[LINK] Re: Tsunami Warnings all about politics and cooperation

[Tom Worthington]

I wrote Mon, 24 Jan 2005 10:44:07 +1100:

>Perhaps we should bypass the usual approach and build an Internet style, 
>Internet based warning system? ...

I now get Tsunami warnings on my phone.

I noticed that my e-mail provider had added an SMS alert option, so I 
configured it to send Tsunami warnings to my phone. I can then look at the 
full bulletin using the phone's web interface. The Tsunami bulletins are 
formatted for telex (text with no graphics) and so display well on a phone.

Each warning has to go from the Pacific Center in Hawaii to the UNESCO 
Interim Indian Ocean system, to my mail host, to the phone company and then 
the phone. But on a good day all that should take less than a minute.

The catch with this is that every time there is a earthquake in the Pacific 
or Indian oceans I will get an SMS message (and charged 25 cents for it). 
Looking up the bulletin on the web to see where it is costs about another 
30 cents.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au                PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University