January 23, 2013

Battle stations! Bweep Bweep Bweep

Most mornings I'm up before 7, but today I slept in. I keep my phone on my bed next to my pillow so it's within arm's reach in case I need it, and I got waked by it at 8:00 when it made a sound I hadn't heard before.

It was an "Amber Alert". I didn't know about this feature. They sent an email to every phone in the region which could receive it, alerting everyone to a child kidnapping that happened in The Dalles this morning. (Which is about 70 miles from here.)

The kid is safe, and the perp is now in jail. I don't know if the Amber Alert helped, but surely it can't have hurt.

There's a menu in my phone allowing me to control whether I receive a bunch of different levels of alert: Amber alert, Severe alert, Extreme alert, and Presidential alert. I can't disable that last one.

I assume the others are for things like tornado warnings in Oklahoma. Maybe a "Presidential alert" means "we're about to have a nuclear war, so kiss your ass goodbye".

There wasn't anything like this back when I worked on cell phones; but that's because none of the phones I worked on did mail. They were just voice boxes.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 04:44 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 217 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Presidential Alert is actually legislated in, and it happened about two years ago. AFAIK the law has absolutely no word as to what this is for, except that President invokes it. Does not have to be in relation to a national emergency or anything, so I halfway expected Barack Obama texting "SUCK IT MITT" to every cellphone in the country, just because he could.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at January 23, 2013 07:10 PM (RqRa5)

2 What was it two years ago? That storm that hit New England?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 23, 2013 08:12 PM (+rSRq)

3 Why am I not surprised that 'alerts' from the current President can't be disabled. I suppose it's... For Our Own GoodTM (C.S. Lewis warned us about such things).

Anyway, it good to hear that you're feeling well enough to comment on anything; I was quite distressed to learn of your infirmity. I'm glad that you haven't stopped sharing your thoughts with us, or commenting on other blogs.

(I miss the USS Clueless days...)

BTW, I holding you responsible for having to start a blog in order to comment on Chizumatic. Damn... now I've got to start thinking about stuff to post on it.

Don't sweat it, I'll think of something.

Glad you're still with us.

Posted by: CPT. Charles at January 24, 2013 11:27 AM (1GunI)

4 Presidential Alert. What a novel idea.

Maybe we could buy him a batmobile next.

Posted by: pgfraering at January 25, 2013 06:52 AM (BIJKO)

5 Yeah, it's fun to blame this on Obama, but it was created by a law passed when Clinton was president.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 25, 2013 07:01 AM (+rSRq)

6 Ugh, I wouldn't want to think of what sort of alert would have come them.  'Warning, intern approaching!...'

Posted by: DrHeinous at January 25, 2013 07:40 AM (/Y+Yb)

7 I think this has gone far enough...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 25, 2013 07:46 AM (+rSRq)

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