A Technology Report From A San Diego Fire Shelter

netbuzz writes "Retired journalist and mobility expert Jim Forbes is among the quarter-million San Diego-area residents driven out of their homes by the horrific wildfires. Forbes has taken the opportunity to 'fire blog' from his shelter and discuss via e-mail with Network World how his personal technology and the shelter's wireless networks are holding up under the strain. 'The shelter set up a dedicated computer room with an 802.11 a,b, and g network which worked like a charm. Lots of people brought notebooks when they left their home, so there was a whole lot of IM traffic in and out of the shelter. The local cell networks were subsumed by traffic early in the day so people were texting friends and loved ones a lot."

Comments

Now that's hard core

[Critical Facilities]

As you might expect from a mobility expert, he's filling his shelter time "fire blogging." And he's also answered my e-mailed questions about how the people and technology are holding up in his shelter.
The guy is literally running for his life to escape wildfires, yet has the brass balls to 'fire blog'. If that's not worthy of a nomination to Geek of the Year, I dunno what is.

Re:Subsumed?

[aicrules]

Maybe the cell network got bought out and integrated into a larger one during the fire :)

Priorities CA

[MSTCrow5429]

"Honey, the house is on fire!" "Grab the laptop!" "What about the kids and the dog?" "Screw them, I need my WiFi fix!"

Isn't it great.

[Xest]

Isn't it great that technology like the internet has reached the point of acceptance that when peoples houses are burning down one of the main priorities is to ensure the shelter everyone has to hide in has wireless internet access and that people make sure they at least rescue their laptops and PDAs.

I'm sure it wasn't much more than 5 years ago that people would look at you funny if you turned up in such a place and said "Right, where's the net access?".

Oh how times change ;)