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Verizon's NYC 911 System Shutdown
Dead Nancy writes "A combination of human error and software that didn't anticipate it brought down New York City's 911 emergency line for several hours on Friday night."
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"Quick! Give me the number for 911!" - Homer J. Simpson
Do you think someone called 911 to report the emergency outage?
we KNOW what software it was running, right? ;)
You read stores like this and think, "Oh, it was just error."
But you fail to realize that a big heist probably took place. I saw George Clooney and Matt Damon do it to Las Vegas. They let off this big ass EMP and shut down the power to the whole city! Long story short, they stole a shitload of money and got away with it.
Don't let these stories fool you, that is exactly what happened here.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
the real number is 912
I'd "call the wahmbulance," but 911 isn't currently available.
(Are you new here?)
Do you like German cars?
Hey, I can't find the eleven....
"Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
"You got the wrong number, this is nine one...two"
-Chief Wiggum
In other news, you could hook up a 220VAC generator to any telco box and effectivly take out your entire citys area code...
;p
It'd also take out any other area code as well, as long as it was directly connected using the same switching methods.... it'd just keep on going down the line...
What would happen is everyones telephone would ring and ring and possibly be electrocuted if they weren't careful handling the phone...
Not to mention anyone who was stripping their phone wiring with their teeth like I usually do when I have to strip phone wire!
A little off topic, but interesting non the less,..
Nope, but I heard that someone was moderately dead due to the matter.
And someone else was partially pregnant.
Fellowship 9/11
Yes, it's a "bad news" article. So let's all figure out how Microsoft is responsible.
"gaaaaackkkk... Get this thing off of me!!!"
"... that number is temporarily out of service."
......grrrrrrrrrrrrrr......
......grrrrrrrrrrrrrr......
"Look you F&*%#$ chihuaha!! I'm sorry I took your chalupa! I'm sorry god damnit!!!"
"Please check the number and try your call again again."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"
"If you need assistance please call your operator."
*gurrrgle*
*click*
Probably because folks were trying to use 911 to report them.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
You don't know Microsoft wasn't responsible.
Lives could have been lost in this technology failure, and Microsoft is a technology company right? Can't we all just agree to distort the truth so that Microsoft looks responsible?
Isn't that why we're all here? Isn't it?
The number you have dialed, Nine...One...One is not in service. No further information is available about Nine...One...One. The number you have dialed...
"Can you hear me now?..." After a few minutes of silence, the Verizon Guy is totally disillusioned.
No, I'm New Here
Interviewer: Now, tell me again, what caused you to lose your position with Verizon?
Interviewee: Uhhhhhh.... *nervous fidget*
He's absolutely correct! Mod parent up informative!
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
... DIebold anounced their plans to replace Verizon at handling the 911 system...
"We figured out that with our new phone systems, completely powered by Microsoft Software these problems will be a thing of the past"
how long until
We should outsource 911.
Hammer of Truth
Blame you guys.
So reliable 911 service *isn't* an advantage that POTS has over VOIP?
-Rich
...just found a new job. Well, he's unemployed again anyways.
Sounds to me from this story that they've got call volume down 100% now. Good job!
> Does it have anything to do with the city's density?
Hey, people in New York are just as smart as people anywhere else!
Chris Mattern
When living in a back-lot guest house Venice, CA I was woken up in the early AM to someone pounding on the main house back door....it was the next door neighbor asking "What's the number for 911, my mom is having a heart attack!"
If only the Darwin Awards had been around back then.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - BF
Plan 9 was an utter failure. Just three zombies? What were the aliens thinking?
The ______ Agenda
Reminds me of that old story:
Guy calls 911, saying "there's a burglar in my back shed, can you send someone over".
911 operator: "sorry, all the officers are busy, you'll have to wait a half hour for a uniformed drive-by"
Guy hangs up. Calls back 2 minutes later, saying "don't worry about sending the drive-by, I shot the burglar and he's dead"
2 minutes later, 4 squad cars show up. Officers jump out, to startle the burglar in the middle of burgling.
Officer says to home owner: "I thought you said you shot him!"
Guy replies: "I thought you said you were busy!"
City and Verizon officials said that while the backup system in place for 911 was functioning properly, it failed to pick up the calls because it was designed to catch a technical error, not a human error that would be interpreted as simply a change of instruction.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
This reminds me of a story I read back last month, where a programming error meant that 911 calls actually got routed to some guy's home. Fortunately he used to work as a police dispatcher, so he set about relaying the emergency calls by cellphone to the police.