Technology In Katrina's Wake

We've had many submissions about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It doesn't come easy writes "From 'the end justifies the means department', the BBC is reporting that bogus emails about the current situation in New Orlean contain links to websites that promptly infect the concerned reader's computer. From the article: 'The separate virus and fake donations bogus e-mails have been discovered by computer security firms SophosLabs and Websense Security Labs. They are similar to previous fraudulent e-mails connected to last year's Indian Ocean Tsunami.'" Less cynically, an anonymous reader writes "A Linux developer is organizing volunteers for a public 'web station' project to assist Hurricane Katrina victims. The plan is to create numerous Linux-based public kiosks that boot directly into the Firefox browser and display a special home page with links to various services. In addition to offering disaster relief information and news, the kiosks will provide basic email capabilities via Yahoo!, Gmail, Earthlink, MS Hotmail, and other web-mail services. They're looking for donations of time and money. If you're looking to donate more directly, tech companies across the country are maintaining pages with ties to respected charities. Yahoo is maintaining the Red Cross donation page, and everyone from Microsoft to IBM has a message on their frontpage."

Comments

Re:Why?

[drsquare]

I for one don't give a damn about preparing for 1000 years in the future. The way I see it, I've got a maximum of half a century to live. After that, I don't give a shit.

I look after myself. I have to, no-one else will. Why would I cut the standard of my living so someone in a millenium can go on holiday to Mars?

Damnit I've drunk too much, you know the point where you sort of feel sick, you can't go to sleep because when you close your eyes it makes you feel like you're going to throw up. I hate that. I should switch to spirits, beer and wine are the worst.

I couldn't give a damn about 'higher ideals'. Why should I care what future generations get up to?

The way I see it, you're only on this world for a very short time. Therefore you should make the most possible use out of it. This means doing what gives you the most benefit during your lifetime. Nothing else matters.

Argue if you want, but don't mod me down because you disagree, that's not what the mod system is for.