A moderate earthquake just hit San Jose area. USGS link
Definitely the strongest one I have felt since I moved to California 5 years ago.
Earthquake hit while I was in a class. It took me about 5-10 seconds to realize what the heck was going on before diving under the desk. Everyone else in my class followed suit.
A ceiling panel looked ominously close to falling free, but the shaking stopped after about 20 seconds, so it hang on.
After our class went out into the parking lot, everyone started calling their friends and relatives, but almost no one could get through. Interestingly enough text messages did go through.
Overall this was a very good exercise for me in terms of what to do and how to react during an earthquake.
Anyone else felt it?

Yes. We felt it very well in Albany/Berkeley, plus 2-3 small aftershocks later. It was longest in duration one, compared to everything I felt here since 1999. The phone lines were overloaded too. No problems with internet/messaging though

Another great thing about the internet

Nothing wakes you up and says "Are you ready?" like a small tremblor. Consider it a nice practice run. Glad it wasn't serious and you guys are okay.

Text messaging is much more reliable when circuits are overloaded because it uses far less bandwidth and the system will store and send the message when it can.

And telephone companies thought the phone lines were clogged after earthquakes when there were only land lines!

All those calls that blocked verbal service were "Did you feel that?" calls.

IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN EMERGENCY AFTER A QUAKE, STAY OFF THE EFFING PHONE! OTHER PEOPLE MAY REALLY NEED IT!

Sue

Hi Redflare,

Keeping an eye on the local lost pets section of the newspaper (more lost pets = higher chance of an earthquake) in conjunction with exceptional high and low tides (spring and neap tides) is a good way to predict an earthquake.

Apparently there is also a correlation between large local transistions in ionospheric electron density and ionospheric temperatures a few days prior to an earthquake.

The RTCM SC104 error correction data used in the differential error correction for GPS could therefore also have a predictive signal for earthquakes within the local datasets produced by locally based 300KHz beacon transmitters. Many of the SC104 datasets produced by the beacon transmitters are available on the internet.

So ...were you equipped?

I am pretty well equipped all the time.
My biggest concern was that I didn't realized fast enough of what was happening. That is why it took me so long to duck under the desk.

Hmm...
I have never heard of this.