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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."
One thing that I'll never understand is why we (humans) continue to put important things in the most vulnerable places. This goes way beyond technology, but I'll use it as an example. Many large internet services companies are based on the west or east coast or in Texas. If you consider the worst (which is what just happend in New Orleans), there is a great potential for disaster in these places. However, in the middle of the country where the only natural threat is tornados, which don't affect everything together, there is very little. And so much
of the Internet depends on those vulnerable regions. The aftermath of the hurricane is now threatening DirectNIC.
Why do people keep building villages next to volcanos, museums with important artifacts in large cities, data centers in flood plains, major network hubs in cities.
I'm guessing that the most likely reason this happens is because those places happen to be nice to live, better weather, etc. and it serves people's short term interests. But in the long term, I think we're just asking for Trouble (yes with a capital T).
When a large wave comes in and knocks out the east coast with the next 100-1000 years, we'll probably have the same old excuses that we do now. And we'll be even more dependent on technology when it does.
...this guy?
http://massivewinners.com/mgno/
He's writing a blog from within New Orleans.. he's running diesel generators to keep his company (I think it's a datacenter) running... he has a live webcam and hundreds of pictures of the disaster. It's about as close to the ground as you can get. Truly amazing...
hookers and grits.
Things like this bring out the best in some and the worse in others. Everything from looting to taking the opportunity to stake out political claims. The people will rebuild and do so despite what we do and do not do. I'm glad to see some are choosing to "do."
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."
How will these kiosks work in the areas where they are needed most? What about internet access? etc.
-nick
Gatta love the understatement of the week on his blog:
/ 08/27/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/2005
If only they knew then...
-Valiss
"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
Too bad it took a disaster for this to happen. But when you see people dying in front of your eyes and your own government waiting 4 days before really attempting to help out, your sense of conscience grows.
CNN has a special page contrasting the statements of officials about how great things are going versus the reality. Read the article here.
make world, not war
...and the only thing on the minds of thousands of Slashdotters is whether computer and network technology is involved and if so does it involve Linux, Firefox, and Open Source Software.
Fro crying out loud people, who gives a damn?! Thousands are dead, many thousands more injured, and most of them and thousands more homeless and an even larger amount without drinkable water and an even larger amount without electrical power. WHO CARES if Linux is involved?
I swear, the shallow and selfish opportunism never ceases to amaze me. I bet if Bill Gates donated $50M to relief efforts there would be an immediate post proclaiming it an attempt to buy influence and derail criticism while a small effort of Linux geeks to raise a few donations via PayPal would get endless glowing praise. As it is I fully expect the tragedy to be laid at the feet of the Bush administration without regard to the local government evidently collapsing on itself in the crucial first hours of the aftermath.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
The problem is not where they go in their afterlife (or lack thereof) but that we have to contend with them in this life.
On another track, it's great to be giving so much when these sorts of disasters hit, but where's the love the rest of the time? When I give blood, it's not because there's some horrible disaster in dire need, it's because there might be. The American Redcross and other agencies can only so so much if their coffers are low and something like this hits. It's a good thing to give before disasters so they have money and resources at the ready. Fewer scammers are likely to trip you up if you actually contact your favorite agency proactively and give.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You know TripMaster Monkey, I think you're the only person on Slashdot who ever understands what I'm getting at. Everyone else takes me so literally and mods me down as overrated.
http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins20050 9020719.asp
HA! The National Review Online. HA!
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
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...
Anyway, you are buying the statements of federal officials hook, line, and sinker. Read this article by CNN that contrasts what Bush administration officials are saying versus the realities on the ground.
Here's a snippet to demonstrate your propaganda is just that, propaganda.
Chertoff [Director of Homeland Security]: In addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. One thousand four hundred additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day: 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.
Nagin [Mayor of New Orleans]: I continue to hear that troops are on the way, but we are still protecting the city with only 1,500 New Orleans police officers, an additional 300 law enforcement personnel, 250 National Guard troops, and other military personnel who are primarily focused on evacuation.
Amazingly, journalists are starting to wake up and report actual news instead of repeating the carefully prepared statements of federal officials. Unfortunately it took a tragedy to get to this point.
make world, not war
What is even more amazing is, now that he is in the NFL, he is not like most flash in the pan running backs. He is not demanding to be the most paid player. He even works with others. He is everything a team player should be. Compare him to someone like Maurice Clorette.
