What Would You Be Doing?

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Then perhaps legislated requirements are different there then...
Over here it's the law.

Raketenjagdpanzer is telling the truth, unfortunately. Most electronic locks that you'll find here in the U.S. are in fact designed to switch open in case of a power blackout, but certain electronic locks that are use to restrict, how shall we say, extremely sensitive information and/or equipment work differently. Once power is lost, nothing short of C4 is going to bust that lock open, depending on how well reinforced that lock and whatever door or gate it's attached to of course.

That said, I'd hate to know what kind of "datacenter" Raketenjagdpanzer works in.

[Legbreaker]

Sounds like a recipe for lawsuits....

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Sounds like a recipe for lawsuits....

Not necessarily. Though you may possibly die an agonizing death from Halon exposure, the United States of America will appreciate your sacrifice knowing that critical data and equipment has been kept secure.

(please note I'm being sarcastic)

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

Raketenjagdpanzer is telling the truth, unfortunately. Most electronic locks that you'll find here in the U.S. are in fact designed to switch open in case of a power blackout, but certain electronic locks that are use to restrict, how shall we say, extremely sensitive information and/or equipment work differently. Once power is lost, nothing short of C4 is going to bust that lock open, depending on how well reinforced that lock and whatever door or gate it's attached to of course.

That said, I'd hate to know what kind of "datacenter" Raketenjagdpanzer works in.

I worked for a company that shall remain nameless. However, while it was a private company, we had systems that were tied in to the Federal Reserve and Visa/MasterCard International, and we were the largest processor of electronic funds (ATM/Point-of-sale/Debit/EFT) transactions on the east side of the Mississippi. Then once we merged with our west coast counterpart, for a brief period (before the company was bought and broken up by two different companies) we were the largest EFT in North and South America, for about a year and change.

Nearly twenty years prior to "If you see something, say something" part of our employee training was "Don't tell anyone what exactly you do at work. If you let it slip, and if someone approaches you about committing card fraud or asks you to breach customer data, call the FBI."

Yes, our data was pretty important.

(And incidentally, no, in response to you guys and to virtually everyone who ever asked me we were not responsible for $1 and $2 ATM fees - the independent ATM franchisers and banks were, our company took $.0075 (three quarters of a penny) for every transaction we processed. When we tried to make it a penny our customers (banks) screamed bloody murder; you'd have thought we'd gone Manson Family Helter Skelter on them.)

Anyway.

The electronic/electromagnetic locks in the first datacenter we worked at were always doing flaky shit, but it never involved not locking. Sometimes the combo system would fail (thank you for crashing, Windows NT3.51 machine under the raised floor), sometimes the locks wouldn't release despite showing a good card read...I can only imagine that an EMP induced blackout would produce hilarious results - including some in the fire suppression systems. I remember one day seeing one of the IBM support guys - dude must have weighed 500lbs - come running out of one of the glassed-in CPU rooms. On that raised floor it was just like...GBOOM-GBOOM-GBOOM! Yelling OUT OUT EVERYBODY OUT HALON SYSTEM KICKED ON OUT EVERYBODY! Turns out the valve just purged itself of ullage, like...one puff...due to a chronically leaky o-ring (that's what the report from the company that managed the fire system said).

But this was ages and ages ago. And ages and ages. I left that job in October of 2001 to go work for the Army (not be in the army; I was 31 then, hardly 11b material)...that's another sad story for another time, I think...

Anyway anyway, yes, I'd have made it out and as there was a pretty clear view to the west, I'd have seen Macdill AFB and most of southern Tampa (and Patrick AFB & KSC to the east) rising up as a column of smoke and ash, tried to start my car, then walked/run home as best I could make it and...well...you know. Assuming the fallout foot-print didn't sprinkle Orlando, probably spent about a week in utter terror, assuming I and my wife (g/f at the time) didn't get killed by looters in the next couple of weeks, we'd probably have slowly starved to death over a few months, or died of something that the day before Thanksgiving would have been viewed as a minor nothing (influenza, toothache, etc.) I don't have any really applicable "survival skills" and right now my "go plan" involves a few boxes of MREs and bottled water, a generator, propane to keep it running a few days and other sundry goods all "hurricane ready" folks in FL have - but that's now, didn't have that in 1997.

God this is getting depressing.

[Cdnwolf]

