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[Author unknown] "Computer Network Weathers Big Jolt: Date: Wed, 19 Jan 94 10:43:20 EST For those who didn't know and are curious, the following was carried by the Associated Press yesterday or the day before. Forwarded Message Computer Network Weathers Big Jolt Internet Users Swap News, Worries After Quake Hits Faster than a 9600 baud modem, the global computer network buzzed into action after the ground stopped shaking Monday in Southern California. And the system held up, even though the quake knocked out at least one main link. Within 20 minutes of the predawn earthquake, electronic messages flew on the Internet as computer users in the quake area described the destruction and people elsewhere asked about the fate of loved ones. One man typed simply: "It was a hell of a ride." A plea from Tobias Koehler in Denmark went out shortly after the quake hit. "Hi there. Is everything OK in Ventura, California? My sister just went there for the first time." In an electronic version of a ham radio network, some computer users in various parts of the country offered to relay messages to people in their areas from relatives and friends who couldn't make long-distance phone calls from the quake zone. Computer users connect to the Internet at universities or their jobs or by subscribing to one of a growing number of commercial services that give access to the network. Users can send electronic mail - e-mail - back and forth or "chat" with large numbers of users at one time. As many as 50 people at a time were logged into an International Relay Chat channel "Earthquake," set up by a user less than an hour after the bolt. It works like a party line, with each participant's comments scrolling down the screen, like the lines of a play. One man logged on using the nickname "KNBC" and relayed details of television converage from the NBC-TV affiliate in Los Angeles. Another provided radio reports. Others in Los Angeles simply described what they saw themselves. A sampler: * "5 confirmed deaths, 4 heart attacks and 1 motorcycycle cop." The "Earthquake" channel quickly became the designated news channel. A secondary chat was set up, called "Quakechat," for people to discuss what was happening. Some Internet users set up a news group - a semipermanent bulletin board for news items, comments and firsthand accounts - within 20 minutes of the quake. The Internet originally was built in the 1970s as a military communications network that could survive a nuclear attack. It worked well Monday, even though a major node, or switching point, at UCLA was knocked out, as were nodes at several other universities in the area. The network automatically reroutes messages to minimize the effect of damages to any individual node. One commercial computer bulletin-board service, Prodigy, set up a free bulletin board called "LA EARTHQUAKE" and reported that 500 messages were posted on it within the first few hours. Prodigy created a similar bulletin board after the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. Computer users with Internet access can connect to the International Relay Chat by loggin on to the network and typing "IRC" and then "earthquake" or "quakechat" (without the quotation marks_. The address for the earthquake news group is "alt.current-events.la-quake" (again, without the quotation marks). |