getting away with murder now look at Cable providers, they are the same as telcos now but get away without all the same regulation. The regulation may be good, or may be evil, but either way it should at least be uniform!
Ok, I have an agenda, I work for a telcom company.
-Paul
Although I work for a subsidiary of Verizon, I am no particular friend -- but I feel I should say this.
Give Verizon a friggin' break here! They've rebuilt an entire telecommunications network in lower Manhattan from scratch -- on the order of 100k+ lines! Photos have been circulated internally of the West St. switching station -- this being the one that had the antenna mast from the WTC pierce it when it fell -- and the equipment is more or less completely replaced now. And they had the NYSE up and running so they could open a week after the attacks. And all of this is in addition to all the emergency communications needs.
That's a pretty formidible task. Even if they are your bitterest enemy, this is an amazing performance.
http://newscenter.verizon.com/wtc/
Verizon has re-installed some 2 million phone lines in Lower Manhatten since Sept 11th. They literally laid fibre in open trenches and smashed holes through walls to do this. They also provisioned fast net links for the disaster response center.
Intel provided lots of equipment for the disaster response center.
Genuity is carrying internet traffic for competitors customers at no cost, and has donated a network services platform to the Red Cross.
These are just 3 of the many ways in which communications companies have come together to help the people and businesses of NY during their recovery.
it's not true. He was hospitalized from a "nervous breakdown" that's being blamed on 9/11, but he isn't dead.
... That's the funniest post I've seen here today. I feel for you, though :(
This proposal from the Senate Subcommittee of Science and Technology gives all of us a chance to use our brainpower for something other than maintaining corporate networks or communication systems and surfing for pr0n. We actually may have opportunity to help save lives and ease the pain of those affected in times of crisis. I dont know about you, but giving blood and money just wasnt enough for me. I wanted to help in a more direct way as well as giving my financial and "biological" support. I humbly suggest that you let your senators know of your desire to help. http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cf m
yo...I tried to send you an email @furnetwork.net, but it bounced - User Unknown. So here's the message body:
:)
Hi. I found your comic strip after seeing a post by you on slashdot. I thought I'd just like to email you and say I think its a great comic, and I think its cool you use the Gimp to make it. Keep it up
And in a pitiful effort to save my poor rapidly dropping karma, I think a Geek Guard is a good idea. Hopefully in the future it can let people communicate quicker in a disaster.
,
faeryman
...and if I may say so you sound like a terrorist so please report to prison and stay there for the rest of your life or ask to be executed. Talking bad about large monopolistic corporations is terrorism.
I know a Verizon employee who is working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week around ground zero trying to restore cabling, etc. and he's surrounded by coworkers doing the same. Like everyone else in that area, the effort is taking a physical and emotional toll on him. Unsatisfactory service from Verizon in lower Manhattan won't be for lack of effort of their workers.
Using language like "when Verizon might get around to hooking them up" is f-ing ignorant in this situation.
I would imagine that during and/or immediately after a disaster, certain forms of technology would be very useful, if not critical. A geek squad sounds like an interesting idea but sometimes resources are scarce. I wonder what the government or some companies would say if rescuers, etc. were using cloned cell phones (if they were the only means of communication) or pirated software (to keep missing and dead lists) if there were little or no funds. True geeks would find a true technical solution. Just a thought.
icksnay on hacking my boxsnay.
Maybe if you removed that offensive signature, you'd get some actual karma. Sheesh. You do know that 70% of Slashdot readers run Windows, right? And we're not all stupid...
...the Cocksucking Crew? That more accurately describes the nerds here like the editors, non-troll posters, and certainly the moderators.
You folks need to learn some respect for the law especially those dealing with technology. You must understand why and swear to obey the DMCA, SSSCA (when it passes and it WILL pass), copyrights, patents, trademarks, laws against hacking, etc. Anyone who breaks any of these laws I think should be put in prison for life for being a terrorist.
haha dude that was awesome!
Computer scheduling of all of this stuff is well fine and good, but none of those systems have much relevence when entire COs have gone missing. All of a sudden it is we need 'n' dialtones on this block right now or people will die. No pretty computer printed work orders, no f**king union work rules, no buck to pass.
Perhaps BA (originally NY Bell Telephone) has lost sight of the knowledge of the line staff and supervisors. Perhaps too, the union (CWA if I remember correctly) has lost sight that the customers getting bad service will ultimately come back to get them.
It is time that there be some kind of new relationship between the company, the employees and the customers. I know NYC has lost dozens if not hundreds of business because the telecommunications provider sucks. (The same can be said about Ameritech in the midwest!)
