Senate Wants Emergency Alerts to go Out Through Netflix, Spotify, etc.

Patton187 said:
I work for the state dick:)
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LOL, well I wasn't actually saying that everyone working for the State are morons. In the Hawaii fuck-up it was a single State worker's screw-up that caused the false alert to go out and snafu everything.

As long as we are going to rely on humans to do things, we are going to have to realize that sometimes humans screw up, and while we do need to address the screw-ups, we don't need the Federal Government to be the sole point of remedy for every screw-up that happens. The State of Hawaii should be more then capable of dealing with an issue in the Alert system that only effected people within Hawaii.

No matter how big a screw up a person makes, if it's effect is local to a single city you don't need a State or Federal band-aid for it, the City effected should be as far as anyone needs to look for a remedy and a plan for prevention in the future.
 
lcpiper said:
Wait wait wait.

You think the Federal Government should go down to the State level and take some action to prevent a moron who works for the State from making a fuck-up ?

I think you want way too much out of the Federal Government and are not putting the blame for the fuck-up where it's warranted.

I also think that this kind of , frankly lazy thinking, is part of why the Federal Government is so damned big and into so damn much.

Don't be part of the problem please.
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Here is my opinion: Before you ask the government to do something (especially the Feds) ask yourself: Will I be happy with how the government fixes this?

Chances are you will not. Rarely is anyone happy with what the government does (state, local, or federal). Please keep the government out of it until its so fucked up that the only choice is to have the government do something. Because by then nobody will be happy and the solution will be one nobody likes but at least it will be a solution.

Remember governments are generally not very good at fixing things.
 
Frobozz said:
How big/popular does your application have to be to be required to implement this idea?
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And what will happen if support is not added in a timely fashion.

No thanks, I feel phones and radio is enough. I would end up using apps that do not have it just to not be interrupted because a storm is nearby, nothing I can do about that anyways lol.
 
MrTroy03 said:
If they do it right, I think its not a bad idea. When you aren't watching cable/satellite or OTA TV and a Tornado is on the way, how am I to know it is on the way if my phone doesn't go off for some reason? There have been SEVERAL times where I was under a severe thunderstorm warning and there was no alert on my phone.
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This might make sense if you live in a tornado prone area. Biggest disasters we have around here are usually excessive snowstorms. They don't usually kill you unless you go driving too much in them and don't know what you are doing, and we generally know about those a few days in advance.

We get those big red thunderstorm warnings on occasion, but they just make me laugh. I don't live in a papier-mâché house. They are best ignored. If there is an excessive wind warning I might lay my stepsons portable basketball hoop down on its side, just so it doesn't blow over on the cars in the driveway, but that's about it.
 
Tiberian said:
I have no issues with this whatsoever. My wife, even in spite of me loving her, tends - against my better wishes and instructions not to do it - watches Netflix or Amazon Prime Video or any other videos on her laptop full screen. We sometimes keep in touch either with our smartphones of course or by using Discord or sometimes even Hangouts, and she has this hyper-super-duper tunnel vision that occurs when she's that focused on some movie or TV show or whatever she's watching. It means she doesn't hear her phone chirping at her or see the notification light, it also means she misses the little popup boxes telling her she got a message on Discord or Hangouts on the laptop she's using and it gets quite frustrating.

So yeah, while this particular situation doesn't mean I can send her such messages that just stop the damned video playback completely, if the shit in the world truly hits the fan it would be nice to know that SOMETHING can get through to crash her tunnel vision. :)
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Your wife is sleeping with someone else.
 
Darunion said:
And what will happen if support is not added in a timely fashion.

No thanks, I feel phones and radio is enough. I would end up using apps that do not have it just to not be interrupted because a storm is nearby, nothing I can do about that anyways lol.
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Yeah, as mentioned above, if they limited these warnings to actual life threatening situations that you need to know about, I'd be much more likely to sign up. Thunderstorms - at least the ones we get up here - don't scare me.

Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain!
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
This might make sense if you live in a tornado prone area. Biggest disasters we have around here are usually excessive snowstorms. They don't usually kill you unless you go driving too much in them and don't know what you are doing, and we generally know about those a few days in advance.

We get those big red thunderstorm warnings on occasion, but they just make me laugh. I don't live in a papier-mâché house. They are best ignored. If there is an excessive wind warning I might lay my stepsons portable basketball hoop down on its side, just so it doesn't blow over on the cars in the driveway, but that's about it.
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Around here you pay attention when a severe thunderstorm alert happens. There are two things that can accompany that warning. Hail and/or tornadoes. Either will kill you. We do not have any hail sirens around, but the tornado horns going off is a good sign to hunker down inside, or in a storm shelter if you have one.
 
Bullshit. What scenario do you have where someone has only streaming services, and not a cell phone? I'm guessing this will only be helpful to an extremely small portion of the population, but the rest of us get to enjoy the new $1.99 monthly emergency broadcast administration fees on all our streaming services now.
 
BSmith said:
I do not get any warnings on my phone (dumb flip-phone) and we have no land line. We cut the cord some time ago. Right now we live close enough to the tornado sirens we can hear them go off, but that is about it. I would welcome a warning through streaming services.



