A Geek On Everest

mysterious_mark writes "Recently I was recruited by Altitude Films to be the IT geek for a filming expedition to the north side of Mount Everest. I have written an account of my experience. It is a tale of high latency, low bandwidth, blown hard drives, and frozen fingers. Summit day is June 14th. See the expedition's site for the overall picture (caution: total Flash site)."

Comments

Re:helicopter ride

[Anonymous Coward]

The altitude of Everest is too high for a helicopter. I think the highest a helicopter can go is around 20000 feet though I'm probably wrong. Everest is somewhere around 29000.

Unbefreakinglievable

[Otter]

The comments here are like a parody of IT Guy obnoxiousness. Mark Kahrl is hauling gear up to 21,000 feet and updating a website at sub-freezing temperatures and no oxygen. And summiting Mounrt Everest next week.

Meanwhile, a bunch of IT dorks who a) have a 70% chance of developing a basic LAMP site correctly at sea level and b) a 15% chance of walking around the block without stopping for breath are sneering at him for -- using Flash.

Re:Unbefreakinglievable

[PMuse]

1. Those of us who've never climbed past 10,000 feet can STFU. There goes 90% of /.
   
2. Those of us who've never climbed past 15,000 feet can put a lid on it. There goes another 8% and me.
   
3. Those of us who've never climbed past 18,000 feet should please sit down. There goes another ~2%.
   
4. Now, let's hear from the couple of dozen /.ers still standing.

There is no ambiguity about climbing a mountain. He's doing it.

Re:flash?

[rockmuelle]

Don't be so quick to discount this site based on its use of Flash. It's user interface is incredibly well designed and a great example of how Flash can be used to improve the user experience. It's more of an interactive media site than a traditional text-based Web site. And, amazingly, it works on my old 500 MHz G4 running Safari (very few "Web 2.0" sites work on this configuration - even most Google apps perform poorly).

Skip to the route map to get an idea of the effort they put into the site (http://www.ueverest.com/route_map.html). It's Java, not Flash (which also suggests the designers understand how to choose the right technology for the job).

Anyway, as someone who tends to have the anti-Flash bias, I was surpised by this site. Even if you're not into mountaineering, it's worth looking at to see the potential of interactive Web applications.

-Chris

(And what's up with moderators moding the anti-Flash parent as 'Insightful'?)

Solid state hard drives?

[edremy]

Since their HD failure rate is so high due to the thin, cold air, why are they even using them? You can buy fully solid state flash hard drives these days. The capacity is limited and they are expensive, but it's nothing compared to a trip up Everest. Buy a bunch of the 64GB ones, spend some time cutting down a copy of Windows to the absolute mininmum that you can work with and you'll still have space for Photoshop, some video editing stuff and the content.

Some people from Digg snuck through

[Mystery00]

Flamebait: People who have such a strong negative attitude towards all things flash and refuse to look at well made flash websites are just misinformed assholes, same goes for the people that mod them up.

Non-Flamebait: A lot of interesting information in the website, and the photographs are excellent, good luck with the expedition!

*Yawn*

[Mockylock]

Over 500 people have climbed Everest THIS YEAR. Not only that, but they pay over $40,000 to do so. Basically, if you've got money.. they'll make sure you get there. If you want to be stupid and fuck around with a computer while you're up there, don't act like you're cool because you did.

If he wants to be impressive and tell a story about something that people haven't heard before, he should try to climb the East face of K2, THEN get back to us.