"When all else fails" does not mean that there will always be a way to get pr0n or post some video of your car after a tornado parked it on the roof of your house. It means that net neutrality goes down the tubes and traffic gets severely "shaped". Most, if not all "traffic" will go through formal "nets", to and from official government jurisdictions and maybe NGOs such as Red Cross and Salvation Army. See http://www.usraces.org/ and http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/pscm/sec1-ch1.html, respectively.

I haven't seen an RFC regarding TCP/IP via one of these http://www2.arrl.org/FandES/field/forms/RADIOGRM.pdf yet ;)

Actually, there is a portion of the 802.11b/g 2400-2450 MHz wifi band that falls within FCC Part 97 rules. Amateurs have the ability to use high power and very high gain antennas on a couple channels (-1 and o, iirc) using WRT-56G and the like. There is a page at ARRL regarding "the hinternet" and HSMM at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/high-speed-digital/ and http://www.n5oom.org/hsmm/index.htm has some good technical links. The ARRL seems to have dropped the HSMM ball, perhaps due to pressure from the WISP lobby.

Yes, D-Star and other VHF packet setups are slow, up to a whopping 9600bps or so. The band is only so wide, we gotta share the bandwidth. There is more elbow room elsewhere.

But in case of a real emergency, amateurs will loose all non-emergency communication privileges within the bits of the radio spectrum covered by Part 97 rules.. Maybe hardcore /. users can lobby for creating an internet equivalent to http://www.usraces.org/ (cough cough)

I just hope someone doesn't read past the first sentence and mod it -1 Flamebait.

Steam?!?! Isn't that VERY HOT DHMO!?!?! That can't be good, according to http://www.dhmo.org/ !!

Seriously, amateur radio operators are subject to FCC Part 97 rules, and specifically, http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/news/part97/e.html#407 (b). "In the event of an emergency which necessitates invoking the President's War Emergency Powers under the provisions of section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934..." amateur radio as a hobby would be put on hold. That rule applies only to frequencies that amateurs are licensed to use. Obama, and any other president since 1934, could invoke said Powers, but I don't see how they could apply to non-wireless or unlicensed wireless communications. The Gov can shut down it's interstate highways, international borders, airspace, licensed radio spectrum, etc at it's discretion. When governments shut down cell phone networks, well, see the recent events in Iran.

Would or could the government jam the unlicensed spectrum that wifi uses? If "no", wireless mesh networks FTW! Otherwise, maybe we'll be saying "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a backpack full of usb flash drives," as long as some state borders are left open.

Good thing we'll still be able to build steam-powered spark-gap generators, tho! ;)

it's been in my fridge for an unknown period of time.

"Could be meat, could be cake.... It looks like... meatcake!"

Someone must be saving it for something. Who would have known that ./ers fridges could be of real scientific value? ;)

Cities in the US usually are grid-based, while cities in Europe aren't (as much).

That said, I live in the Adirondack State Park on 100 acres of land. There are directions one could walk from here, in a straight line, and not reach a paved road for 2 days. Sense of direction here isn't like knowing that Broadway runs north and south and the mountains are to the west (ala Denver, CO). When all else fails around here, walk downstream.

This vaguely reminds me of a website years ago that presented an interactive interface of a huge number line. The page was divided into a couple sections for the zoom level, the closest zoom level showed a bar for the number of entries it had for each individual number (tall=more entries). Clicking on the number would give a list of representations, selecting a representation gave a selection from the web resource the info came from.

I checked my bookmarks and googled a bit, but does anyone else remember the site, and if so, is it still around?

It's interesting that folks are looking into the possibilities. Perhaps it will find itself useful for training and in other different ways.

One idea came to mind:

Health care is a hot topic in the US. I'm old enough to remember family doctors making house calls, in the late 60's and very early 70's, in my home town in upstate NY. Judging by the lack of local medical help in the rural town where I am now, there aren't enough doctors to go around. Some towns have sponsored (new?) doctors, paying their education bill, providing facilities, a place to live, and other basic necessities.

Suppose more communities did this, creating a larger market for doctors. Such virtualization tools could enable doctors to make house calls again, and even give them some side income. Doctors could "see" patients via SL, perhaps for $L, during slow times between RL, local patients.

Develop an inexpensive USB dongle that can measure pulse, BP, temp, etc, and distribute them widely and with a lifetime guarantee. Have it capable of storing medical records for a family.

There will be privacy issues, the storage and sharing of medical records, proxies, filters, and trust, but those are things that will need to be dealt with for any "Health Care Reform" to happen. No more filling out paperwork while in the waiting room, but the internet has a great "magazine rack".

As a wildblue.com user (directv customer) with a 17GB down, 5GB up 30-day rolling cap, I don't think satellite ISPs will like the idea. For me, it's $70/mo for 1.5mbps down, 254kbps up. The unrealistic all up or all down prices would be $4.12/GB down, $14/GB up. Cellular 5GB cap would be $8GB/mo, at $40/mo. Satellite transmit bandwidth is inherently less than receive (ie xmit power in consumer vs pro gear), so it is like ADSL in that respect, but I get penalized twice!

For only $2500 per customer, the cable company will bring cable service 5 poles further up the road to service 3 customers. The phone company mentioned that they would have to install "expensive equipment", roughly half way between the current local COs, and there is no available copper due to capacity and damage. It's not like these companies invest in system-wide upgrades, just those where they can get the best RoI.

I haven't read all the comments yet, but I'd expect someone to mention "volume discounts" for greater usage. There is still no internet equivalent to the "dial tone", or to "long distance".