i-node one

Sysloggin' one day at a time.

Meta

Pages

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

You are here: Home / Archives for Jim

P2P tsunami alerts: ARC relays SMSes for emergencies

By

Xeni Jardin:
Following up on this previous BoingBoing post:

Problem — No effective system of mass, international alert existed in South Asia to quickly warn those in harm’s way of the tsunami’s approach.

One approach to a solution, created in the span of about 24 hours by an impromtu volunteer geek corps — A tech system called Alert Retrieval Cache (ARC) which collects, sorts, and routes SMS messages for the puposes of alerts and relay communication. An early warning system based on SMS, short message service.

Rohit Gupta in Mumbai (one of the folks behind DesiMediaBitch, excellent tsunami coverage in recent days) says,

When you need a genius, invent one. We are a genius. Last 24 hours we spent in creating a system of sending and receiving SMS messages through a network of relief people. Here is the page in progress — Link. These messages you see are SMSes, sent directly from Sri Lanka onto a webpage. ARC was created by Neha Vishwanathan, Rohit Gupta, Taran Rampersad, and Dan Lane.

Link to more on DesiMediaBitch.

Here’s a snip from the

…excerpt from: www.boingboing.net…

Somalia Seeks Aid

By

I’ve not seen it discussed much at all, the damage in Africa. Let’s not neglect that the tsunami hit there, too.

Tsunami-Info.org…
Somalia Seeks Aid for 50,000 Victims

NAIROBI, Kenya – Somalia appealed Monday for international aid to victims of the deadly tsunami that slammed its shores, with an official saying at least 50,000 people urgently need food, water, shelter and medical help after losing their homes and livelihoods.

Read more in this AP article.

Bloodletters – Hack Yourself

By

Excerpt from:
Bloodletters – Hack Yourself
Stop assigning blame. This is the first step. Stop assigning blame and leave the past behind you.

You know whose fault it is that your life isn’t perfect. Your boss. Your teachers. Your ex-lovers. The ones who hurt you, the ones who abused you, the ones who left you bleeding. Or even yourself. You know whose fault it is %u2014 you’ve been telling yourself your whole life. Knowing whose fault it is that your life sucks is an excellent way to absolve yourself of any reponsibility for taking your life into your own hands.

Forget about it. Let it go. The past isn’t real. %u201CThat was in another country, and besides, the wench is dead.%u201D If we’re not talking about something that is real and present and in your life right now, then it doesn’t matter. Nothing can be done about it. If nothing can be done about it, then don’t spend your energy dwelling on it %u2014 you have other things to do.

I may sound cruel, I may sound simplistic, I may sound like I’m saying you should just %u201Cget over it,%u201D by suggesting that you should let go of your past. I’m sorry for that. But life won’t hold still and wait for you to lick your wounds. The race is still being run. Get up and keep moving. You can’t do anything about yesterday.

You can do something about tomorrow. And about the next day. Focus your energies there.