Warrick was raised the right way. He cares about other people. It is nice to see when God gives someone so much natural ability, that the person feels blessed and wants to contribute to others.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
Ten months after the election, however, with no more elections for him to win, he plays the guitar, makes a few (non-relevent) speeches, and acts, essentially, as if nothing's happening. At some point on Tuesday afternoon, after the floods have started, and 36 hours after the hurricane actually hit, he announces he's cutting short his vacation. But he didn't actually get back to work until Wednesday afternoon.
And remember, while the floods may have only started on Tuesday morning, the Hurricane itself did immense damage, leaving hundreds of thousands of people across three states without power, in seriously damaged, often to the point of uninhabitability, homes. The hurricane itself - not its rains that caused the levies to break - caused astonishing amounts of distruction on Monday, more so than anything that hit Florida (and I live in Florida, in Stuart as it happens, where two of last year's hurricanes hit) - that's all been kind of pushed aside as we concentrate on looking at New Orleans.
And, you'll forgive me, but at least on Wednesday, the feeling I got from the White House was that gas prices were the primary concern of everyone there.
I'm sorry if this sounds like partisan bitching to you, but, well, call it constructive criticism if it hurts.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Web Stations???? That's almost as ridiculous as the free Wi-fi until Sept. 2 idea.
When you're starving to death, living in a toxic cesspool with dead people floating by, with raping and pillaging all around you, the LAST freaking thing on your mind is "maybe I'll go browse at the kiosk for a while"
Give to the red cross; they're trying to save lives. The kiosks, while I'm sure an honest effort to help, is simply not going to make as much impact as the same amount of money allocated to getting food and drinking water into that hellhole.
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.
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
Oh really?
Chertoff [Homeland Security Director]: In addition to local law enforcement, we have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. One thousand four hundred additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day: 1,400 today, 1,400 tomorrow and 1,400 the next day.
Nagin [Mayor of New Orleans]: I continue to hear that troops are on the way, but we are still protecting the city with only 1,500 New Orleans police officers, an additional 300 law enforcement personnel, 250 National Guard troops, and other military personnel who are primarily focused on evacuation.
---
Brown [FEMA Chief]: I've just learned today that we ... are in the process of completing the evacuations of the hospitals, that those are going very well.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta: It's gruesome. I guess that is the best word for it ... There is no electricity. There is no water. There's over 200 patients still here remaining.
Dr. Matthew Bellew, Charity Hospital: We still have 200 patients in this hospital, many of them needing care that they just can't get. The conditions are such that it's very dangerous for the patients.
---
Brown: I've had no reports of unrest, if the connotation of the word unrest means that people are beginning to riot, or you know, they're banging on walls and screaming and hollering or burning tires or whatever. I've had no reports of that.
CNN's Chris Lawrence: From here and from talking to the police officers, they're losing control of the city. We're now standing on the roof of one of the police stations. The police officers came by and told us in very, very strong terms it wasn't safe to be out on the street.
make world, not war
A group of web developers at EarthLink whipped up a page last night designed to aid in finding Katrina victims. I know there are many of these popping up. This site is searchable by last name and also includes links to many of the other survivor lists. The site was done solely as a public service...katrina.earthlink.net
Here are a few stories: 1, 2, and 3.
The Red Cross turns 92% of donations over. The other 8% is used to pay the employees and keep the orginisation open. That's one of the (if not THE) best place to donate.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
of Needs.
...
...
Expecting people to be angels when you haven't satisfied their primary needs of:
1. Water - yes, this is 1 - and potable too;
2. Food - and it has to be ethnically acceptable too;
3. Clothing - and sitting around in 110 degree temperatures when you may not have been dressed for it in the first place
4. Shelter - this basically means dry shelter;
but basically, if you haven't met at least the first seven levels, and it sounds like most people there haven't even had the first four levels met, you will act in ways that few people would believe.
Add that to seeing bus service laid on to evac the hotel guests while they wouldn't even use the trains to get you out, and you might be a bit miffed - and you can forget about civility.
But, hey, I'm just repeating my Army training guidelines
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
For more info on amateur radio assistance (as opposed to government work) see ARRL.
