Pretty sure that if it was a hack or credible bomb threat, that they would not have been flying again after only an hour. A scenario like that would suggest just a normal IT glitch and a reboot/restart to fix and validate that it's back to normal.
All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
101–110 of 215 posts
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#102I was flying from Dublin to Newark on Saturday on a United flight. At some point during our flight the entertainment system needed to be rebooted. When it came back up, the splash screen hit me with a huge amount of nostalgia. It was RedBoot with a kernel build date from 2004. Obviously this is the entertainment system and not something more critical, but it's telling. There is a huge cadence mismatch between softwar…
This is the Achilles heel of the entire Internet of Things and smart appliance trend, and I think this will bite everyone bad. After 50+% of these vendors go out of business in the next decade, their products won't get updated, and people will wonder why their "smart" TV can't watch movies from whatever replaced Netflix/new whizbang video service. They won't be as likely to buy any "smart" thing again.
Actually one month ago in Amsterdam I've used a Philips smart TV that complained about "youtube is not supported anymore yadda yadda". Programmed obsolescence at its best (this TV probably wasn't more than 3 or 4 years old).
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't really matter that much if it's dumb or smart. You can use a Chromecast with either, and refusing to buy one kind limits your choices.
I think his point is based on the (very reasonable) assumption that an equivalent quality Smart TV is going to be more expensive, which isn't worth it in general since you're not using the features that cause the difference in cost. There of course may be realities of the market to cause it to not work out this way, but it's a pretty sensible assumption.
That assumption is not reasonable at all. Not only are "dumb" TVs no cheaper, hardly anyone even sells them anymore.
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Obviously this is the entertainment system and not something more critical According to recent reports, the entertainment system is not fully isolated from the plane's navigation systems. However, Boeing has denied this. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/17/us/fbi-hacker-flight-computer-...
That's because the researcher didn't do that on an actual plane. In fact it wasn't even a simulator, it was a virtualized simulator where he put the systems all on the same bus. On top of that the guy was only able to listen in on traffic. The entire story is bogus. The systems are isolated just fine.
This particular device was mentioned in a discussion here awhile back: http://www.teledynecontrols.com/productsolution/ned/overview...
One of the collateral PDFs for the device shows it connected to "IFE (In-Flight Entertainment)" (http://www.teledyne-controls.com/pdf/NED_Brochure.pdf).
Just the existence of such a device gives me reasonable cause to believe that there's more interconnection than "isolated just fine". While I have a lot of respect for the engineering processes that go into aviation systems, I've also had enough practical experience in IT security to know that blind faith in things being done right is foolish.
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't really matter that much if it's dumb or smart. You can use a Chromecast with either, and refusing to buy one kind limits your choices.
You can use a Chromecast with either, but one of them can also spy on you without your consent.
If you don't trust the TV manufacturer to include spying devices in their product, there is no reason to believe the "dumb" TV you brought from them is any less capable.
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
That will only matter if companies don't train customers to expect frequent upgrade cycles. It's worked for consumer electronics, but there will be strain in previously "came with the house" objects. You'll need to sidestep people's habits, in the way that the microwave did, perhaps. And we're only worried about vendors going out of business because it's the early days and it's largely startups pushing the trend. Wit…
Are you arguing that frequent upgrade cycles are a good thing?
Definitely not, for the consumer. For the manufacturers, sure. Supporting a cheap piece of hardware for several years when consumers are going to demand it works with HomeKit, Google @Home, or whatever it's called now, and their descendants, and Microsoft's play, and the many competitors yet to come — that'll suck.
Traditional hardware makers are going to have to factor the support of this software component into their prices now.
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#107Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see "Check if I left the stove on and turn it off remotely" being a neat thing to have. But not neat enough to let a 10 year old appliance with no software updates and the capability to burn my house down be accessible to the internet.
Yeah, but chances are you won't use the functionality often enough to configure it in the first place. That's the real problem with the Internet of Things: most of the things we own are not all that useful when we're not in close proximity to them. Thus, not only are users and manufacturers unlikely to update them in the future; users are just as unlikely to connect the thing in the first place. Home automation throu…
Agreed on all counts. The only ones I can see taking off in any sense are easy to retrofit things like light bulbs and the occasional wireless plug controller like a WeMo if you have a particular load that needs one, not as a standard on every outlet.
But prices need to come down, light output needs to go up (wireless bulbs seem to top out around 60W equivalent), and switches need to not be a $60 optional accessory (looking at you, Hue Tap). Controlling lighting with your phone is neat, only being able to control lighting with your phone sucks.
Long term, I'm sure I'll end up with more IoT devices. But it'll be because they got shoved down our throats and I didn't want to pay more to avoid new "features," not because I wanted a wireless microwave.
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly why I prefer buying "dumb" tvs and simply adding chromecast/appletv/firetv, etc. Much better experience.
It doesn't really matter that much if it's dumb or smart. You can use a Chromecast with either, and refusing to buy one kind limits your choices.
a smart TV can be more expensive and have unwanted features and bugs... an hidden webcam is an example and another is when they stop sending you software updates for your TV because it is "too old"
Re: All United Flights Grounded Due to Mysterious Problem
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought an LG smart TV a while ago. It stopped receiving firmware updates after a couple years and is now way behind current models in terms of features--and, I can only imagine, security patches. I will go out of my way to buy a dumb TV next time.
> I will go out of my way to buy a dumb TV next time. How? I don't see any dumb TVs for sale.
Isn't dumb TV just another word for monitor these days?