Weather Service faces Internet bandwidth shortage, proposes limiting key data

Thu Dec 10 13:36:36 UTC 2020

I've got plenty of spare capacity in Kenya - I can give them a couple of 
Gbps for just US$1,000/month :-).

_classic_

Mark.

On 12/10/20 15:27, Mel Beckman wrote:
> Something is stupidly wrong here. From a non-paywallled article (WaPo 
> blocks me from reading its content):
>
> https://newsbeezer.com/aus/the-national-weather-service-is-facing-a-lack-of-internet-bandwidth-and-is-proposing-access-restrictions/ 
> <https://newsbeezer.com/aus/the-national-weather-service-is-facing-a-lack-of-internet-bandwidth-and-is-proposing-access-restrictions/>
>
> ———
>
>
> The weather service hosted a public forum on Tuesday to discuss the 
> proposal and answer questions. When asked about the computer 
> infrastructure investments that would be required to keep these limits 
> off, agency officials said a one-time cost of approximately $ 1.5 
> million could prevent interest rate restrictions. The NOAA budget for 
> fiscal 2020 was $ 5.4 billion.
>
> However, Buchanan stated that the real cost of solving the problem 
> would be higher since the $ 1.5 million would “be just one component 
> of a multi-faceted solution.”
>
> Forum officials also said that management of the weather service was 
> aware of the relatively low cost of solving the problem, but that the 
> agency was facing “competing priorities”.
>
> Buchanan said that dissemination of data is a priority for the weather 
> service’s leadership, but that it is “continually” weighed against others.
>
> When asked if Congress was aware of the agency’s data dissemination 
> challenges, forum officials said they did not know.
>
> Senator Maria Cantwell (Washington), a Democrat on the Senate Commerce 
> Committee that oversees NOAA, said a request to upgrade the weather 
> service’s computer infrastructure would likely receive non-partisan 
> support.
>
> ———-
>
> This is either some kind of bizarre political maneuver, or bureaucrats 
> at NWS need to be seriously fired and replaced with competent people 
> who‘s tech jobs have been waylaid by Covid.
>
> Obviously it’s a trivial task to fix delivery capacity, if it will 
> only cost  $1.5 million to an agency with a $5.4 */billion/* budget. 
> And how does a 2000-employee agency blow through $5.4 billion a year 
> anyway?
>
> This stinks to high heaven.
>
> -mel via cell
>
>> On Dec 10, 2020, at 12:15 AM, Rich Kulawiec <rsk at gsp.org> wrote:
>>
>> Weather Service faces Internet bandwidth shortage, proposes limiting 
>> key data

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