-- Multics
So what you're saying is that Verizon isn't exactly quick about installing DSL lines for competitors (makes sense to me), and that if they performed their Geek Guard duties the same way, you'd get the same slowness. However, that "if" implies that they are not performing their Geek Guard duties in such a manner, so how are they performing them, then? Quickly and promptly? That's what you're actually implying, though I'm guessing that's not what you meant to say...
go to an Unix convention, u'd find enough hax0rs there to keep the networks of half the companies in the world running for fear of their 0wning p0wers.
So you write is that Verizon isn't exactly quick about installing DSL lines for competitors (makes sense to me), and that if they performed their Geek Guard duties the same way, you'd see the same slowness. However, that "if" implies that they are not performing their Geek Guard duties in such a manner, which then raises the question of how they are performing them, then. If they're not fulfulling their obligations slowly and poorly, then the reader is led to assume the opposite, that being that Verizon is working quickly and well.
I could just be me, but that doesn't sound like such a bad thing...
This just in,
in a pre-emptive strike, the National Technical Defense 31337 unit air dropped 500 Microsoft IIS servers into Afghan territory. Once fully deployed, this powerful weapon has the potential to slow or even stop all communications with Afghanistans internal network.
Jesse Wolfe Sr. Manager Systems Integration
I am a ham radio operator. I along with many many ham ops belong to RACES, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. In Texas RACES is coordinated through the Texas Department of Public Safety which also oversees state troopers and the Texas Rangers (not the baseball team). RACES along with another ham volunteer organization called ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) works all over the United States in case of disaster.
The San Francisco Amateur Radio Club has a site with descriptions of one of its member's trials in New York.
http://www.sfarc.org/
Here, in Central Texas, the stuff of local legend and the singular event in the lives of many hams is the Jarrell, Texas tornado outbreak of May 27, 1997. An F5 destroyed an entire subdivision in a small town just north of me. There was *nothing* left - only slabs of concrete.
The 800 MHZ system for my county was destroyed. For the first hour, communication was handled *exclusively* by hams. My friend Bob describes a dark and surreal scene when he drove up. It was dark and scary and policemen where haplessly clicking there shoulder mikes and not getting anything. Only a couple of Texas DPS state troopers had comms. The rest were dark. For the first hour, all we had was ham radio. After that, ham radio served as a type of 'glue' communications because even then some services where not compatable.
This event has forever changed ham radio in Central Texas. Around 30 people died. We are now *always* included by our local government officials. We are a part of the equation now. We have weekly practice nets on our local repeaters and practice our skills using different ham modes (esp. packet radio) at bike races and fun runs. We have gotten much better since that day and are adding new capabilities as we go along. Packet radio is a key area we are improving on. We can work long haul traffic on HF nets and local traffic on freqs all the way up to daylight.
Ham radio needs our support. Unfortunately, it has an older demographic and needs alot of new blood to keep it going. Ham radio *is* the original geek force. It was established for this purpose - keep our citizenry experimenting and improving the radio art and electronics and to give the United States a pool of comm experts in times of crisis.
Sorry to write a book, but this is very close to me.
73
dit dit
That is now my favorite -1 post, second to the 'make your own pussy' one a week or so back.
I doubt those statistics are even close to being accurate. What are you, the friggin' Gardner Group?
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
my friend has a radio and we fuckin get on and start cussing at people on "repeaters" and keying over them and shit. we sometimes play music and shit too. hams are fuckin old fuck dweebs and its fun to get em all pissed off. first time we got on my friend just kept saying "my cock is dribbling hot cum" and it REALLY pissed them old motherfuckers off!! ahah its funny as hell.
We had a DSL circuit ordered in Sept (2000)that verizon finally pulled in April...
Went to wrong address 4 times.
Insisted that the customer was never there even when they got the address right (Cust. runs business from home, and has 2 dogs that bark at any intruder that makes it on the yard, dogs never saw anyone.)
God that was the most patient customer we ever had.
Had another one that they finally ran the line.. then came back and totally rewired the customers house and broke both her phone and her DSL, then proceded to unhook the DSL line that they took 6 months to put in. She cancelled...
And of course they kept telling her that they could have her DSL in 3 days.. if she bought from them...
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
I think that Micheal is anti-american. It's a cheap shot to bitch about Verizon in Manhattan when they are attempting to dig out from the disaster. Internet crap isn't a lifeline service, you jerks.
"does God use emacs, or vi?"
I think he uses Atariwriter...
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
Drill Instructor:"You call that stuff code?"
At least they would have to change the weight and physical fitness requirements;)
I read the title and thought "finally! a deoderant for people who sit in cubicles for 14 hours straight coding!"
heheee HEY mod that up, funny as hell!!!
-fohat-, hoping he doesnt dream of armies of IIS servers tonight...
