To Puerto Ricans: A Register apology We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the residents of Puerto Rico, and especially those who will not have cell phone coverage over Christmas. It is, we are ashamed to admit, entirely our fault. This is a special time of year, and we feel dreadful for robbing more than 500,000 Puerto Ricans of the opportunity …
The author tried this same shiza a couple weeks ago. Same standard ploy too: For every disaster, accuse the Republican president of being "too slow" to react, and gin up some plausible sounding words and factoids to go along with it. And never, EVER allow an honest appraisal of the situation. That's just not helpful, don't you know. Repeat this method as often as possible, weekly if you feel up to it.
Naturally a Democrat politician is exempt from such trickery, no matter how culpable. Witness the disaster caused by the Democrat mayor of New Orleans, who was somehow overlooked in the media's rush to pin the blame for Hurricane Katrina on George W, via an avalanche of insulting lies and fabrications. To this day there are millions who believe Bush actually did 'something' wrong, somewhere.
The author is once again taking up that well-worn cudgel, but now we on the right just smile when we see it. Well, we would smile, but we're too busy getting things done to pay attention to professional complainers. Complaining is the sport of losers.
...just like ESPN used to be about sports, The Register used to be about Technology. Or maybe just a few writers have to spew their TDS, but it seems to be more than just one apple spoiling the bunch.
At least we still have quality Technology writing at The Next Platform via TPM!
Yes, but no.
I don't want to read political discourse on The Reg. I've been coming here for my tech news for at least 15 years (probably longer). It seems a relatively new thing, in the last couple of years, with Kieran a big contributed, which is a shame as he's actually a talented tech writer.
Please let's keep the politics to the Torygraph & Grauniad.
Chiming in late to observe that technology may not be political, but the way we apply technology is often highly political. So I don't think El Reg can or should avoid politics. What it should do is clearly separate news from opinion. That sometimes doesn't happen (and I criticised several of Kieran's ICANN stories for that reason). But this article is so clearly tongue in cheek that I don't see it as problematic. Not as funny as John Oliver, but in that category.
"I don't want to read political discourse on The Reg. I've been coming here for my tech news for at least 15 years (probably longer). It seems a relatively new thing, in the last couple of years, with Kieran a big contributed, which is a shame as he's actually a talented tech writer."
how is pointing out that Texas had every help chucked at it yet in this case the locals seem to have been all but forgotten in any way a political comment ? Simple fact, Texas is mainland USA and will always be treated better than offshore colonies, especially by a president who's racial leanings are quite obviously questionable. Maybe if there had been a large redneck voter population there they might have a better chance of service they deserve.
It could be that the 80/20 rule applies nearly universally. It might be considerably easier to restore the larger 80% than the final 20%. Yes, it's an island but it's by no means flat or contains a population that's easily accessible. It seems the article throws political shade for the purpose of throwing political shade without doing the fact checking behind it. Call us back when your 3D drone tour of the island tells you all you need to know Mark. We'll wait with bated breath. Or not.
Allow me to add that the FCC does fuck all to restore connectivity. That's not their job and I'm sorry if some folk don't get that.
You're better than this.
If you disagree with the story, simply link to something that refutes it (and has some backing evidence).
I'll agree, us Europeans may appear as tree-hugging-communists hell-bent on ridiculing your country - but we do like you, I promise.
Our problem is simply what we see. Help us see the good stuff. Show how Trump has helped his people and all this can be nipped in the bud.
> "Show how Trump has helped his people and all this can be nipped in the bud."
What can all be nipped in the bud? The slow repairing of that islands' utterly destroyed infrastructure? I've yet to see convincing evidence that the repairs are going too slowly. The author (and you) simply assume that it is so, and for what I assert are totally partisan reasons.
The suggestions of slowness are highly subjective and lacking in hard data to assess. Rather, the two articles (so far) are replete with emotional trigger words meant to tug at the heartstrings of the real snowflakes and get them to agree that Trump sure is a meany.
It's your basic propaganda ploy. I choose not to swallow it. If others do, that's their concern.
@Big John "What can all be nipped in the bud?"
