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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."
Well, I can't load the page that you're linking too, but I'm betting the person works for DirectNIC. They have a blog up on their site with pictures, etc. too.
And I don't get why every company now has a donation website for people? Why does Microsoft need a link for donating? Is it all PR bullshit? Is it in fashion to appear to be helping? Why doesn't Bill gates take some of his billions, and give? I am sure he will, but it seems like he can donate far more than the web page will raise. It is better to let the groups which have been around for so long do the job, the Red Cross and known charities.
Warric Dunn had a great idea. He is a running back in the NFL. He challenged every NFL player to donate $5,000. A drop in the bucket for guys making millions. It would raise over $8,000,000 for New Orleans. We will soon find out who the good guys are, and who the assholes are.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
"Virtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared."
While I'll do what I can, I find the fact that the scenario had been modeled disturbing in light of the disorganized response. The more so since President Bush has said no one predicted the levees being breached.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
The federal/state/local government wasn't prepared for Katrina (yes, even in spite of the drills) because the last Category 4 storm, Hurricane Charley, wasn't all that bad. I get the feeling that every single government agency in the country was gearing up to respond to that type of event.
Katrina has ended up like Charley^2, mostly due ot her size. And there's not nearly enough workers, rescuers, or responders to be able to deal with the situation.
In addition, Charley did not hit Tampa, Florida directly.
It seemed that all the meteorologists knew the impact of Katrina, even in the 18 hours before when we knew she would hit New Orleans, but that this didn't get through to the government that everyone is now blaming for failing to respond.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
People like these should be tracked down, flogged, and then prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law!
They're doing better than that...national guardsmen now have orders to shoot to kill. Pity we can't do the same to the scammmers.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
General Wesley clark sounds off on the disaster.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/1/123536/7907
time for one of them good ole friday flamewars
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
I know we like technology and blogs and all but I can't help thinking that the effort and diesel could be used for other purposes.
People tend to congrate in areas which can support the most people. Areas that have things like arable land, freshwater supply, and access to trade routes.
Volcanic soil is about the most fertile soil on the planet, which means that a society which uses it to develop its food supply can grow quite without having to import as much food.
Sheltered deepwater ports allow for large amounts of trade via the most efficient way of transporting things: huge barges.
Cities will even pop up at crossroads of sufficiently well-traveled trade routes, but cities that rely exclusively on overland trade tend to be smaller than their deepwater counterparts.
Coastal regions tend to have more moderate climates than further inland and subsequent longer growing seasons.
Ample freshwater supplies are another reason for the springing up of cities.
People don't just say, "let's put a city here." Cities just happen. Think of a petri dish randomly splayed with varying concentrations of nutrients here and there. Populations will grow accroding to available resources. One of those resources could be good urban planning resulting in a sane transportation system for instance. Eventually you'll notice that some areas have dense cities and some do not.
New Orleans is on the Mississippi river delta. It is the gateway to trade between a handful of states and the rest of the world. Being at the mouth of a huge, silty river, the ground should be almost as fertile as the volcanic soil previously mentioned, with plenty of fresh water filtered from the river or taped from the huge freshwater lake it was so recently a victim of.
Kansas on the other hand has one resource in abundance: land. There is plenty of acceptable but not very exciting farmland. There are other resources which must be mined scattered throughout the state and transportation is not as cheap as for port-cities. This does not particularly lend itself to concentrations of people.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
I thought I'd follow your cut and paste job up with one of my own:
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Vacation is Over... an open letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush
Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Dear Mr. Bush:
Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.
Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?
Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!
I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?
And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!
On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.
There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.
No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!
You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
www.MichaelMoore.com
P.S. That annoying mother, Cindy Sheehan, is no longer at your ranch. She and dozens of other relatives of the Iraqi War dead are now driving across the country, stopping in many cities along the way. Maybe you can catch up with them before they get to DC on September 21st.
Consider that it's been widely reported that New Orleans is under 20 feet of water. Of course that's not an average depth -- the French Quarter is above ground, and therefore not underwater.
I have yet to hear anything regarding the not-flooded southern suburbs of New Orleans, and I suspect that not much is happening over there... just a lot of wind damage.
It is very disturbing that the federal government doesn't know about the New Orleans Convention Center situation, which leads me to believe that initially, they thought the state of Louisiana could handle things. This is a rational initial assumption to take, even with a Category 4 hurricane. This has been proven to be incorrect.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
This has already been down in Lafayette, LA as of Wednesday at the Cajundome. Setup numerous recycled workstations with a Linux distro on each of them. People had Internet access so they could post on sites they were okay and to search for others. We also setup VOIP phones for users to call out for free. We are presently trying to get Bellsouth to bring in some more Internet connections to allow for the heavy load we are consuming. Even Laura Bush was here today asking to use our services (public appearance ploy!) I suggest they do the same in Houston and Baton Rouge.
What about the oil companies? Oh, I don't know...call me cynical but wasn't the gas we're putting in our cars today bought, paid for and process a long time ago? Why aren't we paying those prices instead of prices today?
I'm not Mr. anti-corporation or anything...but since these companies are experiencing the biggest profits in years (before this crisis btw) couldn't they just come out and say "we're going to do our part and drop the price of gas a whole dollar until this crisis is over". Right? Couldn't that help a hell of a lot of people?
