On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 20:58:57 GMT, Marv Soloff
wrote:

It is my understanding that France (home of Liberty Fries and other cool
stuff) does not have power blackouts. France has 27 or so nuclear
plants scattered around the country and has so much electricity, they
have become a large net exporter. Perhaps if our governments (Federal
and State) would pull their heads out of the sand and look at the power
problem in this country realistally, we would not have these problems.
This is my third (1965, 1977 and 2003) power blackout. Basta! Enough!

Regards,

Marv

Its not sand they have their heads up.....

Gunner


Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Fri, 15 Aug 2003 10:32:00 +0000 (UTC), the renowned DejaVU
wrote:


That's a feat in itself! I can cool the local stuff like running a
laptop on a car battery etc, but how the hell do they connect to the
web?


The phone system runs on backup power, though we have only one phone
left in the house that doesn't require power from the wall to work.
The cellphone networks were up, but very busy. A
battery/inverter/generator powered laptop with a modem and you're
laughing, provided your ISP isn't down. I would have been okay, but
didn't bother, too busy with friends over, doing an impromptu BBQ
(natural gas) with Kraft dinner (macaroni and cheese) for the kids
and having a few beers before they got warm. ;-) But there wasn't
much more food in the house.

I sure did think of Gunner and his survivalist friends who would be in
a heck of a lot better shape than us if this had continued for even
another day or two. And if this had been a real emergency (and the
news was lies to keep us from panicking, which also crossed my
mind)...


so the answer is some way to isolate them from each other without
shutting down everything. some network planner is going to get grey
hair...


Whatever triggered this, it was obviously a system problem on a large
scale. No single failure should have been able to cause this- at worst
a very limited area should have been isolated in blackout. An
*engineering* failure, for sure.

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty
is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
-- Ben Franklin