New York State Testing Emergency Alerts Over Gaming Networks

An anonymous reader writes "Gamers are used to confronting invading terrorists, nuclear attacks, and natural calamities—in virtual form. But those living in New York State could soon receive warnings about real emergencies through their favorite video console. State authorities are testing a plan that would see the Emergency Management Office issue alerts over online gaming networks in addition to regular channels."

Comments

OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

Zerg rush!

Good Idea!

[rhathar]

This is actually a great idea. It was done on radio when everyone had a radio, then TV to reach the masses. Now? There are a lot of people who will be reached only by this medium and aren't tuning into prime time cable to find out about the flash flood in the area or tornado on its way.

Re:Good Idea!

[csartanis]

Who filters the users by region? Does MS and Sony give NY state the list of users that live there or does NY state tell MS to broadcast the message to this region?

(and yes, I RTFA)

Re:Good Idea!

[Hatta]

So, what happens when you're playing Eternal Darkness II and your sanity meter runs out.

Re:Good Idea!

[rhathar]

Hopefully they add some kind of app that you can configure (thus giving people opt-in/opt-out) with your zipcode or the like.

Re:Good Idea!

[Shakrai]

Who filters the users by region? Does MS and Sony give NY state the list of users that live there or does NY state tell MS to broadcast the message to this region?

New York State already has an alert system. It's operated on an opt-in basis. You provide the information for the geographical area that you wish to receive notifications for. It currently sends out notifications for severe weather, amber alerts, escaped convicts, etc. It can also do more mundane (weather/event reporting) reports too.

I would imagine that the purposed system would just link into that. You'd simply be able to select "Counterstrike" and "Call of Duty" in addition to "SMS", "Voice" and "e-mail" as a notification option. The onus would still be on you to opt-in.

Re:Good Idea!

[Monkeedude1212]

You do. When you sign up for Live you can set your region. Then I guess its up to you if you want to recieve emergency messages or not, by setting your region or not. All in all, its your loss if you don't, but a great system if you do.

Re:Good Idea!

[KharmaWidow]

adding it to phone and tv made those items "necessary" for life. Is the gov going to ensure everyone has gaming console as well?

Re:Good Idea!

[Nadaka]

These kinds of emergency notifications should be as hard to opt out of as possible. For a real emergency as many people need to know about it as possible. Unless of course "this is a test of the emergency broadcasting system...".

Re:Good Idea!

[ozbird]

It currently sends out notifications for severe weather, amber alerts, escaped convicts, etc.

I'm not sure which is scarier: people wanting to be kept informed of escaped convicts, or the fact it apparently happens so often there's a notification system for it.

Re:Good Idea!

[Darkness404]

Not really. I live in the midwest and we get severe weather every year. -Everyone- turns on the TV, radio, etc whenever there is a chance of a tornado. As for nuclear, terrorist and other attacks either they are going to be isolated if you aren't directly affected (such as 9/11 where if you weren't in the immediate area you weren't affected hardly, the London bus bombings, etc) or -huge- such as a major nuclear attack (which is in all honesty unlikely in 2009....) which would disrupt enough things to make people notice. And as for biological attacks, who isn't going to be filled with calls, etc. warning them about it (look at Swine Flu) and biological attacks don't disrupt infrastructure.

Mix this with government propaganda (look at the terror alert level, which has perpetually been on "elevated" and only risen) and you have a situation where nothing good can come of it.

Re:Good Idea!

[Shakrai]

It doesn't happen too often. Why would you regard it as scary that people would want to know about it when it does though?

A few years ago we had someone running around these parts who had escaped prison and shot three state troopers during the course of his crime spree (one of whom died). Personally I'm rather glad that the authorities decided to notify everybody of the fact that he was running around. It enabled those of us who live in the area to take steps to protect ourselves against this murdering nutjob.

Re:Good Idea!

[DangerFace]

Not that I want to take part in a game of oneupmanship, but round these parts we recently had a radioactive paedophile on the loose...

Re:Good Idea!

[Grimbleton]

FREE BUCKY

Re:Good Idea!

[Jake Griffin]

There's a cutscene in COD:MW2 that has a type of emergency notification. I actually second-guessed whether it was real or just a part of the game. Granted, I was way tired, as I had picked up the midnight release of it and was up until 5am. Hopefully they wouldn't interrupt the game THAT much in an emergency. If I'm playing against someone in a different region and all of a sudden they kill me 15 times in a row because my screen goes to "color bars" when some 6-year-old is kidnapped 50 miles away, I'm going to get a little upset.

Re:Good Idea!

[BobMcD]

I disagree, on both counts, actually.

I would even opt out of the tornado sirens in my neighborhood if it were possible. You see, I live in an ancient one-story home without a basement. In all the years it has stood, no tornado has struck it, and if one did, being in the bathtub would likely not help me much anyway. It isn't like I can call the tornado department and have them come douse the thing. So, I go back to sleep, and trust that things will be okay. So far, so good. And in that light, I'd just as soon not be woken up in the first place.

Likewise, if you're going to have an alert system that people do want used, but never actually test it, why have it in the first place?

Re:Good Idea!

[BobMcD]

Just FYI, I actually did look, and it seems it has three settings: Yellow, Orange, and Red.

Since Yellow is Elevated, you are mostly correct. It has, however risen and lowered (up to Orange/Red, back down to Yellow), mostly driven by the Muslim holy days. Elevated means 'significant risk of terrorist attacks', which has mostly been proven false. There have been something like .01% days containing terrorist attacks since the day the system was created.

Still it makes one wonder if blue and green ever see any use. For example, what is the terror level for posting on Slashdot? Surely that, at least, is green?

Re:Good Idea!

[stonewallred]

They better compensate me for any down time or lost in game items/objectives. I purposely do not watch TV or listen to the radio in order to be spared from emergency announcements and rubbish. I want to go unaware and by surprise.

Re:Good Idea!

[Fulcrum of Evil]

biological attacks don't disrupt infrastructure.

Except pig flu. That has the potential to overload regional networks with a pile of sick techies telecommuting.

Re:Good Idea!

[NoSleepDemon]

So you're saying you'd rather die in your sleep than be warned of a tornado so you can avoid it? Way to go out like a man, man!

Re:Good Idea!

[hairyfeet]

It probably means he is a southerner and gotten used to them. I live in AR so unless the sucker is less than 5 blocks away and bearing down on my apartment I ain't movin. If you were to go run into the basement every dang time a tornado came by you might as well just move the TV down there and stay.

I'm sure the folks in Chicago are the same about blizzards, and California earthquakes. If you have seen as many as we have they get to be old hat. My building has been around since 1925 without so much as a scratch, and every one that comes near here stays on the highway and eats the trailer park. What it is with tornadoes and trailer parks I have no idea, but I have watched them suckers with my own eyes hang 90 degrees to head straight for a trailer park. Maybe they just hate trailer trash, who knows? But as long as it is following the highway there ain't no point in getting your panties in a wad over it, although standing outside and watching one suck up power poles is pretty impressive. The above poster probably feels the same and doesn't see the point in running around like a chicken with its head cut off..

Re:Good Idea!

[westlake]

I would even opt out of the tornado sirens in my neighborhood if it were possible. It isn't like I can call the tornado department and have them come douse the thing. So, I go back to sleep, and trust that things will be okay.

Instead of hauling your lazy ass off to the shelter.

If at home, get to a safe area. Preferably, in the basement, away from windows. Get under a sturdy table or staircase, and cover up with blankets, sleeping bags, a mattress or anything that offers protection from flying debris. If you can't get to the basement (or don't have one), go to a small room - a closet, bathroom or hallway - near the center of the lowest floor and stay there. Crouch down and cover up. Tornadoes: Survival Tips and Myths

Re:Good Idea!

[Nadaka]

He will be fine, I am sure he never leaves his parents basement anyway. Just like the rest of us slashdot geeks. /joke

Re:Good Idea!

[BobMcD]

Yes, this exactly.

Re:Good Idea!

[NoSleepDemon]

Ah ok, well having never seen a real live tornado I don't know what to expect, now that I think about it, the sound of wind might be a good indicator of when to run for cover. Out of interest, how quick do they usually move along the ground?

Re:Good Idea!

[NY-Alert]

You are 100% correct the API being developed is for NY-Alert system and will be an 100% opt-in users will update his/her profile to receive notifications to these devices.

Re:Good Idea!

[hairyfeet]

Anywhere from 5 to 35MPH, which in my experience the average is around 25MPH. So it isn't like the thing is just gonna run you down like something out of the fast and the furious. I have also found they prefer the heat of freeways, and as I said will go out of their way to eat trailer parks.

So there really isn't any point in panic. You can check the local news and see exactly where the sucker is at, which direction and speed it is moving, etc, and have plenty of time to move out of the way if you need to. I have stood less than 600 yards or so away from one and watched that sucker suck up power poles (which blow up real good) and there really wasn't any reason to run or panic. In daylight it is usually pretty easy to watch which track it is gonna take and they rarely do major direction shifts. Now of course at say 3AM it is a little harder, as you can hear but not see the sucker, but that is where radar comes in. As long as you are not directly in its track you are usually pretty safe IMHO.

But here in the south we are used to seeing the things pretty constantly. Read Dixie Alley for further information. And notice that they say the higher deaths in Dixie Alley (which living in AR I am smack dab in the middle of) is due to the increase in "manufactured homes". Like I said there ain't nothing a tornado hates more than a trailer. I have watched with my own eyes as one completely jumped track just to go after a trailer park. They really do hate those things. Maybe it is magnetism, maybe something about the heat they generate, who knows? But I wouldn't live in a trailer park for love nor money.

What about us....

