This is pretty cool: two students read a column by Robert X. Cringely about how to build a tsunami warning system in less than a month using data already available on the internet. All that had to be done is to assemble pieces-n-parts together in a deliverable application.

So these two students built a tsunami warning application with a toolset called Konfabulator. This innovative offering facilitates rapid coding of mini-applications called Widgets, and enables them to be run on an internet-connected Windows or Macintosh PC.

Undoubtedly early warning systems like this are but one small step in making a notification infrastructure a reality in the nations impacted by last month’s devastating tsunami. With warning systems hopefully the next tsunami will be destructive only for property, not people.