Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My hell as a 911 operator

nypost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 241 posts

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#201

Post by ams6110 »

realo wrote: post #177
rdouble wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to break this to you, but airplane systems, medical systems, banking systems, fuel pump systems and a lot of other systems all run on Windows.

Windows should NEVER be used in anything mission critical. Windows programmers and their 'Just reboot the machine' mindset should NEVER be allowed anywhere near a mission critical application. Why? Here is your answer, straight from the original article: ======= ... Intergraph keeps telling us, “Shut your computer down and reboot. It’ll just take a minute.” How many lives can you lose in a minute? ... =======

Nonsense. This has nothing to do with Windows and everything to do with poorly-implemented software running on it.

I have seen Java-based systems running on Linux that stall/hang and run agonizingly slowly under what should not be demanding levels of use. Bloated, heavyweight software stacks exist on all platforms, and they are favorites in government contractor architectures.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#202

Post by voltagex_ »

josh2600 wrote: post #190
gcb0 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt about #2. #1 is the only issue. As with everything gov, too much money leads to under the table deals. It's ridiculous that we have 200 people constantly updating code for my sound card in Linux at 2 different projects, but no one can give out time to improve a vital system like this which eats billions of my taxes. ...just because someone went to college with someone else or somebody got golf membership some…

Just an FYI, 2600hz, where I work, is building an free/open-source operating system for Telecom that could easily support nationwide IP-based 911 service. I just don't have any lobbying money :).

I love the reference, is it Asterisk based?

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#203

Post by A1kmm »

drostie wrote: post #175
greghinch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was freelancing, I did some government work. I was flabbergasted by the slow pace at which things moved, and that I had to create accounts in 3 separate systems to submit and get paid for even very basic invoices. Government is a place that is ripe for disruption, but the walls around it are so high, I don't know how to really breach them. There is a huge machine in place of contractors and lobbyists which ess…

> Government is a place that is ripe for disruption, but the walls around it are so high, I don't know how to really breach them. I have had this attitude before, but I am not sure it's a healthy way to look at the problem. What you were flabbergasted by was the inefficiency of bureaucracy . But this is not a government problem per se : large companies can also become bureaucracies; large militaries tend to have simi…

Even big corporates are adopting agile methodologies, and combined with an appropriate contract, they provide a game theoretic incentive for both parties to act how the other intended.

How the system is supposed to work: Contractor does a small increment of work, delivers it, and gets paid by client based on the time they put in.

Exceptions:

1. Contractor doesn't deliver anything, or the quality is so bad that bad faith is assumed. Response: Contractor gets paid for claimed work on increment (which is limited by how much the contractor is authorised to do). Contractor doesn't get any further work. The contractor doesn't want this since they lose the income from future iterations.

2. Contractor does work, but client refuses to pay. Response: Client doesn't do any more work for the contractor. Contractor's loss is limited because the iteration is short. The client doesn't want this because they lose the benefits of the contract on the next iteration.

3. Contractor does work, but it doesn't fully meet the quality / scope requirements of the client, but the client can see progress is being made. Client pays the contractor, and the contractor and client work together to ensure that the next iteration moves in the direction the client wants.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#204

Post by josh2600 »

voltagex_ wrote: post #202
josh2600 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just an FYI, 2600hz, where I work, is building an free/open-source operating system for Telecom that could easily support nationwide IP-based 911 service. I just don't have any lobbying money :).

I love the reference, is it Asterisk based?

A little more complicated than that :).

So Here's a brief overview of what we're doing and why we're doing it this way.

Asterisk doesn't scale without a lot of cruft and it's not accessible. At the high end of the market there's only gigantic switches from companies like Cisco/Alcatel etc; and those are $$$. So we see a market space inbetween cheapo asterisk and high-end cisco.

The crux of what we're doing is a lot of work in AMQP (RabbitMQ) to disintermediate the underlying infrastructure from the services. The point is that we don't ultimately want to care what underlying components you run on your network, only that you have components that can be consumed. Think of it as TelecomSDN from a management perspective and a distributed switch from an infrastructure perspective.

The stack as we distribute it today is:

* Kamailio (Border Controller)

* RabbitMQ (AMQP messaging bus)

* FreeSWITCH (Open-source switch)

* BigCouch (Distributed database with Dynamo Quorum to help deal with Network Partitions)

That's the gist of it; all on CentOS and all open-source. We may close source some modules as we go forward, but right now just about everything is open. Using a few clicks in AWS you can run an infrastructure capable of competing against AT&T.

There's a lot of telecom infrastructure that exists which can route calls. There aren't a lot of telecom infrastructures that have built-in fault tolerance and linear scaling.

EDIT: I should note that we've developed custom modules for both Kamailio and FreeSWITCH for our use case. We had to write a multi-threading module for Erlang for FreeSWITCH, as an example.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#205

Post by kayfox »

josh2600 wrote: post #144
gregd wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mention Sprint as leading the charge and they've got issues of their own. I can't find an article at the moment, but Sprint is a provider of PTT/cell phone services to a local Portland, OR area police force and that police department is being forced to look for another vendor because Sprint has proven to be really, really unreliable.