[Azmodan]

ah shoot my Xbox got banned for being moded... I must be doomed!

Re:What about us....

[John Whitley]

Don't worry. When disaster strikes, at least you'll be in contention for a Darwin Award. ;-)

Re:What about us....

[Dewin]

This is Slashdot. Anyone posting here already isn't adding anything to the gene pool.

Fucking moronic

[syousef]

It's a fucking gaming network. People are focused on playing the game, not on your emergency announcement. Unless you have a way to literally stop the game (pissing anyone off that isn't affected by the alert) you're wasting your time sending the message.

I'm sick and tired of these idiotic experiments by business people who don't understand the technology and therefore can't work out how asinine what they're suggesting really is. Then between 6 months and 2 years later, when they do have a few people hooked and relying on their ill advised service, they decide the experiment failed and pulled the plug. Fucking tossers.

Re:Fucking moronic

[rhathar]

This is the same thing as them running the emergency broadcast during your favorite show. Annoying, yes, but apparently people think it helps more than it hurts.

Re:Fucking moronic

[skine]

I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to include non-intrusive alerts. Something like the weather alerts on ForecastFox, where it tells you there is an alert in your area but you choose whether to actually find out what it is.

Also, I'm sure it would be an opt-in service, so you can feel free to remove it at any time (or avoid it completely) if you don't like it.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

Just remember this when something happens to you because you'd rather be playing a game than escaping from a flood/tornado/etc...

I think it's a great idea, but they should have an on/off setting OR just broadcast the image as a message scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

It's a fucking gaming network. People are focused on playing the game, not on your emergency announcement. Unless you have a way to literally stop the game (pissing anyone off that isn't affected by the alert) you're wasting your time sending the message.

I'm sick and tired of these idiotic experiments by business people who don't understand the technology and therefore can't work out how asinine what they're suggesting really is. Then between 6 months and 2 years later, when they do have a few people hooked and relying on their ill advised service, they decide the experiment failed and pulled the plug. Fucking tossers.

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.
At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified. I think once a year if someone interrupts my game to say "Hey, we're being attacked by god/mormons/terrorists/etc, try not to die", I'll forgive them for ruining my game.

Or are you so insanely entrenched in your game that you'd rather die than be notified of an emergency?
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[jhoegl]

Yeah, I mean people in Tornado Ally must really hate it when the stupid alert comes on telling you about a tornado, then the tornado ripping through your house. How else are people going to find out about Palins book or that stupid Twilight movie?

Re:Fucking moronic

[Shakrai]

At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified.

If you are so disconnected from the world that you wouldn't have known about Katrina without an emergency alert system then you are probably already a lost cause. A hurricane is something that comes with days of advance warning. One would think that the sight of the neighbors boarding up their windows would suggest to most people that something was afoot......

Re:Fucking moronic

[nomadic]

It's a fucking gaming network. People are focused on playing the game, not on your emergency announcement. Unless you have a way to literally stop the game (pissing anyone off that isn't affected by the alert) you're wasting your time sending the message.

Come on, if you've spent 5 hours playing a game, and then suddenly a message box pops up at the bottom of the screen that you never even knew could exist, you're going to notice that.

Re:Fucking moronic

[rhathar]

Neighbors? Are those the bipedal creatures that live in this 'outside' place I keep hearing of?

Re:Fucking moronic

[TehCable]

Was the Emergency Broadcast System even used on 9/11? It seems like if there was ever a time to trigger that system, it would have been on that day. All I've ever seen it used for was interrupting my Saturday morning cartoons repeatedly through my whole childhood. And we put up with it because we think one day it could do some good. The whole system is BS. In a real emergency, we all just turn on the news so that we can get the latest update on what they don't know about the situation.

Re:Fucking moronic

[omnichad]

But this is just a little graphic or banner on the bottom of the screen at worst, usually. And TV stations have to broadcast this message to all viewers in several counties in every direction. The in-game announcement would have to be micro-targeted.

Re:Fucking moronic

[omnichad]

This is a test. For the next thirty seconds, this game will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. Once weekly. Not annoying yet?

Re:Fucking moronic

[kalirion]

I agree with you on actual emergencies.

However, are you willing to lose a few headshots to this? I could forgive them if it was this though.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

This is a test. For the next thirty seconds, this game will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test. Once weekly. Not annoying yet?

I hope you're joking, and if you're not, you need to get a grip and calm down. MSFT puts BILLIONS into xbox live, they're not going to just regularly ruin people's games for no reason. This isn't PBS here.
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[omnichad]

Yeah I'm joking. But for it to be a true emergency system, it has to have regular tests. These tests will interrupt gameplay. We can't just wait for an emergency to happen and just assume it will work. Well, we can - but I doubt that's how it would happen.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Rockoon]

I posted this elsewhere but it deserves some more exposure.

In 2005 the State of Connecticut issued an alert on their emergency system, which interrupted both midday television and radio broadcasts. The alert was a Statewide evacuation order.

Pretty serious shit must be afoot, right?

State police later reported that NOBODY called them to find out what was going on, and obviously people didn't evacuate Connecticut.

The emergency system is stupid. It doesnt matter what it says on there.. if I look outside and don't directly witness something akin to Armageddon, I'm not leaving the house. If something akin to Armageddon IS heppening, then quite frankly I don'y need an alert system to tell me about it.

Re:Fucking moronic

[todrules]

If it was to be used only in an emergency, that would be great. But, of course, as another poster mentioned there's the the weekly tests. Then, I'm sure the Weather service and local Police Depts would want to broadcast every rain, snow, hail, and sleet storm as well as Amber alerts, too. So, yes, it would become pretty annoying. I live in Georgia, and they interrupt primetime TV at least once a week for hours at a time just to alert me that it's raining.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

Yeah I'm joking. But for it to be a true emergency system, it has to have regular tests. These tests will interrupt gameplay. We can't just wait for an emergency to happen and just assume it will work. Well, we can - but I doubt that's how it would happen.

Well, maybe, but since xbox live is a two way communication system on a computing platform, rather than some analog broadcast system, I can't really imagine that they'd even need to show you an alert to test it. I mean, did your last game results show up onscreen? Then we know we can show you an alert if we need to. In order to function at all, live needs to be able to send you data and have it display something onscreen, it seems like testing would be unnecessary.

Especially if they treat the warnings as a convenience, not a requirement. Since they're not the government, they have less responsibility to make sure it works, so they don't have to constantly test it. Its more of a "hopefully we can help notify you" thing, where a failure of the system isn't a big deal.
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

Its not like these announcements are sent out often.
At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified. I think once a year if someone interrupts my game to say "Hey, we're being attacked by god/mormons/terrorists/etc, try not to die", I'll forgive them for ruining my game.

Once a year?!?

It is announced DAILY that we are still at condition orange on the terrorist alert chart.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

There's still the load siren-noise they play over the channel late at night, assuring you that this is a government-mandated test and you can ignore it.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

If you interrupt my Counterstrike game to just to babble about how some whackos are taking hostages in my neighborhood, the terrorists win.

Re:Fucking moronic

[CheddarHead]

If this was only used for *real* emergencies, then you'd be right. Unfortunately, the bar for what constitutes an emergency will be constantly lowered until they're sending out alerts for the most inane crap imaginable.

For example, my wife works for a major university. After 9/11 they decided to create an alert system to keep employees and their loved ones informed in the event of major emergencies. The system was intended for things like terror attacks, earthquakes, tornadoes, alien invasion etc. My wife signed me up so that I'd get a text message when ever they issued an alert. At first, I'd get a text every few months as they periodically tested the system. Then they decided to use the system to warn people about violent crime anywhere near the campus. Then it was power outages. Pretty soon it was building maintenance issues. Now if someone on campus gets a hangnail, I receive a text message keeping me informed. It is indeed fucking moronic.

This NY system will start out the same way, and end up the same way. People will be getting alerts because of a traffic accident half way across the fucking state. People will hate it, and turn it off if they can, thus totally defeating the original purpose. If they can't turn it off, they'll totally ignore it and quickly dismiss the message without reading it, once again totally defeating the original purpose. It's a bad idea. There are plenty of other ways to inform people in the event of an emergency. This is just stupid and will be waste of money and effort.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

If it was to be used only in an emergency, that would be great. But, of course, as another poster mentioned there's the the weekly tests. Then, I'm sure the Weather service and local Police Depts would want to broadcast every rain, snow, hail, and sleet storm as well as Amber alerts, too. So, yes, it would become pretty annoying. I live in Georgia, and they interrupt primetime TV at least once a week for hours at a time just to alert me that it's raining.

Right, but microsoft doesn't *have* to let anyone do this, so they'd never agree to it unless they had control of when it happened, and then they wouldn't put shit like that in there, because for all the mistakes they've made, xbox live hasn't been one of them - it's run really well and they wouldn't do stupid shit to piss off users.

You guys are all acting like this will spiral out of control, as if no one has control over xbox live...
-taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey I live in NYC and am signed up for their "emergency alerts". I am fine with them sending SMS's about actual emergencies. But alerting me when there is congestion at regional airports aka this morning, is completely unnecessary. I am sure the definition of emergency in this case would be wide, annoying, and often non an actual emergency.

Re:Fucking moronic

[BobMcD]

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can.

Okay first, no one has ever 'attacked New York'. I don't even remember the English doing so during the Revolutionary War, though I'd be generous enough to grant you that. There has not since been a military threat to the entire population of that entire state. Period.

Second, the 9/11 events were a complete surprise. No warning would have done anyone a bit of good. The 'next terrorist attack' will almost certainly be the exact same sort of thing.

Third, how many of the occupants of World Trade I and II were on the damn xbox that morning anyway?

