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[Stephen J Smoogen <smooge () UNM EDU>]

Subject: Re: [SECURITY] <SPAM> Re: [SECURITY] emergency alert system
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On Fri, 18 Apr 2008, Brad Judy wrote:

Long list of good stuff listed showing that bombings and shootings occur=20
at less than being hit by lightening or drunk driver. [Of course, the=20
biggest factor is that shootings, bombings, and just good old-fashined=20
crime are relatively rare. The avenues of using SMS to lure people to=20
bombings and shootings have been used in Iraq already... its just that=20
we dont have the number of violent acts per 100 people they do.]

> Fire: Building/room fires occur on a fairly regular basis (I can?t find=20
> Flood: The amount of warning depends on the specific campus.=A0 Some are=
=20
> Hurricane: Hurricanes have certainly caused lots of damage and=20
> Tornado: Tornado deaths in schools are rare in the past few decades=20
> Winter storm: A very useful feature of text notification is to notify

The big issue with all of these is that SMS is a poor system for=20
announcing most of these. It is lossy (signal noice corruptions) and is=20
not guarenteed delivery. My experience and others experience has shown=20
it to take several hours for the messages to get out to 8,000 phones=20
because various cell-phone companies didn't. The time went up as a power=20
curve, not linearly. [Note: hearsay] According to some people, the=20
messages were also confusing in that some people got the all clear=20
message before they got the emergency messages. Some got corrupted=20
messages which would have told them the opposite (as in go outside=20
instead of inside).

Until the government mandates the phone companies to have a=20
dedicated emergency channel that is able to send out messages to=20
10,000 to 1,000,000+ users with little corruption.. I can't see how it=20
is worth the money some Universities are shelling out. Getting=20
information out via old fashioned PA, web, radio, TV is much more=20
effective.

--=20
Stephen Smoogen -- ITS/Linux Administrator
   MSC02 1520 1 University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM  87131-0001
   Phone: (505) 277-8219  Email: smooge () unm edu
  How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
  in a naughty world. =3D Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"

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