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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.
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
"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
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)
http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins20050 9020719.asp
HA! The National Review Online. HA!
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
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.
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
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! --