Michael Jackson rushed to hospital

[AGDee]

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

So...when all is said and done...do any of you folks are we better prepared to get big event news like that or are we still lagging?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

So...when all is said and done...do any of you folks are we better prepared to get big event news like that or are we still lagging?

Like Munchkin03 said, I think the concept of needing to "upgrade" the internet just for an out of the blue event is silly. The reason people hit the net so hard is because things were being reported before they were confirmed.

In case of a true national emergency, like 9/11, the Emergency Alert System still exists on TV and radio. Michael's death is not an emergency.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by 33girl

In case of a true national emergency, like 9/11, the Emergency Alert System still exists on TV and radio. Michael's death is not an emergency.

Yes it was....how are we to survive without hearing about the latest celeb antics?

If my iPhone cannot tell me what's going on in Hollywood within seconds after it happens...then we are all going to DIE.

Radio?

What's that?

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

The net did slow to a crawl on 9/11. Sites like CNN were not accessible due to the huge traffic. I had a co-worker come to my desk and ask if I could get the local news radio station in from my cubicle because she saw on CNN that a plane hit the WTC but then CNN went down. I turned on the radio minutes before the second plane hit. That news was spread in most places very quickly. I imagine if you were sitting in a classroom, you wouldn't have heard until that class was over, back then. Now, with smartphones and wi-fi everywhere, you'd probably have heard it within 10 minutes.

That was my experience - once word got out early that one of the planes had gone through Boston (where I was going to college at Boston U), the word started spreading pretty quickly. The fact that there was no cell phone service in the city slowed down the spread of info a bit, but that was probably outweighed by the fact that so many BU students were from NYC.

To be honest, I don't remember even checking the net about it that day, because so many people were talking about it on campus, and because there were televisions all over campus tuned in to the news stations.