Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 63 posts

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#41

Post by iSnow »

toddrew wrote: post #27
iSnow wrote: post #21

Why is this still all-caps - in 2013? It's not like there are any teletype lines left that cannot process lower case. Is this some kind of tradition or does NOAA still use EBCDIC mainframes?

These messages are always in caps to send faster over slower systems. http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.... I spent a decade as a communicator in the navy and radio teletype is still the primary method of communication at sea.

Interesting, thanks. I had no idea something like teletype was still operational, let alone in active use.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#42

Post by ams6110 »

toddrew wrote: post #27
iSnow wrote: post #21

Why is this still all-caps - in 2013? It's not like there are any teletype lines left that cannot process lower case. Is this some kind of tradition or does NOAA still use EBCDIC mainframes?

These messages are always in caps to send faster over slower systems. http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.... I spent a decade as a communicator in the navy and radio teletype is still the primary method of communication at sea.

Especially for submarines, to communicate underwater you need very low frequency radio and the bandwidth is correspondingly low. Sure they can surface and get satellite signals but that's not always practical depending on where they are and what their mission is.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#43

Post by JoeAltmaier »

huhtenberg wrote: post #36
thresh wrote: post #8

Being in Moscow, which is 6000+ km away from the epicentre of the earthquake, we still felt the tremors... Fascinating.

I find this very hard to believe.

Similar situation involving meteorites:

"I would sooner believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven!" - Thomas Jefferson

The point being, whether we believe it or not changes nothing. This person experienced it.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#44

Post by anonymfus »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #33
softbuilder wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ring of fire doesn't seem to include Haiti: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=36428 The Caribbean instead has it's own smaller "ring": http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0121/Haiti-eart...

I personally always get Haiti and Papua New Guinea confused in my head. I know they are very different, but for some reason I have to think for a few seconds when someone says Haiti.

>but for some reason

Because both islands are divided between 2 states each.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#45

Post by mpyne »

toddrew wrote: post #27
iSnow wrote: post #21

Why is this still all-caps - in 2013? It's not like there are any teletype lines left that cannot process lower case. Is this some kind of tradition or does NOAA still use EBCDIC mainframes?

These messages are always in caps to send faster over slower systems. http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.... I spent a decade as a communicator in the navy and radio teletype is still the primary method of communication at sea.

You might be interested to know that Naval message traffic is now permitted to use lowercase letters in some instances (think shore-side). This is an extremely recent change but I think I've even seen it used already with a message released from SECNAV.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#46

Post by salgernon »

vsbuffalo wrote: post #19

We felt a small earthquake in Davis, CA earlier tonight. Active day for our earth! I quite like earthly events like this — they really make one realize how minuscule we are.

I was in mountain view for the '89 loma prieta quake. The walls of our tilt-up on easy street we're waving like flags, and the huge Costco shelves in the shipping room collapsed, shattering a workers arm. I know that this is nothing like the horrors that other people in quakes have faced, but for years afterwards my flesh would crawl when a large truck would pass by. Then I moved to Oakland just in time for the '91 firestorm...

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#47

Post by huhtenberg »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #43
huhtenberg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this very hard to believe.

Similar situation involving meteorites: "I would sooner believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven!" - Thomas Jefferson The point being, whether we believe it or not changes nothing. This person experienced it.

That's just too smart of a point, I'm afraid I'm all smitten. Though a construction next door or a demolition few blocks down the road would've been a simpler explanation.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#48

Post by loungin »

tricolon wrote: post #30
toddrew wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These messages are always in caps to send faster over slower systems. http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.... I spent a decade as a communicator in the navy and radio teletype is still the primary method of communication at sea.

That makes sense. However, I argue that the NOAA could serve their warnings on the web in all lowercase for the sake of readability. Then again, that could be a quick hack for someone.

Quick hack, maybe. But someone getting the time to do so is another issue. And these are old systems, you want them to do the work so you can read a tsunami warning that happens how often?

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#49

Post by _wp3r »

tricolon wrote: post #30
toddrew wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These messages are always in caps to send faster over slower systems. http://www.alternatewars.com/BBOW/Computing/Capital_Letters.... I spent a decade as a communicator in the navy and radio teletype is still the primary method of communication at sea.

That makes sense. However, I argue that the NOAA could serve their warnings on the web in all lowercase for the sake of readability. Then again, that could be a quick hack for someone.

They deliver the information on a number of formatted pages. This is simply the source document.

Re: 8.2 magnitude earthquake off Russia with potential to generate a tsunami

#50

Post by pjungwir »

marquis wrote: post #26
jensnockert wrote: post #4

Updated with more information, there won't be a tsunami (probably) http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/events/PAAQ/2013/05/24/mnafyn/2/W...

Supplementary data to your link in case of a change: historical tsunami travel times in hours: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/tsu_travel_time_events.shtml... Most relevant: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/icons/1923_0203.jpg

How can a tsunami cross the Pacific in 10 hours? Isn't that as fast as an airliner? Of course I'm not questioning the maps, but isn't that shocking? How does it work?
Post reply on HN