from Hacker News

Show HN: IoT device to warn you of a supernova hours before Earth is destroyed

by wanderingjew on 6/15/22, 10:55 PM with 119 comments

  • by PaulHoule on 6/16/22, 12:58 AM

    The neutrino signal from this (mostly harmless) event

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

    was clear as day. Astronomers run an email list you can subscribe to to know about the next core collapse in or near our galaxy. They are hoping to get a heads up so they can point their telescopes at it as soon as possible.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-020-0221-5

  • by cozzyd on 6/16/22, 3:13 AM

    In the distant future when high frequency traders build giant neutrino beams to beat the round-the-world time and they misaim their beam at your house... you'll have a bad day.

  • by gleenn on 6/16/22, 12:29 AM

    This is hilarious: "Integration with cloud services allows Exaluminal to control other home IoT devices. Yes, Exaluminal will tell your Alexa to play It's The End Of The World As We Know It."

  • by nonameiguess on 6/16/22, 12:25 AM

    I don't agree with this using a dedicated single-purpose IoT device. Who wants ever more shit on their network? Just send an alert to existing emergency alert systems. My phone is already able to tell me when old people go missing or a child is kidnapped, so the infrastructure seems to be in place already to do this.

  • by stavros on 6/16/22, 12:29 AM

    1) Why can't they send a push notification to my phone?

    2) How do they get Alexa to play a song? AFAIK Alexa can't do anything unless you trigger it by a voice command.

  • by a9h74j on 6/16/22, 2:26 AM

    Two scenarios:

    False event:

      1. short the market
  2. hack in a false signal
  3. profit
    Real event:

      1. always stay short
  2. receive true signal
  3. profit on paper
  4. ?

  • by wly_cdgr on 6/16/22, 12:41 AM

    Lol why would I want to know.

    If there's a reason you'd want to know, take care of that reason now

  • by PaulHoule on 6/16/22, 12:52 AM

    They have one of these in the Charles Stross novel

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sunrise

  • by robonerd on 6/16/22, 12:33 AM

    Imagine a million people buy these and take them seriously. One day they all have a false positive, how many crimes are committed?

  • by dmwiens on 6/16/22, 1:15 AM

    A slightly more useful alert subscription for Space Weather (e.g. Carrington Event): https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

    Get to the grocery store a few minutes before the crush :)

  • by Kaibeezy on 6/16/22, 1:24 AM

    I need a “Why did we make this” section to explain why on earth it needs to be standalone wall-plugged hardware. Why not pocketable, wearable, or just an app/widget? Gen 2 maybe.

  • by elchief on 6/16/22, 1:44 AM

    "sorry guys, that was just a test" - can you imagine?

  • by imwillofficial on 6/16/22, 12:52 AM

    Wait this is the guy who built that super dope cyber deck concept I wanted.

    Curse you and your lack of selling me things!

    ::shakes fist at impending supernova::

  • by RcouF1uZ4gsC on 6/16/22, 1:40 AM

    Ask HN: If you know all life on Earth was going to end in 1 hour via this device, what would you spend the last hour doing?

  • by gimom on 6/16/22, 3:43 AM

    For the love of God, if you are interested in SuperNova Alerts, subscribe to this mailing list: https://snews.bnl.gov/alert.html

    It's for free and faster.

  • by margalabargala on 6/16/22, 12:07 AM

    I wonder what the chances are that this will give a false positive, vs accurately warning you that the earth will soon be destroyed?

    https://xkcd.com/1132/

  • by giantg2 on 6/16/22, 2:11 AM

    Maybe I'm dumb, but what's the benefit? Would the risk of false alerts be worse, assuming people would do things they would only find acceptable during the end of the world?

  • by teeray on 6/16/22, 12:45 AM

    Buying a device like this is basically a hedge that the same information won’t make it out via the emergency alert system.

  • by colpabar on 6/16/22, 1:47 AM

    Very cool. Unfortunately this is something that can’t really be tested outside of production.

  • by jp0d on 6/16/22, 3:36 AM

    Imagine missing a notification from this device! haha

  • by Kaibeezy on 6/16/22, 1:27 AM

    Site is down for me. Big “uh oh!”

  • by imwillofficial on 6/16/22, 12:46 AM

    Sweet! Need one of these

  • by wallfacer120 on 6/16/22, 1:29 AM

    But will it scale?

  • by leeoniya on 6/16/22, 1:31 AM

    solar powered, hopefully?

  • by bernardv on 6/16/22, 12:49 AM

    Perhaps should pivot to monitoring for radioactivity levels, in the more likely event Putin goes supernova on all of us.

  • by dandelany on 6/16/22, 12:42 AM

    Oh great. A product that will let me spend my last moments on Earth debugging an IoT device because surely it’s a false posi——-AUGHHH

  • by aae42 on 6/15/22, 11:53 PM

    site doesn't contain any information about a return policy in the event you're unsatisfied with the performance

  • by LinuxBender on 6/16/22, 12:35 AM

    Hours? I need only a few minutes to find a paper bag to put over my head and lay down.

    On a more serious note, I would not mind having a device that could tell me hours in advance of a large gamma ray burst if that were even possible. If one can get into deep enough of a tunnel there is a small chance of survival. I am not sure what I would do afterwards short of becoming a gatherer. Hunting would be over. No idea if the plants would survive.

  • by notomorrow on 6/16/22, 2:46 AM

  • by stazz1 on 6/16/22, 2:46 AM

    Please incorporate a snooze feature

  • by gesman on 6/16/22, 2:23 AM

    What if my electric wall outlet fails?

    Am I going to miss the earth destroyed event? This is unacceptable and worrisome!

  • by sydthrowaway on 6/16/22, 2:24 AM

    I don't get it. Wouldn't it take years for a far supernova to be detected? How is it only hours?

  • by throwaway787544 on 6/16/22, 1:00 AM

    I really need the "Why did we make this" section. Somebody needs to explain to me how your dead corpse is going to care if you wasted the last hour of your life or not.