At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified.

For 9/11, see above. Can't alert a surprise attack until it is far too late.

Katrina, on the other hand, was DECIDEDLY NOT a surprise. People had days and days of warning. They were also somewhat used to that sort of thing. It isn't as if additional notification would have changed the impact of the storm. Unless that information is from the future, and contains how surprisingly bad a particular storm will be, it would simply get filed alongside the other twenty-some-odd storms that hit that area per year.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

"THIS IS AN EMERGENCY, AN EMERGENCY,
Very bad things are happening in New York. Authorities request that you stay at home and play video games."

Now I feel comforted. This really is a positive feedback loop!

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't always notice when a Tornado Warning is issued. I have to keep the TV turned on to be able to notice the huge BEEEEP. Tornados are real emergencies, and sometimes it can come pretty quick...

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? It's an emergency?

Like the time they pre-empted the emergency broadcast system to radio an amber alert out? Like the half a dozen times ten years ago they evacuated my highschool because of suspicious objects in a random trashcan? Like the time they evacuated a 2.5 km^2 campus with 25000 people because a guy with a gun MIGHT have entered it, sent SWAT teams storming various buildings who dragged out panicked, crying students while wearing baklavas?

Keep your emergencies away from me. The government wouldn't recognize an emergency if it bit them in the ass, and if they did--their presence will probably just make it worse.

I'm reminded we're in a state of emergency every time I fly and see that orange alert.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hey, we're being attacked by atheists/terrorists/etc, try not to die", I'll forgive them for ruining my game.

There fixed that for you! :-)

Re:Fucking moronic

[DdJ]

The scenario you describe can certainly happen, but is also not inevitable.

I work for a major university myself, and similarly to what you described, we implemented an alert system after 9/11 ourselves.

It is opt-in. People can join and leave at will. This fact is critical to making it work.

Every single time a message goes out, we think about how many people will consider that usage frivolous, and how many will unsubscribe as a result. And we think about how many people will then not receive an alert that could have saved their lives, and how many dead students we might end up with as a result. When you spell it out in those terms, it becomes considerably easier to silence any requests to use the system for frivolous purposes.

I think the most frivolous things our system has been used for were "the weather on campus is so bad that you had better not come in today", and "the water in the dorms is contaminated, don't drink it, pick up fresh water at these locations instead". Also for bomb threats and stuff ("clear building ${FOO} as it may explode at any moment").

We do test the system, yeah, something like twice a year. And every single time we use other channels (eg. email, newsletters) to tell people ahead of time that we'll be testing it, when we'll be testing it, and how to opt in. This doesn't just warn them to explain and expect the interruption, it also ensures they can figure out if the messages aren't getting through to them! If you just do the test without letting people know ahead of time, then nobody will ever find out about the people who were supposed to be contacted but who weren't!

---

That said, some system that ties directly into the gaming networks in some novel way is probably not necessary. I know exactly how I'd implement this for XBox Live.

What I'd do is set up a gateway between our alert system and MSN Messenger (or whatever the hell they call it these days). If you're signed into XBox Live with a silver or gold account, and you have an MSN Messenger account tied to it, you can receive instant messages on your console directly. They pop up in a little alert just like an achievement. If the message is short enough it goes into that alert, and if it's longer you have to go to the chat screen to read it. This is fine for this purpose, and will also get the messages out to some computer users and even some handheld users (okay, mostly just both of the WiMo users, but still).

Re:Fucking moronic

[CheddarHead]

So you think that MS wants to get in the middle of deciding what messages would go out? Setting aside the implementation cost, why would they want to touch such a PR nightmare? I can just see the headlines now: "Mother say that MS refused to send out alert on her missing toddler!"

No, MS will either just refuse to do it at all, or they'll hand over the reins to NY authorities. Once they open the door to messages going out then they're stuck in the same PR trap even if they try to set rules. The NY people will eventually break the rules, and if MS then decides to pull the plug then they get a bunch of bad publicity.

There's absolutely no reason for MS to get involved in this cluster-fuck unless NY pays them a bunch of money. Then the question becomes whether the money could be better spent elsewhere. In this case I think the answer would be a resounding yes.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Cajun Hell]

This is the same thing as them running the emergency broadcast during your favorite show.

That's what's moronic. Emergency Broadcast made sense because TVs were incredibly stupid and didn't have the ability to tell users anything other than what someone happened to be broadcasting.

Our machines have gotten a lot smarter since then. You don't need to interrupt a broadcast anymore, because a computer is capable of interrupting a user directly.

Let me give you an example of how dumb this is. Let's say it's 8 at night, and right now, there is an incoming ICBM. You're watching an episode of Hogan's Heroes that was broadcast at 3 in the morning, and your PVR is recording the 2009 remake of V.

Dumb tech: The V broadcast is interrupted by the government saying, "Hey, everyone, you might want to duck and cover." Your PVR dutifully records this so that on The Day After, when you watch V, you get to see the warning that was broadcast last night. Meanwhile, as the ICBM comes in, Hogans' Heroes plays uninterrupted. You don't duck and cover, and oops, you're not ever going to get to watch the warning in the middle of V explaining that you were supposed to duck and cover, because you got shredded by flying glass while you were obliviously watching TV. When they find your corpse, you're still wearing the monocle that you always wear when you watch Hogan's Heroes. You lose.

Smart tech: V is uninterrupted, since by the time you get around to watching it, there won't be any reason to duck and cover. There's just no reason to fuck with your recording. Your PVR is playing Hogan's Heroes, but also knows that there's this one government feed that you subscribed to, that you've said you want to see with great priority. Hogan climbs out of the tunnel and Sergeant Schultz sees him -- and even though this was broadcast many hours ago before anyone knew about the ICBM -- you don't get to find out if Hogan finally gets shot, because your TV says, "Hey, everyone, you might want to duck and cover." You duck and cover. After the explosion when things calm down, you get to watch what happens to Hogan and (this is the important part) your recording of V is intact without an obsolete warning, although there's this one spot in the recording where there's suddenly a lot of static and people said that shit wasn't going to happen with digital TV, so you feel ripped off. But at least your PVR did the right thing as well as it could. You (relatively, considering what all is happening, with the nuclear war raging and all that) win.

An internet-connected game system is like a PVR, in that it can be smarter. It's capable of listening for more than one thing, so that even the game server doesn't say anything about the ICBM, your game machine can still tell you about the ICBM. And people who aren't getting nuked don't have to worry about all this irrelevant-to-them server load interfering with their important game.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Jared555]

An alternative to blasting everyone on the network with a test they could probably limit it to a few test xbox systems that are running the latest firmware, etc. with different configurations to make sure everything is functioning since the last updates.

Since this is an opt in system you also would likely have the option to opt out of test messages or choose how they are displayed (a warning in the corner, a full screen opaque message, a watermark on the screen, etc.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Jared555]

In regards to it being a two way communications system.... I believe at least at one point mediacom cable boxes would jump out of on demand programming for test alerts. Although if you have a test mode and a real mode you can't be sure the real mode isn't going to behave like the test mode (not showing up on the screen) unless you actually make the tests visible.

This was always fun with a quiet tv show or on demand video that you were listening to fairly loud on a stereo and all of a sudden you (and probably half the building) hear the alert tones because they are 10 times as loud as what you were watching.

Re:Fucking moronic

[misexistentialist]

In actual emergencies the government is more likely to discourage news coverage to prevent panic, if it even realizes what is happening (see 9/11 and Katrina). Any warning system will be used for trivial alerts and for political reasons to excite the populace.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Jared555]

It could probably be an option to choose what types of alerts and how close to you the issue needs to be in a system like this. With a tv broadcast they have to alert everyone watching even if just one county at the edge of their viewing area is affected.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Cajun Hell]

BTW, what I forgot to mention in the game example, is that if you're using the game chat capability, I'm not going to get the message anyway, because that's just chat noise. The bots I use to play for me don't know how to make any sense of chats, so they just ignore it. They just tell me when I've gone up a level, so that I know that my game is going well and that I'm having fun. Send your emergency message to me over the emergency feed, where it's properly categorized, and then I will be able to duck and cover and you can all continue to enjoy playing your games with me.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Glendale2x]

No it wasn't, as far as I've ever read or heard about. I'll let someone else find a source or correct me.

Re:Fucking moronic

[DragonWriter]

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

At least in some areas, emergency notification systems are used to, e.g., publish Amber Alerts from fairly distant locations.

Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

Back when I got TV service over something other than the internet, they actually weren't all that uncommon.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

At least in some areas, emergency notification systems are used to, e.g., publish Amber Alerts from fairly distant locations.

Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

Back when I got TV service over something other than the internet, they actually weren't all that uncommon.

Everyone assumes that microsoft would do this the same way as the government... but the government doesn't have a marketing department and doesn't care if people complain. Microsoft would do things completely differently, as xbox live is one of the (maybe few) things they have done a *really* good job with, and they wouldn't just let it all go to shit for something like this. I really don't get why everyone thinks microsoft would just let some unnecessary service get so stupid that xbox live wouldn't be fun to use... Being fun to use is the whole *point* of xbox live, they'd never let that go away.
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[DragonWriter]

Everyone assumes that microsoft would do this the same way as the government...

Um, Microsoft isn't doing this, the (New York State) goverment is. From TFA: "Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Nintendo operate online networks that allow players to compete against each other over the Internet. Under the state's plan, authorities would tap those networks to broadcast warnings about natural or man-made disasters."

Expecting the government to do it (on gaming consoles) the same way the government does it (in every other medium government uses for emergency alerts) is different than expecting Microsoft to do it the same way as the government has.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

Everyone assumes that microsoft would do this the same way as the government...

