166 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
166 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
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ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD? IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM; ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD?
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3 Founded By: 3 : Network Information Access : 3 -Other World BBS 3
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3 Guardian Of Time 3D: 23OCT90 :D3 -Txt Files Only! 3
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3 Judge Dredd 3 : Judge Dredd : 3 See EOF if any ? 3
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@DDDDDDDDBDDDDDDDDDY : File 59 : @DDDDDDDDDBDDDDDDDDY
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3 HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM< 3
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3 IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM; 3
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@DDD6 Making the NOVA Program by Cliff Stoll GDDY
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: Service Outage in N. Illinois :
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HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
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Making the Nova program
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The first that I heard of Nova was May, 1989. The director,
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Robin Bates, asked if I might be interested in working with him
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on making a Nova program. I discouraged him: I was busy in
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astronomy and was also finishing writing a book.
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He again contacted me in September 1989 ... I agreed to work
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with him. There were several other productions being made
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around that time including Connie Chung/CBS and Yorkshire Television from
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Britain.
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Nova's intent was not to discuss the ethics of computing.
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Rather, the show was "a documentary based on a story by Cliff Stoll".
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It was not a docudrama version of my book, The Cuckoo's Egg.
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It was written by Robin Bates and although I had some opportunity
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to review/revise the script, the final show was the responsibility
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of WGBH TV.
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I volunteered to play myself in the show, as did everyone else,
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with the exception of the 4 cia spooks (they were played by some
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football coaches). It was filmed on location - at my old office
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in Berkeley, at my house in Oakland, and in Hannover, Germany.
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A few hours after I testified in Hess's espionage trial, they filmed
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the Hannover scenes. This was Jan - Feb, 1990.
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I ad-libbed my parts. Typically, the script would say one thing,
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but it didn't feel natural, was factually wrong, or made a stupid point.
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So I'd invent as I went along, without prompts.
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Sometimes, this led to tension with the director: typically, he
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wanted me to stay in one place and not move around so much.
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("Sit still! Don't move your hands! Don't twist your head!")
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Other times, he wanted unimportant things (like the shower scene
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or the cia spook scene) which, to me, conveyed little information.
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The entire production was shot on 16mm film,
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which meant that for most scenes, we did exactly one take.
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With video work, you can do 5 or 10 retakes of each scene.
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Film's more expensive: I didn't have that liberty.
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The part I'm most sensitive about is the last scene in the film.
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They took me to the forest where hacker Hagbard was found dead.
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I was moved by the solemnity of this place and event. The director
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suggested that I be more lighthearted, but I couldn't.
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On the whole, it was fun. All the same, being momentarily famous
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is much less enjoyable than you might imagine. Indeed, if I had it
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to do over again, I'd certainly do things very differently.
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>From Berkeley, my cheers & greetings to all!
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Cliff Stoll cliff@cfa.harvard.edu
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---
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Massive Service Outage In Northern Illinois (Oct 17, 1990)
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Michael Glodek must feel like a million dollars today. He's the
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landscaper who was building a new lawn for a home at 3521 Madison
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Avenue in Oak Brook, IL on Monday morning when his digging machine
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uprooted what Illinois Bell termed a 'very major, very important' part
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of their interoffice network covering northern Illinois.
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Glodek said, "I didn't do a JULIE because no one said there were any
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lines in the immediate vicinity." JULIE is the organization which
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keeps track of underground telephone and electric cables, plus water
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and gas pipelines in northern Illinois. A spokesperson for Illinois
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Bell retorted that "Every contractor is to do a JULIE before they
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start work, and he knew it as well as anyone..."
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Glodek said his machine 'snagged something down there', but he thought
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it must have been part of an old septic tank system which was common
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in that area many years ago ... so he decided to 'dig right in and
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root it out ...' and in the process he literally severed several
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thousand conversations then in progress on the fiber optic cable.
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Folks at IBT found out about it instantly, of course, but finding out
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*where* the problem was located was another matter. Some frantic
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employees of Illinois Bell set out in various directions looking for
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trouble. But as in May, 1988 after the Great Fire, their cellular
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phones were dead also, since the cable which had been cut served both
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Cellular One and Ameritech here. Using two-way radios, the employees
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began coordinating their search. Once the cut was located, two-way
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radios were used to bring many employees to the location in minutes.
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From about 9:30 AM Monday, when the cable was cut until more than
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twelve hours later, at 10:04 PM, Bell employees worked feverishly to
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restore service in what was described as the 'worst telephone outage
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in the area since May, 1988'. It took only about fifteen minutes to
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locate the cut and Mr. Glodek, who was still standing there wondering
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what to do next ...
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In terms of severity, the disruption in service knocked out all
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interoffice traffic between central offices in the 708 area code. Some
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re-routing of calls was possible, but like Hinsdale in May, 1988, the
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cut cable was so important and so strategic that very little could be
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done for the several hundred thousand subscribers in northern Illinois
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who were unable to place calls outside their local exchange all day.
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If you have a detailed map of northern Illinois, you will note the
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area involved: From Elk Grove on the north to Hinsdale on the south;
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from Oak Park on the east to St. Charles on the west ... all
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interoffice service was out, and much local service around Oak Brook
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was out. All cellular service throughout 312/708 was out, since both
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Cellular One and Ameritech have their offices in Schaumburg, right in
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the affected zone. Naturally many paging devices were out, since these
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are also operated by companies in the western suburbs.
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Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood lost all phone service
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for ten hours, until 8 PM Monday night. Illinois Bell was able to
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provide the hospital with a limited amount of cellular service and
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two-way radio service late in the morning.
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911 service was out everywhere for several hours. Police officers
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cruised the streets and used their radios to relay reports from
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citizens.
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Ohare Airport operated at one-third its normal schedule, since the
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control tower was totally cut off from the FAA Chicago Air Route
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Traffic Control Center in Aurora, IL.
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FAX machines and computers throughout the area were out of service,
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and several companies simply let their employees go home for the day.
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The abruptness of the cut, forcing thousands of calls off line all at
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the same time caused some major confusion for several minutes as
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Illinois Bell operators became deluged with requests to 'assist in
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dialing' numbers which not only did not answer, but simply returned
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dead silence to the caller. Once network re-routing got under way,
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limited as it was minutes after the problem was isolated, the burden
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on the operators became somewhat less, but Chicago (312) callers, who
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were never without operator service (lots of 708 people go over the
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cut cable to reach an operator) still bombarded the operators for
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several hours with requests for assistance in calling the suburbs.
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No one in 312 or 708 could reach the cellular companies to find out
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why their cell phones were dead ... much of the affected (708) area
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could not even reach the operator, repair service, directory or the
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business office.
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JUDGE DREDD/NIA
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Guardian Of Time
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Judge Dredd
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Ignorance, Theres No Excuse.
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For questions or comments write to:
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Internet: elisem@nuchat.sccsi.com
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..!uunet!nuchat!elisem
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Fidonet: 1:106/69.0
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[OTHER WORLD BBS]
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