another teotwawki/shtf e-book

[hikerlt]

http://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-_Overclocked_-_When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth-A4.pdf

 

[Adam_MA]

Sorry, but that was about the worst piece of "writing" I have ever read.

A book based in Canada, about the end of the world, and the only people who are left are computer geeks, and they believe their number one priority is to keep the friggin internet up and running?

 

[Jaxon]

I realize this book was mainly for the IT folk, but it was really lame otherwise.

 

[dwarven1]

I didn't get much farther than this:

He stopped at the machine to get himself a guarana/medafonil power-bar

Yeesh.

 

[ZenShooter]

Guess it's a matter of taste. I really enjoyed this end-of-the-world story told from the vantage point of system administrators. Perhaps because I've been a sys-admin, or that I've lived in Toronto, it had a certain appeal. They don't decide, however, that keeping the Internet up was first priority for its own sake, but because it was the only source of news and information about what was happening outside their sealed building. In a similar situation, with a plague raging outside, I'd work to keep whatever news sources I had.

It may be overly technical, though, for those who haven't worked in the field. I mean, really, how many people know what IRC is, anyway?

 

[strangenh]

It may be overly technical, though, for those who haven't worked in the field. I mean, really, how many people know what IRC is, anyway?

Who needs IRC anyhow? I'm not even sure I like the sound of it. Probably we should just ban it outright, then it wouldn't be a priority at TEOTWAWKI. I mean, it's that thing that goes up, right?

 

[Adam_MA]

Well, I'm an IT geek, and there was no appeal to this at all. They wanted to keep the net up, for info, but yet they were getting little to none of it, instead, they were holding an election to see who would be "prime minister" of the damn internet??? Yeah real great use of your resources there people. They were keeping all their systems up, thus limiting the run time of their generator, instead of seeing what they could get for info, then make their decision to wait for their couple of days to go outside. Then in the end, they started to produce bio-deisl, and were using it to power the generator, to keep the internet up? The people in this story would NOT survive, they don't have the skill, or the will to make that happen.

 

[mg42doc]

what the hell is a guarana/medafonil power-bar?

 

[TimJ]

what the hell is a guarana/medafonil power-bar?

[hippy/New ager]Like, it's got hemp in it, maaaan. it's good for you....[/hippy/New Ager]

 

[ZenShooter]

Well, I'm an IT geek, and there was no appeal to this at all. They wanted to keep the net up, for info, but yet they were getting little to none of it, instead, they were holding an election to see who would be "prime minister" of the damn internet??? Yeah real great use of your resources there people.

I understand your point, and why it might not appeal to you, but I think I enjoyed the story not because it is a good example of survival in a SHTF situation. It isn't that, by a long shot. It's a story of a group of sysadmins, who seem to have little or no social life or emotional maturity, and for whom the entire world is the Internet and gaming. Pretty much what you might find working in an major Internet hub building, like the one described. The story isn't about how they survived, but how the end of the world looks from their perspective.

YMMV, but when I worked in the industry, I met far too many people who could easily be these folks, electing a Prime Minister of the Internet while millions died outside the building.