Um, Microsoft isn't doing this, the (New York State) goverment is. From TFA: "Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Nintendo operate online networks that allow players to compete against each other over the Internet. Under the state's plan, authorities would tap those networks to broadcast warnings about natural or man-made disasters."

Expecting the government to do it (on gaming consoles) the same way the government does it (in every other medium government uses for emergency alerts) is different than expecting Microsoft to do it the same way as the government has.

Well they still have to work with Microsoft to do it... Xbox live is an incredibly closed platform...
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[Thing 1]

The emergency system is stupid. It doesnt matter what it says on there.. if I look outside and don't directly witness something akin to Armageddon, I'm not leaving the house. If something akin to Armageddon IS heppening, then quite frankly I don'y need an alert system to tell me about it.

Yeah, and: if something akin to Armageddon is happening, then I most likely won't want to leave the house anyway!

I'll move down to the basement, fire up the XBOX, and ... oh.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh great you are about to frag a friend and this pops up on your screen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VrqEdUPSpI

Re:Fucking moronic

[syousef]

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

If there's an emergency and you're still at your computer playing WOW you deserve what you get. You haven't convinced me: This is still one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard of.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

Uhh... really? It's an *EMERGENCY*. I think when someone tries to go attack New York again, people will be willing to miss a few headshots to get the best possible warning they can. Its not like these announcements are sent out often.

If there's an emergency and you're still at your computer playing WOW you deserve what you get. You haven't convinced me: This is still one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard of.

What the fuck? That doesn't even make sense. You're going to judge people based on the random thing they are doing when an emergency hits? How do you expect people to know these emergencies are coming? Sure, hurricanes we see coming for days and days, but what about fires or flash floods? Those can all hit people with enough speed that an immediate warning would give people time to get safer. If a fire is moving quickly, it might cut off roads before it gets close enough for you to notice. I live in California, we have fires all the time - it can be pretty bad.

Or if you have some kind of issue with that reasoning, then really you have issue with the entire idea of an early warning system, not the idea of moving it to a new medium. Those are two different arguments. People playing WOW are no different than people watching TV - they're just relaxing - so if TV has an early warning, its not entirely unreasonable to investigate getting those alerts to gamers. An honestly, if you think that is one of the stupidest ideas you've heard of... then just, wow...
-Taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[RemoWilliams84]

My dvr or on demand recording get interrupted while i'm watching them with a weather update. I'm not positive, but I don't thing the dvr will record a emergency broadcast because it isn't on the channel that you are watching, it switches you to a special emergency channel for a brief second.

So much for all that, huh?

Re:Fucking moronic

[syousef]

What the fuck? That doesn't even make sense. You're going to judge people based on the random thing they are doing when an emergency hits?

No, I'm just not convinced that an on screen emergency alert IN A FUCKING GAME is the right way to let people know there's an emergency happening. What I meant is that if there's an obvious state of emergency and people are still online playing a fucking game that's their problem. That should have been clear to anyone.

The tiny proportion of people playing an online game is an awful target. Loudspeakers on the street would probably be more effective even though it's not very effective at all.

The difference between WOW and TV is TV is a traditional medium for delivering the news and TV reaches a much wider community than that of a single online game (or small group of them).

You might as well create a special information group that knocks on doors. At least they wouldn't fucking ask you if you were playing WOW or chess or some shit.

Re:Fucking moronic

[DragonWriter]

Well they still have to work with Microsoft to do it... Xbox live is an incredibly closed platform...

So are cable TV networks, and all kinds of other systems on which existing emergency alerts are carried in whatever way the government specifies, because the government has adopted regulations which require those networks to carry them.

Re:Fucking moronic

[shambalagoon]

Hear hear!

Recently in Georgia a TV show we were watching (on Tivo, to boot) was interrupted for several minutes with a vague child abduction warning. No information at all was given about the child abduction - no description, no name, no last-seen location, nothing. Did they expect all of Georgia to run out into the streets looking for any old child? How did they expect people to act on this? Not only was it useless and pointless in the specific, but this is not the sort of thing an entire state needs to hear about.

In an age where everybody is interconnected with cell phones, IM, text messages, internet, Facebook, Twitter, and so on, if there's an emergency, a REAL emergency, I don't think anyone will have any trouble getting word of it. This system is entirely unnecessary and will be a real annoyance.

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

What the fuck? That doesn't even make sense. You're going to judge people based on the random thing they are doing when an emergency hits?

No, I'm just not convinced that an on screen emergency alert IN A FUCKING GAME is the right way to let people know there's an emergency happening. What I meant is that if there's an obvious state of emergency and people are still online playing a fucking game that's their problem. That should have been clear to anyone.

The tiny proportion of people playing an online game is an awful target. Loudspeakers on the street would probably be more effective even though it's not very effective at all.

The difference between WOW and TV is TV is a traditional medium for delivering the news and TV reaches a much wider community than that of a single online game (or small group of them).

You might as well create a special information group that knocks on doors. At least they wouldn't fucking ask you if you were playing WOW or chess or some shit.

What? You mean even though 72% of US residents age 6-44 are gamers?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6188668.html

57% of which play online?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6205841.html

Yeah, i guess that over 40% of the US, AKA "The tiny proportion of people playing an online game..." certainly is an "awful target".

And i KNOW TV is a traditional medium, but the whole point is that the world changes and we should look at what new mediums make sense. I personally don't even HAVE cable, i watch Hulu, and i DO feel a bit cut off because of it - I wish that I had an easy way of accessing public notifications, but its not worth 50 bucks a month for me just to have cable just to get that.

And I know you meant that if there is an obvious emergency people shouldn't be playing games, but *that* is what I said doesn't make sense... because you're assuming that emergencies are only ever going to be obvious immediately, which is stupid. *as i said* some emergencies only become obvious after you've lost precious time, like when a fire finally gets close enough for you to notice. Having an extra 15 minutes to get your shit together can SAVE LIVES and that's the whole point of an early warning system.
If 40% of the US isn't watching TV, they're playing games, we should notify those people too. And yes i know that doesn't mean 40% are playing them at all times, but the point is LOTS more people play games in the evening instead of TV, so it makes sense to look at how to let them know.
-taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[VeNoM0619]

You know someone will hack this system and send out a warning "You are about to get pwned" as the guy kills you in game. I think it will be called a DoG attack (denial of gaming)

Re:Fucking moronic

[Facegarden]

Hah, that would be hilarious.
-taylor

Re:Fucking moronic

[mixmastabinder]

At least, in my head, these are rare occurrences on the scale of Katrina and 9/11 that people would be notified. I think once a year if someone interrupts my game to say "Hey, we're being attacked by god/mormons/terrorists/etc, try not to die", I'll forgive them for ruining my game.

Or are you so insanely entrenched in your game that you'd rather die than be notified of an emergency? -Taylor

The announcements aren't sent out often, but the tests are much more common.

Can't wait to be on the verge of the game-winning headshot* only to have the screen switch to "THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM. THIS IS ONLY A TEST..."

*(Full disclosure: I'm actually terrible at FPS games.)

Re:Fucking moronic

[4e617474]

This is a really well thought-out scenario, but I think choosing nuclear war as an example hurt your argument in places. I know, I know, that was what the system was designed for. But you have to admit, it would still interest the people who didn't personally have to hide in their fridges.

Too small a target?

[omnichad]

Why not opt-in SMS alerts. Yeah, cell towers get flooded or knocked out in emergencies, but so does the Internet these games run on. Or better yet, electronic notification through an API that can be integrated with any home product - security systems, home pbx, standalone weather radios...

Re:Too small a target?

[el3mentary]

I'm fairly sure you can already et SMS alerts, certainly in the UK you can.

Re:Too small a target?

[Anonymous Coward]

Opt-In SMS alerts for NY are available here:

http://www.nyalert.gov

Re:Too small a target?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. It seems like it would be much more worthwhile to have an emergency alert system that could broadcast to cell phones within a certain geographical area. This would reach a much wider audience and might not be all that hard to do.

Re:Too small a target?

[DavMz]

I live in Japan, and I have an alert on my mobile phone in case of earthquakes. I don' t remember suscribing to anything, it's part of the pack I guess. Even if the alert is one minute or two before the earth begins shaking, it gives you the time to do things that can save your life, like: close the gas valve, open the door and duck under the table. I don't understand why anybody wouldn't want that kind of warning.

There goes that escape hatch...

[Eggplant62]

So what invasion of privacy is next?

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[rhathar]

Invasion of privacy? How are they invading your privacy here? This is no more an invasion then sending you email without permission is an invasion of your privacy.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Eggplant62]

I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes I go into my game and decide to say, "Go away, government, go away news, go away famiily, go away anyone and anything that isn't in the game." I escape. I shut down for a couple hours and just veg. And I don't want to be interrupted. If that means I miss some emergency alert that may save my life, well, that's life, ain't it?

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[hatemonger]

I fail to see how allowing emergency services to send you in-game messages is an "invasion of privacy". Those channels are mostly filled with 12 year-olds shouting their racist and homophobic opinions anyways. The real question is how the important alert will cut through the chatter, not whether it should be allowed to.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[rhathar]

That's a very valid point. They're essentially just trying to extend what they already do on television to the next popular medium. I suppose we could hope for an option to turn it off, but I doubt that'd happen.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't you know that any information sent to you allows the sender to see whatever you're doing when you read it? I can see what you're doing right now! You're reading this message. Told you it was true.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Dunbal]

I fail to see how allowing emergency services to send you in-game messages is an "invasion of privacy".

      Well it just so happens that I have a private arrangement between myself, and the game provider. All of a sudden the government can come in, without my permission, and a) locate me, because presumably "emergency alerts" issued by the state of New York will ONLY be sent to people located in New York State, and b) interrupt my entertainment.