It's not just downtown New Orleans. Millions of people were affected by the storm, and hundreds of thousands, in Mississippi, Alabama, and the rest of Louisiana need food, water, and medical supplies. The people evacuated to the Astrodome in Houston need help now. The hundreds of thousands already in shelters need help now. After the people still in New Orleans get evacuated, they will need help too. Many will get these things from the American Red Cross before FEMA can even get down there.
Yes, the people stranded in the Superdome and Convention Center need immediate help that only the government can provide. But those people are not the only victims, despite what CNN might have you believe.
The US Government does not pay for, staff, or organize these shelters on its own, and it does not feed these people solely out of our tax money. I don't know where that FEMA budget goes, but it only comes into play days after a disaster. The government bureaucracy is reactive; private charities like the Salvation Army and Red Cross are proactive.
After Hurricane Hugo, it took a week for FEMA to get off it's collective ass. The Salvation Army was there. The Red Cross was there. The state and local governments were pleading for federal assistance. I was living there at the time, and I luckily did not need any aid. If it'd been up to FEMA, hundreds would have died before getting help.
It's your money. Give it to whomever you want. Keep it. Use it to pay your taxes, I don't care. But don't tell people that donating money to private charities won't help. It may not drain New Orleans or airlift those people out of the Superdome, but that doesn't make it a scam
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.
New Orleans was built in 1717 by French explorers who got lost in the new territory they claimed. But they found a tribal trail from a giant freshwater lake to a stable part of the river that led up into the entire continent, the entire area they called "Louisiana" (from Texas to the Appalachians, from the Gulf to the Great Lakes). They built a walled city for trade and conquest, which prospered. And survived: at high ground, it hasn't been destroyed by any of its frequent storms, though a fire under its 34 year Spanish rule meant rebuilding in the late 1700s.
It's in a great location for shipping and connection to rail, road and the abundant farmland. The Mississippi River moves a bit, but the value of its strategic location (near the Panama Canal and Venezuela's oil terminals) is vastly superior to any other alternate location for its purpose, with a location more protected from the weather than most of the rest of the Gulf Coast (though now obviously not enough). Development is a question of alternatives, and New Orleans has been the best option for development for literally centuries.
The city was secure, even under the threat of major hurricanes, through the 1930s. That's when the Army Corps of Engineers installed the wall holding back the lake, with levees, insufficient to withstand a Category 4 (or 5) hurricane. And failed to compensate for the destruction and development of the buffer zone of wetlands between the city and the Gulf. With those centuries-tested natural relief buffers, the city wasn't nearly as threatened by catastrophe. Of course there have been huge benefits from reclaiming land from the lake, though the waste of the Gulf wetlands has little upside beyond real estate agents and vacationers. But those benefits were bought with IOUs to Nature, which has eventually called in the chits. We could have paid more for better systems, but we tried to get off cheap.
People are talking about replacing New Orleans like it's somehow something that you just do. Like replacing a 50-year heart with a bionic one. Well, people don't do that unless we're forced to, usually after the old one has failed, and a heroic effort is necessary to save us. Which we then do, even after we've raised kids, produced in our careers, had our fun. A city is vastly more than just its economic function, both to its residents and the people who care about them. New Orleans is unique, and irreplaceable.
The much better question is how America took the city for granted, letting it down in every way, though we've known this catastrophe was inevitable. Along with (Republican) House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert saying it should just get bulldozed, we've got (Republican) president Bush saying "no one could have anticipated the levees would fail" (echoing his lies about the 2001 planebombings of New York City). Those people, and their subordinates, along with the Democratic Senators from Louisiana, and (until last year) the Republican Governor of Louisiana, have blood on their hands. They, like everyone else in charge, abandoned their duty to protect New Orleans. American development is always entirely devoted to the sale to the first customer, regardless of the hidden costs to people left holding the bag. Now we've got our heart ripped out. And so much of our rotten understructure is revealed to the world.
Yes, we should look at the big picture, at tomorrow's risks we deny when we're making today's sales. We have to look at "total cost of ownership" of more than just Linux, but at whole cities. But we can't blame the victim so much, here: New Orleans, which has delivered so much to American and the world from its unique location. But which has always been shortchanged, paid in scrip. Now that she's destroyed, we have to first look to save her as much as possible. Then look at who's got her blood on her hands, and deal with them. And in the longer term, look at how we let her down, and let ourselves down by losing her. Because New Orleans was possibly the most human city in America, warts and all. How we deal with her and her fate is how we deal with all of our fates.
--
make install -not war