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If This Had Been An Actual Emergency
saridder writes "In an increasing attempt to regulate the Internet like the current PSTN, the US Government has asked the IETF to come up with a system to prioritize government and emergency worker traffic in the event of another disaster, much like the GETS system already in place for the PSTN. It's interesting to follow, because it's only an RFC, so you don't have to follow it. I probably won't be prioritizing government traffic on any of my routers." The story has a link to the ieprep working group if you want to get involved or comment. Perhaps this is a better way than GOVNET.
Prioritizing packets isn't "electronic racism" as some trolls are claiming, because packets *do* get to their destination eventually. If these guys want faster service, they can lay out their own fiber across the country and fix the connection when a farmer tractor runs over it somewhere in Kansas. Don't want to? Then just pass a law to suck the life out of every citizen while we're at it. Those government talking heads have it too easy already.
During Operation Sandstorm in Iraq, CNN was one of the quickest, most reliable sources of intelligence that the American military had. Reporters can go where government employees can't, and generally have sources that the government doesn't. Also, most government intelligence has to go through and review, briefing, debriefing, etc. before it can be used. Seeing it live on CNN is much more efficient, and helps to back up intelligence already going thru the ranks
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Web-browsing is an essential part of much government intelligence activity now. Using some random example, if some terrorist group has a website, and they put information about themselves and their activities on that website, then that's a bona fide use for web browsing. Checking news sites in other countries is exteremly usefull as well.
In an emergancy, I would want the government ( I'm Canadian btw) to have priority checking updates on CNN over me checking updates on
Have you thought about what you're looking at today?
A broadcast technology like TV or Radio will ALWAYS scale better than a point-to-point technology like Telephone, TCP/IP, SMS, etc.
The best information distribution would be if there was a way to send a message to every phone in the country - to make them all ring at the same time - but that isn't possible with the way switches work.
This technology will never be useful for 'breaking' news distribution, like "GET OUT OF TOWN - TORNADO!" but rather could be useful for managing the long term (i.e., several days - weeks) effect of a massive attack (terrorist, military, or otherwise) on the nation's information systems.
I took a tour of a major defense contractor a couple years ago. They have two separate PCs on each desk, with two separate cable runs -- one to the company network and the Internet and the other to a private military network. They have two separate phone networks, too. The guy took me through *three* swipe card doors to show me their kerberos keyserver. I saw Wargames-like status boards showing link states to various bases across the country and around the world. Over lunch I asked about secret networks, and he says there are at least 4 "Internets, if you will" that he knew of, and was pretty sure there were a few more. They gave the the crappiest one to the general public to play with.
:)
I asked him what would happen if an email intended for the "dark side inbox" somehow landed in the "light side inbox" (his words, not mine). He said guys in dark sunglasses would be there shortly thereafter.
Intelligent Life on Earth
Damn, thanks for proving my point. As I said in my previous post and if you'll choose to read what you linked, those doctors used the Qwest high-speed network, not the internet, and it was only an assist (advice given while watching an actual doctor perform the procedure), not real surgery being done by robotics over a high-speed connection, no matter how much ABC news wants to hype it as "internet surgery". Such a thing is still so distant as to be well ignorable for quite a while.
And I'll capitalize internet when we start capitalizing dog & cat.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.
This is not some ultra-secret network, it is a set of features that is only implemented on military phone switches. It's not widely known, but the frequencies are published, and you can buy surplus phones with the extra keys for cheap:
The 1963 Autovon system uses the four extra keys for priority, as follows: Autovon legends:
FO = Flash Override
F = Flash
I = Immediate
P = Priority
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
Always, always, always write for your readers! Understand that most readers will have no idea what the terms GETS, PSTN, and RFC mean, and thus will have no idea if the article is relevant to their world. Worse, from the tone of your submission ("it's interesting to follow, because it's only an RFC, so you don't have to follow it..." was an attempt at being insightful (+1!) tells me that you were doing this to seem intelligent, and not just because you were ignorant of your audience.
If you truly wish to seem intelligent, then write so everyone understands you. That in itself is a very difficult, unique, and powerful skill.
Ryan
"All your base are belong to this file I send in order to have your advice."
It's great to hear that the author won't be supporting an emergency traffic system for Internet communications. Does he maybe also refuse to pull over for ambulances when their sirens are on? Or refuse to give up a hard won seat on a subway just because an old woman is in pain?
I would hate to see the government have to regulate something like this, but one would hope that people who are entrusted with the administration of systems that can affect the public welfare would be responsive and sensitive in times of great need.