      You know, I don't think it took too long for everyone to realize what was happening on 9-11. I was in Costa Rica in an intensive care unit, and I still "got the message" through family members and was tuned to CNN long before the second plane hit. I don't really see what kind of "emergency" can warrant notifying every single person in a STATE. If you're close enough to the disaster (tornado, flooding, hurricane, planes flying into buildings), you know what's happening. Other disasters either simply don't give enough time to react (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions (in NY?)) or frankly in the case of a nuclear strike, why the hell would I want to know?

      So how does say warning a person in Albany about a gas main rupture in Queens work? Or do they plan on tracking you on a smaller scale? By zip code? By street address? This is where privacy comes into play. If the government needs to know where I live, they can call the people who have my address information: the people who gave my my license, passport, and other government documents. They have absolutely no right to oblige a "game provider" to release ANY information about me, my activities, where I live, when I log on, etc. Convicted criminals have to register. I am not a criminal.

      That said, I'm glad I don't live in the US. Enjoy your "free" country, citizen. The fact that you can't even see that there is a problem here means you deserve to be monitored, tracked, numbered and processed. That way when they feel like rounding you up, they'll have enough to find some little law or other you've broken.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[nomadic]

but sometimes I go into my game and decide to say, "Go away, government, go away news, go away famiily, go away anyone and anything that isn't in the game."

"Go away, hurricane, go away brush fires, go away rioting, go away tidal wave!"

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[rhathar]

NY State uses an opt-in system. So, yes, they will 'track' you by a much smaller area, but you're going to have to ask for it.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Shakrai]

Those channels are mostly filled with 12 year-olds shouting their racist and homophobic opinions anyways.

It's not nice to talk about the GNAA like that behind their backs ;)

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[shawb]

If that means I miss some emergency alert that may save my life, well, that's life, ain't it?

Technically speaking, that would be death, not life. At the very least, an emergency broadcast would tell you to save your game because there is a tornado/hurricane/earthquake/zombie infestation coming along that could disrupt power. But seriously, putting yourself in danger for a video game is extremely stupid and selfish... you are not only putting yourself in danger but the using up the resources of and endangering rescuers that have to come save your hide because you were too busy powerlevelling your orcish mage to get out of trouble before disaster struck.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Dunbal]

This is no more an invasion then sending you email without permission is an invasion of your privacy.

      And don't people just LOVE spam?

      Wait - there are LAWS against spam. Yeah they're not enforced, because it's hard to enforce US law in Nigeria. But why are there laws against it, do you think?

      Now look at it this way. You are going to check your email. You actively send a request to an email server to download your email. You receive email.

      Oh, but look - you're playing a game. At no time did you request information from the state of New York that little Amanda disappeared, or that there's a storm front moving in, or that a plane just landed in the Hudson. When you signed up to frag others, or gold farm, or whatever, you didn't sign up to Big Brother's News Channel. Imagine if you got a "This Just In - Breaking News" while at the cinema? How about a policeman showing up at your door and reminding you to use a condom every time you're about to have sex? Where do you stop?

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[blueg3]

But Libertarians demand the right to play their video games uninterrupted by warnings of impending doom!

It's like the right to not wear your seatbelt. Very important.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[bws111]

I have never seen an emergency alert (the type issued by the government) for 'news' (yes, the local TV stations sometimes do that, but that is to get people to watch the news). A storm front moving in that generates an alert has most likely already caused damage somewhere, and they are trying to protect others. Amber Alerts are there because most people are not selfish pricks and will help out if they can. If I was at the cinema and I got a 'this just in - tornado approaching - seek shelter' message I (and I imagine most people) would probably be thankful. None of these alerts require anyone know anything about YOU except that you are in the area and are, until proven otherwise, considered a human being worth notifying.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Nithendil]

If the warnings are anything like cable tv this will happen, repeated every 10 minutes:

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING! SEVERE WEATHER WARNING! SEVERE WEATHER WARNING!
IF YOU LIVE IN THE BUMFUCK OF NOWHERE THERE IS A 5% CHANCE OF A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM. YOU MAY WANT TO USE AN UMBRELLA.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Dunbal]

A storm front moving in that generates an alert has most likely already caused damage somewhere

      And contrary to popular opinion, even gamers in their basements can look outside the window and know that something isn't right because it's darker/windier than usual. No alert necessary. Just like tornadoes, guess what - most people in tornado prone areas usually find a radio/tv to turn on.

      However, the government sees itself, in the name of being the Great Protector, obliged to use a form of communication that was not meant to broadcast "emergency warnings" to try and do just that. Hey but why should I care, I'm not a US citizen, I don't live in the US, and it's not my tax dollars that are paying for it.

are, until proven otherwise, considered a human being worth notifying.

      I'll try not to pretend that's a thinly veiled personal attack, and counter with a human being worthy of being a human being won't be so absolutely clueless as to need a warning system in his XBOX to tell him something is up with the weather.

     

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[BobMcD]

"Go away, hurricane, go away brush fires, go away rioting, go away tidal wave!"

All of these things require either evacuation in advance or hunkering down. All of these things get over-alerted and tend to be habitually ignored outside the xbox network as well.

Alerts should be for things that require expedient action. When the levy breaks, for example.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[BobMcD]

What's up with the libertarian bashing?

And what of my right to put myself in danger? Just because you may be comfortable with where the line is drawn, does that automatically mean I must be as well?

Not cool, man. Not cool at all.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[nomadic]

Alerts should be for things that require expedient action. When the levy breaks, for example.

Or during the Battle of Evermore?

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[Fulcrum of Evil]

So don't tell them you live in Brooklyn. Say you're in Worst Hampton or something and anything really big will still get to you.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[KingAlanI]

Yes, Black Dogs (or is that black cats?) are generally warnings that something serious is afoot. You better Rock And Roll to get your gear packed up, and start practicing your Misty Mountain Hopping skills for when you need to start Going to California. Put your Four (joy-)Sticks away or else you'll end up on the Stairway to Heaven.

Re:There goes that escape hatch...

[KingAlanI]

Yes, the breaking of levys is something New York State is very concerned about. (Unlike nearby Massachusetts, we don't have a name syllable that rhymes with 'tax'.) The breaking of levees, though, that's more of a Louisiana/Mississippi issue.

spot suicidal behavior?

[Rockoon]

From TFA:

Under Empire 2.0, the Department of Mental Health is monitoring some Facebook posts in an effort to spot suicidal behavior

Thanks guys! You are making a real contribution.

Re:spot suicidal behavior?

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest the death penalty for those who attempt and fail their suicide!

Re:spot suicidal behavior?

[Amouth]

You joke - in NC it is attempted 1st degree murder to attempt suicide.

I remember a guy who attempted suicide - he ate the end of a .22 - failed at killing him self BUT managed to blow most of his brain stem off and became a quadriplegic. He was later convicted of attempted 1st degree murder and sent to jail (no i don't remember for how long).

Re:spot suicidal behavior?

[Pinckney]

I can't find any sources to back this up. Do you care to provide any, as honestly I suspect you're lying. No offense; it just seems too far-fetched.

It seems also that such an individual would be not guilty by reason of insanity, almost by definition.

Re:spot suicidal behavior?

[Thing 1]

I much prefer the "attempted murder is punishable by death" state[1]. Then, when your botched suicide is noticed by the authorities, they helpfully finish the job for you!

[1] -- Note: this state exists only inside my mind, and hopefully won't there for much longer.

Re:spot suicidal behavior?

[Amouth]

lets see - it was 13 years ago - sorry no i don't remember the guys name, i do remember it happened less than a year after the state passed the law

I can see it now....

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't wait to be interrupted by "this is a test" when I'm trying to frag some n00bs.

People can't have it both ways...

[CannonballHead]

It seems every time a natural disaster (or any other disaster) hits, there are always people that complain that they didn't know about it or something like that...

And any time we try to get ways to let everyone know about it, people complain about that, too.

Seems you can't have it both ways... seems like we have to choose to have either opt-in or no-opt. If no-opt, which seems to be the way it is now ("beeeeeep, this is only a test..."), then they have to continue to do things like this. Seems we should argue about the system itself, not the implementation, here...

Re:People can't have it both ways...

[Explodicle]

Seems you can't have it both ways... seems like we have to choose to have either opt-in or no-opt.

What about opt-out?

Re:People can't have it both ways...

[CannonballHead]

Yes, that would work too. You'd likely have to "sign your life away" since you're saying you *don't* want to be notified in the event of a disaster, which seems kinda stupid, but I suppose you should be free to say "don't bother me, I'll handle the tornado myself and not sue you for not telling me" if you want.

Re:People can't have it both ways...

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone with a brain can find out that sort of thing. If they are too much of an idiot to ... READ, then let them deal with whatever concequences being unprepared is. It's not the Government's job to make sure everyone is "prepared", especially with the dangerous precidents that are set by enacting such programs.

I think a guy named Patrick Henry had something to say about this sort of thing:

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Yes, that means you FEMA. :)

Re:People can't have it both ways...

[mortonda]

It seems every time a natural disaster (or any other disaster) hits, there are always people that complain that they didn't know about it or something like that...

How about when there was a tornado warning around here and just as I was updating the radar that would tell me approximately where it is, the Emergency Broadcast System cut in on the cable TV and dropped my Internet like a brick. Thanks for nothing, EBS.

Children are likely to get confused

[iamacat]

Games already contain situations that resemble real emergencies and commonly contain simulated alerts where some government official type tells you what is happening. There a possibility of the alert being ignored because people think it's just part of the game. But far worse is children getting scared or taking unsafe actions to evade perceived hazards because they really believe there is a nuclear attack in progress or that mom and dad turned into blood-sucking zombies. After all they have been taught that they can be alerted to an emergency through a game.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[ben kohler]

Isn't this already happening with movies & tv?

