womzilla | The normality of it all

This is a pager message, an alert received on a Goldman Sachs server about a potential system problem on a market data feed from another broker:

2001-09-11 08:46:46 Arch [1612975] D ALPHA
PAGE FROM lifeline: alert 8933585 ETS appl nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com ETS RTCE: - Market data inconsistent...Cantor API problem Trading system offline on nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com, run by etsuser on nbetpsd27, pid = 24277

At the time this message was generated, Cantor Fitzgerald had offices on the 101st through 105th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. 110 minutes later, they didn't, and all 658 people in the office that morning were dead.

Someone has anonymously posted over half a million text pager messages from September 11, 2001 to Wikileaks. The above is the earliest message I could find which betrays any sign of what had happened and what was coming. Security trading systems are among the most fault-aware computer applications there are, and market data the most aware of the aware. I'm betting this message was generated less than two seconds after the impact.

Nineteen seconds later, another banality, another routine system failure:

2001-09-11 08:47:07 Arch [1425048] C ALPHA
300~MPfetchData:openConnectionToManager:ERROR CONNECTING:192.168.35.97 : www36 connectToServerPort:socket/socket timed out at /home/crdtdrv/creditderivatives/script/MPfetchData.pl line 342, <SOCK_192.168.35.19> chunk 180590.

The first human message that is an unmistakable reference to the enormity is a full minute later:

2001-09-11 08:47:48 Arch [0901509] B ALPHA
wtc....BR

And convergence, as the humans start waking up to what the computers knew 90,000 milliseconds earlier:

2001-09-11 08:48:16 Arch [0736557] D ALPHA
From: Mercatili, Stephen (Exchange)- Tom, we got a call from otc, redi is having a problem 226-5469
(n.b: otc = over-the-counter trading; redi = a trading system at Goldman Sachs.)

And then it breaks open:

2001-09-11 08:48:31 Metrocall [0848897] A ALPHA
CALL THE DESK 911

2001-09-11 08:48:33 Metrocall [003759849] C ALPHA
CALL THE OFFICE PLEASE.

2001-09-11 08:49:07 Arch [0796990] D ALPHA
951-1768 HELP!

but even then, life is going on:

2001-09-11 08:48:24 Arch [1072988] D ALPHA
Sanchez Maggie M|I love you, have a really good day...yeppie I get to watch women pee

2001-09-11 08:49:48 Arch [1018152] C ALPHA
(4)oraprod@mail.spr|File system /u21 on dapmdp01 exceeded 80% - Please investigate!

2001-09-11 08:49:39 Skytel [007610950] B ALPHA
Stop sucking it up...You are making me sick

2001-09-11 08:49:52 Skytel [005524657] A ALPHA
mailcast@weather4you.com| Forecast for Great Meadows, New Jersey|Here is the weather forecast for Great Meadows, New Jersey. Today. Mostly sunny with patchy fog early this morning. Highs in the upper 70s. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. Toni

More trading alerts:

2001-09-11 08:50:31 Skytel [003260422] B ALPHA
An Aloha call is starting . This is for a fire at 2WT. Please call into TeleMeeting conference center at -877-913-7943 . If Morgan Stanley has not initiated the call you will hear music until they initiate the call. Dallas Data

And this, four minutes after the first computer alarm:

2001-09-11 08:50:46 Arch [0927835] C ALPHA
49-CNN SAID THEY THINK IT WAS A PLANE THAT HIT THE BLDG. -KAREN

And with that, the humans caught up. Everyone knew.

Well, almost everyone.

2001-09-11 08:51:11 Metrocall [0623896] C ALPHA
goodmorning I love you hope you slept good Have a greatday!!me Ps I m going back to bed (your side) naked think about it XXXOOO

And so to bed.