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

The neutrino signal from this (mostly harmless) event<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;SN_1987A" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;SN_1987A</a><p>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.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s42254-020-0221-5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s42254-020-0221-5</a>

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&#x27;ll have a bad day.

This is hilarious: &quot;Integration with cloud services allows Exaluminal to control other home IoT devices. Yes, Exaluminal will tell your Alexa to play It&#x27;s The End Of The World As We Know It.&quot;

I don&#x27;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.

1) Why can&#x27;t they send a push notification to my phone?<p>2) How do they get Alexa to play a song? AFAIK Alexa can&#x27;t do anything unless you trigger it by a voice command.

Two scenarios:<p>False event:<p><pre><code> 1. short the market 2. hack in a false signal 3. profit </code></pre> Real event:<p><pre><code> 1. always stay short 2. receive true signal 3. profit on paper 4. ?</code></pre>

Lol why would I want to know.<p>If there&#x27;s a reason you&#x27;d want to know, take care of that reason now

They have one of these in the Charles Stross novel<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Iron_Sunrise" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Iron_Sunrise</a>

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

A slightly more useful alert subscription for Space Weather (e.g. Carrington Event): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swpc.noaa.gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;subscription-services" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.swpc.noaa.gov&#x2F;content&#x2F;subscription-services</a><p>Get to the grocery store a few minutes before the crush :)

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&#x2F;widget? Gen 2 maybe.

&quot;sorry guys, that was just a test&quot; - can you imagine?

Wait this is the guy who built that super dope cyber deck concept I wanted.<p>Curse you and your lack of selling me things!<p>::shakes fist at impending supernova::

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?

For the love of God, if you are interested in SuperNova Alerts, subscribe to this mailing list: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snews.bnl.gov&#x2F;alert.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;snews.bnl.gov&#x2F;alert.html</a><p>It&#x27;s for free and faster.

I wonder what the chances are that this will give a false positive, vs accurately warning you that the earth will soon be destroyed?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1132&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1132&#x2F;</a>

Maybe I&#x27;m dumb, but what&#x27;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?

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

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

Imagine missing a notification from this device! haha

Site is down for me. Big “uh oh!”

Sweet! Need one of these

But will it scale?

solar powered, hopefully?

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

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

site doesn&#x27;t contain any information about a return policy in the event you&#x27;re unsatisfied with the performance

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

A premium level trolling 10&#x2F;10: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;kscottz&#x2F;status&#x2F;1537264655621427200" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;kscottz&#x2F;status&#x2F;1537264655621427200</a><p>:)

Please incorporate a snooze feature

What if my electric wall outlet fails?<p>Am I going to miss the earth destroyed event? This is unacceptable and worrisome!

I don&#x27;t get it. Wouldn&#x27;t it take years for a far supernova to be detected? How is it only hours?

I really need the &quot;Why did we make this&quot; 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.