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[hatemonger]

Games already contain situations that resemble real emergencies and commonly contain simulated alerts where some government official type tells you what is happening. There a possibility of the alert being ignored because people think it's just part of the game. But far worse is children getting scared or taking unsafe actions to evade perceived hazards because they really believe there is a nuclear attack in progress or that mom and dad turned into blood-sucking zombies. After all they have been taught that they can be alerted to an emergency through a game.

Spot on. Queue the War of the Worlds radio broadcast. We can only hope that these alerts would also come with SMS and broadcast TV alerts as well.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[gilbert644]

Most console gamers aren't children and this stuff is for their benefit.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Anonymous Coward]

what are you implying about the 2012 documentary?

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus Christ, please tell me you are joking. What is it with these Slashdot readers that nitpick the most minor things? "What happens if the alert background is white and pops up just as a plane is about to crash into my house? If it weren't for the white screen I would have seen the reflection of the plane in the TV and had a split second to dive out of the way. I could have found the cure to cancer while rescuing a boatload of drowning orphans, but no; I'm fucking dead thanks to some asshole bureaucrat in Washington."

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Blakey Rat]

Yeah, because it's unthinkable that an adult might play video games, right? Sheesh. I never thought I'd see the "video games are only for kids" sentiment here on Slashdot of all places.

Anyway, let's say an alert pops up that the kid "becomes confused" and ignores it. So what? If the system wasn't in place, they would never have seen the alert, and so the kid's no worse off. On the other hand, if he's the rare kid who doesn't "become confused" by it, it might just save his life.

So I don't really know what you're griping about here.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Cue. Queue is a line, or adding something to a queue. Cue means to "notify to start". Homophones are fun!

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Most console gamers aren't children and this stuff is for their benefit.

Obligatory: THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

That's a mighty slippery slope, there, buddy. What other ridiculously unnecessary and potentially counter-productive things would you approve of just because it is "for their benefit"?

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Most console gamers aren't children

Lol, of course they are. How absurd to think otherwise.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[mmalove]

I think the scare is that, upon seeing enough tests or real notifications of emergencies, a child may be more likely to perceive an in-game alert/scenario as real.

This will only be compounded by the fact that video game makers somehow insist on the doctrine of realism, so once we get a standardized alert message/sound/format you bet your ass they'll copy it as close as legally possible for in game alerts.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[EdIII]

Well, I am an adult. I was recently watching an 11 year old while working on my laptop. He was playing the new Call of Duty blah blah blah, and at some point the emergency broadcast came on.

I stopped what I was doing and started paying attention to the screen immediately. It looked just like all the other emergency broadcasts on television, took up the full screen, all of the different colored lines, etc. It seemed pretty damn real to me, till I started reading the ticker and realized it was highly unlikely that Washington D.C just got hit by a nuke, or whatever outlandish thing it was saying.

I think what the GP is saying is that the emergency broadcast, the ones that take up the whole screen, and the ticker types, is understood by us early on to be given a great deal of credibility. That source is to be trusted.

Now, as an adult, I quickly realized that he still had the PS3 controller in his hand, and put it together that the PS3 was the one sending that signal to the TV. Therefore, I can disregard it.

Can the child be expected to disregard as quickly? I agree that in most cases yes, and it is probably not an issue. However, there are going to be cases in which the child is confused, or is not the one who started the game, etc. There are always edge cases.

I think this is a terrible idea anyways. Broadcast television, and those stations on Cable TV derived from broadcast, don't have any fake emergency warnings as part of their content. There are no shows which use a fake emergency broadcast that takes up the whole screen. When we see one on TV we can be fairly certain it is a real event.

Gaming consoles are not considered sources of news and warning about real life. Their very purpose is fantasy. Since I know of at least one game with a highly realistic emergency broadcast, I am far less likely in the future to consider other emergency broadcasts as valid.

To put in other words, if a catholic priest shows up at work, you are probably going to believe he is a catholic priest. If a catholic priest shows up at a party with a bunch of drunk girls, and one of them about to get married, they are probably going to be shoving dollar bills down his pants.

It's about context and the situation, and gaming consoles are just never going to engender that sort of trusted relationship. For children or adults. At this point it is probably a major waste of tax payer dollars to try and change everyone's perceptions.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[Blakey Rat]

Call of Duty "blah blah blah" games are intended for adults, not 11-year-olds.

Not that that is necessarily a rebuttal to what you're saying, but you'd expect games intended for adults to show alerts that adults have no trouble recognizing as fake.

If you were talking about Viva Pinata, or another game intended for 11-year-olds, then it'd be a different story.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[EEBaum]

Doesn't matter if most aren't kids, nor whose benefit it's for, when little Billy fetches the family chainsaw to fend off what he thought was the REAL Zompocalypse.

Re:Children are likely to get confused

[interploy]

Let's be honest here. Gamers are typically a rather jaded and apathetic bunch. And any emergency alert signal I've heard in the last few years has been about either A) a kidnapping or B) the weather. So if you're a gamer, ask yourself honestly: Are you going to sit at rapt attention for one of these messages, or are you going to be pissed that some alert just randomly took over your game session? And let's not think about all those test alerts.

Leave this kind of stuff to communications devices, not entertainment ones. They'd have a much better chance of alerting the young folk if they did it through SMS.

Dumb idea

[russotto]

Chalk me up for "what could possibly go wrong". Though the answers are pretty simple

1) Real emergency alert being dismissed as phony.

2) In-game alert being misinterpreted as real.

Option 1 isn't a huge problem. Not that it won't happen, but that it's unlikely to actually be of consequence. Most people don't have gaming networks as their only source of information, and those who do are usually safe in their basement anyway (well, unless it's a flood).

Option 2 is a major problem. Right now these are channels which only present fiction. Given the possibility that some of it is real (though nearly all of it is still fiction), some fools are going to misinterpret the fiction as real. And checking other sources won't completely solve the problem, because some of the time, those other sources will pick up the fictional information and present it through their own channels, making even sensible people believe it's real.

Re:Dumb idea

[blueg3]

Couldn't you make the same argument for the Emergency Broadcast System, which seems to work just fine?

Re:Dumb idea

[Rockoon]

True story from 2005

Connecticut emergency management officials have apologized for an erroneous message sent to state broadcasters today saying an evacuation of the state had been ordered. State emergency management officials believe someone pressed the wrong button. Instead of running a test of the emergency alert system, midday television viewers and radio listeners were told that the state was being evacuated ........... State police said they received no calls related to the erroneous alert.

Re:Dumb idea

[blueg3]

People in our area regularly get and make use of emergency weather warnings transmitted over EAS.

I assure you, had people called about a midday alert that indicated the state was being evacuated with no reason given and no apparent reason, people on Slashdot would deride them for it.

Re:Dumb idea

[GravityStar]

Unlikely that the alert will be ingame. More likely the game will exit to the console's dashboard where the alert will be displayed.

Re:Dumb idea

[Rockoon]

Derided or not..

Millions of people surely saw or heard the message. Not one of them verified their suspicions that the evacuation order was bullshit by calling the State Police?

It doesn't get any more sobering than this. The people of the State of Connecticut will not be paying attention to emergency alerts piped through their Wii's and XBOX's.

Re:Dumb idea

[tsm_sf]

That's so odd, because usually people rely on state police for all sorts of information.

Re:Dumb idea

[russotto]

Couldn't you make the same argument for the Emergency Broadcast System, which seems to work just fine?

The Emergency Broadcast System goes through some pains to avoid this issue. There's the unique tone before and after the message, the specific wording, the fact that it's done as a crawl (on TV), etc. Also, very little programming is in fact disaster shows.

You could try to implement similar measures in games, but I think they'd work far less well.

Warning!

[MightyMartian]

Warning... Valkyrie needs food badly!

Re:Warning!

[mujadaddy]

Along those lines -- NO REALLY there is a FUCKING ZOMBIE INVASION LOCK THE BASEMENT DOOR!!! Have a nice day.

Re:Warning!

[DMUTPeregrine]

Be careful! New moon tonight.

Re:Warning!

[Krazy Kanuck]

Made my afternoon, thank you.

Re:Warning!

[Qzukk]

Somebody set us up the bomb!

Re:Warning!

[damien_kane]

Be careful! New moon tonight.

Not until midnight (in select theaters), until then it's waxing crescent.

Re:Warning!

[Thing 1]

Warning: player color missing from Gauntlet emergency alert system!

mandatory tests?

[Anonymous Coward]

so, I'm assuming that if emergency broadcasts begin using gaming networks, that the network will be subject to "tests of the emergency broadcast network"? Great! now I can hear children blaming race, sexual preference, lag, and DHS broadcasts for their sub-par performance.

Re:mandatory tests?

[rhathar]

now I can hear children blaming race, sexual preference, lag, and DHS broadcasts for their sub-par performance.

How does this one work, exactly? "You're so gay that you keep winning all the time!" Sounds like an incentive to me ;)

Not a new proposal...

[Cornwallis]

Remember when the Nixon White House proposed something similar back in the 70's - a TV set-top box to warn us of impending doom? People justifiably went apeshit at the idea of such a Big Brother intrusion.

I dunno, the timing is suspicious to me

[Provocateur]

I think a couple of employees got their heads together and figured out how to game the System to get a Gaming System.

A likely scenario, boss talking to his team, complete with mock responses:

Keith you will be gaming online. We wont tell you when the alert will come, so better play a couple games.

