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The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

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Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#181
post #9

Yikes. Now consider this: this is the design for the missile warning system. It is possible, even likely, that some missile launch system has similar catastrophic UI. How we've not wiped ourselves off by accident so far is a miracle.

J random local civilian warning system really doesn't have to be as tight as "don't blow up the world". There's a scale, here.

The back-up nuclear launch code for the Minuteman missile system used to be 00000000. You have far too much faith in humanity.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#182
post #100

The thing that annoys me most about this situation is people complaining about how long it took to send out the "Sorry, there was no missile" message. Just as I expected these were hard-coded messages that were sent out by a button (link) click and not a free-form text area. There are many (good) reasons you want your program set up this way (let's ignore the rest of the terrible UI/UX for now). It makes complete sen…

Good thing NPM was up so they could get a new build out with the all clear message.

Dollars to donuts this garbage is Java all the way down.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#183
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...would be a scary looking alert confirmation dialog If I had a bitcoin for every time someone clicked through the confirm dialog without looking...

I don't recall the source, so I'm not sure of the accuracy, but I read that this is what happened, the employee clicked through the confirmation screen.

Maybe the drill message link also had a confirmation screen, so the one he really needed to pay attention to was ignored.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#184

It's easy to see how this is bad, and I bet dozens of designers are now creating alternatives for their dribble and Twitter appreciation, but the problem is probably what led to this, not this specifically. I can see it: a contractor started with a link that triggers a push notification, then someone requested another link, then another, then it grew from there, never having the ability to stop and rethink this from…

I think a big problem is that people that don't have a lot of experience with design treat design decisions as subjective and arbitrary when in fact there is a lot of science to back up certain design choices (human vision, cognitive psychology, and not A/B testing.) As a result the approval process for any design, whether the initial or a redesign, gets stuck on the desks of various people that either don't feel qua…

You don't need any science to know to make an action with very serious consequences : hard to invoke (e.g. must click through three confirmation forms that all require some real-time thought to complete correctly) and clear in purpose (e.g. displays in large blinking text : "This is an action for which you'll be fired if you are doing it in error".

There had to have been quite the cavalcade of idiots behind the making of this system.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I'd be surprised if the number was non-zero (think in terms of car crashes, stress-aggravated cerebrovascular accidents, and so on). I'm assuming you meant you'd be surprised if that number was zero. It's awfully hard to, in good faith, directly associate a message with a death. I mean if you wanted to make it seem bigger than it was, you could associate any crash or heart related death that happened in that 38…

It shouldn't be hard to check if there's a spike in mortality above the median background around the period of the test. Statistical significance will depend on the size of the spike.

Ya, but like you said, it would have to be a significant spike, particularly for a 38 minute window. I haven't heard anything reported.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#187
post #33

The thing that annoys me most about this situation is people complaining about how long it took to send out the "Sorry, there was no missile" message. Just as I expected these were hard-coded messages that were sent out by a button (link) click and not a free-form text area. There are many (good) reasons you want your program set up this way (let's ignore the rest of the terrible UI/UX for now). It makes complete sen…

>maybe have to type a confirmation string Having to type out YES or some phrase is a fairly common "Are you really sure you want to do this??" sort of thing. I gather they're also looking at requiring a second person's confirmation which, if practical and very unlikely to make it impossible to send any message, seems reasonable as well.

Well if it was a proper test run (also to check procedures), the test too would have this extra confirmation.

Maybe changing the challenge to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT YES THERE REALLY IS A FUCKING NUKE COMING AT US SEND THE FUCKING MESSAGE!!!" in the real challenge would work better. Of course, when you have to push the button like that, I'm not sure if you could still type straight ;).

But yeah: how do you properly write a test for a potentially dangerous operation?

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...would be a scary looking alert confirmation dialog If I had a bitcoin for every time someone clicked through the confirm dialog without looking...

In the this case nuclear alert it should be a big red button with a locked cover - do we know how many people died in the panic due to traffic accidents, heart attacks etcetera

How would you test whether the big red button with the locked cover still works though? I mean that's the kinda thing you don't want to see broken (mechanical failure, rust, etc), and these systems can remain unchanged for decades. You have to be able to test the real thing somehow, which gives a chance for accidental triggering.

Re: The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday

#190

For those of you who don't believe a single thing we're being told about this situation -- including this screenshot -- just know that you're not alone. You don't need to question the narrative publicly like some of us do, but it's always good to keep an open mind about everything we're told, and sadly, that means considering the possibility that there have been more lies than truths told since Saturday. Hopefully so…

Are you suggesting that there may have been a real attack but it's being kept quiet (by idk, the Deep State, lizard people, round-earth conspiracists, etc?)
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