Blaming the wrong user /// EDIT: Nope.
The discussion of Hawaii's false nuke alarm is asking the wrong question. 1% of the commenters are blaming the guy who made the wrong mouse-click, 99% are blaming Trump. We can ignore the blame-Trump part, since Trump is the designated scapegoat for everything EXCEPT the things he should be blamed for.

Hawaii should be blaming and JAILING the software company that designed the system.

The dude who clicked the wrong place on the screen is NOT blameworthy. In fact he should be halfway lauded for performing the TEST that the designers FAILED to perform.

Design starts with understanding the desires and limits of the humans who will be using the system. The Hawaii system failed at the start, because it makes the alert too easy and the cancellation too hard. Even for a simple non-critical action like deleting a fucking file, every system makes you go through an extra Are you sure? step. Why didn't this system have a multi-layer Are you sure? for a drastic action like panicking millions of people, some of whom will die of heart attacks or car accidents or stampedes?

Design ends (temporarily) after thousands of hours of testing with humans of all types. Old, young, dumb, smart, trained, untrained, alert, sleepy, drunk. The unfortunate dude who clicked the wrong item has now STARTED THE TESTING PROCESS, which was clearly omitted before. Give him a reward.

Later thought: Of course the best fucking solution for a SERIOUS CHOICE is a fucking PHYSICAL SWITCH with a fucking PHYSICAL KEY-LOCK. For 180 years SERIOUS CHOICES have been made by PHYSICAL SWITCHES.


= = = = =

EDIT: Update after more info emerged: Well, the software did have an Are you sure? choice, and the agency employee went ahead and sent the alert anyway. Twice. So he is to blame. The software should obviously have better protection as well. The stupidest part of all is that the Hawaiian agency had to check with FEMA in DC to get permission to turn off the alarm.

Major conclusion: As always, USA STRONG's overriding Prime Directive is to kill its own people. We are pure crime, pure evil, pure omnicide, pure wickedness. We need to be removed from the universe.

Labels: defenestration / depontication

  ¶ 2:55 AM