Skype aftermath: Thriving with faulty technology

About a year ago, I was at a large civilian/military disaster technology demonstration exercise in San Diego. Starting with no power and no connectivity, the exercise swung into gear with a hook-up to a hybrid car. Over the course of a week, all sorts techie genius was on display, but the ideas that really impressed -- the ones that really worked -- were simple, durable and cheap. On Day One, when a much-touted software program designed to make it easier for aid organziations to collaborate ate up so much bandwidth, systems crashed, my invention of choice was clever little wind up flashlight with adapters for three of the most popular cell phone designs. I had visions being in the middle of a nowhere disaster, typing out 200-character missives, fliming flashlight-lit video reports shot with a flashlight-charged cell phone and winning a Pulitzer for sheer intrepid geekiness. Of course, all would be dependent on getting a signal out...

I think you're right, Janet. I was in Europe writing about the glorious future of cellular telephony--the lightning fast connections, the multimedia--and all around me people were pecking away simple text messages, each one as primitive as a telegraph, circa 1850. They went with what worked. I should have paid more attention.

Saw some pretty funny coverage of the Skype outage here: http://bub.blicio.us/?p=355