I think that Goldcd was refering to the fact that a lot of people think Trump is an embarassement to the United States and quite literally a figure of ridicule that has brought the Office of the President of the United States into disrepute. Simply Trump is a joke on a scale never seen before. I believe that Goldcd is therefore suggesting that if Trump starts acting like the World leader he claims to be, and less like a petulant child, that the piss taking of your President can be nipped in the bud and the Office of the President can regain the respect that it deserves.
@goldcd - apologies if I misinterpreted your comment.
The suggestions of slowness are highly subjective and lacking in hard data to assess.
Well, little snowflake, if you would watch something else than Fox "news" (*cough*) you would know just how dodgy the data on progress is. But hey, that would involve dealing with the hard stuff, like reality. From your posts so far, that appears to hard for you.
Most of the people here are used to separating BS and straight out lies from the hard facts, because sh*t would never work if they didn't. That cold, harsh logic most of us have to deploy on a daily basis (read: by now we're damn good at it) is very good at filtering out false data.
There is no way you're employed in any meaningful technical fashion. You lack that talent.
Jake sez:
"John, we've noticed that at least 90% of your posts here on ElReg have been complaints about how poor, poor Trump & Co. are being mistreated. If the shoe fits ..."
Once again Jake, I'm not complaining. If leftists want to lie about Trump and conservatives, let them do it, and I hope they have a fine day for it. I simply insure that their weak claims do not go unchallenged here on El Reg. If those claims ever prove not to be weak (a rarity) I generally remain silent or even join in the fun. No closed mind here.
You cannot say the same about the current article tho; This "slow action" charge is entirely proactive, and in itself contains an implicit demand for redress. A "complaint," if you will.
"WTF has Trump done in his first 11 months?"
To be fair, he also invented a new word. Unfortunately, he hasn't the wit to give it a meaning. But I'm pretty certain that's about it ... other than generally being an asshole on the world stage, and ensuring that the next couple of Presidents will have their hands full patching up foreign relations, of course.
"Naturally a Democrat politician is exempt from such trickery, no matter how culpable."
Repeat after me: Just because someone critiscises the Republicans, it doesn't mean they don't critisice democrats
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
You and Bob are typical of the current right wing "snowflakes" (to use your stupid term where it most applies)
You seem to worship your side. They can do no wrong. You see any criticism of policy as a biased partisan attack.
And even if someone is directly critical of Trump or the party, you always assume it's a one sided attack from the left, and therefore your best response is a criticism of the democrats.
This behaviour - like the most obsessed sports fan is with his sports team - is quite fascinating, and almost unique to the right wing. Is it because of low intelligence or the constant bullshit from Fox?
As hard as it obviously seems, you must realise most outside your team don't think like that.
They will criticise bullshit wherever they see it, and most don't align strictly to a "team".
If I critiscise Theresa May, I expect either agreement or disagreement. If anyone replied "Yeah, but Corbin did xxx" my thoughts would be "when did I ever mention Corbyn? This person is simple"
I'm not a labour supporter either, although they are better than this current government, so if someone countered an opinion on May with an attack on Corbyn, they are probably not all that bright.
> not all that bright
I think it's fair to look at the alternatives: while May may be somewhat of a gaffe prone incompetent politician with control freakery issues, she's not elected in a vacuum.
When your principal opponent goes on the record supporting Chavez, not 10 years ago, but considerably more recently after the actual misery caused by his policies have become amply apparent, then yes, in my book that does count in your favor.
"I think it's fair to look at the alternatives: while May may be somewhat of a gaffe prone incompetent politician with control freakery issues, she's not elected in a vacuum.When your principal opponent goes on the record supporting Chavez, not 10 years ago, but considerably more recently after the actual misery caused by his policies have become amply apparent, then yes, in my book that does count in your favor."
I agree entirely. Unfortunately I wasn't clear in my original message. What I meant was that if I critiscise May, then someone who responds by critiscising Corbyn, as if to win an argument, then I don't think they are very bright.
The names in the example could be swapped around - I wasn't referring to the fact they have a critical view, but the fact they assumed that because I criticised something by a politician on one side, I must therefore be a total diehard supporter of the other side.
