Wired News: Beyond Superdome

My latest piece is up for Wired News. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

It was a lot of work to put together the story when the people at Zipa and DirectNIC were so busy (and I started to feel some of what battlefield reporters must feel; the whole, "This isn't nearly as important as what you are actually doing, but could you answer some questions?" thing.) I really appreciate the two Mikes and their friend Teri (?) for helping me out last night with the facts, etc.

I think the story turned out well mostly because it's, you know, an awesome story. These guys are in the middle of a fucking war zone, with no help in site because of continual fuckups/miscommunication by city police and Natl. Guard. (And I'm not trying to place any blame on the guys on the street. They aren't getting the support they need.)

These guys at Zipa/DirecNIC are going to be SysAdmin folk heroes. As an ex-hosting company sysadmin myself, I was (and am) totally captivated by their tenacity. I don't know what the situation is like down there for journalists, but if they can resecure their OC3s from BellSouth, I may try to go visit them in person for a longer piece.