Geeks to the Rescue!

As reported on Wired.com, as well as everywhere else, it seems, there is still an internet presence in the heart of downtown New Orleans.

Web hosting company Zipa, along with their sister company DirectNIC, are still up and running in a 27-story highrise, despite the utter shittiness of what's going on around them. They've got a diesel generator running strong and are just about the only people in the flooded city with a stable link to the outside world (via voip, IM, email, and blogs).

Michael Barnett, also known as Interdictor, of DirectNIC, has a LiveJournal documenting the whole ordeal. He and his color-coded teams of IT professionals have even gone so far as to venture out into the city in an effort to save some of its communications infastructure, literally wading over to city hall with a router to get their systems back online. These guys have to got to be about as badass as they come.

Interdictor and his crew have also been documenting the destruction in pictures, too. Check out their gallery here.

Photo credit to DirectNIC.com.