Maybe this is cultural? Here in the UK it is very hard to get enthusiastic about any of the political parties and not supporting Tory does not automatically make you a Labour supporter (Could be a Liberal, Green, SNP etc or nothing at all). Perhaps in the USA not supporting one party may automatically make you a supporter of the other? In this case maybe we can forgive some of our more enthusiastically politically inclined commentards? And it is Christmas. :-)
"but the fact they assumed that because I criticised something by a politician on one side, I must therefore be a total diehard supporter of the other side."
Sadly, in the US, taking that stance means you will probably be right more often than wrong. US politics is very, very strongly polarized.
"You and Bob are typical of the current right wing 'snowflakes'"
'snowflake'? seriously?
Let me tell you what the term 'snowflake' REALLY refers to: those who walk around with chips on their shoulders, offended at EVERYTHING that's not politically correct, who THEN whine like babies until the offending stops, desperately seeking for "safe spaces" (paid for by others, no doubt), wearing "vagina hats" in protest, marching to the latest Saul Alinsky style drum beats of protesting and venting their spleens at every possible offense that could be excreted from the bowels of stupidity, in order to BULLY others, CONTROl people, and generally be a PAIN IN OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES.
I think that word does not mean what you think it means...
So when you see a group of early 20-somethings gathering in a college quadrilateral and having a 1 hour long primal scream because Trump was elected, THEY are 'snowflakes'.
People like me are *FIGHTERS* - and I'm figuratively waving my hand in a taunt, like Neo against 'Smith' in 'The Matrix'. We are NOT "snowflakes". We take on the barrage of howler monkeys (and ACTUAL snowflakes) relentlessly slinging their poo, and offer TRUTH in the face of obvious lies, fabrications, and "fake news".
And most of us fighters just want to live our lives WITHOUT a bunch of ACTUAL snowflakes trying to guilt us into political correctness nor in ANY way giving up our FREEDOM.
Hint: those who seek control over others do so out of FEAR and/or EVIL. And mis-using pejorative labels is ONE way to BULLY people. Should *I* do that to YOU (mis-use pejorative labels) ?
And FYI I'm not "right wing" - I'm a libertarian.
@ bombastic bob
Could not have said it better myself, well done. And the funny thing is, I actually have an open mind, always did. But it is also a *rational* and *critical* mind, who doesn't put up with this PC/shamming nonsense, and recognizes the danger and the true motivation behind all of this (as you explained so well, the real motivation is to control others).
Also funny how the snowflakes are now trying to turn that term around, a term that was specifically created/used to describe them and their posture in the world. Perhaps because calling normal people 'nazis' and 'racists' doesn't cut it anymore? lol Either way, they obviously don't even understand what it means - but you explained it to them rather well.
Actually the term "Snowflake" was coined to refer to Neo-nazis and other right wing flakes who were white and cried a lot about people picking on them. Recently there has been a push by Snowflakes to call others Snowflakes to confuse the term. I decline to participate.
FYI Bob, "right wing" includes Libertarians, always has.
So you are by definition a Snowflake. You can go cry to someone who cares.
You're not a *FIGHTER*, Zippy. Typing about your political ideology in an obscure online forum like ElReg isn't fighting, it's being a mind-bogglingly boring buffoon.
You're libertarian like the Koch brothers are libertarian. If that's not right wing, I'd like to know what is.
Naturally a Democrat politician is exempt from such trickery, no matter how culpable.
On the contrary, Democrats are also fair game. They're far too right-wing for me to give them a get-out-of-jail-free card*.
* Something your beloved Chump-in-Chief will likely be needing soon.
@BJ, you must clearly live in one of the states where marijuana has been legalised. Or stronger stuff, because, afaik, active delusions do not belong in the side effects of the legalised product.
I'd lay off of whatever you're using for a while. You may discover something that will shock you.
Hey, plenty of us saw that Ray Nagin (New Orlean's then mayor) was useless.
I think it's a great feature of the US political system that minority politicians can be elected (unlike say, France).
Of course, while it's usually a plus (and skipping on gerrymandering's pernicious impacts) sometimes unjustified racial preferences means you end up with incompetent nitwits running big jobs into the ground: this Nagin, then one mayor of Washington DC was a coke user, I also suspect mayors running Detroit for decades were the right color to get elected but not much fit otherwise.
Many of these people have been Dems, and, yes, it can hard to attack those men without seeming to rag on their ethnic voters.
Rarely however has there been such a flagrant case of unfitness fornicating with tribal voting as Trump.
