keeps it from being infiltrated. Maybe the ballistic missile warning system is older too.

No external connections to the internet. Completely stand-alone to prevent intrusion.

We’ve all been affected.

There have not been cell phone alerts for 50 years. That’s the system that failed due to human error.

Our sirens didn’t go off. The military confirmed that there was no threat.

Vern Miyagi says that’s what happened. David Ige say that’s what happened.

http://m.hawaiinewsnow.com/hawaiinewsnow/db_330510/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=DDW6U3Na

Unless you’re here and you know more than our own do I don’t see the point of speculation and dramas.

the dangers we face in a nuclear world lead by a hair-trigger ignoramus. Not saying, just asking, and inquiring from the depths of a large dark ignorance illuminated entirely by my paranoia and the hope that someone might do something to avert our course.


I was in Minot, in '73, during the Yom Kippur War when Kissinger took us to DefCon 3 because Nixon was drunk.

Very few of my friends and family outside the military knew anything about the ramp up to confrontation.

What I learned was simple, and quite eye opening:

"In the nuclear age, the difference between the Home Front and the Front Line is simply a matter of perception: If you know we're at war, you are too."

Ultimately, all we have left is Viktor Frankl's Challenge:

I'm so sorry this happened.

Sucks ya?

Hoping we all learn from it. I did. Peace.

did not go off, a detail I missed. Awful for everybody, but this will have caused serious trauma that continues for some unfortunates, and their families.

Link to tweet

At least that's what the news on the mainland said...

Not just cell phones...

Residents of Hawaii watching a basketball game were greeted by an ominous message on their screens when an emergency alert notification was sent out claiming a "ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii." The alert was a false alarm, according to state leaders and emergency officials.
Source: CNN

But I didn’t turn the tv on. Wasn’t anywhere near one.

My neighbor said at 8:45 after everybody knew it was a false alarm an emergency warning was scrolling but it didn’t say what the emergency was.


For whatever that’s worth.

There were several posts from Hawaiian DUers saying that there weren't any sirens in their area. In fact, I've yet to see a single DU member from there reporting that any sirens went off.

The employee probably didn't read the confirmation dialog too carefully, and assumed it was asking for confirmation of the test they intended to initiate.

If I click on a button, it might not be the one I wanted to click on. The accident was between what my brain wanted and where it told my hand to position the mouse and when I told my finger to click.

"Oops, I meant to click on 'scan' my drive not 'shred' my drive." The "are you sure?" option allows my brain the time to back up and undo the muscle-related screw-up.

On the other hand, it's also a mistake if I think I want to click on a given button because I misread it, misunderstand it, or simply think it's the right one to click for any other (incorrect) reason. The understanding is in my brain, and when my brain's given the chance a fraction of a second later to undo the mistake, it hasn't concluded there was a mistake to undo. "'Shred' is good in skiing, must be good here, too, and mean something like a 'really thorough, ace scan'." Uh, not.


It's the same split in meaning when somebody's killed by a shooter--a policeman or a civilian--and it's a "mistake." Maybe the person doing the shooting fired by accident or didn't know the gun was off safety. Or maybe the mistake was thinking the person shot was somebody else or doing something else but the trigger was nonetheless pulled entirely on purpose. We see the ambiguity sometimes, and when it's an issue of solidarity or belief or group, we collapse that ambiguity into giving just the convenient option.

Or or your statement that alarms went off all over? According to CNN the only sirens that went off were those at a few military bases that voluntarily did it.
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/01/14/hawaii-news/botched-test-of-alert-system-leads-to-38-minutes-of-terror/?HSA=863c8351326fb2566a657e21f59aad37ea54b6bb

They didn't read or understand the message.

Nobody was injured or killed.

No property was damaged.

Life goes on in Hawaii as before.

Or am I missing something?

Consider the flip side... incoming missiles with no warning... I'd prefer a false alarm...

do NOT gloss over the mental effect of thinking you and your family may only have minutes to live. It must have been horrific.

Like the worst nightmare come true

to be like for another three years if Trump stays in office...

And no one died or was injured while they uncovered the weakness of the system.

That is what I just cannot understand.

I’d say that’s a fast reaction time.

ion

Those confirmation dialogs are a feature of DOS and Windows, not computers in general. You may have heard of Linux -- it doesn't have them, and if you are logged in as root you can type rm /* -r and it will happily delete every file on your hard drive without asking if you're sure. This is because Linux is based on UNIX, which was designed for enterprise mainframe systems meant to be operated by trained employees, not home computers being operated by n00bs.

And gave it.

If such a dialog existed it was most likely a feature of the application, but the reason UNIX doesn't have confirmation dialogs is that operators who use a system all day long and every work day tend to get into the habit of punching buttons by muscle memory anyway. I design industrial control systems and have seen this firsthand. Punching OK is just the next motion you make in the sequence, no thought involved. Even when you tell people it's important to read the message they're about to clear they can't make themselves do it because the hand acts before the mind gives the action any consideration.

I too think it was B.S. because I believe Trump has a way of causing a diversion when he wants to get the topic off himself (shi*hole).
When it was happening, Trump NEVER left Florida or stopped his golf game. It didn't appear to surprise him at all.

maybe you should back away from the claim that the explanation for the false alarm is "total bullshit".

"How about a nice game of chess?"

"No. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War."

"Fine."

Many people on Twitter are dumbfounded that an official took responsibility for the mistake. The guy actually says "It was MY fault." This is so different from normal US politicians' behavior that Americans are astonished.

I suspect this is the influence of Japanese culture in Hawaii. Taking responsibility for your own mistakes now seems foreign to Americans.

(Oh, and please, no snide comments about the men's aloha shirts. This is normal work wear in banks and businesses in Hawaii.)

Link to tweet