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United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

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Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#321

Post by jim33442 »

thrownthatway wrote: post #159
jeroenhd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't rename most Bluetooth speakers. "Bomb" was the name the selling brand gave the speaker. By making everyone turn off their Bluetooth, the kid whose speaker had turned on probably couldn't even see the device broadcasting the name. People linked to one by a company made Hellotec but Hama has a similarly named device, and plenty of other speaker manufacturers try to make a pun out of "boombox" by naming their…

When you rename a Bluetooth device from your phone, does that affect the name it broadcasts, or only the label applied in the list of Bluetooth devices in the phone? I know for certain if you change the setting General > About > Name in an iPhone it changes what everyone sees when they look at their list of available Bluetooth devices. I assume other Bluetooth devices are the same, no? Otherwise how do you distinguis…

iPhone BT settings also let you rename devices, but I think that's just a local setting, not like the BT spec has a rename feature. Not sure cause uh, my iPhone broke. But for sure there are speakers that have their own apps that let you rename them.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#322

Post by im3w1l »

Eridrus wrote: post #189
neilv wrote: post #178

I once consulted on some aviation-related software (not the safety work prominent on my resume), and a company announcement came through, that you must never use a few specific words commonly heard in software development. The two no-no words I recall were "crash" and "bomb". Don't write them in code or documents, don't say them on the phone or videoconf, etc. Those terms have senses that people in aviation take extr…

This is trying to sanewash totally insane levels of risk aversion. Do you think terrorists are really going to name their Bluetooth speaker "bomb"? Do you think this behaviour has any meaningful true positives? This is the kind of brainworms thinking that has people throwing our their 150ml liquids out at TSA and taking their shoes off.

> Do you think terrorists are really going to name their Bluetooth speaker "bomb"?

Yes. Not every time. But some of the time. Like imagine someone likes to stay organized and they have a bunch of bluetooth devices and gives them all logical names, speaker for speaker, keyboard for keyboard and bomb for bomb. They make a mental note to change the name of bomb before deploying it but then life happens and they forget to fix it.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#323

Post by jim33442 »

mikeocool wrote: post #3

> a flight attendant told passengers over the PA system that they "must turn off Bluetooth immediately," or else the aircraft would have to turn around. So if the person just takes back their bomb threat everything is ok? Or did they think the terrorist labeled their Bluetooth bomb “bomb” and this would disable it?

Was wondering the same thing. Maybe there's some regulation about this, but the flight crew wanted to bend the rule to keep the plane going, figuring it was just a poorly named device.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#324

Post by MBCook »

DanielHB wrote: post #304
neilv wrote: post #178

I once consulted on some aviation-related software (not the safety work prominent on my resume), and a company announcement came through, that you must never use a few specific words commonly heard in software development. The two no-no words I recall were "crash" and "bomb". Don't write them in code or documents, don't say them on the phone or videoconf, etc. Those terms have senses that people in aviation take extr…

Anecdote: I worked with software for battery EV power-train diagnostics, one of our devs decided to add emojis to success and error messages. He added a fire emoji to one success message. When testers saw it they were afraid that the customer would think it was a thermal runway problem. Had to do a last-minute revision of the software before shipping the new version. I was already pretty anti-emoji / personal touch /…

Whether you think emojis are ok or not, there are times and places.

That’s not a time and place.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#326

Post by tiffanyh »

No pilot will lose their job by taking action to potentially save passengers lives.

But the chances are high, they do lose their job if they don't (and/or potentially lose their life as well).

It's that simple.

(regardless of how dumb/overreaction some might view this as)

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#327

Post by koolba »

stouset wrote: post #139
koolba wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's to prevent terrorists from going through TSA, waiting in the scanning line when everyone is still going through, and then planting a bluetooth device into someone else's bag? I never open my carryon once I have packed it. I make it a point to hold up the whole line until it is my turn to go through the xray. It gets fun when they mandate a pat down in lieu of the millimeter wave scanner but refuse to have so…

I’m not saying this as an ad hominem and simply to throw insults, but with the hopes that it will encourage you to change your behavior. The only thing this accomplishes is making you the kind of asshole who interferes with other people that are just trying to make their flight on time. You are not highlighting flaws in the security system. You are not taking a principled ethical stance against tyranny. You are just…

By taking a stand and inconveniencing the world around me, I hope to induce change for everyone.

What’s the alternative? Lose track of my stuff or risk it being stolen?

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#328

Post by jim33442 »

isoprophlex wrote: post #21
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #2

> "Free Palestine, F Zionists" Does the FBI usually get involved when someone says these words in public in the US?

[flagged]

I wouldn't want to see slogans like this on an airplane of all places. I agree with the slogan. There are plenty of other times/places to say it. Unfortunately freedom is already out the window the moment you go through TSA security, so if I'm getting my crotch patted down to fly, they can be quiet for a few hours too.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#329

Post by Loughla »

jim33442 wrote: post #315
rayiner wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. TSA is a joke. At first, the security theater arguably had a legitimate psychological purpose. The airline industry nearly collapsed after 9/11 because people were so scared of filing. But that was a generation ago—the psychological trauma in the aftermath of 9/11 dissipated ago. But we’re still stuck with the TSA because in the meantime it turned into a massive jobs program. We’d be better off spending TSA’…

Every other country seems to do the same thing though

It's not just security theater. It shifts the attack vector entirely. Instead of airplanes as weapons that could be used to kill thousands, terrorists can blow up a few hundred people.

Those checkpoints are only there to provide a soft target instead of letting it be a plane.

Re: United Airlines 767 returns to Newark after Bluetooth name sparks alert

#330

Post by jim33442 »

lostlogin wrote: post #127
netsharc wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does that scenario work? Someone's under duress because presumably there's a terrorist on board. He lets the crew know there's a bomb onboard. The plane turns around, and the terrorist... lets the plane land safely? OK maybe the bomb blows up when it crosses some longitude, because this is like the movie Speed, and turning around means the plane never cross that longitude.. If you mean another type of duress, nam…

> How does that scenario work? It’s funnier than that. If they had turned off the ‘bomb’ the plane would have just carried on. The event is bizarre.

Passenger trying to warn the crew would leave the device on
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