My cell phone has no such service. My Wife's phone is rarely in earshot.
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You get text message push for free. It's the law. If you aren't then somebody is breaking the rules. Even pay as you go phones work as the tower they attach to provided semi-geographic location.

It's also pretty easy to tell tornado weather. The vertical drafts visible on storm fronts are a good clue. If you live in the mid west and get sudden pressure change, rain, hail or those strong updraft cloud edges, the first thing you should do check NOAA.gov
 
No thanks. Here is Alabama, we have "emergency" alerts 5-10+ times a day when there is nothing but a rainstorm or a little bit of wind. They have even started doing it for the potential for fog.

This would completely ruin Netflix, etc. for me. Oh yeah.. I want 3-5 "emergency" alerts to pop up each and every time I watch something on Netflix. No thanks!

With the warnings coming over multiple phones and an iPad, I think I am pretty well covered.

If they do do this, it had better be an OPT-IN thing, not something else that is forced down whether we want it or not.
 
kju1 said:
Just dont think its necessary to alert over the TV.
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Radio and TV were the primary means of public alert systems since.....forever, why shouldn't the system also apply to new forms of communication technology like VOD services?
 
cyclone3d said:
No thanks. Here is Alabama, we have "emergency" alerts 5-10+ times a day when there is nothing but a rainstorm or a little bit of wind. They have even started doing it for the potential for fog.

This would completely ruin Netflix, etc. for me. Oh yeah.. I want 3-5 "emergency" alerts to pop up each and every time I watch something on Netflix. No thanks!

With the warnings coming over multiple phones and an iPad, I think I am pretty well covered.

If they do do this, it had better be an OPT-IN thing, not something else that is forced down whether we want it or not.
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I agree, this proposal is asking for a fucking recording disaster. Guys, this is the last thing we need. It sounds good on paper, but in the real world there will probably be bugs that issue duplicate Amber alerts and Amber alert cancellations even when you opt out :rolleyes:
 
BSmith said:
Around here you pay attention when a severe thunderstorm alert happens. There are two things that can accompany that warning. Hail and/or tornadoes. Either will kill you. We do not have any hail sirens around, but the tornado horns going off is a good sign to hunker down inside, or in a storm shelter if you have one.
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Jeez. Lethal hail? How big does your hail get? I've never seen larger than pea-sized hail. It may not be pleasant, but it's not dangerous.
 
DigitalGriffin said:
You get text message push for free. It's the law. If you aren't then somebody is breaking the rules. Even pay as you go phones work as the tower they attach to provided semi-geographic location.
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I have not ever gotten any kind of emergency broadcast on my phone. Ever. Not even sure if my phone supports push notifications.
 
Slippery slope. What will they want to push to them next after alerts ? Tinfoil hat activated.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Jeez. Lethal hail? How big does your hail get? I've never seen larger than pea-sized hail. It may not be pleasant, but it's not dangerous.
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Had a piece go through my windshield in one storm. It was about the size of a softball. People get killed around here. Search "Fort Worth" and "hail storms" to see the list of animals and people killed by hail storms in previous years. You do not want to get caught, by surprise, in those storms.
 
BSmith said:
Had a piece go through my windshield in one storm. It was about the size of a softball. People get killed around here. Search "Fort Worth" and "hail storms" to see the list of animals and people killed by hail storms in previous years. You do not want to get caught, by surprise, in those storms.
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d8lock said:
The hail here the other day was golf ball sized. Not that unusual in the midwest.
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I've heard of large, damaging hail, but I always assumed it was one of those rare "500 year storm" type of occurrences, you may have happen once in a lifetime.
 
It is not a live service therefore it doesn't apply.

By the same definition every connected service could do it.

Eh, it's an archaic system anyway. No other country has anything similar to it apart from the US afaik.

If anything it should be scrapped altogether as obsolete.
 
Galvin said:
I get alerts for normal thunderstorms. I live in maine. Thunderstorms are normal. And we get stupid alerts for them.

Alerts should only go out if your life is in danger, but unfortunately its for stupid crap.
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We had around 2 years of that shit. Was annoying. Now they stepped back so far that last week I had 60-70 mph straight line winds hit on the front end of a swall line and my power went down within 2 minutes. No warnings. The peeps at noaa need to figure out a comfortable middle ground!
 
DigitalGriffin said:
How long before they demand it goes on every IOT device. Your camera has to warn you? Your router has to warn you? Your email has to warn you? Your OS has to warn you?
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You forgot your internet-connected smart refrigerator, smart microwave, smart toaster, smart thermostat, smart vibrator....
 
I wonder if one of the performance metrics for senator review is "how many dumbass bills introduced this year"

We have more than enough avenues for getting emergency alerts. And I suspect teh most effective one is IN THE SMARTPHONE THAT NEARLY EVERYONE HAS or is near someone at all times of the day that has one.
 
ThatsAgood1jay said:
Radio and TV were the primary means of public alert systems since.....forever, why shouldn't the system also apply to new forms of communication technology like VOD services?
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Because, as I said earlier, if they are going to implement something like this they need to limit it to the ISPs and Service Providers not content providers.

