My phone went off 3 times in one night. Two amber alerts, one silver alert. I was dead the next day.
Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
31–40 of 154 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#32[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#33My guess is a conservative reading of the applicable laws, if anything. Turn off amber alerts; they're entirely useless and you can now turn them off without turning off the tornado warnings (almost entirely useless, too).
Why are they useless? I grew up in an area with tornadoes and when one came ripping through my childhood suburb and destroyed some houses I was happy to have forewarning.
Some areas have weather patterns where warnings are frequent, but actual damage is rare. Cincinnati is like this from personal experience. We get far more injuries and damage from high winds and ice than tornados.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#34What is an "amber alert"? I've never encountered this before, and I don't see any option for it on my phone. I'm an Android user in the UK, if that helps.
It's when you destroy the attention span of anyone within driving distance of a custodial dispute.
There's also silver alerts, where you do the same for a missing old person.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#35What is an "amber alert"? I've never encountered this before, and I don't see any option for it on my phone. I'm an Android user in the UK, if that helps.
It's system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#36I 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…
The government gets to re discovered alert fatigue i guess… instead of just asking anyone who has ever been on call
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why are they useless? I can’t speak to tornado alerts, but the Amber Alert child alerts were becoming excessive and useless in my state. I was getting alerts from many hundreds of miles away, often while trying to sleep. Other times they’d forget to put relevant information in the first alert so they’d send several more to follow up. When we finally got a series of multiple Amber alerts in the middle of the night,…
Quoted post unavailable.
These HN comments get so tiring. Yes, I'm sure everyone would be better off if only countries were managed like a tech startup.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#38What is an "amber alert"? I've never encountered this before, and I don't see any option for it on my phone. I'm an Android user in the UK, if that helps.
As I understand it's called "Child Rescue Alert" in the UK.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are they useless? I grew up in an area with tornadoes and when one came ripping through my childhood suburb and destroyed some houses I was happy to have forewarning.
> Why are they useless? I can’t speak to tornado alerts, but the Amber Alert child alerts were becoming excessive and useless in my state. I was getting alerts from many hundreds of miles away, often while trying to sleep. Other times they’d forget to put relevant information in the first alert so they’d send several more to follow up. When we finally got a series of multiple Amber alerts in the middle of the night,…
"When we finally got a series of multiple Amber alerts in the middle of the night, most of the people I know turned them off."
To be honest I wonder if the people in charge were starting to get a kick at waking up so many people, or if they were engaging in some sort of malicious compliance, e.g., maybe the people responsible for sending the alerts out are also pretty pissed off at being woken up to send them out. The stated reason for them existing leaves no room for there to be any reason to be sending these out at 3am, if neither the abductee nor the putative abductor were known to be nocturnal.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no way to lower amber alert volume on headphones?
#40My guess is a conservative reading of the applicable laws, if anything. Turn off amber alerts; they're entirely useless and you can now turn them off without turning off the tornado warnings (almost entirely useless, too).
Why are they useless? I grew up in an area with tornadoes and when one came ripping through my childhood suburb and destroyed some houses I was happy to have forewarning.
If you live in a place prone to tornadoes, there should be real citywide outdoor tornado sirens that you'd hear from miles away. Also sending it to your phone doesn't add much unless you're a recording artist in a soundproof studio.