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I'll skip over discussing whether this will be effective and go straight to the implementation required: > a panic button configured to the number key 5 or 9 a

by dcw303 10y ago

I'll skip over discussing whether this will be effective and go straight to the implementation required: > a panic button configured to the number key 5 or 9 and all smartphones to have a feature that will engage when the on-off button is pressed three times. I find it interesting that a government department has demanded so specific an implementation. Do they think that prescribing that level of detail makes them look more authoritative? It would be better to leave the details to the phone makers. I don't think Apple or Google will respond with much enthusiasm to that level of micromanagement.

gozur88 10y ago
You need something simple and standard for emergencies, in the same way you have a three digit emergency number in the US and UK (and, I assume, other places). If every phone is different nobody will bother learning the sequence, or they'll remember the sequence they had on their last mobile. Most people stop thinking when they panic. I used to manage a group of computer operators. One day one of my employees collapsed. I directed her coworker to call the emergency number while I was checking for breath and a heartbeat. Since it was a military base with an obsolete phone system, the emergency number wasn't 911, and even though there was a huge red sticker on the phone (which she'd used for years) with the emergency number, the coworker kept punching in 911 over and over, getting more and more panicked when it didn't connect. She froze up so badly even when I told her what to do she couldn't do it - I had to take the phone from her and dial myself. She would have been fine if 911 actually worked, though, because that's the emergency number that had been drilled into her since childhood. That job (because of that incident and another when the fire suppression system went off) taught me all those stupid-seeming standardized emergency systems really can save your life. Even if you're the sort of person who can keep your head in an emergency, you may need help from someone who can't.
reustle 10y ago
> It would be better to leave the details to the phone makers. But then they'd all use different standards, and when it came down to the time you need to actually use it, you're not sure which standards exist?

by dcw303 10y ago

gozur88 10y ago

You need something simple and standard for emergencies, in the same way you have a three digit emergency number in the US and UK (and, I assume, other places). If every phone is different nobody will bother learning the sequence, or they'll remember the sequence they had on their last mobile. Most people stop thinking when they panic. I used to manage a group of computer operators. One day one of my employees collapsed. I directed her coworker to call the emergency number while I was checking for breath and a heartbeat. Since it was a military base with an obsolete phone system, the emergency number wasn't 911, and even though there was a huge red sticker on the phone (which she'd used for years) with the emergency number, the coworker kept punching in 911 over and over, getting more and more panicked when it didn't connect. She froze up so badly even when I told her what to do she couldn't do it - I had to take the phone from her and dial myself. She would have been fine if 911 actually worked, though, because that's the emergency number that had been drilled into her since childhood. That job (because of that incident and another when the fire suppression system went off) taught me all those stupid-seeming standardized emergency systems really can save your life. Even if you're the sort of person who can keep your head in an emergency, you may need help from someone who can't.

reustle 10y ago

> It would be better to leave the details to the phone makers. But then they'd all use different standards, and when it came down to the time you need to actually use it, you're not sure which standards exist?