Is there heaven? Is there Hell? Is that a Tuna Melt I smell?-Primus
I love you and your smelly cunt! FISH TACO! You fucking whore!
I can hear the construction trucks clear out rumble from the WTC as I type this 3 blocks from the WTC in lower manhattan. Phone service has been operating for at least 2 weeks now and the reception is surprisingly better now then before the attack. The old lines were aging copper cables that ran under the WTC. They have all been replaced by fiber from lines reserved but not used on Wall Street several that are several blocks away. The switch or CO for DSL however is just across the street from the WTC. Amazingly the building survived the WTC collapse and it didn't get crushed from the rubble. The area is in the frozen zone and the building is damaged so no one can restart the DSL switch. The phone routers in the building are working again because they are unmanned and they rebooted when the power was restored.
However, I would never use DSL from Verizon for obvisous reasons. Verizon is the anti-christ for customer service here in the northeast. Infact a former co-worker ordered 640k verizon DSL service and it took over 4 MONTHS TO GET service. To top it off the speed was barely above 192k. This really pissed him off since Verizon told him he would have maximum speed because of the distance to the CO. The money verizon used to fix lower manhattan came from uncle sam because Verizon didn't want to pay for it. I surely wish the DOJ would investigate all the Teleco's. They and not microsoft are the true monopolies. This story is just more proof of it.
http://saveie6.com/
As many of you may already know, the Verizon building at Water Street where a number of OC48's converged was practically destroyed. What isnt buried under rubble is flooded underground. This affected lots of businesses including mine in Midtown.
The other CO on Broad street took on a lot of traffic as a result and a good source told me that Verizon expects the rebuilding project complete no sooner then in two years. ouch!
BOSTON SUCKS!
Ya know people like me were busting their collective arses to get things fixed after the WTC disaster. Why dont you find something else to complain about. Restoring connections and DSL complaints are 2 different things. DSL is a new technology that is affected by many things and is and has never been a "you'll get it service". All the infrastructure that was lost down there will not be replaced for a very long time. I'm sure that maintaining communications that helps the economy takes much precedence over a friggin DSL line that you'd use to view porn or something of that nature. If we just dropped everything to install your precious DSL then maybe the stock market would of crashed. Your company would of lost a lot of money and then you'd be laid off.
Cingular wireless, however, was there and helping:
Loaning or donating over 3,500 wireless phones, handheld data devices and other equipment, and providing free airtime to numerous relief and rescue agencies.
Deploying temporary, mobile cell sites and other network enhancements near impacted areas to improve network coverage and capacity.
Setting up "Courtesy Call Stations" in several airports to aid air passengers.
Participating in the Wireless Emergency Response Team of major wireless carriers to assist in the search, rescue and recovery mission.
They have done this fairly low key.
And the interactive pager service ran flawlessly, even with the loss of several base stations (they were on the tower and on a nearby building)
I don't work for Verizon, and I too have a critical line out of service, but you do have to understand one thing
Verizon lost, for all intents, 2 buildings on 9/11 - the 47 West St CO, and the Duane St CO. The Water st CO was one of the larger COs around - Just to give you an idea, it's got 5 basement levels. Last I heard, 4 and a hald of these levels are full of water. If you look at the building there is a huge chunk taken out of one side, and a bunch of above ground floors are partly collaped
The few Verizon guys I've seen around are all working 12+ hours/day 6-7 days/week trying to get phone lines up
Give'm a break this time. Usually I'm one of the first to say that Verizon sucks (because they do), but right now, they have a LOT of people working all sorts of hours just trying to get lines back
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
That's GarTner, ya douche! 8-)
Give props to the folks that, for once, told it like it is.
I am horrified about going to bootcamp and shooting things. But I am quick to draw with a keyboard. This story gave me an idea. Why not make something like the Tech Reserves? Something similar to the army reserves. The government brings you in 1 day a week and two weeks a year for training and other informative seminars. Then when the need arises (Cyber Warfare or whatever need), we help the government in the way we can best? I think military service with the knowledge you aren't going on the front lines but you are helping is something to think about.
I have to agree. When i saw this thread i figured it might get around to Verizon bashing. But in all fairness, every time I'm in Manhattan tooling around the lower west side, I see Verizon crews hunkered down over a manhole.
Mind you, this is at any time of the night. They have a massive job to get done. And while I'm no fan of them either (I've seen and heard about all of the ways they know how to Ass-up a job) I haven't had any bad experiences.
These days (esp in Manhattan) i think are bringing out the best in every one. When it's over, maybe Verizon will be able to get back to its regular way of screwing things up. But for now, they seem to really be doing their best.
...and that's the end of our show. Donk!
Let's get real. The hobby is nearly dead. The repeaters are full of near-retards, and the HF bands are full of rabid nazis. The average ham is an old, racist, white guy. They are not interesting to talk to, and most hams are complete morons when it comes to computers.
