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I think he means the regional emergency message system thing on cellphones. That system(s ?) is currently meant to be used by several things (most commonly dan

by jlgreco 13y ago

I think he means the regional emergency message system thing on cellphones. That system(s ?) is currently meant to be used by several things (most commonly dangerous weather I think. I recall getting "flash flood" warnings with it before in Philly.), and was presumably not initially created for AMBER Alerts. Stuff this sort of system would really be useful for is things like Tsunami warnings. I assume it is use for that where applicable.

baddox 13y ago
If that's what he means, he's wrong. At least on iPhones, there is a specific setting for AMBER Alerts, separate from Emergency Alerts.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  I strongly suspect the same systems are used to deliver all alert types, and the phone can just select which type of message from that single system to display. This probably depends on the carrier, but I don't see any good reason to implement them separately.
saurik 13y ago
Interesting; I looked more into this system, and it does sound like the weather service is supposed to use it for things, although even though there were many hours of aftershock on a recent earthquake here, there was no mention of it (but maybe earthquake aftershocks are considered "obvious" ;p). I still take issue with the implication my the original comment that it is being misused for this purpose due to some "misunderstanding of scale": people demanded tons of things after Amber, and they got them. Even the sex offender registry was caused as a reaction to Amber (with initial designs for it being parts of bills named after her). The general "zeitgeist" considers "think of the children" much more important than war. So, this new EAS was being conceived of only a couple years before AMBER, was only really documented a few years ago, and had an implementation deadline of last year. All the FCC's documents on it currently list "such as AMBER Alerts" as either a primary use or an example. The protocol was even modified in 2002 to add an AMBER-specific event code (but if not implemented they use "civil emergency". > What alerts will WEA deliver? > Alerts from WEA cover only critical emergency situations. Consumers will receive only three types of alerts: > Alerts issued by the President > Alerts involving imminent threats to safety or life > Amber Alerts > Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but Presidential alerts.

by jlgreco 13y ago

baddox 13y ago

If that's what he means, he's wrong. At least on iPhones, there is a specific setting for AMBER Alerts, separate from Emergency Alerts.

jlgreco 13y ago
I strongly suspect the same systems are used to deliver all alert types, and the phone can just select which type of message from that single system to display. This probably depends on the carrier, but I don't see any good reason to implement them separately.

saurik 13y ago

Interesting; I looked more into this system, and it does sound like the weather service is supposed to use it for things, although even though there were many hours of aftershock on a recent earthquake here, there was no mention of it (but maybe earthquake aftershocks are considered "obvious" ;p). I still take issue with the implication my the original comment that it is being misused for this purpose due to some "misunderstanding of scale": people demanded tons of things after Amber, and they got them. Even the sex offender registry was caused as a reaction to Amber (with initial designs for it being parts of bills named after her). The general "zeitgeist" considers "think of the children" much more important than war. So, this new EAS was being conceived of only a couple years before AMBER, was only really documented a few years ago, and had an implementation deadline of last year. All the FCC's documents on it currently list "such as AMBER Alerts" as either a primary use or an example. The protocol was even modified in 2002 to add an AMBER-specific event code (but if not implemented they use "civil emergency". > What alerts will WEA deliver? > Alerts from WEA cover only critical emergency situations. Consumers will receive only three types of alerts: > Alerts issued by the President > Alerts involving imminent threats to safety or life > Amber Alerts > Participating carriers may allow subscribers to block all but Presidential alerts.