Time Warner, Cox, Verizon, Bell, T-Mobile, Sprint all yes and perfectly doable.

Netflix, Vudu, Spotify no.

See, think of it this way, I have Cox cable for home internet, and T-Mobile for my cell phone service, that's two entities involved with providing me emergency broadcast services for all of my internet connections no matter what I am currently doing with those devices or what content I am enjoying at the time. These entities are able to do the job as required in service to the public good.

But if you do it like these idiots think it needs to be done, every damned service on the internet will have to provide this at the content level instead of the broadcast level. The costs always are transferred to the user/customer and I'd rather pay for it twice than 80 times.

Besides that, if the government requires it then they have to monitor and enforce it. At the broadcast level this is far less expensive for the government and therefore takes less in tax revenues then doing so at the content provider level.

It's a poor implementation of a reasonable idea and they need to rethink it because they are doing it wrong.
 
Amazing how we got by for so many thousands of years with out these services. It's bad enough that the local weather guessers (not even AMA licensed) interrupt shows for hours at a time giving you a second-by-second play-by-play of a weak t-storm, you want it to interrupt netflix, et-al, too? I have a smart phone, have messaging turned off (or a least no audible alerts), after a week or so I'll see a bunch of alerts, just delete them. If somebody wants me they can leave a vm. I can just imagine how Pai would implement something like this, he'd end up authorizing the carriers to charge for it, on per-alert basis.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Jeez. Lethal hail? How big does your hail get? I've never seen larger than pea-sized hail. It may not be pleasant, but it's not dangerous.
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I've seen it myself in Lubbock Texas, though it's not common to see grapefruit sized hail, a single occurrence is an experience for a lifetime. The shit pulverized our family's new Vista Cruiser, shattered ever piece of glass on the car, full penetration on several. And completely penetrated the roofing and ceiling dropping right onto the carpeted floor of the house. Mom and I had to go out and get the horses into the barn, we had to use metal garbage can lids as shields, still hurt like hell getting hit, and nearly killed one of the horses, hit her right above the eye on her skull, she was instantly panic'd and crazy, thought the horse might kill us before we could get her inside.

Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8rjyaHYbsmcHJ7G9YgEtIZePP7eUVm7M16y2AdN7qEG5QCGGR.jpg
 
geolocation on the web is also a crapshoot. VPN usage could result in you getting some non-relevant alerts.
 
Weird, this is something I have actually thought about. I like the idea it and it should be done. I would need something for PC though as I hardly check the tv and my phone isn't always on me, I bet Microsoft ends up implementing something into Win10.
 
arnemetis said:
Bullshit. What scenario do you have where someone has only streaming services, and not a cell phone? I'm guessing this will only be helpful to an extremely small portion of the population, but the rest of us get to enjoy the new $1.99 monthly emergency broadcast administration fees on all our streaming services now.
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Came here to say essentially the same thing.

Private business and government regulations are usually such a harmonious and fruitful outcome for the average consumer. /s
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Jeez. Lethal hail? How big does your hail get? I've never seen larger than pea-sized hail. It may not be pleasant, but it's not dangerous.
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Here in OKC, had a storm a few years back with hail large enough to punch through the roof, ceiling and bounce around the room in several houses. A friend had her cat insta-killed when it got beaned in the head while making a mad dash for the house. A co-worker at the time had most of his house windows broken. Another friend has a car that resembles a golf ball. Insurance basically totaled it. He replaced the glass, paid off the loan and still drives it.
 
This is somewhat unrelated but has anyone ever been at a *really* crowded place when one of those alerts goes off? Concert, sporting event, casino, mall etc?

It's pretty funny :D
 
TMCM said:
I think it's a good idea. I'd be interested in how it would work. for instance if there are sever storm warnings in a 3-4 county area how they would send the alerts in only those areas
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usually based on ip address location, so the only people that wouldn't get it are those on VPN.. they already do location based cell phone emergency alerts.. either way i think it's a good idea.
 
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Why the fuck do I even have a cell phone? Let alone MULTIPLE cell phones in my home at any given time...

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This is stupid. What happens if we're watching Netflix on my mobile, do we get double alerts?
 
I have a few problems with this. First off these services would need to know your location 100% of the time which is more info than what is needed for them to work. Right now they know your nearest server but that doesn’t mean anything. If you are on a larger ISP it could think you are in a city across the state depending on how their network is setup. So either they need to have your exact location at all times or you will get unrelated reports.

Next is who exactly would control this system and how do they plan on it working? Tying into 1 or 2 systems is one thing. But to have access into every streaming service, now you are creating potential security holes all over the place.

MooCow said:
I have no problem with this as long as they don't use it to send out fucking Amber alerts.
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I had all that turned off on my phone. Currently on a loaner while waiting for a new screen to come in to fix my phone and forgot to turn that off. 3am this morning get woke up from an amber alert for a city 4 hours away.
 
That's actually a very good idea, as more and more people move to streaming only, its actually needed
 
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