I tried Friendster, it didn't work. I was trying to log in into this so-called online community networking pioneer so that I could communicate an emergency situation concerning my mother who is now, according to my uncle, undergoing brain surgery inside the OR at St. Francis Hospital in Washington, USA. Doctors are going to remove a blood clot in her head anytime and she is miles away from us, from our home. I tried reloading the site but it displayed program code errors, random user profiles and photos, and other registration glitches.

I also found out that Facebook, Twitter, and other internet communication sites were hacked last Thursday and the news reported it as a coordinated online attack. It's upsetting when high-speed messaging is unattainable during precarious times.

I heard about this on BBC. They used virus programs designed to flood their servers with millions of requests, thus overloading them.

Anyways. I sincerely wish your mother all the best.

DDoS is what happened to twitter, didn't know about the rest.

Thanks, I'm using every possible means just to communicate and hear from relatives/friends about my Mom's case. Overseas calls cost so much and the text messages are unreliable. I'll be back here asap when I'm 100% sure of what's going on abroad.

Well, that kind of thing is just what happens with technology. :] It's just frustrating for you in this instance because you wanted to use it. There are some cheaper alternatives to overseas calls though- you can buy 'internet' phone cards, or use Skype which generally charges about $.02 a minute for an overseas call to most countries.

Anyway, good luck to your mom, I hope everything turns out ok for her.

That's very sad about your mum timlight. I hope things go well!

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According to various news services the problem stems from various DOS attacks by a large Russian botnet primarily aimed at one blogger: some Georgian professor and activist.

It gets muddy from there, and the Western press agencies that reported this angle are rather anti-Russia, pro-Georgia, so there's bias and the scenario they're suggesting might just be a silly spin on a half truth. It happens. -_-

But if it is the case, and it's not unlikely, then its a global battle of idiots. Likely the Georgian fellow is a bit of a firebrand nationalist ideologue. The Russian Hacker community that runs the botnet is made up of stupid teens and organised criminals- precisely the morons who'd be first to lash out at any slights against their country in some stupid, damaging, immature way. So it's possible that's what's happened.

The Soviets?
It's going to be the cold war all over again only with facebook instead of an arms race.

Well, if you wanna call a bunch of nerds and spammers "the soviets" who's going to play the U.S.A.? The starwars kid?

i'll pray for you and your family.bless ya.

Next, there will be calls for more legislation to regulate the internet and justify expansion of government power.

Because afterall its for your safety.

Afterall, they have to protect you from those evil cyberterrorists from China, North Korea, and Russia.

Meanwwhile Rumsfeld sold nuke reactors to N. Korea, industry gets shipped to China through outsourcing, and joint military exercises with Russia while Putin calls for a New World Order.

Makes me wonder if all these guys are on the same team while the enemy is the general public. And all this saber-rattling on the news is just a puppet show.


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And as for your mom, all I need is her 1st name and date of birth (send it through pm). I will seriously pray for her.

Thank you.

Don't know if it's related, but my office is in charge of the Peruvian Embassy website in Ecuador, and we got some pretty messed attack last week...

Had to stay extra hours because of that...

Hope that your mom got better.

He should play the U.S.A. at all times, no exceptions. He's a badass.

That kid would've pulled down the Berlin wall on the first day.

I'm glad to hear that your mother recovered from her surgery. I wish for the best for you and your family.

You must know someone in Washington who could find out for you. Can't you phone those hospitals directly from the Philippines? international calls are expensive, but there are phone cards that offer cheap rates, as Skool suggested.
Have you tried looking to see if those hospitals have webpages and tried e-mailing them to ask?
I'm sure there must be a way to contact people and find out.

OK man, but have you tried contacting the actual hospitals directly? Maybe even your mother's place of work to see if any of her colleagues are aware or have any information on your mother's situation?

And why are you posting this here? I'm not sure it'll be that much use to you.

