Larry the lobster

I wonder if Ruth reads NANOG?

I knew that AT&T did this, but I never knew the name of
the person
with the job before.



=============================

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114610
182322237181.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Ruth Gauweiler, a 55-year-old grandmother with a shock of
red hair, was
surfing the Internet recently to find out exactly when
Madonna tickets
would be going on sale. Ms. Gauweiler didn't want to miss
the moment that
ticket sellers opened their phone lines.

An email from Ticketmaster gave her the answer: Friday April
21, at 9 a.m.

So, last Friday morning, deep inside AT&T Inc.'s
network control center in
Bedminster, N.J., Ms. Gauweiler stood before a giant digital
display
graphing all the AT&T phone traffic in the world. U.S
calling spiked at
exactly 9 a.m., indicating a huge and sudden increase in
call volume.
"Madonna at Madison Square Garden," Ms.
Gauweiler said. "Back on tour."

Ms. Gauweiler's job is specialist for AT&T's global
network operations.
Thanks to her vigilance, the phone company knew not to worry
that
something big was going to overwhelm the network.

In charge of spotting situations that could trigger
"mass-calling events,"
Ms. Gauweiler spends her days patrolling the Internet, TV
news networks
and newspapers. She subscribes to every major sports team's
email
newsletter to keep abreast of events and regularly surfs
ticket-vendor Web
sites.

On 4/26/06, Sean Donelan <seandonelan.com> wrote:
>
>
> I wonder if Ruth reads NANOG?
>
> I knew that AT&T did this, but I never knew the
name of the person
> with the job before.
>

But who really knew Madonna tickets going on sale made up an
appreciable amount of voice traffic across the nation? I
know I
didn't.