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8.9 earthquake hits Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#31

Post by Sandman »

suyash wrote: post #26

Is this post appropriate for HN?

No, it is not. From the HN guidelines: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

And unlike cosmok, I do mind it, because this type of news is slowly turning HN into something it shouldn't be. There's a reason for this particular guideline, and I think we should honor that.

EDIT: I don't mind the downvoting, but please, if you do that, at least post a comment on why you think my comment deserved to be downvoted.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#33

Post by po »

apsurd wrote: post #17

Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??

Besides what patio11 said, there is something similar to the US National Alert System which gets used quite often. It puts alerts on the top of every TV channel when an earthquake starts... unfortunately my TV then fell off the cabinet so I took that as an alert and climbed under my table.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#35

Post by tuhin »

apsurd wrote: post #17

Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??

Interesting. However, it is something that the governments should be handling rather than a private company. Just an opinion.

Or a central database and disaster management site where you just register the contact details of your loved ones including yourself. Also a good idea is a general notification for groups.

So say I learnt about it and am in the other end of the world, I would want to leave a beep so shrill that my family gets the hell out and run.

Another easy solution is setting up a reminder service from local trends on twitter+natural language processing+ Bloody loud notification depending on threat levels.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#37

Post by JoachimSchipper »

apsurd wrote: post #17

Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??

Sirens are common. Cell phones? You'd just overload the network.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#38

Post by rdl »

cosmok wrote: post #30
suyash wrote: post #26

Is this post appropriate for HN?

Not according to the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." But, I don't mind it all as I get to read views and firsthand accounts from fellow hackers that is much different from what I see on TV.

I was particularly interested in "is patio11 ok?" (and, are there any transpac fiber cuts?)

I think it's fair to post stories which are headlines in ~all news simultaneously, even if not "hacker news" -- nuclear explosions, assassinations of G7 leaders, major wars, etc.

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