"Damn!" *wink

You, Stan. Yours will involve a multimedia entertainment mode. See if it interrupts your BluRay viewing.

"I'd have to test it with the new BluRays that just came out. Could you put a note saying, Merry Christmas Darling?"

and so on

Who will be first?

[Mathness]

I wonder who will be first to abuse this. Spammers, crackers or politicians sending messages during elections or when polls are low.

Revenue

[barzok]

They're going to attempt to find some way to hook revenue generation into this. I guarantee it. The state's trying to find every possible way to make a buck.

Right now they're trying to force new license plates on everyone (and the design is hideous - '70s-'80s design crossed with an older Alaska plate) at $25 per car. Our current plates work perfectly fine, they're just trying to scrape together money.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

[jgtg32a]

If this goes through it might be a good idea to make sure its also illegal for game devs to fake messages, even though it could be rather awesome to get an emergency message about the apocalypse going on.

Re:Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

[Anubis IV]

Ah, Eternal Darkness...yeah, you'd have to ban fake messages that appeared real, otherwise you'd run into issues...I think even Silicon Knights would understand that that would be crossing a line between reality and fantasy. But, in all honesty, something like this is probably needed. You wouldn't need to have the software developers build it in, since it could run at the OS level of the console. I can't remember the last time I actually watched TV on a TV though, so if there ever was an alert in my area, the only two ways I'd hear about it would be through friends or my RSS feed (which I only check about twice a day, at best, usually). In other words, in case of a real emergency, I'd be screwed.

Then again, I'm not on (modern) consoles enough for this to really matter either...

Re:Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

[jgtg32a]

This is off topic but it would be really funny if there was an Eternal Darkness port to the 360 that fakes a RROD

Re:Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

[Anubis IV]

It wouldn't just be funny. It'd be the logical thing for them to do should it ever get ported!

Do not want

[Explodicle]

Which is more likely:

• The government will give gamers helpful and prompt warnings when we need them because of this service.
• Actually important warnings will be distributed faster and more efficiently over existing channels, while the government cries wolf about tropical storms that never reach your state. Gamers are just annoyed and ignore all warnings because they aren't playing games to stay informed about important real-world events.

They will find the BFG9000 useless, however

[wsanders]

.. would be good for tornado warning:

"There is a tornado in your area. It is OUTSIDE. You do remember where OUTSIDE is, right?"

Re:They will find the BFG9000 useless, however

[Facegarden]

.. would be good for tornado warning:

"There is a tornado in your area. It is OUTSIDE. You do remember where OUTSIDE is, right?"

Follwed by: "Just stay there in your mom's basement, and everything will be fine."
-Taylor

Re:They will find the BFG9000 useless, however

[initialE]

-1, redundant

Achievement: You've been killed by a tornado! 0pts

[Anonymous Coward]

A simple achievement toast popup would work just fine. And since achievements are like crack I bet this form of communication would get noticed a lot more.

Sigh.

[JustNiz]

Imagine You're further than you've ever been before in some game you've invested months in, you're 30 minutes past the last possible save point, and after weeks of endless retries you're finally got the seemingly invincible boss down to 10% health and you have 80% health left. It really looks like finally you're gonna make it past him.

Suddenly all the things you need to stay alive are taken away from you. The sound you so badly need to give you early warning of boss attacks is replaced by a horrible 80's modem screech, and a large non-interruptable scrolling message that totally obscures the screen says: "This is the monthly test of the national security alert system...". After 30 seconds it goes away just in time for you to see the boss pounding your character to death against a wall like a rag doll.

Now you have to start all over again.

I would be pissed.

Re:Sigh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheesh. Press Pause, dude.

Imagine You're further than you've ever been before in some game you've invested months in, you're 30 minutes past the last possible save point, and after weeks of endless retries you're finally got the seemingly invincible boss down to 10% health and you have 80% health left. It really looks like finally you're gonna make it past him.

Suddenly all the things you need to stay alive are taken away from you. The sound you so badly need to give you early warning of boss attacks is replaced by a horrible 80's modem screech, and a large non-interruptable scrolling message that totally obscures the screen says: "This is the monthly test of the national security alert system...". After 30 seconds it goes away just in time for you to see the boss pounding your character to death against a wall like a rag doll.

Now you have to start all over again.

I would be pissed.

Re:Sigh.

[Jesus_666]

I'd assume that the game automatically pauses when a broadcast is made, requiring you to unpause afterwards.

Re:Sigh.

[JustNiz]

That still wouldn't help online multiplayer games.

Re:Sigh.

[Jesus_666]

That's true but I'd expect live tests of the broadcast system to either be conducted at odd times (I'd expect few people to play at monday morning, 6AM) or unobtrusive (the game doesn't display the test warning but tells the server it did receive and process it; the company is liable for their game displaying actual warnings).

Given geolocation and assuming a sane implementation, all real warnings you receive would only be applicable to your area and most likely something you'd rather be warned about. Even if it's just a "severe thunderstorm" warning - thunderstorms have a bad habit of frying expensive electronic devices if you leave them running and I'd rather get killed by an instance boss than having my gaming rig reduced to a doorstop.

All For it

[ironicsky]

I'm all for the government being able to notify people in the event of a real emergency by any means necessary. They cal already forcefully take over all radio stations and TV stations with the flick of a switch (Well its a bit more complicated, but yes, its quite simple). This should be used for real emergencies, like "If you do not leave town now you will die" or "the dyke broke... so, unless you know how to swim, time to get out" not this crap of "OMG!!! Its snowing! Everyone panick" crap that we see now.

If they can take over all tv stations and radio stations in an area what good does that do for people like me who watch TV online and stream my music? If they could also work with ISP's to DNS Redirect all web requests from a specific region during an emergency that would be okay too, as long as the viewer could acknowledge they got the message and resume normal web surfing.. This is easily done with Squid Proxy and a few lines of config... If they could force text message every cell phone user in a specific region, that would be good too - "LOLZ, u got 2 leave... city is on fire... lolz".

Hell, if they decide that they want the phone companies to institute rolling automated outbound calls to let people know that would be fine too. Start with one exchange (XXX-XXX-YYYY), do all #'s, and move on to the next exchange so the phone system does not get over loaded.

Hell, Video Games, IM's and everyone else should be fair game too.

In an emergency(a real one, not a weather report) getting everyone's attention is hard... The more options they can use the better. If all the communication saves one extra persons life, some would say its worth it.

Re:All For it

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do I care if the dyke's broke. People are losing their jobs all over the place.

Re:All For it

[Renraku]

Hey, don't discount snow storms.

Your home being covered in 5ft of snow with the power out and not enough supplies to last a week could easily be fatal to people who aren't prepared. What if you're old and physically can't get out of your door, or your oxygen machine only has a day or two of battery power? Hopefully people have the common sense to keep a look out for the weather, though, because playing in a spring thunderstorm can just as surely be fatal as being snowed in and not being found for a month.

SAME

[Anonymous Coward]

Midland SAME-compliant radio, $30 at a nearby chain grocery store. Sits in my home office silently listening to NOAA, and when it makes noise, my wife and I gather around it to listen to the flash flood warning or whatever God decided to throw at Florida for the week.

alert tradios

[Anonymous Coward]

If you really want to make sure nobody has an excuse to miss an alert:

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy a massively bulk quantity of Alert radios and the technician force (and police escort) to install one in each and every house and apartment and commercial building and car? Require all new construction to include them and all vehicles to have them installed before a title will be issued.

I have an alert radio running on the house power line, and it has a battery backup. I can't hear the big outdoor sirens unless the windows are open, which they usually are not. I can only hear the regular radio alerts when the radio is on, which is usually only when I am in the car. I can only hear the TV alerts when I am watching TV, which is very seldom. If it weren't for my alert radio, I would never know when something major (usually a tornado or flash flood) was happening within a few hundred miles of me.

Which games would this alert be on? How much is it going to cost to implement and deploy? What if the game I'm currently playing isn't one of those? If something bad happens to me, can I sue the city for omitting my game of choice?

What if I'm just browsing the web? Maybe he city should force all ISPs to hijack all active TCP connections to inject the warning into them. Where does this stop?

Re:alert tradios

[egburr]

not sure why this posted as a coward. I never select that....

What about DVRs?

[edelbrp]

I was watching my TiVo a few years ago and 'EMERGENCY!' There was a tornado watch in effect. Sadly, it ruined the program I was watching which was recorded over a week before. So, when will DVRs recognize the alert tones and play them through to whatever (potentially recorded) program you are *currently* watching?

Re:What about DVRs?

[ironicsky]

The problem of how this works is, the overlay(the alert) is added at the source(tv station) or the cable provider before it reaches your PVR. Your PVR would not have any way if removing the warnings from the recording. The only option would be for the PVR to throw out any recording where an alert tone is played. But some alerts are just scrolling bars and some are full scale take overs, so the PVR would not know whether the alert if taking over your recording or just being seriously annoying.

Re:What about DVRs?

[omnichad]

Or better yet, re-record the episode when it next airs if it detects the alert tones.

Re:What about DVRs?

[edelbrp]

Right-o. I meant more specifically that it play through the alert to me in real-time instead of only recording it for me to stumble upon later when it doesn't matter any more.

Re:What about DVRs?

[mattack2]

I was watching my TiVo a few years ago and 'EMERGENCY!' There was a tornado watch in effect. Sadly, it ruined the program I was watching which was recorded over a week before.

Are you sure that the tornado watch info was on that specific channel?

I do not have personal knowledge of this, it is based upon what I have read: Supposedly, Tivos *with cablecards* are required to tune to the 'emergency' channel (that is my nomenclature for it) when the emergency alert happens. (I don't know, maybe cable boxes are required to do the same thing.) At the very least, current Tivo software *resumes* the recording after the alert is over. Previous versions didn't, so your recording was cut off too.

