Sun Storms May Affect Radios, Cell Phones Today 50
ABC News is one of various news outlets reporting that "Intense solar activity may affect Earth today, potentially disrupting radio and cell phone frequencies." (The Space Weather Prediction Center calls the likely effects minor, but it might be a good day to have an atlas packed in with the GPS.)
Always a great excuse (Score:5, Funny)
When working in IT, whenever I would encounter a weird networking problem that I couldn't immediately identify, I'd suggest maybe it had something to do with sunspot activity. This usually got the affected people scratching their heads long enough that I could concentrate on actually working on the problem instead of listening to them asking me what the problem was.
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Re:Always a great excuse (Score:5, Funny)
Internet.
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and the T stands for "inTernet"
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Things.
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I have a feeling I would get called out on that instantly and it would create even more questions, but then again most of the non-IT people I work with are engineers are and highly technical.
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Just because they're engineers and good at their specialty doesn't mean they're good with IT. Some are much better than the average user, but it's definitely more of an outlier and not the norm.
It all goes back to the "tell them what they need to know and more only if they can comprehend it" part of IT anyway.
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Sunspots affect more than just IT. If you said "sunspots are playing havoc with our network" to an electrical engineer, you'd probably give him a nervous breakdown.
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Then it actually IS sunspots that cause the system to fail...
Re:Always a great excuse (Score:5, Interesting)
I work in IT for a large cab company in California.
When I get to work in the morning. I log in, check server status, check status of 4 different radio sites, then I go to spaceweather.com to check sunspot activity.
With 300 Cabs running around with mobile radios and GPS there is just a lot that can go bad. Better to know.
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Have you ever had a geo-storm actually cause issues up in VHF (or are they UHF radios?)
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This explains why my WIFI signal was so shitty this morning.
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C'mon ... at least cite the original material. From BOFH #6 [ntk.net]:
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Could be worse.
Actually, that's likely to be a pretty good sign. If your boss reads and enjoys the Good Bastard, then it's likely that s/he has a functioning sense of humour. which is a good start.
Meanwhile ... I haven't read any Bastard for weeks, and I feel the need ...
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Did you used to work for the US Postal Service? When the USPS went to DHCP about 7 years ago, our DHCP pool ran out of addresses within a year. One day, I couldn't get get RIS to connect in order to install Windows. After a while, we released an address from a PC and it worked perfectly, and the other machine couldn't get an address again. Our system administrator had to call and the first thing out of the guy's mouth was about sunspots or solar flares. It was about all our SA could do not to blow his top!!
Atlas (Score:5, Funny)
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Maybe not all, but they do inform pilots who are flying across the poles -- the Earth's magnetic field deflects some space weather, but ends up concentrating the stuff at the poles (which is why the Northern/Southern Lights are strongest near the poles)
The result is that many pilots won't fly those routes, instead taking other routes which often require an extra stop for refueling, or reducing the amount of luggage (to be brought later).
So if you're planning on a trip that's to the other hemisphere, odds ar
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Maybe not all, but they do inform pilots who are flying across the poles -- the Earth's magnetic field deflects some space weather, but ends up concentrating the stuff at the poles (which is why the Northern/Southern Lights are strongest near the poles)
The result is that many pilots won't fly those routes, instead taking other routes which often require an extra stop for refueling, or reducing the amount of luggage (to be brought later).
So if you're planning on a trip that's to the other hemisphere, odds are, you're looking at delays and/or lost baggage.
Commercial pilots have little leeway over the routes they fly, so your statement that pilots avoid flying polar routes doesn't seem based on valid information. A better reason why polar routes aren't flown is because FAA rules require that planes never be further than a certain distance (referred to as ETOPS XXX, where XXX is the number of minutes flight time) from an airport where they can land in an emergency. Until Santa Claus opens up North Pole Field for international arrivals and departures, there j
You lost? (Score:5, Funny)
You need a damn GPS to find your way home now?
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Aroura Borealis? (Score:3)
My first thought is "I wonder if I should be on the lookout for a good Aurora Borealis tonight."
Being that I'm in New England, the only times in my life I've seent the "Northern Lights" have been subsequent to a strong CME / Solar flare like this. /gets camera ready just in case
Um...NO!! (Score:4, Informative)
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There was an earthward CME, but it packed no punch. Not many particles are making it.
Alert has been downgraded (Score:3, Insightful)
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No (Score:4, Funny)
Shouldn't that be an ORACLE storm...?
Thank you! (Score:2)
Thank you Captain Obvious!
I realize this is /., but really how is this news?
Solar storms can interfere with radio signals, who knew?
Oh, anyone who ever paid attention in middle school science class.
And this on a supposedly geek "newsite".
Sheesh!
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Are you trolling, or are you feeling pissy but are unsure of who to be angry at? The article was about current solar flares. The mention here is not to suggest that we don't know about solar flares, but to tell us that current solar flares are intense enough to be potentially disruptive.
Your rant is rather like going to wunderground and getting pissed that they're telling you it's going to snow today because we all know what snow is.
It's not true! (Score:2)
It's just millions of people calling us and saying that, yes they will help The Doctor.
Old News (Score:1)
Ham bone .. (Score:1)