Phil Landmeier @shuttersparks@qoto.org

This morning, I took my wife to the hospital for routine blood tests that had been scheduled for some time. Everything was going smoothly: check-in, number, waiting room. Suddenly, everything came to a halt and shut down. I was connected to the hospital’s public Wi-Fi and noticed that my connection also went down.

Having managed a couple of similar facilities, I immediately understood what had happened. I saw the staff panicking and calling the technicians, but they quickly reorganized within 10 minutes. They managed to process everyone who already had a number and then proceeded with the others in the order of their arrival. Despite the ten-minute delay (even though people started complaining right away), they were extremely efficient.

I later confirmed that the entire booking, check-in, and queue system is “in the cloud.” The hospital experienced a connectivity interruption, and all related services stopped. The staff no longer had access to anything, so a technician sent the lists to a manager via another channel, and everything resumed manually.

For years, I’ve insisted that certain things MUST be local. The healthcare facilities I manage have all the necessary systems for the operation of the facility internally, including patient records. External services like websites, emails, etc., are secondary.

Everything essential must always be accessible locally and, in special cases, it should be possible to physically access the servers and connect directly to them, bypassing any network/switch failures.

There has been only one interruption in the past, due to human error. Today, we have redundant servers (not HA on virtualizers, but two machines running the same software with replicated databases - on separate power lines) so such an issue shouldn’t happen anymore.

Not everything can be anticipated, but history is a great teacher. The Internet connection will eventually be interrupted :-)

When it comes to the health and survival of people, there are no compromises.

#IT #Internet #Networking #Outage #Health #HA #Cloud #CloudComputing

"Trump Again Disgraces a Sacred American Space

It takes a unique kind of vulgarity to bring a 9/11 “truther” to events marking the anniversary of the September 11 attacks."

https://archive.ph/o7tlu#selection-691.0-697.124

A series of new polls reinforce Republican support for Trump’s authoritarian impulses — including that a quarter think he should simply seize power if he loses. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/10/quarter-republicans-think-trump-should-seize-power-even-if-he-loses/

If you’re black and poor in America, the cops will shoot you in the face if you fall asleep in your car.

If you’re white and rich in America, the cops will endorse you for president even if you get convicted of rape & fraud, and try to overthrow the government.

When the Morinville News once reported on a young girl of 8 years old being struck on a crosswalk by a minivan, and put into ICU. The article noted that "the driver was checked over and is fine".
I thought that was weird, as what sort of injury could the driver of a >6,000 lbs automobile obtain from running into a <50 lbs girl?
Well, I was told by Morinville residents that "The girl is in the hospital and will be fine, but the driver will have to live with this trauma for the rest of his life".

ICYMI, #Maddow last night on Trump, L'il Kim, dictators. Here's what I could dig up:

https://youtu.be/jK3wAj_1E3A

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-trump-admiration-for-dictators-reflects-shared-goal-of-power-control-218961477503

Via Angry Staffer:

I find myself thinking about GOP hypocrisy today.

When Obama met the Emperor and Empress of Japan (our ally), he bowed respectfully. Conservative media called the act treasonous.

When #Trump met a North Korean general, he saluted him. Conservative media? Crickets.

The ECJ is expected to announce two major rulings today regarding Apple and Google. In both cases, the EU Commission is seeking billions of euros in fines. The tech companies have appealed.

In the case of Google, the fine is €2.4 bn. Google is accused of abusing its market power by giving Google Shopping a higher ranking in search results than its competitors.

In the case of Apple, the fine is €13 bn. According to the EU Commission, Apple benefited from illegal tax breaks in Ireland for years.

Fugelsang for the win!

I tooted about this some hours ago. #MeidasTouchNetwork

"None of the outlets even acknowledged that they had been sent the internal documents until after the Trump campaign publicized that it had been hacked by the Iranian government. ...

This is a much different approach than the Washington Post took after hackers connected to the Russian government leaked internal emails from Clinton campaign officials and the Democratic National Committee (DNC)."

#KamalaHarris #Trump #Democrats #Republicans #media #WashingtonPost #Politico #NewYorkTimes
/2

US charges #WhiteSupremacist #gangsters w/trying to #incite Race-War

Prosecutors unveiled #criminal charges on Mon against 2 leaders of a white supremacist gang, accusing them of soliciting attacks on #Black, #Jewish, #LGBTQ people & #immigrants in hopes of inciting a #RaceWar.

#law
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-charges-alleged-white-supremacist-gangsters-with-trying-incite-race-war-2024-09-09/