The AusAlert system is based on the US one so we were told that some of us would see “Presidential Alert,” rather than critical alert or whatever it was. I thought the number of those seeing that would be quite small (it’s based on the phone OS version) but I know of at least three people who received such a message. They were all using OEM Android devices that are maybe a few years old so maybe their version of the core OS was missing those changes.

I actually knew a guy that worked on the US alert system. He was working at National Weather Service while I was working at the Bureau, and the project we were both on involved us working relatively closely together. He talked about the alert system when he was visiting the Bureau, and although I can’t remember anything about it, it sounded fascinating.

He was based in Maryland, and we would have a few phone-calls early morning my time and late afternoon his time. The Bureau required all international calls to go through reception, which wouldn’t open until 9:00, so I built a little Twilio server which would listen on a local number, say something like “Connecting your call” (or maybe even “Hello world”), and connect me to his number. In 2016, I got the opportunity to visit NWS centre at the University of Maryland as part of this project, and he invited us around to his place one evening and cooked us burgers with melted cheese on top. He was a nice guy. I wonder how he’s going.