Re: Nine eleven
I was sitting at my desk at Sun on Fabian Avenue in Palo Alto. The network alarms for equipment on top of the North Tower had started shrieking (sonalerts) a little over an hour earlier. I already knew that an airliner had hit WTC 1 ... Time was compressing for me, so my personal time-sense doesn't track the actual time of events.
I was talking to a compadre in the Sun offices in WTC 2 over a private line[0] about the problem (Sun had offices on floors 25 and 26). He said "What the fu ...", and the line went dead. Simultaneously, my network started shrieking again as the alarms went off. I hit the "kill the noise" button again & eyeballed the network ... only to discover that I could no longer see any of the equipment on the roof of the south tower. I echoed the "what the fuck?!!!??" sentiment ...
I reconfigured my telephone[1] to connect thru' the basement of WTC 2, and called my compadre. He allowed as to how rumor had it that a second airliner had hit the building. Again, I exclaimed "WTF??? Get the hell OUT! And take the stairs, not the elevators ... And make sure the folks who have issues get help getting out. NOW!"[2] ... His reply was "we're already on it" ... and the phone again went dead. They all got out[3].
[0] Cell phones weren't as ubiquitous then as they are now ... However, we had them. Unfortunately the cellular network was down at his end, for what should be obvious reasons.
[1] Was on an NET IDNX based network that I had admin rights to. I wasn't a Sun employee, I was a private contractor, acting as a NET liaison between Sun and IBM.
[2] I'm an ex-volunteer firefighter ... funny how training helps in emergencies.
[3] Sun employee Philip Rosenzweig was aboard Flight 11 ... RIP, buddy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
