From: moroney@world.std.spaamtrap.com   
      
   Moderator  writes:   
      
   >The MN Department of Public Safety says initial investigation shows   
   >something went wrong with one of the vendors who work with CenturyLink,   
   >the state's 911 provider.   
      
   ...   
      
   Why is the 911 system even configured in such a way that something could take   
   out the   
   whole system? I am sure certain terrorist groups are drooling over such   
   stories. The   
   regional 911 call centers and the software behind them should be sufficiently   
   self-contained such that nothing could take out more than the single call   
   center (if   
   that). I do know they do need to be able to transfer to other centers perhaps   
   via   
   special connections.   
      
   (my own experience, this has not been the case. Once I called to report debris   
   on an   
   interstate highway. Got the local town's PD. When I explained that they   
   transferred me   
   to the state police, their responsibility, where I had to repeat everything. A   
   second   
   incident I wanted to report an erratic driver on another interstate. I got the   
   local   
   city police, again said it was a SP issue. Instead I got transferred to an   
   adjacent   
   city's PD, repeated everything, they said it was a SP issue, then got   
   transferred again   
   to the SP.   
      
   At least I did my small part to remedy that elsewhere, 8 years ago. In Big   
   City, if you   
   call 911 you get police dispatchers. For a fire (or EMT) they had to transfer   
   you to   
   the fire dept dispatchers and repeat everything to them.  After the change the   
   police   
   dispatchers could enter fire calls directly into the FD dispatch system, no   
   transfer.   
   I did some of the work for the FD system to take the data)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)