"Naturally a Democrat politician is exempt from such trickery, no matter how culpable. Witness the disaster caused by the Democrat mayor of New Orleans, who was somehow overlooked in the media's rush to pin the blame for Hurricane Katrina on George W, via an avalanche of insulting lies and fabrications. To this day there are millions who believe Bush actually did 'something' wrong, somewhere.
"
Oh look, it's the "BBBBut, the Democrats did it ,so it's got to be OK" defence? The Democrats are not in power over Puerto Rico. The Republicans are.
Trump's response to this has been abysmal. it's 100 days after the hurricane and half the island still does not have power . (source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/half-puerto-rico-without-power-100-days-after-hurricane-maria-a8134496.html ) . From the start we've had delays to food shipments caused by some obscure maritime law that the administration was apparently unable to remove or alter. We've had the Administration apparently unable to send in adequate numbers of helpers, and apparently unable to send in engineers to sort out the problem, preferring instead to offer the contract for the refit to a tiny company who is going to subcontract it. We've also had the President go to Puerto Rico, use it as a photo opportunity while throwing kitchen rolls at the population. Oh, and he's repeatedly had a go at them on Twitter..
What they should have done immediately is to suspend the laws restricting what vessels can call at the docks, and also bring in engineers to at least establish emergency supplies for electricity. Trump should not have mentioned it on twitter at all.
I feel sorry for the American's though. We English voted for fuckwit, but at least she is just incompetent and not actually vindictive. Trump is vindictive as well.
Repeat after me.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
The FCC doesn't maintain your phone line.
Very good. That's the job of Verizon, T-Mob, @&T, MonkeyLoveCalls, etc.
Figure it out.
Nevertheless, it was the neo-liberal doctrine aided and abetted by the FCC that failed to ensure local-loop competition in the US, and failed to encourage local competition between ISPs. So the US, land of the free, actually ended up with predatory regional monopolies for Internet service provision. And that wasn't the Republicans' fault at all. It goes back to the Clinton administration.
The San Juan mayor just happened to forget to show up to ALL the FEMA meetings and then blamed anyone but her for her failures. Then she yells and commands news to blame the Trump administration vs taking responsibility. The Trump administration moved personnel and millions of disaster relief supplies in place before the hurricanes ever hit. The perverse inbred political corruption that is highlighted by the $113 MILLION in bonuses that gov't employees just received is endemic of the island's internal failure to deal with its own bad decisions that have been the hallmark of 50 years of Democrats in power.
One would expect some sort of logarithmic tail-off simply because the final cell sites to be fixed are always going to be the hardest to do - and so take longer - which is precisely why they are left until last.
However, the change in reporting frequency is unrelated and oddly coincidental.
I don't know.
If you were fixing cell sites you would be working from a nearest first order imo, so where you are based coupled with where your supplies arrive and work out from there which could explain the slow down because the further you have to travel which is more difficult due to the terrain after a hurricane.
The odds on this occurring the moment the reporting frequency changes are low though.
And just looking again at the plot it sure does LOOK like a linear curve with a knee in it. Two straight line segments. Perhaps they had (say) 4 linemen (sorry, gender neutral fails me) and reduced it to 3 which would give a very similar result. Co-incidence is, in my opinion, very likely if the scenario above is true. Still, it makes a good story and until we have further data everyone can speculate!
The last 30% is always likely to be harder; I would not expect the new predictive line to be accurate either.
If I was organising it (thankfully not) I would probably start with the major population centres where technology is concentrated and leave the outliers until last to try and provide communications to the majority of users as soon as possible. Like the 90% plus coverage in the UK.
It is interesting that the graph prior to the report was almost a straight line; this could mean that there was a team running flat out at maximum efficiency and maintaining a consistently high fix rate.
It could also mean, of course, that daily reporting was too much of a faff so they just fudged the figures. In which case the El Reg report may have caused someone to take a bit more time checking the figures.
For the conspiracy theorists there may have been deliberately optimistic reporting to hit bonus targets and the El Reg report may have hit around the time when they always planned to flatten out the curve after getting the maximum money up front.
> If I was organising it (thankfully not) I would probably start with the major population centres where technology is concentrated and leave the outliers until last to try and provide communications to the majority of users as soon as possible. Like the 90% plus coverage in the UK.
