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British TV Show 'Blackout' Triggers Online LOLs

Posted by timothy on from the if-you-can-read-this-message-the-internet-is-down dept.

judgecorp writes "Britain's Channel 4 screened Blackout, a drama about a cyber-attack which crashes the national power grid. The show was silly enough, with a strong message about the dangers of lighting candles in such a situation, but the Twitter responses were even better. The show terrified some viewers who apparently didn't realise that their TV screen was powered by the grid."

8 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. hey stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    don't put power grids on the open internet. DUH.

    1. Re:hey stupid by fridaynightsmoke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How do you suggest the control room communicate with all the various power stations and electricity consumers across the country then?

      Perhaps, I don't know, they could piggyback a communication network onto the physical power network they own, airgapped from the internet? Maybe they could call each other on the phone like they did for the first ~80 years of the grid's existence?

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    2. Re:hey stupid by Jawnn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do we really need to explain that a network need not be connected to the Internet to be, you know, a network?

  2. Re:Remember what George Carlin said by Russ1642 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Half the population isn't dumber than the average. That's not what average means. (pun intended)

  3. Re:LOL by glavenoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Al right, joke's on us. I just read the /. submission title again:

    "British TV Show 'Blackout' Triggers Online LOLs"

    STOP THE PRESSES! SOME SHOW TRIGGERS LOLS!! I can see timothy scrambling like a madman to get this thread out of the submission queue and onto the front page. This in the running for the most ridiculous title I've ever seen here, even worse then the gloriously daft "OMG PONIES LOL!!!"

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  4. Re:Luddites. by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even though it's much less satisfying, try feeding them into the chipper shredder head first.

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  5. Re:Why is this even on Slashdot? by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    -1 we already have a way to deal with this sort of thing

    if some of us lazy asses would mod the submission queue, maybe crap like this could be avoided.

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  6. Re:Fond memories of Threads by MrNemesis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just to chime in with a "me, too!" but The Day After is very much a Hollywood version of nuclear war. Threads (and to a lesser extent 1965's The War Game which inspired the structure of the film but was banned from being broadcast) is essentially some of the most harrowing TV you can put yourself through. If you like your post-apocalyptic stuff then despite its pitifully small budget Threads is hard to beat; just don't expect to feel too chipper afterwards.

    It's might not be well known outside of the UK, but part of what made Threads so chilling was the fact that the documentary-style delivery was done partly with excerpts from Protect and Survive, a real PI film, just to show how ineffective and futile the advice being given out by the government would really be. I think the nearest US equivalent is Duck and Cover.

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Threads
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_and_survive

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