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A comment on The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Saturday. Parent comment

Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by bsder on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @06:08PM (#16163704)
Sadly, that IS important.

When someone is in a crisis situation, their actions have to be the SAME as a drill. Making someone do or type something different when things are already hectic is likely to send them into brain-lock.

The solution is something extra that pops up AFTER doing everything the same that says "Sending real alert in 10 ... 9 ... 8 ..." with a "Type: "Abort" in text field to stop".

If the operator brain freezes whether real or fake, the alert still goes out in 10 seconds. If the operator screwed up but doesn't brain-freeze, he can stop the situation.

That's pretty much the best you can do if you're trying to make your drill and your alarm almost identical in order to maximize crisis performance.

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Re:The screen that set off the ballistic missile alert on Sa... by sobani on Wednesday January 17, 2018 @05:28AM (#16166865)
> Type: "Abort"

I can imagine that when someone accidentally sends out a real alert, the "Oh F" moment will last longer than the 10 seconds you give the operator to type those 5 characters, in the correct order, with shaky fingers.

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