Whatever you do - Don't panic...
You’ve been hearing about it for a while now, but the time is has finally come for the first nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) test.
It is scheduled for November 9th, 2011 at 2pm Eastern and will last a few minutes.
You can get the full scoop on this event on the FCC site.
Of course, many conspiracy theorists can give you other reasons for the test, my favorite of which is that the Government is testing their ability to control of all media outlets, even phone lines, cell phones, and the internet itself. (As has been done in other countries).
The following letter comes from Charter, and while their email distribution from them is normally marked with a non-disclosure, this one was specifically authorized FOR distribution:
INTERNAL NEWS ALERT
Re: Charter to Participate in First Ever Nationwide EAS Test
This Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 2:00pm EST, a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will be conducted. Similar to local EAS tests conducted on a regular basis in our area, the national test will also include all broadcast TV stations, radio stations and video providers, including cable and satellite operators at the same time. As a result, all Charter systems nationwide will be participating in the test.
However…unlike the local EAS tests that usually last approximately 30 seconds, the nationwide test may last up to three and a half minutes.
This national EAS test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS), the three federal agencies that have EAS management responsibilities.
Although the EAS has been in existence for over 15 years, there has never been an end-to-end, nationwide test of the system. The nationwide test is being conducted to verify the reliability of the EAS system and its effectiveness in alerting the public on a national scale.
The upcoming national test is critical to ensuring that the EAS works as designed. As recent disasters here at home and in Japan have reminded us, a reliable and effective emergency alert and warning system is key to ensuring the public’s safety during times of emergency.
Charter is currently in the process of preparing for the national test on November 9. We are providing a message to our customers in their bill statement (see below), and will utilize Weather Channel crawls, DCT messaging, .com and .net posts and cross channel TV commercials to provide our customers with awareness of the test. We will also be training our customer care team to effectively manage any increase in the number of calls we receive as a result of the test.
OCTOBER CUSTOMER STATEMENT MESSAGE:
The first nationwide test of the U.S. Emergency Alert System will occur at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on November 9, 2011, and it will interrupt programming on all channels from all service providers for a few minutes. Visit www.fcc.gov/pshs for more information.
The WHO (no, not the band, but the World Health Organization) has stated that your cell phone emits electromagnetic fields that are “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
The chair for the workgroup of the WHO, Jonathan Samet, MD, from the University of Southern California stated, “evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification.” and that “The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer risk.”.
I guess that means that our overly-connected society is at risk, in general!
How long until heath insurance companies raise the rates of those who own cell phones?
Most of you probably wonder why Homeland Secure IT doesn’t advertise… Or maybe since you have never seen any kind of ad, you haven’t thought about it at all! hah
The number one reason we don’t advertise is because we have a very strong & established base of amazing clients and so many terrific friends and family who believe in us so much that they do an incredible job of spreading the word of what we offer! That’s the main reason. There are other reasons, such as the fact that I don’t believe the majority of people who want to buy a Cisco ASA 5505 security appliance or license Trend Micro Anti-Virus are going to pick up the newspaper or phonebook to find us.
I know for a fact that the IT people that we work around don’t get the idea to get a backup solution from listening to top 40 radio, etc. So, in short, advertising in those ways has not been very attractive for us.
But, I couldn’t pass this one up… @BigJonEvans is available for rent. That’s right. This crazy guy over at http://www.youbrand.me/ is allowing us to tattoo our logo on his forehead for a day, as well as streaming a live video where he will discuss some of our products and services, and making a short promo video. But wait, that’s not all, he’s also going to introduce himself as “Homeland Secure IT” for an entire day. And, because we acted right now, he’s throwing in a video of him lip syncing to a song!
I can’t afford a billboard on I-85 that says “Homeland Secure IT offers computer, network and server support, service, repair, sales in Greenville and Upstate SC”, etc, and frankly I don’t think the system administrator at XYZ corporation would read it and give it a serious thought, but I CAN afford Jon’s forehead for a day! While not quite as big as a billboard, I think more people may see it!
All for the low price of 9 dollars! Now that is advertising money well spent. Advertising with an impact! (The price goes up one dollar each day, so reserve your spot NOW)
Tomorrow, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY! That’s the day you can watch @BigJonEvans talk about Homeland Secure IT and wear our logo. For more information, HEAD on over to Jon’s website at www.YouBrand.Me or follow him on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.
If you have a business or cause or something that you would like the world to know about, this is certainly a fun way to increase awareness =)
Have a great weekend and prepare for the snowpacalypse that is coming!
Oh and Jon, I love your current project… That’s using your head!
Last night’s storms in Greenville played havoc with the sensitive computers, servers, network equipment, CCTV systems, VoIP systems and even alarm systems!
At 10pm we received a call from the alarm monitoring company saying that we had multiple zones activated at my wife’s business, including a door, and several interior motion sensors! Police were dispatched, and Pamela and I rushed out the door headed towards her office with flashlight and firearm at the ready. We actually beat the police to that location due to the large number of calls they were receiving due to power outages and lightning strikes in that area.
It was immediately apparent that we had a false alarm… Thankfully, nobody was arrested or shot, and in fact, the only casualty was the alarm system sensors that were damaged by the strike. The power had been off all around that location, and computers, servers, and more were offline.
After the storm died down and morning came we were greeted with calls from our clients. As you can imagine, computers were down and would not come up, servers were down, a lot of network connectivity issues such as no internet access, no access to application servers, etc. Most of these were solved over the phone, but a couple required visits to the sites.
Thought I would just take a moment to remind everyone that a large number of service calls and computer repairs can be avoided by simply investing in adequate UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) devices. These affordable products can be used to protect almost everything you plug into AC power. Those switches, routers, firewalls? Protect them! What about your time clock? Yes, that too. How about that expensive CCTV or VoIP system? Yewbetcha!
