Presidential Inauguration Hardware and Other Challenges 176
holy_calamity writes "The FBI has released images of some of the kit that will be deployed to safeguard Obama's inauguration, including mine-proof armored trucks like those used in Iraq to protect against IEDs, and a large armored chamber that any bombs will be shoved inside to be transported away and perhaps detonated inside. Interesting, even though the really good stuff is presumably being kept under wraps." Relatedly, necro81 writes "The Inauguration of Barack Obama tomorrow is expected to put considerable stress on the cellphone network around Washington, DC. The expected crowd could top two million people, and many of them are expected to call, text, tweet, photo, and blog their way through the event. In response, the major wireless carriers in the area have spent millions of dollars upgrading their local networks and will bring in extra 'cells on wheels' (COWs) and 'cells on light trucks' (COLTs). They are also requesting that attendees limit their usage during the event, and avoid bandwidth-heavy activities — like uploading photos — until afterward."
COWs and COLTs (Score:5, Funny)
I'm in DC and not going (Score:5, Funny)
But I'm going to try to use up some bandwidth anyway, you know, just to make visitors' lives a little less fun.
Re:Twitter is screwed. (Score:5, Funny)
Expect the service to be down most of the day imo.
That's change I can believe in.
Sadly, that's about all I can look forward too but that's another discussion alltogether. :)
That's so nice.. (Score:3, Funny)
It's so nice that the picture inside the mobile command center has a split screen monitor with the food network, themselves, days of our lives, and The Care Bears.
How cute.
Care Bears? (Score:4, Funny)
Note the Care Bears on the monitor in the mobile command center in photo 8 [newscientist.com]. Gives me the chuckles. :)
Re:Yeah (Score:1, Funny)
Does serving torrents off my phone count?
Re:911 (Score:1, Funny)
Anyone want to watch one of those expensive cell-towers on a truck burst into flames?
THAT IS NOT HOW CELLPHONE TOWERS WORK! GOODNIGHT!
Re:COWs and COLTs (Score:5, Funny)
And I gotta tell you: fellas.. you have got what appears to be a dynamite inauguration! I'll be honest.. fellas, it was communicating great. But.. I could've used a little more Bell COWs!
Re:This "coronation" stuff is overdone (Score:4, Funny)
And nothing of value was lost....
Re:Yeah (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps I'm showing my age, but I don't understand the appeal of texting. First off, emailing is free so there's no point paying for a text. And second, I'd rather HEAR the person I'm communicating with. The cost is only 18 cents a minute, and you can communicate far more information with that 18 cents of talking than with a 5 cent text.
Another disconnect is the fuss about downtime.
So what? When I was growing-up, we didn't just lose our cellphones; we lost our electricity! A blizzard comes through; goodbye electricity. A tropical storm tears down the line; goodbye electricity. One time the lightning followed the line from the street, into the barn, killed one of the horses, and then turned half our electric fence into ash. ----- So based upon those experiences, not being able to sending a photo wirelessly seems incredibly trivial. At least you don't need to fear freezing to death or having barbecued horse to clean up.
Re:This "coronation" stuff is overdone (Score:3, Funny)
Obama's first act is to shut down DC for two days? Truly, our saviour is here! ;)
Missing Moderator option (Score:2, Funny)
Re:You can't stop a determined assassin, period. (Score:2, Funny)