"People over-reliant on [stuff]"

[charlesr]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12668230

lol, this time it's GPS.
In other obvious news we are over-reliant on:
Petrol - If this runs out there's no long distance transport or ability to make most household goods.
Food - If this gets wiped out by lack of sunlight due to volcanic ash.
Phones - how would we tweet in meetings without them?
The interwebs - probably would have to go out and socialise, which is a long forgotten skill.

Any other obvious research you want me to do, please send funds to my paypal and expect immediate results.

[nakamura]

Ironcially, I hate sat nav. So many times it has sent me down the wrong turn.

[Dirty Sanchez]

I designed the tracking stuff for Sky engineers. It uses GPS as primary tracking and is backed up by mobile telephone triangulation. Yay me, I win.

Within Sky the whole solar flare (2012?) thing is a huge concern on many projects - one of the reasons most settop boxed used to contain an ADSL circuit and the newer boxes have an ethernet socket - if need be the service could be delivered via IP.

['Press Start']

Within Sky the whole solar flare (2012?) thing is a huge concern on many projects - one of the reasons most settop boxed used to contain an ADSL circuit and the newer boxes have an ethernet socket - if need be the service could be delivered via IP.

Wow. I did think anyone was taking this seriously. How high up does the concern go? Rupert level?

[Dirty Sanchez]

Wow. I did think anyone was taking this seriously. How high up does the concern go? Rupert level?

He's only a shareholder. It's right up there - no signal = no subscribers = no cash. Bit bucks invested in this continuity plan.

[toythatkills]

Wow. I did think anyone was taking this seriously. How high up does the concern go? Rupert level?

I like to think that they use that as a warning level.

Green, Amber, Red, RUPERT

OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE.

['Press Start']

I thought if the solar flare was big enough or had enough magnetic 'stuff' then it would knock off even power grids?

Some shops where I work had a power cut the other day. They had to shut for obvious reasons. It is amazing to think how we take the switch on the wall for granted.

Even scarier was the water issue they had in Northern Ireland a few months back.

[charlesr]

Isn't the idea that the solar flare will kill satelites in orbit but not affect us down on the ground directly?

[koopatroopa90]

Isn't the idea that the solar flare will kill satelites in orbit but not affect us down on the ground directly?

Think it depends how strong they are - this Daily Mail article mentions power grid wipeouts as a possiblity anyway, and I think I read another on Yahoo News saying something similar.