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August Solar Eclipse Could Disrupt Roads and Cellular Networks
GeoGreg writes: On August 21, 2017, the contiguous United States will experience its first total solar eclipse since 1979. According to GreatAmericanEclipse.com's Michael Zeiler, approximately 200 million people live within one day's drive of the eclipse. Zeiler projects that between 1.85 to 7.4 million people will attempt to visit the path of totality. As the eclipse approaches, articles are appearing predicting the possibility of automobile traffic jamming rural roads. There is also concern about the ability of rural cellular networks to handle such a large influx. AT&T is bringing in Cell On Wheel (COW) systems to rural locations in Kentucky, Idaho, and Oregon, while Verizon is building a temporary tower in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The disruption could be frustrating to those trying to get to the eclipse or share their photos via social networking. If cellular networks can't handle the data, apps like Waze won't be much help in avoiding the traffic. If communication is essential near the eclipse path, Astronomy Magazine recommends renting a satellite phone.
So to be clear (since not everyone reads even the summary), the eclipse itself is not affecting roads or cellular networks at all - as any reasonable person would already understand. The headline simply refers to the possibility that rural cell networks might get overwhelmed by the surge in traffic.
So no different, really, than any other large rural gathering... except possibly in scale.
#DeleteChrome
A few million dumbfucks won't be able to use their phones for a few minutes/hours. This is a disaster scenario that companies are planning for well in advance? If you are so important that you can't be missed for a few hours while you go to see an eclipse obviously you shouldn't be going at all.
Cell phone widespread use is recent, people weren't dropping dead before that. (yes, I know, it's difficult to realize that such times ever existed)...
The only total eclipse I've seen was in Turkey in 2006. Only 11 years ago. I didn't have a smartphone then. All I was interested in was taking photos with my camera and just looking all around to take in the moment (as an aside if you're going to see this one and have never seen a total eclipse before then make sure you do a 360 look at the horizon during totality; worth it). I just didn't feel any need to tell anyone else about it there and then. Other people got to see the photos several days later when I returned to the UK.
1. Get a nice sound system and a big tent. Head down to the southern US and hold a revival meeting.
2. Claim The Lord is going to put out the Sun if they don't pray hard and give me a lot of money.
3. Profit!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Emergency lines, navigation and texting are essential for people's safety and should be available all the time.
Da fuck happened with offline navigation ?
As in maps stored locally on an SD card (even on old SatNav from 15 years ago like Tomtom, or on modern car's infotainment, or by using the "save offline map" function of smartphone apps like Google, or even weird solution like Sailfish OS's OSM Scout Server where the map server *itself* runs on the phone).
And getting the traffic information from any publicly broadcast source (TMC - Traffic Message Channel - over FM-RDS or over DAB, or over whatever you use a digital data transmission on your side of the Atlantic pond).
Or listening to information over plain normal radio ? (Some in-car radio are even designed to automatically switch between radio traffic announcement and whatever you're listening to).
Why does everything has to be constantly online if it's that much critical ?!
Said as an European dweller, who's used to cross national border whenever driving more than a few dozens of Km, and thus used to take offline mapping capability to avoid absurd data roaming costs.
To me it seems absolutely clear that if you need to rely on it, you must be able to make do with dropped signal.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
On August 21, 2017, the contiguous United States will experience its first total solar eclipse since 1979.
Solar eclipse of May 10, 1994 I went and saw it in St Louis. How do they define contiguous U.S.
...how we ever managed to enjoy eclipses before cell phones and the internet?
It couldn't even have been possible, could it?
-Styopa
People had land lines in their car when they were driving through rural parts of the country? Jeez that's news to me! Thank you for telling me. Dumbass
FTFY
1. Get a nice sound system and a big tent. Head down to the southern US and hold a revival meeting.
2. Claim The Lord is going to put out the Sun if they don't pray hard and give me a lot of money.
3. Prophet!
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
A troll like this has more chance in its own thread. Sorry for outing you. By the way, when you were typing, you might have noticed a little red squiggly line under 'traveling'. That's because you spelled it wrong.
http://writingexplained.org/tr...
http://www.geoffreylandis.com