Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?

#151

Post by sidewndr46 » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 4:16 PM UTC

palmscenter wrote: post #117

gedy wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in California, and the ones I've received were custody battles between parents...

A child was abducted, and in some cases - as happened just a few days ago - the noncustodial parent threatens to kill the child. And does. The fact that the abduction involves a custody dispute is only one of the factors that goes into the decision to send an alert. Many abductions are vehicle thefts where the thief takes off without noticing or caring that there is a child in the car. In one recent case, the thief t…

Almost everyone owns a phone. Amber alerts go to all phones by default. It is therefore statistically unremarkable that "Citizens who received the Amber alert found the child". It's akin to the observation that they were all born after the Civil War. It has no relevance.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?

#152

Post by toast0 » Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

tablespoon wrote: post #148

toast0 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was pretty widely publicized before it happened, and I think it even got delayed a few days, during the business day. Honestly, I can't imagine it will ever be used for reals[1], but testing it once seems reasonable. [1] few disasters, man made or natural, reach national scope. Even a grid failure would likely only reach half the country, but do you need a national alert for that? What useful content could it have…

> Many inbound nukes is about all I could see it used for, but I expect that would cause more panic and be less useful than not sending a message.. What now? Sure it would cause less panic--in same the way shooting someone in the head unannounced would cause less panic than giving them warning to duck. If the nukes are incoming, "avoiding panic" is the wrong priority. > And I'm not convinced a decision to send a mess…

> There was actually a false alarm alert in the 70s, and it did get out quickly (google "code word hatefulness").

Well it got out quickly, but the cancellation was slow.

I have no doubt that the alerts would go out quickly, if there was a decision to send them (and assuming the means to send them is still around). More and more of these systems has gotten automated so there's no one at the local stations who would need to decide to send or not. I'm just not sure that the 25 minutes or so between detection and impact is enough time to decide to send an alert, amidst all the other activities that would certainly need to be done.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?

#153

Post by chunk_waffle » Fri, Nov 11, 2022, 2:08 PM UTC

radford-neal wrote: post #26

I very much doubt that there is any technical reason for the alerts always being loud. It's a deliberate decision. Like the whole idea of amber alerts, it is a matter of authorities taking decisions that make them feel good, without considering the consequences. Amber alerts are bad. We get them now and them in Ontario at 3am, sent to the entire (rather large) province. This is idiotic. The probability that someone w…

Or how about the 3:30 AM follow up alert letting you know the child was found and is fine.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?

#154

Post by Elyra » Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 6:02 PM UTC

RegnisGnaw wrote: post #120

Elyra wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ontario

We have the option to disable 'AMBER Alerts' on both our Pixel and S22 phones. However it does nothing as the alerts all come in as National/Presidential Alerts. We are on Telus/Videotron.

Not sure if you'll see this, but I stand corrected, just received a test alert on my new pixel 7 despite having those turned off. I used to not receive those (or they were at least silent, I forget since I didn't receive any in at least a year and now suddenly with my new phone) with my og pixel, both are unlocked and not-rooted with stock android. Only other difference is I also needed a new sim card because for some reason it wasn't working in my new phone. I had that sim for over 10 years, used it in my old pixel and was still registered with bell as belonging to a blackberry.