1997 Year in Review

January
Bill Clinton, the President of the United States, began his second term on January 20January 17 – A Delta II rocket carrying a military GPS payload explodes, shortly after liftoff from Cape Canaveral.
January 20 – U.S. President Bill Clinton is inaugurated for his second term.
January 22 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State, after confirmation by the United States Senate.
January 23 – Mir Aimal Kasi is sentenced to death for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed 2 and wounded 3.
January 26 – Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers win the NFL Championship for the first time since 1967, defeating the New England Patriots 35–21 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.
February 10 – The United States Army suspends Gene C. McKinney, Sergeant Major of the Army, its top-ranking enlisted soldier, after hearing allegations of sexual misconduct.
February 13 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 7,000 for the first time, gaining 60.81 to 7,022.44.
February 13 – STS-82: Tune-up and repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope is started by astronauts from Space Shuttle Discovery.
February 28 - FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia
February 28 – The North Hollywood shootout takes place between 2 heavily armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department.
March 4 – U.S. President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
March 9 – Rapper The Notorious B.I.G. is killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
March 13 – The Phoenix Lights are seen over Phoenix, Arizona.
March 24 – The 69th Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal, are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, with The English Patient winning Best Picture.
March 26 – In San Diego, California, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.
April 16 – Houston, Texas socialite Doris Angleton is murdered in her River Oaks home. Roger Angleton later admits to the crime in his suicide note. Despite being found innocent of the crime by a Texas jury, he is later arrested by the United States Department of Justice on similar charges.
April 18 – The Red River of the North breaks through dikes and floods Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, causing US$ 2 billion in damage.
May 2 – The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
May 15 – The United States government acknowledges existence of the "Secret War" in Laos, and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
May 16 – U.S. President Bill Clinton issues a formal apology to the surviving victims of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and their families.
May 22 – Kelly Flinn, the U.S. Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
May 25 – Strom Thurmond becomes the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months).
May 27 – The second-deadliest tornado of the 1990s hits in Jarrell, Texas, killing 27 people.
June 2 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
June 6 – In Lacey Township, New Jersey, high school senior Melissa Drexler kills her newborn baby in a toilet.
June 7 – A computer user known as "_eci" publishes his Microsoft C source code on a Windows 95 and Windows NT exploit, which later becomes WinNuke. The source code gets wide distribution across the internet, and Microsoft is forced to release a security patch.
June 7 – The Detroit Red Wings win their first Stanley Cup championship in 42 years, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4 games to 0. Red Wings goaltender Mike Vernon is awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.
June 8 – A United States Coast Guard helicopter crashes near Humboldt Bay, California; all 4 crewmembers perish.
June 12 – The United States Department of the Treasury unveils a new $50 bill, meant to be more difficult to counterfeit.
June 13 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
June 19 – The fast food chain McDonald's wins a partial victory in its libel trial, known as the McLibel case, against 2 environmental campaigners. The judge decides it was true that McDonald's targeted its advertising at children, who pestered their parents into visiting the company's restaurants.

July 21: USS Constitution under sailJuly 4 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
July 15 – Spree killer Andrew Cunanan shoots fashion designer Gianni Versace to death outside Versace's Miami, Florida residence.
July 16 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 63.17 to close at 8,038.88. It is the Dow's first close above 8,000. The Dow has doubled its value in 30 months.
July 21 – The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
July 23 – Digital Equipment Corporation files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.
August 1 – Steve Jobs returns to Apple Computer, Inc at Macworld in Boston.
August 6 – Microsoft buys a $150 million share of financially troubled Apple Computer.
September 4 – In Lorain, Ohio, the last Ford Thunderbird for 3 years rolls off the assembly line.
October 1 – Luke Woodham walks into Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi and opens fire, killing 2 girls, after killing his mother earlier that morning.
October 4 – One million men gather for Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gap" event in Washington, DC.
October 4 – Loomis Fargo Bank Robbery: The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history ($17.3 million, mostly in small bills) occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Wells Fargo. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the stolen cash.
October 15 – Andy Green sets the first supersonic land speed record for the ThrustSSC team, led by Richard Noble of the UK. ThrustSSC goes through the flying mile course at Black Rock Desert, Nevada at an average speed of 1,227.985 km/h (763.035 mph).
October 15 – NASA launches the Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn.
October 16 – The first color photograph appears on the front page of the New York Times.
October 26 – 1997 World Series: The Florida Marlins defeat the Cleveland Indians.
October 27 – Stock markets around the world crash because of a global economic crisis scare. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15. The points loss exceeds the loss from Black Monday. Officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoke the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading.
October 28 – In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 points, closing at 7,498.32. One billion shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time ever.
October 30 – In Newton, Massachusetts, British au pair Louise Woodward is found guilty of the baby-shaking death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.
November 12: Ramzi Yousef guilty of planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
November 10 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in U.S. history).
November 10 – A Fairfax, Virginia jury finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of murdering 2 CIA employees in 1993.
November 12 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
November 19 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all 7 babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.
November 27 – NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is launched, the start of the satellite component of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.
December 3 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines. However, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty.
December 19 – James Cameron's Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar (2009), premiers in the US.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

November 12: Ramzi Yousef guilty of planning the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
November 10 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom (the largest merger in U.S. history).
November 10 – A Fairfax, Virginia jury finds Mir Aimal Kasi guilty of murdering 2 CIA employees in 1993.
November 12 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
November 19 – In Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all 7 babies are born alive, and the first in which all survive infancy.
November 27 – NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is launched, the start of the satellite component of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System.
December 3 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines. However, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty.
December 19 – James Cameron's Titanic, the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar (2009), premiers in the US.

Ignoring the effects the war would have had on earlier events, these we can be sure wouldn't have happened at all (except perhaps the septuplets).
And for what it's worth, I'd have been happy to go through a global nuclear attack, if only to avoid having to watch Titanic!!!