As far as "emergency communications" go, most goverment agencies consider the public-service type hams to be a nuisance- a bunch of old racist fucks that are wanna-be cops.
If you don't believe, go to a ham fest and see for yourself.
Expand the military's own information warfare efforts considerably. Have military units -- the real, in-uniform type -- ready to respond to situations like this. Give them good training which will serve them well in civilian life. Probably make most (though by no means all) of the units Guard or Reserve rather than active, so that they can usefully apply their skills in civilian life at times when people aren't, say, crashing airliners into skyscrapers. Guard would be particularly good since they could then be called upon by state governments as well as the federal government.
...
Large municipalities (e.g., NYC and Washington, DC) might also want to consider city government agencies for the same purpose.
Basically, we have militaries, police departments, fire depts. etc for a reason: some functions are too vital to be left up to corporations whose primary purpose is profit, not public service. (A good example of this is the trend away from city-funded paramedic services to private ambulance companies a few years ago; most big cities are now realizing this just doesn't work, and that it's better for ambulance service to be provided either by fire departments or by separate city agencies such as NYC*EMS.) If we consider communication to be as important as national defense, law enforcement, fire protection, and emergency medical services, then it should receive the same governmental priority, not a half-assed semi-volunteer solution run by PHB's.
To those who say, oh, geeks are too individualistic for this to ever work, or geeks are out-of-shape slobs who could never make it through Basic, or whatever: well, I served in the Army as an infantryman and in the Air Force as a medic, and now I'm a working DBA/Webmaster who just got into a very good CS Master's program. The stereotypes are only true if we let them be
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
I'd join in a minute if I thought it was just
rescue and recovery. I'm not going to be part of
some hit squad that goes in and installs Carnivore
boxen at ISPs and the like to help "catch those who perpetrated this cowardly act" after they've been put back on their feet.
They mobilized technicians from all over the country, and knowing that cell phones are a critical component of emergency communications, deployed many COWs (Cellular on Wheels) units in and around Manhattan within hours of the towers going down. It's a little unfortunate that companies are complaining about Verizon not getting data services back up quickly, Verizon lost millions of dollars worth of real estate and infrastructure and dedicated resources at major expense to restoring the basics like dialtone.
AC's cheerfully ignored
It's not as easy as plugging in a toaster and making toast.... this is very long - but PLEASE READ ON!
I worked as a lineman for Verizon before the merger for 5 years while putting myself through college. I don't think you understand the ammount of work that is required before phone service can actually be RESTORED!!! First, they have to get access to the cable vault - this includes pumping the THOUSANDS of GALLONS of water that's down there due to broken water pipes and firehoses that have been spraying water on the Ground Zero area 24/7 since the 11th of last month. After the water is pumped in, they have to dry out the existing cables or replace them. I would imagine that most of the ducts leaving the Central Office (now referred to as CO) are crushed, too... so new ducts must be built or in the meantime (which they are doing) they're laying new cable on the ground or digging small temp trenches. Electricity must be restored to the CO - first by generators then by Con Ed. Then the air compressors that keep air in the cables must be tested, and put back online and/or replaced. These compressors pump air through underground cables to keep pressure in the cables so water stays out of splices once a cable is in a manhole and is submerged.
Cable that has been temp run or has been pulled to manholes. Now these manholes have to be pumped 24/7 via gas and hydrolic pumps to keep the water level down so the splicers can get down into the holes and start splicing in new cables and performing maintenance on the existing cables and air circuits that were mentioned above. Remember - gas lines could be severed - so manholes have to be tested for gas leaks and can't be entered until gas leaks are fixed. Then splicers can get to work. OH - and btw - have you ever humped a 1200 pair copper cable??? I have - and it's no fun... yeah the underground cable trucks pull the cable - but it takes HUMANS to feed the cable off the reel into the ducts -and you have to make sure that the cable feeds into the duct CLEAN so the sheath of the cable doesn't get damaged - as that will leak air (see air circuits above).
Fiber Optic Cable (now referred to as FOC)doesn't require air circuits or compressors - but it is costly and time consuming to splice fiber cable - and it requires a STERILE environment and it must be done carefully (read NOT RUSHED) to make sure the FOC gets optimal signal passed through the splice.
(remember - over 300k voice and 3.5million data circuits went out on the 11th!!!)
Now - after all the cables are laid and spliced - they have to be connected on the central office frame and programmed onto the switch... all this is also relies on electricity - powered by generators and then street power when restored.
Running cable and restoring circuits are NOT as easy as plugging a toaster in and making toast!!!
Slashdot should post an apology for posting such an insensitive and ill-informed story. Shame on you guys, man!
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