Univ. of Illinois Goes War-of-the-Worlds On Students

theodp writes "'Strange beings who landed in New Jersey tonight are the vanguard of an invading army from Mars.' (Orson Welles, 1938). 'Active shooter at BUILDING NAME/INTERSECTION. Escape area if safe to do so or shield/secure your location.' (Univ. of Illinois, 2011). An alert message sent out Thursday to 87,000 emails and cell phones warning recipients to escape from an 'active shooter' at the University of Illinois was an error, the Office of the Chief of Police confirmed. 'The alert sent today was caused by a person making a mistake,' explained an email. 'Rather than pushing the SAVE button to update the pre-scripted message, the person pushed the SUBMIT button. We are working with the provider of the Illini-Alert service to implement additional security features in the program to prevent this type of error.'"

Implemented!

[kanweg]

Do you want to cancel the alarm?
[Cancel] [Cancel]

Bert

Irony

[ncttrnl]

Sounds like UI needs a better UI on their emergency notification system.

Re:It Takes TWO controllers

[517714]

In this case FPS skills apply whether the warning is mistaken or not.

Re:Easy solution

[pak9rabid]

Better idea: A modal dialog pops up, with a big red countdown from thirty seconds before the 'ok' and 'cancel' buttons become enabled, to make sure the user reads it. It also plays an audio clip at full volume to tell everyone else in the office to check it.

Michael Bolton: That is the worst idea I've ever heard in my life.
Samir: Yes, this is horrible, this idea.