I see back at home that the Irish Government have recently conducted a test of an emergency broadcast system for Radio & TV that relays urgent messages in the event of a national disaster, terrorist incident or property crash (too late for the latter).

A quote from the government press release [1] is a bit worrying:

The Government Task Force on Emergency Planning considers that in the event of an emergency, broadcast media will be the most efficient vehicle for the transmission of emergency messages to the public.

Really? My problem is that, like a growing proportion of people out there in this day and age, I rarely use either medium. Sure I am the exception in not watching much tv (an hour or two a week), but in this day and age, how many people actually watch their terrestrial broadcasters? A fair chunk yes, but a reducing proportion in most western countries when you have so many other crap satellite channels to flick through.

So what is left? Well the two communication mediums I use most are Internet and mobile phone. An Internet based emergency broadcast would be technically difficult, though it could be done.

An emergency broadcast via mobile phones would make more sense. This could easily be done via SMS to every phone in the country. That would have a far higher penetration level, and I am pretty sure that you could geographically target these messages by only alerting phones registered to base stations in particular areas. This might be a more costly implementation than just relaying a simple message over TV and Radio, but ultimately more effective which is what you need in the event of an emergency right?

This idea of a TV & Radio broadcast seems to be rooted in the 1950’s. Technology has advanced a bit since then. Don’t have a mobile phone? Well, technology does exist to send an automated message to landlines too. There seems to be a lack of any real forethought in this.

And lastly, the department seemed delighted that all the broadcasters were able to carry out the test at short notice in the early hours of the morning:

The timing of the exercise was deliberately chosen to test the response times of the broadcasters. Most stations are unmanned in the early ours of the morning and it was considered an excellent simulation of an emergency situation where stations would have to react quickly in unusual circumstances.

Eh yeah, well done. But not many people are going to get an emergency message if their tv or radio is switched off and they are asleep are they? If it so important you have to take over the airwaves to relay a message, then maybe go the extra step and wake up the recipients?

[1] Government press release on the broadcast

I’ve been looking for some options for a project where I will need a fax number. A wha? Yes, a fax number, as some of those 80’s antiques will be coming and going from time to time.

The best option is a fax->email solution. The other option, a dedicated telephone number and fax machine, would work out too expensive for occasional use. Plus most of the outgoing faxes will be from electronic documents, so sending via email saves trees.

The requirements are simple: a cheap way of sending and receiving faxes and a local (preferably 01 area) number.

This is just a price comparison only. The services offer varying levels of bells, whistles and bongos, but I’m not fierce interested. All I need to do is send and receive the odd fax.

The options I have found so far are:
eFax: (www.efax.com)
The best option is eFaxPlus which costs €11 set-up and €11 per month after that. Sending faxes locally costs €0.09 per page. A good feature is that you have a choice of getting a Dublin (01), Cork (021), Dundalk (042), Limerick (061) or Waterford (051) number. Handy if your market is local.

yac: (www.yac.ie)
Yac is slightly cheaper at €9 per month. Unlike eFax, you will have to put up with an 01 number only. But sure who cares about the culchies wha?

PopFax: (www.popfax.com)
Popfax on paper looks cheap at €3.99 per month, but this price is based yearly in advance. The shortest interval you can pay for is quarterly, working out at €6.33 a month. As the above are monthly we will go for this price to compare. You will get an 01 5XXX number for your dosh.

jConnect: (www.j2.com)
I used jConnect myself many moons ago. The service then was quite advanced and I am sure they have improved further since then. Like eFax they have local numbers in Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Limerick and Waterford.
j2 is expensive though, €12.95 per month.

iflow: (www.iflow.ie)
iFlow are an Irish company. Their fax to email service provides you with a local number at €9.99 per month.
National 0818 or 1890 numbers are available for slightly more. Sending of faxes on the personal account is €0.12 per page.

Blueface: (www.blueface.ie)
Irish VOIP provider Blueface offer a fax->email service. You can get an 01 number for €5 per month if you already have an account with them. Sending of faxes is charged at the standard call rate. Works out about €0.10 per page.

As I already have a Blueface account, the fax add on option with them works out the cheapest, so I’ve signed up for that.