Meh...just wondering. I'll admit I know nothing about finance or big business or how these things work. I'm just a simple back-woods farmer from a small town in Virginia.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
I'm not really sure about donating to any things like 'relief funds' for the very reason that many helpful organizations are burocracies (sp?) that tend to get very little capital to the end recipients (the victims).
That's bad enough, but add to this the scamming bastards and others (gas companies anyone) taking advantage of this disaster... and I wish I could pay somebody to break the knees of these scammers. I hope that the government pays very close attention to the popular scam sites, and makes a very, very strong example of them... like maybe dropping them in the middle of New Orleans survivors and letting everyone know about their scammy websites...
- "June 1, 1999: Though Congress authorized West Jefferson to complete its levee projects in 1996, the state hasn't made matching money a priority the past three years because the weather "really didn't show us the potential dangers we had until the storms last year
... showed the seriousness of it," said Rep. John Alario, D-Westwego."
- "February 17, 1995: An Army Corps of Engineers "hit list" of recommended budget cuts would eliminate new flood-control programs in some of the nation's most flood-prone spots - where recent disasters have left thousands homeless and cost the federal government millions in emergency aid. Clinton administration officials argue that the flood-control efforts are local projects, not national, and should be paid for by local taxes.
Nationwide, the administration proposes cutting 98 new projects in 35 states and Puerto Rico, for an estimated savings of $29 million in 1996."
And there's a lot more evidence in than vein. This was a collective failure of all bracnhes of governments, local, state, and national, over the past 30 years.Crow T. Trollbot
For those of you who are interested, I have put up a compile of company website screenshots on my website. It seems that a lot of companies (in the computer industry at least) are displaying solidarity with the hurricane victims. Screenshots
I pitched this to the OpenWRT guys about an hour or so ago. Web kiosks are nice and all, but with high-gain antenneas, custom AP software (like OpenWRT), WIFI, and VOIP adapters and an AP link, you could have mobile kiosks providing free phone calls. The equipment is tiny, low-power and relatively low-cost. The users just need to know how to use a phone. A pickup/car/van with 1 AP and 20 adapters could allow 20 people to contact friends/family/loved ones for 5-10 mintues at a shot.
:) T-Mobile offered free hot-spot access or another provider could work.
I'd think Vonage could provide the circuits (it'd be cheaper than all that advertising they do). Or if not, one for $29 people could "sponsor" an adaptor for a month or two.
WRT54G AP + Custom FW + VOIP Addapters + Phones = VOIP kiosk. One could plug 10 or 20 adapters and phone into one AP (with a hub of course) and you've have instant phones.
I mean the guys at DefCon could go 140 miles with an antennea. Setting up some antennas on some high places with some high-gain (read 24dBi) anteannas should allow great coverage.
As someone who lives and works in New Orleans and just tonite finally found a place with electricity and net access, I want to say thanks to everyone who is helping with the efforts. Things are really bad for many people.
Interestingly enough, our main NOC is located in the CBD of New Orleans and is still online as of now, running on a generator. I don't know how long it will last -- but since our generator is located no more than 10 feet above the street level, the water can't be that bad down there.
Two days ago we donated our generator for the backup NOC to a group that was doing search and rescue - it created a small outage of a few web sites that happened to be situated there (that we're mirroring now to servers out of state), but we felt it was better to put the generator to use to directly help people save lives, as opposed to keeping a few web sites up advertising restaurants that may or may not ever open again.
Wristbands with RFID/barcode/human readable serial number could be used to (voluntarily) track victims like packages. This would, among other things, reduce load on cell phone networks from (often futile) attempts to deterimine the location of missing people or reassure family members. Serial number must include checkdigits at the very least. A random password is also printed on the reverse side (for logging in remotely after leaving area).
Wristband serial #12345678
Name: John Q Public
Address: 1234 Bourboun Street, New Orleans 12345
Medical Alert: none (private field)
Public message:
I am ok but my cat drowned. Lost my wallet evacuating house. Don't have my address book.
"This is why New Orleans is where it is. It was perfectly located to take on large amounts of the shipping around the gulf. The fact that it was below sea level was seen as an engineering challenge."
Pompeiian's must have like challenges.
Anyway I find the digging of the Panama Canal a greater engineering challenge, than filling in a big hole in the ground.* As opposed to just plopping a city in it (they could have put the city on the other side of the lake).
*And lest anyone forget. The Japanese have proven that one can claim land from the sea.
"And why hasn't the media picked up on the story of how utterly incompenent the folks in charge of New Orleans are?"
Dude, it's Louisiana. Widespread croneyism and nepotism, deep-seated coruption... for Louisiana, especially New Orleans, this is not news.
A few years back, umpteen term governor (for life) Edwin G. Edwards finally got sentenced on federal corruption charges, sending him up the river to Texas. The most his supporters can say is "Yeah, he was crooked, but he didn't do that particular bit of crookedness." The only reason he's not still governor is newly-enacted term limits in the state's consitution.
Ever heard of him? Of course not. "Dog bites man" doesn't make the newspapers.
Saying the folks in the federal government aren't as bad as Louisiana isn't exactly a good defense, and certainly isn't flattering. If anything, it damages the federal government for being compared to Louisiana.
" There's no trucks to move it around and the roads are blocked anyway, and the people can't get to where the supplies are."
Again, this is Louisiana. Boudreaux can get on out there in his pirot (which happens fairly often, considering all the flooding the area gets). This would be a great application for the "brown water" Navy we don't seem to have.