However, again, from what I have read, if you put your Tivo into Standby, it will NOT automatically change channels during an emergency alert, so your recording will be less likely to be messed up. (If the station actually puts an alert over the show, obviously that's different.)

So that's one reason to put Tivos into Standby when not using them (also, they will start recording suggestions sooner if disk space is available). Unfortunately, it *doesn't* save energy to put them in standby.

First there was emergency notice...

[Archfeld]

Then having opted in 1000's of nervous people made more afraid by over-hyped news media, they will 'realize' the potential as a delivery method for more ads....

Greeting Gamers this is your Fox 'News' Weekday hurricane warning brought to you by Carl's Jr...

What the hell are they going to tell them?

[JumpDrive]

They got no guns (it's New York)?
They are surrounded by water, without enough exits for an emergency evacuation.
So what is the individual going to do? Tell everyone "Call to Duty" said the "Chinese are attacking".
What exactly is the message going to say? "Run for the Hudson and swim for it".

Maybe just a scrolling message on the bottom of the screen which said " You know , if you would spend half this time on studying Engineering, Politics, History, coding, languages..... you could quite possibly be a more productive member of society".
Would be more helpful

Re:What the hell are they going to tell them?

[blueg3]

They got no guns (it's New York)?

There are plenty of guns outside of New York City -- the state has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country.

They are surrounded by water, without enough exits for an emergency evacuation.

Only Manhattan, Long Island, and Staten Island. Part of NYC, along with all the rest of the state, is not an island. Compare with Hawaii, a state that is entirely island.

GOVERNMENT ALERT:

[circletimessquare]

the previous post was a poorly constructed troll

all you kiddies can get back to sims 3 and relax

GOVERNMENT OUT

Just plain not true?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can this be true? A state has hooked up with all three companies to get warnings on all three platforms at once? We can't even stream a TV show on all three platforms, how can we do realtime alerts? This sounds like someone just decided to just run their mouth without knowing what they are saying.

www.civiguard.com - go one better.

[zubinwadia]

We don't just notfiy people in specific regions, but also give you context specific information to get you out of danger. With standard notification systems you don't really know if you are running into a jam or danger or actually getting out of the way. We change that: http://www.civiguard.com/ By the way - we are hiring, so fire away a resume if you are into erlang, python or Android/Java development!

Re:www.civiguard.com - go one better.

[Shawnapandya]

The is promising, not just for immediate-term threats, but longer-term situations, such as H1N1 tracking too...

Flawed System.....

[IHC Navistar]

The EAS is already a joke. Here in CA, you may have your TV or radio programming interrupted to inform you of an emergency in an area that is nowhere near you. I'm on the coast in Monterey County, so a flooding alert for Santa Cruz is just going to piss me off and give me reason to ignore alerts.

The only thing this is going to do is piss off a lot of people and reduce awareness. People will start ignoring alerts when their games are interrupted for emergency alerts that do not affect them. And, if there actually is an emergency that is affecting them, they probably won't be gaming. Would you sit and play Call Of Duty if there was flooding in your area? You would probably be dealing with the emergency instead of gaming, making the Gaming EAS idea meaningless.

If this is a good idea, why not...

[IronChef]

Why not break in to telephone networks with emergency messages?

Why not inject messages into IM networks and chat rooms? (Maybe private IM and chat tools should be heavily regulated--for safety.)

And what if you are not watching TV, listening to the radio, playing a game on an online service, or on the phone? Maybe you're surfing the web. So why not tap in to ad serving networks, so that every page you visit has warnings all over? Or maybe this should be done at the ISP level. I bet Comcast and ATT would play ball.

I mean, think of the children.

when I read the article.

[Anonymous Coward]

i though of this...

http://theurf.com/2008/08/gamers/

its a webcomic

I hope they make these alerts very different

[idontgno]

from in-game content.

If I'm playing Starcraft II online, I don't want to hear "Nuclear launch detected!" and wonder if I should be spamming my Orbital Command scanner sweeps looking for stealthed Ghosts or maybe just duck and cover IRL.

Re:I hope they make these alerts very different

[Aphoxema]

Yeah, it's not a bad idea at all but I know when I really get into a game I get pretty oblivious to reality.

"This is really a real alert. This will really effect you. You may die if you do not stop playing this game and pay attention to the tornado outside your house."

just other way the cable card system sucks as they

[Joe The Dragon]

Just other way the cable card system sucks as some cable force it (all tuners) to tune to the EMERGENCY info channle that. I thing that they own dvr's may not mess the background tuner but I have direct tv I don't get any of this carp other then the Local channels (why fox 32 do you have to trun off DD 5.1 and HD to show them on screen when 2,5,7 and 9 can all do it in hd?. Also some cable system kill the sound as well so you can't even hear weather info.

Yet another WTF moment....

[Anonymous Coward]

Your summary on NC suicide laws can be directly applied to much of our "corrections system." Instead of actually correcting the situation by forcing the guy to get help, we make the situation worse by jailing him for 1st degree murder and ensure his depression by guaranteing he won't be able to get a job. This is pure heresy. This can also be applied to drug addicts: instead of getting them help, we make them sit and wish they could use the drug for years, just exacerbating the addiction. When they are released and relapse into addiction, simply rinse and repeat. Our "corrections system" should be called "schizo system."

A good idea...

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Actually, I can't find fault with this one at all. If you're stuck deep in WoW while a tornado bears down on you, I daresay you'll get over having your game interrupted and even be thankful for it. Obviously they're not going to deliver breaking news this way, but actual emergencies in the same way they use it for radio and then television. It's pretty pointless to notify you of an emergency in mediums you're not watching.

Attacked by Mormons?

[Zordak]

Hey, we're being attacked by ... mormons ... try not to die

Um, I know it's all hip to hate on religion and religions here on Slashdot, but seriously, when was the last time a mob of armed Mormons attacked your city? Were they armed with green Jell-O? Did somebody tell you that the guys with the white shirts and bicycles are some kind of Mormon special forces? Did you hear somebody abbreviate "Book of Mormon" as "BoM" and think they're ordnance technicians? Apparently I didn't get the memo that we're supposed to be engaging in some kind of armed, bloody Holy War.

Re:Attacked by Mormons?

[Facegarden]

Hey, we're being attacked by ... mormons ... try not to die

Um, I know it's all hip to hate on religion and religions here on Slashdot, but seriously, when was the last time a mob of armed Mormons attacked your city? Were they armed with green Jell-O? Did somebody tell you that the guys with the white shirts and bicycles are some kind of Mormon special forces? Did you hear somebody abbreviate "Book of Mormon" as "BoM" and think they're ordnance technicians? Apparently I didn't get the memo that we're supposed to be engaging in some kind of armed, bloody Holy War.

Actually, i wasn't hating on mormons. I was joking, yes, but it was a joke to me because of how absurd it is, because mormons are *not* likely to attack anyone. Kind of a monty python absurd kind of humor, because that's what I like. If I had said "nuns", no one would have thought i was hating on catholics.

Man, people are *touchy* today.
-Taylor

Re:Attacked by Mormons?

[Zordak]

No hard feelings. I just thought it was an odd thing to say. Maybe I need to update libpythonhumour to the latest version.

Getting confused

[SnarfQuest]

Remember the movie "war games"?

Nobody is going to confuse a game with the controls for a nuclear arsonal, and using a 300 baud modem to transmit real-time video footage again, are they?

And when it gets hacked...?

[The Altruist]

"haha im in ur baes killin ur doods." "oh noes! my mens" "haha imma killin all ur... wtf?" "..?" "#$%#$ bomb in my city gtg" "...k gg" "gg" L337R0YJ3NK1N5 has left the game. A winner is you! "Heh. Retard."

Re:Good Idea!nike jordan shoes,coach handabgs

[coolforsale114]

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I call BS

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't believe it. The guy behind the whole "Empire 2.0" nonsense is a professional bullshit artist that uses his state position to travel the country on the taxpayer's dime. The only actual things they have actually accomplished involved signing up for some free service that lets people post ideas for the state agency that handles IT, setting up a facebook account, and some wiki that nobody even knows the URL of.

I work for a local government in NY that has been devastated by the Wall St. collapse and economic situation. We get furloughed a day every two weeks and they've laid off workers in child protective services and the sewer department. Meanwhile, clowns like this waste money on lame nonsense.

Actually...

[mister_playboy]

Actually,the threat level has never been lowered to Low (Green) or Guarded (Blue).

It's little more than fear mongering.

it would not hurt

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see how this could save lives if we had this in tornado ally. A few months ago we had a tornado blast thru my home town of Murfreesboro TN. I was sitting back playing world of warcraft at the time. My TV was turned off and I had my gaming head set on with the sound turned up. Little did I know there was a massive tornado heading right at my house. Next thing I know, the power goes out and there is a 2x4 flying thru the window. Now I have a weather alert radio. But at the time a warning over the game could have saved me from a near death experience.

NY-Alert

[NY-Alert]

The system being design and implemented is another form of alerting for the NY-Alert system. It will be a 100% opt in design, as we will be releasing our chat engine plug-ns also. At no time will you receive a messaging on your gaming console if you did not opt in to receive it. To ensure the gamers are not spammed with worthless information they will have the choice to choose the type of warning and events they wish to receive on their gaming console.

Re:NY-Alert

[silverpie]

Good to see the horse's mouth checking in. Your next assignment is to post a link to whatever official explanation is available.

nyc department of mental health

[Anonymous Coward]

with decent privacy settings, it it still possible for them to see my facebook page? If they can still monitor it, is it possible to opt out?