I think it would be a bit more complicated than this, and coordinated between fixed line providers and cell providers to try and get whole island comms from at least one tech in place as quickly as possible so that there is always at least one way to call out from somewhere, and then infill the gaps that you have - possibly doing urban first bu who knows what metrics they are using to prioritise
Trump may or may not be treating well. I think he is an embarassementand damaging not just to the US but to the whole of western democracies in general. The story is however complete nonsense.
1. rate of repair
It would be extraordinary if the rate of repair did not slow down. The last cells to be repaired are going to be those which are difficult to repair for logistical or technical reasons. The curve will flatten out and the last cell to be repaired will be later than predicted.
2. Reporting interval
Reporting daily is crazy and smacks of micromanagement for a project expected to last months. The idea that reporting daily versus every two days makes a 30% productivity difference can only come from someone who has never worked in a real job. A lot of time will simply be sent collecting, checking, presenting and reviewing figures daily. If this was real then reporting twice daily would give even higher productivity, perhaps they should report the numbers hourly or perhaps every 30 minutes? If they reported evey minute perhaps they could get the whole project done in a couple of days?
3. The repair project was probably always planned to be performed in different phases. The first phase fixing all the easily accessible and high priority locations. The second phase to fix the rest. The change in teh rate of repair simply reflects this change.
"Reporting daily is crazy and smacks of micromanagement for a project expected to last months. The idea that reporting daily versus every two days makes a 30% productivity difference can only come from someone who has never worked in a real job. A lot of time will simply be sent collecting, checking, presenting and reviewing figures daily. If this was real then reporting twice daily would give even higher productivity, perhaps they should report the numbers hourly or perhaps every 30 minutes? If they reported evey minute perhaps they could get the whole project done in a couple of days?"
Sorry, bollocks. "How many did you fix today?" "Two" is not an onerous responsibility. And sometimes people need to be micromanaged, because they will slack off if you don't. As evidenced by the fact that asking them three times a week led to a drop in work done.
1) Repair the cell towers served by/to emergency response teams. Not familiar with how many carriers there are there, but..
A) Cover the most people possible as fast as possible. (looks good on *paper)
#) Do the easy ones first, but some cell towers don't just serve cellphone service.
+) We already know there wasn't a *ton of stockpiled spare infrastructure parts hanging around, and they are most likely not shipping anything assembled whole ready for "plug and play".
My personal contact with friends there say the electrical service is all over the map with outages... perhaps we can see a graph with a coupla more data points extrapolated.
Tracking cell tower repair rates seems like the responsibility of the Free Market, not some government bureaucracy. Really, this seems like a perfect fit for the FTC to handle. If the Puerto Ricans don't like the repair rates, they're free to use other companies.
Of course, they're going to have to pay some high tariffs, just like any other foreign state would. Lousy ocean-mexicans!
</sarcasm>
Register reports story about Puerto Rico cellphone rebuilding effort. Pai, who had so far been unaware that Puerto Rico was also kinda part of the USA, reads it.
Then, being the illegitimate lovechild of Cruella Deville and Sauron, he decides to act decisively. So he cuts back reporting, because there is no surer way to tell your underlings to cut back their effort. Certainly much easier than just picking up the phone and saying: "Hey, it's the big boss here. You have been busy lately, but I don't want you to overwork. You certainly don't have to finish this before Christmas. Perhaps not even before Eastern. Please *do* take your time."
O wait, there wasn't any cellphone coverage. That's probably why.
Below is the latest that I've seen on the current situation in Puerto Rico. It seems that there are plenty of repair personnel on the island now, but they just can't get the bulk of the parts and supplies they need - which is perfectly understandable under the circumstances. But let's not let ugly little realities like this get in the way of our spewing political diatribes, shall we?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/93-days-later-puerto-rico-cant-get-supplies-to-turn-on-the-power
P.S. I didn't vote for Trump.
Another puerile activist 'article' with zero information value. Any stories going against the Struggle is ignored (Awan brother still missing).
Too bad Reg let this go on, the other journos writing well and informative.
Is there a way of flagging biased activist 'articles' in advanced so we can avoid them? It seems like half of 'policy' articles here links directly to a democraticunderground posts.
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