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Comment by intopieces | Hacker News Reader

Looking at the screenshot of the alert [0], it appears to be using the alert system adopted in 2006 in response to the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act[1]. How is this system for a missile attack different, and in what way is it being revisited for the first time in a generation? Text messages are just now 1 generation old (SMS first implemented 1992[2]; generation is about 25.5 years[3].)And of course the alert system itself is only 11 years old.

[0]https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/01/14/us/14xp-hawaii-su...

[1]https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/5785...

[2]http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-12-03/after-25-years...

[3]https://isogg.org/wiki/How_long_is_a_generation%3F_Science_p...

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Well they tested the nuclear/missle attack warning sirens in Hawain cities for the first time in a very long time last month. Just because the sirens were installed during the cold war doesnt make the new attention and urgency being given to them is any less new. Same with the underlying infrastructure behind cell phone alerts being old while the systems on top are being newly revised and tested.

Clearly there is a whole bunch of new attention being paid towards this.

And rightfully so given the provocations from NK and the general decline in maintenance/quality of the US nuclear and ICBM weapon systems.

I'm surprised the sirens aren't tested more frequently.

In Denmark we have a national system of sirens. They are tested once a year at a specific date and time. In the cold war era they used to test them every Wednesday at noon, but it has been scaled down since then :-)

The US has no national siren system; there are just state and local ones. I've heard siren tests every once in a while living in San Francisco, but there's zero public education about their meaning or appropriate responses.

(This false alarm was a push alert sent to cell phones. What about people who don't have a cell phone on them when the alert comes? ... good luck)

It played over TV broadcasts as well, I think. Probably went to radio, but I haven't seen anything written about that.

It was also on radio and TV.

They get tested monthly here in Minnesota (at 1300 on the first Wednesday of the month).

They are primarily for tornadoes rather than nuclear weapons though.

In Tokyo they test the public emergency speaker system every day.

At 5pm they play a 30-second traditional Japanese lullaby. If you ask people, they say it means it's time for children to go home - though as far as I can tell it has nothing to do with actual school schedules. I'm not sure everyone realizes it's actually a warning system.

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