Sprint as two networks right now. One is the legacy iDen network they acquired in the Nextel deal, the other is their Sprint/Clearwire 4G WiMAX/LTE monstrosity. The iDen network is basically analog, so transactions like presence and push to talk are binary and the state is always transmittable. The same cannot be said of IP. This is a problem we've spent a lot of time working on and I can guarantee none of the Big Te…

> The iDen network is basically analog,

You mean the Integrated Digital Enhanced Network is analog, wait what?

The actual problem why noone has come up with a solid way to support PTT on cell phones other than iDEN phones is because iDEN is a rare breed of radio system called a Cellular Trunked Radio System, it was designed to provide a trunked radio system that could scale to large footprints. Unfortunately it never caught on with anyone but Nextel and a few other providers, most likely because of the need to totally replace other systems. Project 25 did not have this issue because agencies could gradually transition from analog conventional and analog trunked systems to digital Project 25 trunked radio systems or hybrids thereof.

So, iDEN was intended to primarily support trunked radio like features, Direct Connect and Group Connect are two of those, several bolt on upgrades later provided us with Nationwide Direct Connect and Nationwide Group Connect. This is why it performs so well at those (infact, from what I have seen, outperforming existing trunked radio systems).

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#206

Post by jlgaddis »

5vforest wrote: post #49
mjn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But certainly someone who designed infrastructure for Twitter might have some interesting perspective on how to manage 911 traffic. This program seems aimed at bringing in some of those kinds of people to government agencies: http://www.whitehouse.gov/innovationfellows I think I've seen a few of them posting on HN, but I can't remember who. They seem to be especially pushing to get things like data.gov working in a…

FWIW I was one of the fellows, and happy to chat about it if anyone's interested. (contact info in my profile) if anyone wants to help us fix the broken procurement policies that lead to systems like the one described in the article, let's talk too :)

The "Fellows" did some really cool things. Great job!

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#207

Post by moocowduckquack »

snitko wrote: post #197
moocowduckquack wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could try Monaco, though you might not like the fact that they have socialised health care. Those billionaire commies.

If there was a 0% tax in Monaco, there would be no way to fund public healthcare. In reality, employers are required to contribute to the CSM (Caisses Sociales de Monaco) for each employee. That's a tax.

Oh, so not just less tax than your current situation, but 0% tax.

Well, you could live on a boat in international waters, or renounce the use of all forms of currency and live on pure barter, however you seem to be asking for a state that cannot raise revenue.

There are some of them around the world, but you might want to hire a small military detail if you want to live there, as funnily enough they have a few security issues.

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#208

Post by Locke1689 »

snitko wrote: post #171
Locke1689 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that anyone here's problem? Don't like it -- you can leave. Where you go is your business.

That's not anyone's problem, but it also can't be an argument. When I say taxes are theft and people say I can always leave, they should realize there's nowhere to leave. So you're basically saying: "suck it up and pay and learn to call it taxation instead of theft to make yourself feel better about it. If you disagree, you can go let some other country rob you or go to jail." So yeah, great argument you have.

You don't have an argument -- you have an axiom that claims that taxes are theft. Pretty much everyone else disagrees. So are you going to leave or just keep whining like a 5 year old that you can't get your own way?

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#209

Post by pessimizer »

snitko wrote: post #182
loopdoend wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to have a very hard time owning anything in Canada that isn't subject to seizure without paying taxes. So this hypothetical property you'd be trying to protect would cease to be yours. We don't throw people in jail or point guns at them, and frankly even if you weren't paying income tax you would be paying tons of sales tax that you can't avoid. Worst case scenario you'd be forced into bankruptcy, tax de…

So the question remains: would you personally come to my house to cease it and explain to my kids that they are now homeless because their daddy simply disagrees with what you think is right and refuses to pay to people you believe are good?

>because their daddy simply disagrees with what you think is right and refuses to pay to people you believe are good?

I'd leave out this part.

edit: or to be clear, I'd be as likely to say that as I would be to say to the children of a burglar, "I'm arresting your father because he wanted you to have nice things."

Re: My hell as a 911 operator

#210

Post by voltagex_ »

josh2600 wrote: post #204
voltagex_ wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the reference, is it Asterisk based?

A little more complicated than that :). So Here's a brief overview of what we're doing and why we're doing it this way. Asterisk doesn't scale without a lot of cruft and it's not accessible. At the high end of the market there's only gigantic switches from companies like Cisco/Alcatel etc; and those are $$$. So we see a market space inbetween cheapo asterisk and high-end cisco. The crux of what we're doing is a lot o…

Blergh, Kamailio.

Will it scale down to a Raspberry Pi? I realise I'm completely not your target market but I need something that does VoIP better than my router does it.

Post reply on HN