Nothing happens, but you keep watching
October 18, 2012 1:44 PM Subscribe
I just had to click on this while listening to the Test Pattern CD.
posted by idiopath at 1:47 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by idiopath at 1:47 PM on October 18, 2012
This is, briefly, what the end of the world looks like.
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:49 PM on October 18, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by 2bucksplus at 1:49 PM on October 18, 2012 [2 favorites]
Perfect while GitHub is down. No work!
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
Damn it it's back. Back to work!
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:52 PM on October 18, 2012
heh heh heh....
A few of these will make great additions to the messages I play for all the political calls I have been getting.
Thanks!
posted by lampshade at 2:00 PM on October 18, 2012
A few of these will make great additions to the messages I play for all the political calls I have been getting.
Thanks!
posted by lampshade at 2:00 PM on October 18, 2012
I liked this post better once I figured out there were multiple links.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:18 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:18 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
Wow the little "play in a lightbox" arrow icon makes this post really hard to read.
posted by asterix at 2:22 PM on October 18, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by asterix at 2:22 PM on October 18, 2012 [4 favorites]
So, the broken peacock one. That probably simply wouldn't be allowed now, would it?
I recently had to put up some sponsor logos for a multinational corporation, and the image files came with a giant PDF explaining how many pixels of white space had to be between their logo and anybody else's, the minimum size the logo could be displayed at on the page, the maximum difference in size between the logo and those of other companies on the page, the impermissibility of borders, boxes or rules in proximity to the logo, the impermissibility of aligning non-aligned logos (we were granted permission in advance to align on the baseline of the logotypes where another sponsor logo was involved, which means someone in the bowels of that place not only knew there were provisions about alignment but anticipated this being an issue and felt the need to grant permission before we even noticed).
In other words, dozens of pages devoted to ensuring absolute and perfect control of any print, online or video reproduction of the company's marks, including making dead sure we understood we couldn't add or take away from the logo. I'm guessing if we'd made a 404 page show that logo with little crack marks through it, there would have been some hell to pay.
posted by mph at 2:24 PM on October 18, 2012 [3 favorites]
I recently had to put up some sponsor logos for a multinational corporation, and the image files came with a giant PDF explaining how many pixels of white space had to be between their logo and anybody else's, the minimum size the logo could be displayed at on the page, the maximum difference in size between the logo and those of other companies on the page, the impermissibility of borders, boxes or rules in proximity to the logo, the impermissibility of aligning non-aligned logos (we were granted permission in advance to align on the baseline of the logotypes where another sponsor logo was involved, which means someone in the bowels of that place not only knew there were provisions about alignment but anticipated this being an issue and felt the need to grant permission before we even noticed).
In other words, dozens of pages devoted to ensuring absolute and perfect control of any print, online or video reproduction of the company's marks, including making dead sure we understood we couldn't add or take away from the logo. I'm guessing if we'd made a 404 page show that logo with little crack marks through it, there would have been some hell to pay.
posted by mph at 2:24 PM on October 18, 2012 [3 favorites]
These sorts of imaginings of what this kind of final notice will look like have always fascinated me.
posted by Blasdelb at 2:26 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Blasdelb at 2:26 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
I saw those theoretical Nuclear Attack messages when making this post up. They are interesting, though sadly I doubt that we would get such a notice. It's more likely that the government wouldn't say anything until after the first round of strikes to avoid utter chaos. And then it would basically be "Stay indoors, when you die put yourself in a bag for ease of disposal."
posted by mediocre at 2:33 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by mediocre at 2:33 PM on October 18, 2012
What the heck is happening in X?
posted by deathpanels at 2:48 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by deathpanels at 2:48 PM on October 18, 2012
Why can't I stop watching these?!?
I love how many of them (or at least 3) are from recordings of Star Trek, which means somebody had booted up the VCR saving episodes for posterity. (Same reason it's always been relatively easy to find a copy of "the Max Headroom Pirating Incident" that interrupted Doctor Who)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:11 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
I love how many of them (or at least 3) are from recordings of Star Trek, which means somebody had booted up the VCR saving episodes for posterity. (Same reason it's always been relatively easy to find a copy of "the Max Headroom Pirating Incident" that interrupted Doctor Who)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:11 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
> These sorts of imaginings of what this kind of final notice will look like have always fascinated me.
I went on a big kick of watching these... It all came about because I was playing with SDR, and was attempting to listen for alerts on several frequencies, and decode the EAS/SAME packet radio stream to generate a pop-up alert on my workstation as it came in (because I need it FASTER than other alert systems, right? right?!) At the time, youtube videos of alerts were the absolute best way to do this on demand, as there weren't any storms or tornadoes conveniently on the way, and I needed a test window more than a minute or so per month.
I discovered an interesting bit of data about these- The overwhelming majority of EAS videos on youtube are fake, even the ones that aren't depicting hypothetical scenarios and pretend to be real weather alerts. Obviously, one announcing a nuclear strike isn't real, but some of these were relatively standard weather events that seemed very convincing - not using an obviously fake voice, not having some sort of other obvious tell.
I could tell because almost all of these videos used the same clip for the packet radio burst, which contained something along the lines of ZCZCWXRRMT[something] - which decoded to the exact same monthly test from somewhere on the east coast - I can't remember where, unfortunately.
So in addition to the well established trend of people creating fake EAS videos for nuclear strikes and the like, there are actually several people who have felt a need to create fake EAS videos for more mundane events such as thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches - all using the same audio burst. I never did find the originator of that burst...
posted by MysticMCJ at 3:28 PM on October 18, 2012 [5 favorites]
I went on a big kick of watching these... It all came about because I was playing with SDR, and was attempting to listen for alerts on several frequencies, and decode the EAS/SAME packet radio stream to generate a pop-up alert on my workstation as it came in (because I need it FASTER than other alert systems, right? right?!) At the time, youtube videos of alerts were the absolute best way to do this on demand, as there weren't any storms or tornadoes conveniently on the way, and I needed a test window more than a minute or so per month.
I discovered an interesting bit of data about these- The overwhelming majority of EAS videos on youtube are fake, even the ones that aren't depicting hypothetical scenarios and pretend to be real weather alerts. Obviously, one announcing a nuclear strike isn't real, but some of these were relatively standard weather events that seemed very convincing - not using an obviously fake voice, not having some sort of other obvious tell.
I could tell because almost all of these videos used the same clip for the packet radio burst, which contained something along the lines of ZCZCWXRRMT[something] - which decoded to the exact same monthly test from somewhere on the east coast - I can't remember where, unfortunately.
So in addition to the well established trend of people creating fake EAS videos for nuclear strikes and the like, there are actually several people who have felt a need to create fake EAS videos for more mundane events such as thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches - all using the same audio burst. I never did find the originator of that burst...
posted by MysticMCJ at 3:28 PM on October 18, 2012 [5 favorites]
All programs have now been suspended on all channels to allow the broadcast of this film held in reserve for times of crisis.
posted by TheCuriousOrange at 3:57 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by TheCuriousOrange at 3:57 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]
CKND! And that's led me to Youtube user RetroWinnipeg. Awesome.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:31 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 4:31 PM on October 18, 2012
I like these almost as much as when a station goes into Stunt Mode. I remember in Columbus, OH that one radio station played episodes of Cheers for two days before coming back up as one of those lame-ass "The Brew" stations.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:46 PM on October 18, 2012
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:46 PM on October 18, 2012
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Ironically, YouTube had a hiccup during my hunt for these clips and was giving me a 404 error when I clicked on Technical Difficulties videos.
posted by mediocre at 1:45 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]