The future of Disaster

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Last night, my time, around 2 or 3 am, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit Japan, which was followed by a tsunami and a dozen or so “aftershocks.”  The largest earthquake was the first, but the aftershocks haven’t been small situations, either.

Lucky for the Japanese, the government invested billions of dollars into an early detection and alarm system.  You can see, below, how investments in technology probably saved thousands of lives by alerting Japanese citizens moments before the earthquake arrived.

Depending on the distance to the epicenter of the earthquake, the alarm gives the people more or less time to get ready.  It could be a 10 second warning or, like yesterday for people in Tokyo, an 80 second warning.  This may not seem like much, but it is enough for people to turn off gas lines, pull cars over, get out of elevators, lower construction cranes or stop surgeries that are in progress and create/find cover.  These warnings are aired over television and radio stations, but can also be texted to phones, tweeted via Twitter or blasted over internet lines.  An example below (notice the amount of time the person has before the earthquake gets going):

The thing about Japanese that is fortunate for them is their preparedness.  They have been working on their early warning system for earthquakes and tsunamis for the last ten years and they have spent the last two decades fortifying their skyscrapers with the latest in seismic retrofitting technology.  Their buildings can actually sway like palm trees, as you can see in the following video:

The really cool thing about technology is that, although there may not be a long enough connection to get a phone call to a loved one, there may be enough connection to send off a text message, or send a tweet out to one’s friends.  This is the sort of thing that is happening more and more around the world as crises occur. 

A new happening is the internet’s answer to the “lost persons board” often found in town centers after devastating events.  Google has set up a “Crisis Response” where people can post “I am looking for someone” or “I have information about someone.”  This is a huge help in these areas for families or friends to search to find loved ones.

Tweets, Facebook groups, and text messaging are also wonderful, quick ways for a person to donate a small amount of money or a rescue or aid organization without the group having to create a television ad or organize extra volunteers for a large amount of incoming calls.

Make SURE that you do not text or allow anyone to have any of your money information until you check the validity of the organization.  MSNBC has a great article about WHAT TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU DONATE MONEY.

MSNBC also has some Organizations that are Accepting Donations HERE

My next post, in a day or two, is going to be about how Google sorts its search results

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I noticed this as I typed “murder” into my Google search.  Look at result number 2:

I find this interesting/suspicious.

Tip of the Hat to: Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing

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Let’s go back in time.  A long time ago, around the year 2000, the internet was a very different place.  It was a land of bright, neon-colored, pieced-together websites.  It was a wild west.  It was disorganized. 

Well, compared to today, it was disorganized.  And it was messy.  At the tops of every webpage, it seemed, were advertisements, in a big block, about something having nothing to do with the website you were on.  And in addition to those, the pop-ups.  The dreaded pop-ups.  Sometimes, when entering a web space, there would suddenly be 8 advertisements competing for your attention like little children straining to be the first one to break the piñata at your next-door neighbors loud birthday party….phew.  Anyway.

It was miserable.  You NEVER clicked on the advertisements because you never WANTED anything they had to offer.

Recently, though, that has begun to change, thanks to cookies and internet sites’ abilities to cater the cookies to the needs of their website.  Let’s start with cookies.

Cookies are files that are stored on your computer.  When you visit, let’s say, Amazon, the website tells your computer to make a cookie file with certain information.  While you are at that site, they edit the file with information about your visit.  What products you looked at; what products you purchased; they even store an encrypted version of your password that only they have access to (if you ask them to).

This is done for almost all websites.  Recently, companies, such as Google, have started trying to look at the different cookies you have collected so that they can better cater their experience to what you may want or need.  If you’ve searched for kitchen appliances, you may want to go to Sears.  This is all done, in their words to try to make your experience more enjoyable and easy.

Recently, there has been talk at the FTC to introduce legislation requiring the installation of a “do not track” feature into your internet browser.  Many feel that these companies, since they do not ask your permission to place these cookies on your computer, are spying on you.  Many would say, they are basically acting like a person who follows you around the mall and sees what stores you go into, only to try to sell you something.

It seems to me that, in a country that seems to agree with a “smaller government” point of view (if only based on the last election), more enforcement by the FTC into the internet is the opposite of what we desire.  Many people enjoy that Amazon can recommend books you may like, based on what you’ve previously looked at.  I know I enjoy the advertisements I see that are actually relevant to me, instead of annoying pop-ups of the internet of yesteryear  And this isn’t even an issue that they NEED to enter into as you can delete the cookies or DISABLE cookies in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera or Netscape Navigator.

Many people are want there to be a mandatory disabling of all tracking on the internet for all companies, but options available to individuals, we don’t need government intervention.  As this is a major way that companies can get advertisers to use their websites (and since all websites can’t just start charging more for usage), we’ll be back to advertisements that are random, annoying and do not help you find the things you really want on the internet. 

I understand people’s nervousness about tracking on the internet, but if you disable cookies and you’re still concerned, remember, websites can only track the information you give them.