THE WASHINGTON TIMES Earthquake and RadioMail

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

DATE      01/24/94
SOURCE    THE WASHINGTON TIMES   (WATI)
          Edition:  2
          Section:  A;BUSINESS;ON COMPUTERS
          Page:     A14
          Origin:   WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.
          (Copyright 1994)
              WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.  - In the seconds after last week's
          earthquake, centered near here in Northridge, Jim Opfer may have
          scooped just about every news service in the world.
              Mr.  Opfer is a telecommunications consultant in Torrance,
          Calif.
              He is an active user of RadioMail, a network that picks up
          electronic messages from wireless modems and channels them into the
          Internet, which makes them instantaneously available to computer
          users around the planet. Within seconds of the quake's beginning,
          Mr.  Opfer flashed a message to a broad list of subscribers around
          the nation.
              One of these was Alan Reiter, who edits a newsletter called
          Mobile Data Report in Alexandria.  Mr.  Reiter says Mr.  Opfer's
          message beat CNN in bringing word of the quake.
              What Jim Opfer did last Monday morning is a harbinger of what
          the "network nation" can deliver.  Public networks such as Prodigy,
          CompuServe and Vienna, Va.-based America Online reported increases
          in data traffic as people around the globe tried to get word on how
          friends and relatives were doing in Southern California.
              This electronic communication was a valuable supplement to
          regular telephone circuits, a few of which were damaged for a time
          and the rest overloaded.  AT&T, according to spokesman Herb Linnen,
          gave priority to outbound calls, since that allowed survivors to
          reach relatives who are anxious for news.  Last Monday AT&T handled
          205 million calling attempts, "an all-time record," Mr.  Linnen
          said.
              Not all of those could be completed, of course, and millions of
          callers heard a recording saying circuits were busy.
              That's when E-mail networks came in handy.  If your PC and
          modem worked - or, in the case of RadioMail, if you happened to
          have a wireless modem - you could get the word out.
              In the hours after the quake nearly a score of E-mail messages
          flashed to the Motorola InfoTAC modem I've been testing for about a
          month now.  The modem is linked to a Hewlett-Packard 100LX palmtop
          computer, preloaded with RadioMail messaging software.  Ardis, a
          radio data network based near Chicago, is the wireless carrier used
          to get mail between the InfoTAC and RadioMail.
              The office that this column calls home is less than 10 miles
          from the quake's epicenter and was, of course, severely shaken.
              On Tuesday I was able to dig out the HP-100LX and the InfoTAC.
          I also retrieved an NEC UltraLite Versa notebook PC, which had been
          left open on my desk before the temblor hit.
              Miraculously, these and all the rest of the equipment survived.
           The NEC UltraLite Versa's combination screen/lid folded normally
          and fired up without a hitch.  The wireless setup was undamaged, as
          was the NEC printer. Two PC monitors were dislocated from their
          perches, but each system fired up as if nothing had happened.  The
          winners in this unusual torture test were Tandy's Sensation and the
          AcerPAC 250, a product of Acer America.
              THE BOTTOM LINE, which may be useful even in places where the
          ground is more likely to freeze than shake, is that today's
          computer equipment is rather robust and can take a lot of abuse.
          That's not to suggest you try dropping your laptop computer off a
          fourth-floor balcony, but you can take comfort in the ruggedness
          built into many systems.
              BOO OF THE WEEK goes to Packard Bell of Chatsworth, Calif.,
          which told some of its customer service employees to take a pay cut
          and move to Utah or forfeit their jobs.  They heard the news
          Friday, four days after the earthquake.
       *      * Address Mark Kellner in care of The Washington Times Business
          Desk, 3600 New York Ave.  NE, Washington, D.C.  20002, or send an
          Internet message to "kellner () psilink com".