Oz- he did say a few messages back that he'd left messages at the hospital and with her work.

timlight- I understand this is a terrible situation for you and I really do hope you can find out what has happened. The reason people are being doubtful here is because no hospital or doctor would reveal any kind of patient information to anyone other than a verified family member. I don't say that to discourage anyone from trying, maybe someone will be able to find something out if they try- but a lot of medical information is private, there are a lot of regulations about it. If you are pinning much hope on internet detectives I think you need a better plan. :]

It sounds like the foreign affairs office might pull through for you- that is the sort of thing they are there for. If they can't, then it is probably going to boil down to you to keep calling the hospitals, her work, or your family members until you reach a person, not just leave a message. If you are limited to the internet, perhaps you can try Skype as I mentioned. It's a free program, all you need is a headset or speakers/mic, and it's just a few pennies (you can pay with paypal or other method and get yourself $5 credit). There are international calling cards which are used with cell phones, the rates aren't as good as landlines but if that is what you are limited to then I think they are worth trying.

I can't explain why your family members won't give you information about your own mother, but I think random people on the internet will probably not be able to find out very much that is useful to you simply because hospitals do not reveal patients or their information.

For the internet, there's Skype:
http://www.skype.com/intl/en/getconnected

You can use that to make cheaper phone calls to land phones.

A Google search for St. Francis Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center in Washington brings up the following web pages as the best results:
http://www.fhshealth.org/services.aspx?id=226&menu_id=24&submenu_id=26
http://www.fhshealth.org/services.aspx?id=120&menu_id=12&submenu_id=14

They're both part of the Franciscan Health System.
The contact info for both:

St. Francis Hospital

34515 Ninth Ave. S.
Federal Way, WA 98003

The main administration phone number is: (253) 426-6711

St. Joseph Medical Center
1717 S J St.
Tacoma, WA 98405

The main administration phone number is: (253) 944-7960

This website has information what calling code you need when calling the US from the Philippines:
www.countrycallingcodes.com/

Try downloading skype from the link I provided.
here it is again: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/getconnected
Using that program, if you sign up with them, you can phone from your computer to the hospital and it will be cheaper than a cell phone and line call.

thanks ozoneocean and skoolmunkee for your efforts

Let us know how it turns out Timlight.

Part of the problem is verifying your identity. I think Skool mentioned something about that. This is why people will won't to post stuff to your address rather than e-mail: because it's more secure. That way they KNOW that it will go to you. E-mails can come from anybody who are pretending to be anybody. Why they'd think you're an imposter, I'm not sure, but people hear a lot of bad, silly stories from the Philippines unfortunately.

I wish you luck and hope for the best, but the best solution would be if you could actually get over there in person... Either that or build up trust with your relatives. Don't do anything to alienate them because they're the best hope you've got if you can't be there, regardless of what you think about them.

There are bad and silly stories everywhere.

I think that my mother's siblings did not provide complete information about my Mom's condition and what actually happened the night of August 8, 2009 in Federal Way. My mother's siblings said that her accounts and some of her documents are lost.

I think my mother is a victim of abuse and someone is taking advantage of her financially (someone like her siblings). My mother is in critical condition now and is already isolated.

I dearly hope your mum pulls through.

I don't go to any of the mentioned sites, so I was unaware of all this :P

If that is what's happening to your mom, that is a terrible situation and you need some professional advice, your foreign office would be a good start. I and everyone on Drunk Duck do hope you are able to find her and get her help but it will probably mean having to book a flight over there and do things in person. I don't mean to be unkind, but updating internet strangers about a personal situation and trying to inspire them to help you with stories about Sri Lankan disaster survivors... isn't helping your mom. If she is in the trouble you suspect she is in, there is not a single thing anyone on an internet forum can do to help you. You need to get in contact with professionals and agencies, get on a plane and get things taken care of. You may be doing those things, I don't know, but you're starting to make a strange impression as someone who wants everybody ELSE to help his mom, but appears to be doing little himself.

I'm sorry I upset you, Timlight. It's a very bad time for you and I should have been more sensitive. I overreacted to some misinterpretations I made from this thread and I apologize to you.

The people who are posting in this thread care about you, your mom, and the situation you are in. We know you are probably upset and may feel powerless- that is why they have been trying to give you advice. We do want to know what is going on with your mom and that you are trying everything that you or anyone can think of. I wasn't accusing you of not doing enough- only that you hadn't been sharing that in the thread you created, so we had no way of knowing. My concern was that you were relying on other people to do some things (not knowing what you yourself were doing) and I was trying to advise you NOT to rely on others.