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Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

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Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#201
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

I never understood this attitude, like I feel like being able to fly in airplane is one of the most amazing human achievements, yet people will try and save down to the dollar booking a flight like it was breakfast at Dennys, and come out huffing and puffing as soon as anything goes wrong demanding their money back. Airlines like Spirit catered to the worse of these type of customers.

That’s a bit unfair. They also catered to broke people who weren’t crazy or argumentative. On a planeload of 100 people, there must have been 60 of them at least who were just broke. Or on some routes, Spirit was the only carrier with a direct flight so they were just normal people who wanted to get to a certain place efficiently (Hi, that’s me, I flew them for this reason). Keep in mind Spirit had an excellent safety record, too, so airline choice in this case was primarily a question of having luxuries or not.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#202
post #10

> Google bought itself 100 million emails and 500 million items from Microsoft Teams, 17 million OneDrive files and 20.5 million items from SharePoint. The search giant also now owns over 30 million recorded customer service calls, and more than 15 million customer service chat records. 600,000 ServiceNow tickets are another element of the collection, along with 13.7 million active emails addresses from Oracle’s Resp…

30M calls for 10M is definitely a bit cheaper, but google could provide more support on their end and then use that for training...

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#203
post #151
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably should have taken the kid to small claims, that was extortion

Should have kept the sloth.

Shouldn’t have accepted the sloth in the first place.

They may look cute and docile, but also have a panic reflex to grab onto the nearest tree-like thing they can feel with their claws, including their would-be attacker. Or if they just feel like they’re about to fall off their “tree” since they have horrible eyesight and get confused easily.

Which then leads to a cycle of pain and violence as they just dig-in harder and harder while trying to free them and/or fling them around wildly due to the human's “get this thing off me” response to sharp claws digging into their flesh.

There are some painful-to-watch videos on YouTube of this phenomenon from unsuspecting passersby tying to “help” them off the road/beach/etc and ultimately making things worse for everyone involved.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to dispel some Brazil myths: 1) +95% of the population live on the coast very far away from the Amazon. Most of the population has not been there. Most of the coast has a very different jungle biome called Mata Atlantica and the countryside close to the coast is not that different from temperate forest of Europe. That is what most all Brazilians are used to. There is a significant population in the arid northeas…

I'm sitting here chuckling because you felt the need to post this. Your points are valid. And there probably are plenty of Americans who needed the correction. But still.

Why are Americans in particular expected to know details about every country on Earth?

Do you think Canadians know all these facts about Brazil? Do Indians? Or Swedes? It's only Americans that are smugly called ignorant for not knowing about the entire world.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#206
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the same google that has repeatedly, entirely "by accident", captured boatloads of wifi data with their wardriving vehicles (or google streetview or whatever it's called). They sure seem like a trustworthy bunch.

Not only those wardriving vehicles. They use everybody to scan the world's wifi networks. Well, except people like me who stubbornly turn off 'location accuracy' every time some app demands you turn it on. I don't know exactly what gets sent to google, but it's certainly enough to identify and track (retrospectively) a huge part of the world's population. Now I know you get tracked by the celltowers anyway, but still…

Google 100% was wardriving and all of your other items.

However, you can increase gps accuracy using wifi. GPS is not that precise (part of which is government regulations) and WiFi does help immensely with accuracy.

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#207
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

> I got a really strange response over email which I clearly wasn't supposed to see. A representative from that airline was asking internally if they could put me on the no-fly list. That was really chilling.

What if they only pretended to forward it to you by mistake and you /were/ supposed to see it?

As in "it would be a shame if you could never fly again".

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#208
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminded me of a funny interaction I had a week or so ago. I got a call that started with the usual automated message, "This call is being recorded." After the person joined, I pushed the record button on my iPhone, "This call is being recorded." They were surprised and asked why I'm recording. I said, "You're recording, so I'm recording too." The rep insisted that the company doesn't like this but that…

What is actually perfect, when the automated voice declares the call is being recorded, you don't have to do it again. You're legally allowed to record, because both parties were informed already and agree to it.

This may not be true in all jurisdictions

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#209
post #100
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

This is a fascinating story. Thanks for posting it. That email you accidentally received really bothers me. I don't understand why a CS rep would get this invested to the point of wanting to cause you real harm. They're not the airline. The psychology is fascinating. There are people out there who feel like a mild short-term inconvenience to them where they have no stakes somehow justifies life-changing harm is kinda…

> I don't understand why a CS rep would get this invested to the point of wanting to cause you real harm

This is the kind of power tripping that easily corrupts people, especially those who don't have much power outside of work. The US national security apparatus is vast and powerful. Many people get giddy at the thought of inflicting punishment on those who "deserve" it. Act rude to a fast food worker, and you get spit in your food. Lots of people cheer the worker who spit in the food of a customer who is merely rude, impatient, or demanding. Or is guilty of being a cop, politician, rich, etc.

I can easily imagine the kind of CS rep who would delight in putting a customer who didn't just go along with things and spoke up for themselves... thats 'rude' and 'disrespectful' to some. Police are the most notorious for this kind of petty "you will respect my authority" but it is in every industry.

HN / hacker culture celebrates this in the 'Bastard Operator from Hell' [0], the sysop who will ruin your work and life with their IT wizardry, no matter if you're an intern or CEO, if they do not feel respected. Or if you interrupt their gaming with your support call.

[0] https://www.alnet.org/bofh/Bastard.html

Re: Google has acquired the data of failed US airline Spirit

#210
post #19

About twenty years ago, I was taking a flight back from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the US. In the middle of the night the pilot got on the loudspeaker and said "hi! Having some engine trouble, so we are landing in Manaus." Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon. Needless to say, a bit scary to hear that, but we landed without issue. They told us we had two choices: the nice hotel with a shared room, or the lesser nice…

Just to dispel some Brazil myths: 1) +95% of the population live on the coast very far away from the Amazon. Most of the population has not been there. Most of the coast has a very different jungle biome called Mata Atlantica and the countryside close to the coast is not that different from temperate forest of Europe. That is what most all Brazilians are used to. There is a significant population in the arid northeas…

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