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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • Your threat assessment is way off.
    So, you import a phone. What sim do you use? Where do you use it? When do you use it? Who do you contact with it?
    All of that is more valuable and easier to get for the police than some sort of modification of firmware or platform as it passes through customs.
    If in doubt, flash your own firmware.

    If this is actually a threat assessment to you, asking on Lemmy is the wrong place. You need people with the same experience that an entire country has at their disposal.

    If it’s a concern as opposed to an actual threat, buy some 2nd hand phones from random places and buy some prepaid sims (ideally via smurfs or black market means). And be aware of how you use them




  • Autopilot crashes?
    You mean MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System)?
    It’s not autopilot. It’s worse than that.

    Due to the larger engines needing to be mounted in a different place, the flight characteristics changed between previous gen 737s and the new 737 MAX.

    The characteristic change would mean it needs different certification from air authorities and existing 737 pilots would require recertification to be able to fly the new 737 MAX (which is supposed to be just an updated model).
    All very expensive for what should be merely an upgraded model.

    To avoid this, Boeing used software to change the characteristics in order to bring it inline with previous 737s and the existing certifications.
    And as it was just an augmentation system, it was deemed high risk but not critical risk. As such, it didn’t require full redundancy, didn’t require Quick Reference Handbook entries incase of issues/errors, and didn’t require training.
    In fact, pilots had no idea it existed, what it could do or how it worked.

    Which means when it had an issue and caused extreme pitch down due to faulty sensor readings, the pilots had literally no idea what was happening as they were trying to stop the plane from accumulating pitch down every 5 seconds.

    And then Boeing tried to fuck with the narrative. I think they also didn’t tell pilots about MCAS until after the Ethiopian Airlines crash (the 2nd caused by MCAS), but I’m not 100% sure on the timeline.

    Boeing has had a stream of QA issues, the way MCAS was handled was idiotic, they are a shitty company.

    But I have no issues flying in a Boeing.
    I don’t like or trust the company, but I trust the air authorities. And most of all, I trust the pilots.



  • That’s a great rundown with decent logic & examples behind each point.

    I think the biggest point is the takeoff weight.

    If the impact/evac/safety aspects can be addressed, the only way I can see it working is to add a “cattle class” that’s like $10 cheaper than current economy and has something like 40 “seats”.
    Then increase the price of what is currently economy class by $10-20.
    You lose $400 because of the new cheaper class, but gain $1,200 to $2,400 by increasing the price of economy (considering a 160 seat plane, and convert 40 seats to standing). So, net gain $800-2000. Let’s you advertise new cheaper fares, and the price increase isn’t hugely egregious when the 40 seats sell out instantly.
    I guess it doesn’t work on less busy flights if only the 40 cheap seats sell



  • This makes sense in 2 ways:
    If they didn’t have the offcuts, they would have to buy the materials anyway. So accounting for that cost is required.
    If they didn’t use the offcuts, they would have to bin/recycle them. This is a good reduce/reuse policy.

    It’s similar with event kit hire companies. They might have 2 of one item on the book, and know they can subhire a further 2 items from a different company.
    If you request to hire 2 of the items, it will likely be at the cost of what the other company charges (well, b2b rate at least) plus a margin (to cover delivery, processing, insurance).
    Because the company you go to may or may not have 2 items on the shelf. They might only have 1 or none. And they can’t suck up the cost of subhiring.
    If they hire out the items on the shelf, great. Probably a bit more profit.
    If they have to subhire, no big deal. Just slimmer margins


  • Sure. I mean, prices will go up because a public company cannot operate at a loss. They just haven’t gone up yet.

    But it also shows that Tesla underestimated the claims their cars would generate.
    And it’s Tesla that has all the information they could possibly want.
    So either Tesla drivers are particularly bad, all the fancy tech isn’t helping (or isn’t helping enough), or the cars are the liability.

    Could be as simple as bad business planning.

    It certainly justifies other insurance companies charging more for a Tesla.