Small surges that come in on the power line can cause big damage to sensitive electronics!
Homeland Secure IT is happy to partner with some great power protection companies such as Eaton and APC and we can provide you with a quote for the proper product for your application! Please email info@homelandsecureit.com or call 864.990.4748 for more information…
Today I was on Hwy 153 on my way in to work, and as I approached a traffic signal that had changed to red, I slowed from 50 or so to around 25-30 with the traffic in front of me, and as I glanced in my rear view mirror, I saw a car coming up on me from behind at a high rate of speed.
Having been the “sandwich car” in my last accident (about 1988 maybe?) where a car hit me from behind and pushed me into the car in front of me, I knew I didn’t want that again, so made the choice to move farther over to the right, hoping the car would miss me and have time to stop before hitting the vehicle in front of me. It didn’t happen like that, instead, the car came over slightly to the right, and managed to hit the right two foot of their bumper on the left two foot of mine, and that resulted in pushing my car to the right, where I impacted with the guardrail (I think she pushed me maybe 30 ft???).
Interesting things happen when you get hit. First of all, all the papers and stuff that were on my sun-visor, and the change and business cards that were in my ashtray, that all flew out and I was hit in the face with quarters and papers. The next thing to happen was all the stuff in my front passenger seat and back seats flew forward as I hit the guardrail and came to a stop… My camera case (Nikon D70S and lenses) flew OVER the seat and into the front floorboard from the back seat. Ham radio transceivers flew (an ICOM IC 7000 broke loose from its Velcro mounting and hit the back of the rear seats, Alinco DR135TP flew into the floorboard from the back seat, and a Yeasu HT flew into the floorboard)… Its really quite amazing how much moved in the car…
As far as me… I think I’m okay. Starting to get very sore, and kinda shook up still, tomorrow will be the real test, but I should have the weekend to recover before starting back to work! So that is the blessing of the day! The driver of the other car is fine too, shaken but not stirred. She didn’t really know what happened. A witness stated she was speeding up (maybe 50-55? faster?) and she watched it all unfold, and was the first to call 911. The driver was fasting for blood work, and probably had low blood sugar or something and just zoned out. Very nice lady, and so was her husband that showed up to help out. The witness stuck around and comforted the driver of the vehicle that struck me, until she calmed down. That was very sweet as well. And then my wife came to the scene to make sure I was okay! The police took an hour and a half or so to get there due to other accidents.
Now I have to go through the ordeal to get the car fixed. It’s not too bad I don’t think. Have not spent much time looking at it. Rear deck is tweaked, rear bumper and supports damaged, tail light on driver’s side, some scratches on the left rear quarter, the exhaust looks like it is hanging down on that side, and the front and rear passenger side doors have creases in them from the guardrail. The driver’s side seat is bent, or maybe the supports as it is leaning at an angle, and the gearshift (auto transmission) is difficult to move. It is also pulling to the right and feels like a tire is out of balance. I think that covers it. I hate that this car has been damaged, I actually love it… A 2004 Mazda 6 Sport Wagon… V6.. sweet ride… Or at least it was. Thank God it was only the material things that seem to be hurt.
You still reading this? Sheesh you must be bored. Get back to work.
An article on NetworkWorld.com made me chuckle today… Apparently the Bad Guys are now using Radio Direction Finding (RDF) to locate hidden notebooks because their 802.11* wireless was enabled.
It seems amazing to me that it has taken this long for anyone to realize that if a ntoebook or any other device is “wireless”, that it is transmitting a signal, which can be located. RDF is actually a sport and ham radio operators have been doing it for years… We use high gain, directional homemade and sometimes professionally made antennas, receivers and sometimes doppler systems to zero in on a hidden transmitter. This is called “foxhunting” in the USA for the casual participant.
The original article can be found here: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030210-wifi-finders.html?hpg1=bn
A friend posted this YouTube video on a County Hunter forum. I found it very well done and thought I would share. This is a demonstration of a Yagi beam antenna and shows how adding a reflector and directors to a driven element increases the signal strength in front of the antenna by focusing the power bounced off the reflector and through the “director” element/s.
Today I spent about an hour or more showing Scott what an Amiga A-4000T is all about. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any disks with me to show him the awesome 80s & 90s graphics. Nor did I get it online to show him what that machine was used for.
What was it used for? I’m glad you asked! It was used to run Amiga Connection (AmiCon.Net) BBS for years and years. At the time that I pulled the plug on it about 2005, it was likely the oldest CNet Amiga BBS still online. I hope to be bringing it online again in the coming weeks, and let it live out its life serving up those wonderful ascii/ansi graphics via a telnet connection. Don’t worry, I will announce the grand re-opening because I know you want to see messages and uploads that posted 10 years ago.
AmiCon has over 800 registered members still that have not been weeded out (I turned off the “weed” for inactive users to preserve the database). Some awesome people used this board over the years, maybe they are still alive?
While I’m on the subject of forgotten technology, what about IRC? It’s around still, in fact, there are thousands of IRC servers and if you log onto some of the larger networks, you will find thousands of people online, however, if you ask 100 people if they know what it is, a dozen will have heard of it, one might still use it. I still run an IRC server at irc.SuperHosts.Net, which was part of the irc.ExodusIRC.Net network until we lost all the other people. Want to join in the fun? No problem, shoot me an email, I’ll tell you all about it… IRC is actually pretty fun. You can find live discussions going on just about any time of the day, in any language, and on any subject.
Maybe I should leave out my OTHER forgotten technology…. Ham Radio… Uhmm yeah, I still use that too!
