Bird Flu Pandemic Could Choke the Net 364
PetManimal writes "If a pandemic were to occur, many companies and organizations would ask their staffs to work from home. The impact of millions of additional people using the Internet from home might require individuals and companies to voluntarily restrain themselves from surfing to high-bandwidth sites, such as YouTube. If people didn't comply, the government might step in and limit Net usage. The scenario is not far-fetched: last year at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, a group of telecom and government officials conducted a pandemic exercise based on a hypothetical breakout of bird flu in central Europe. The results weren't pretty." From the latter article: "'We assumed total absentees of 30% to 60% trying to work from home, which would have overwhelmed the Internet,' said [one] participant. 'We did not assume that the backbone would be gone, but that the edge of the network... would be overwhelmed... The conclusion [of imminent collapse] was not absolute, and the situation was not digitally simulated, but the idea of everyone working from home appears untenable,' [he] said."
FIrst post (Score:5, Funny)
Only affects windows users (Score:5, Funny)
alright then (Score:4, Funny)
None of those birds have a deadly flu. They're just pining for the fjords.
Oh Noes! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only affects windows users (Score:4, Funny)
How? (Score:1, Funny)
Not if (Score:3, Funny)
Riiight. (Score:4, Funny)
And at that I think I'm being generous about their motives.
Re:Why (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Only affects windows users (Score:2, Funny)
Ironic... (Score:5, Funny)
A chicken is going to choke the internet...
Must... not... make... "In Soviet Russia..." joke...
+23 Staff of Paranoia (Score:4, Funny)
"Staff" is already plural. Why would they ask their "staffs" to work from home, unless they were wizards who employed an especially large number of magical sticks?
Re:Only affects windows users (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And a butterfly could cause a hurricane (Score:3, Funny)
Troll me, but this article is not news. We need a bullshit or a snore tag.
P.S. And probably an angry moderation option.
No birds in my office! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why (Score:2, Funny)
That's a %50 reduction in the probability of an epidemic right there.
Minor Detail (Score:3, Funny)
Re:And a butterfly could cause a hurricane (Score:2, Funny)
At least the Slashdot community will be safe.