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Old 09-03-2017, 08:56 PM   #30786
DMcCunney
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin View Post
Imagine what would happen if a solar kill shot or an EMP attack took out the whole grid.
I would prefer not to. That sort of thing is a popular apocalyptic gimmick in SF novels (especially EMP bursts), and there are all sort of books with survivalists trying to cope. Cory Doctorow wrote a short piece called "When Sysadmins Ruled the World" where various bio-warfare events left the grid at least somewhat up and running, but killed off most human beings that didn't happen to be inside in places like data centers.

My comment on things like that is "If something happens that is capable of taking out all of Google, not being able to get to a website is the least of your problems..."

I had quite enough fun coping with a localized power failure affecting a few thousand customers in a comparatively limited area.

(I also have fond memories of the great Northeast power blackout. I was at least able to gracefully shut down servers in the computer room at my then employer. And the land line phone had its own power supply separate from the grid, so I could keep ion touch with HQ, know when the power was restored in my area, and go down to the office to bring things back up again.)
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Dennis
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