
If you're in Boston without phone service, use this website to call your family - chrisacky
http://callyourfamily.twilio.ly/
======
jrockway
That's useful.

This is one of those times when I remind people that it might be a good idea
to get an amateur radio license and have a charged handheld always available.
If you do, you'll be able to talk to people locally (and halfway across the
world) for free, with no centralized infrastructure to fail. (All you have to
do is get 26 out of 35 multiple choice questions correct and buy a $40 radio
from Amazon. Then, free communication forever.)

\--KD2DTW (/AE!)

~~~
omarali
I thought they only worked locally. How do you talk to people halfway across
the world?

~~~
cdjk
Handhelds (i.e. VHF/UHF, most likely 144MHz or 440MHz) will only work locally
without additional equipment. If you have access to a repeater (which isn't a
problem, as most are open) that's linked the internet then you can talk to
anyone, either via the internet, or via a repeater (that's also connected to
the internet) elsewhere.

HF (1.8 MHz - 30 MHz, in select bands) will propagate around the world if the
conditions are right, just like shortwave radio. It's really the same thing,
except lower power. That "if the propagation is right" is a big if, however,
and also requires a large antenna. I also would not have wanted to set up a
portable HF antenna in Boston this afternoon - even if perfectly legal,
spreading out wire along the ground and throwing a wire up in a tree doesn't
really sound like the best idea right now.

Of course, most of the time it's the HF stuff that's the most fun... and
although somewhat reliable, and likely to get you talking to someone,
somewhere fairly quickly, it's not going to let you talk to a specific person
at a specific time with a lot of reliability, even if you've schedule things
in advance.

~~~
cnvogel
But of course "access to a repeater" violates the part of "with no centralized
infrastructure to fail" in the parent's post.

But one also has to distinguish old-school repeaters covering a medium-
diameter area from the worldwide, internet-connected relays (such as IRLP).
Whereas the former are easily put up freestanding on an amateur budget, and
hence will stay in operation independent of all the other infrastructure, the
internet-bound systems will cease operation once the internet links break
down.

~~~
adestefan
5W on top of a hill will give you pretty good coverage even at high higher
frequencies.

------
josh2600
What a great site. Shoutout to Team Twilio for constantly killing it from a
marketing perspective and doing a great job on the humanitarian side as well.

On another note: It is crazy that the authorities can simply disable wireless
networks en masse. Just crazy.

~~~
hiddenfeatures
Not so crazy, if you think about the fact that many bombs are remotely-
triggered using a cell phone. Kill the network, switch off additional bombs.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
>if you think about the fact that many bombs are remotely-triggered using a
cell phone. Kill the network, switch off additional bombs.

Okay, I'll see your cell network shutdown with a slight change to the bomb
trigger logic. Now it they're triggered if they receive a trigger signal OR if
they don't receive ANY signals for some time.

------
austenallred
Classily done. It's difficult to balance the want of marketing and yet not
whore yourself out based on popular interest during a tragedy, but this helps
a lot of people. Hats off.

~~~
oacgnol
It's not even marketing in my mind but a public obligation. If there is anyone
who would be able to provide this service, it's Twilio. Agreed, hats off.

~~~
icambron
It's marketing, but it's not cynical marketing. It's the kind of marketing
that should, in an ideal world, totally work. You prove you're a good,
friendly company by doing good, friendly things.

------
sikhnerd
It's always encouraging to see a startup use it's resources to help others.
Unfortunately quite rare as well. Good job Twilio!

------
brianberns
You can also make free phone calls to anywhere in the USA via Gmail. Look for
the "call phone" icon on the left sidebar, above your list of contacts.

------
andyfleming
If only the whole screen wasn't bright red!

~~~
RobSpectre
Yeah. My bad. :/

~~~
Scaevolus
Blue is a nice, calming color for a website or bikeshed.

~~~
RobSpectre
@djinteractive was actually kind enough to submit a pull request with a calmer
red. Looks much improved.

~~~
danjones
no probs

------
austenallred
I couldn't resist trying it out from a non-boston IP to a non-Boston number.
Still worked. It's cool to see that they trusted people enough to not put any
sort of controls on that.

~~~
jonny_eh
I think it was just easier to not put up limits, hoping that people wouldn't
take advantage.

------
DigitalSea
A very nice move on Twilio's part. The fact they didn't seem to implement
checks of Boston IP's and numbers as well and instead opting to rely on people
being truthful is also great. Much respect.

------
j_juggernaut
Can't people already use gmail to do so?

~~~
alive-or-not
I use gmail, so everybody else must use it also ...

------
geekam
Twilio is great. I read about their collaboration with the Polaris Project for
Human Trafficking victims. It is always great to see companies standing up in
the time of need.

------
zapdrive
>If you're in Boston without phone service, use this website to call your
family.

Or, use Gmail to make unlimited domestic calls. Its disturbing that companies
are looking to get marketing even out of tragic events like these.

~~~
joelrunyon
Whenever people say stuff like this, I wast to bring up the idea of the "net
good" of the implementation.

Twillio doing this doesn't take away from the tragedy and it's not preying on
vulnerable people. It's helping people through their service. If they get
press for it, so be it.

It's unfortunate that people think that in order for one party to "win",
another party has to "lose." I think this is a good case of win/win.

~~~
zapdrive
By putting a big logo on the page, they are definitely trying to get some
marketing mileage out of it.

------
brendanobrien
Thanks Twillio for a proactive response to a horrible situation.

------
cbhl
The "Source on Github" link points to a repo that isn't public at the moment.

~~~
RobSpectre
Working on getting Travis setup now. Wanted to get the service up asap - code
will be posted shortly.

------
DivisibleByZero
Simply amazing.

------
koltkorivera
Thank you for posting this, chrisacky.

------
aren55555
Holy crap that burned my retina.

------
nvk
+1

------
unreal37
Cell service is shut down so that the terrorist cannot remote detonate any
more bombs.

But if you have access to this website (internet access), then you have access
to Skype and 100 other phone services... so why does this web site exist?

~~~
mbell
> Cell service is shut down so that the terrorist cannot remote detonate any
> more bombs.

This is false. Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have confirmed its false, hours ago.
The networks are likely overloaded and, as a result, spotty, but they have not
been shut down.

~~~
RobSpectre
Lot of disinformation spreading about this. All I know is my friends couldn't
call their folks, so I wrote the app.

No idea what the diagnosis or prognosis on the situation is there - we'll keep
it up until we hear all the telecom infrastructure is nominal.

~~~
ValG
Great work. Taking the extra step to be proactive in a situation that
seemingly is localized, you still found a way to (likely) make a difference
from 3k miles way. Visibility to the site is likely the only barrier now, but
if there is anyone on the ground that can spread the word, this may be a
hugely beneficial service.

