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L.A. Quake -- Warning about phone usage
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:37:37 -0700
________________________________________ From: Lauren Weinstein [lauren () vortex com] Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 3:30 PM To: David Farber Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: L.A. Quake -- Warning about phone usage Dave, As you've probably heard, the L.A. area (epicenter Chino Hills) just had a 5.4 quake. It was a good rolling ride here at the northwest edge of L.A. city. No reports of significant damage, and despite the high frequency shake and low frequency roll nothing obvious knocked out of place here -- just a "gentle" reminder between the main events. Reports have been coming in of widespread cell network blocking. With many people ditching landlines for cell phones, it's important to remember that the cell networks have extremely limited capacity compared with conventional landline circuits, and microcells can start failing rapidly once their batteries quickly run out if A.C. power is cut. Also, this is a good time to remind people that during an emergency when there is heavy phone usage (or lots of phones knocked off hook -- and please avoid unnecessary phone usage during such events!) you may not get a landline dial tone immediately upon going off hook. In that instance, *do not keep hanging up and trying again*. Every time you hang up, you *lose* your place in the queue. If you hold on through the silence, the switch will get you a dial tone as soon as possible, even if it takes minutes or more. Shake and Bake, indeed. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- L.A. Quake -- Warning about phone usage David Farber (Jul 29)