Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Airlines Ban DS, PSP
Gamespot is reporting that Japanese Airlines such as Japan Airlines and ANA have banned the use of wifi-capable game devices, including the DS and PSP, over 'safety concerns'. From the article: "A law banning on gaming systems with wireless capabilities came into force on Monday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Japan's transport ministry has concluded that the electromagnetic waves from the wireless networks can interfere with aircraft navigation systems, so it's no Nintendogs for passengers flying with Japanese airlines. The new law also bans wireless computer mice, and headphones that have not been provided by the airlines, although the use of electric razors, calculators, and cassette players is permitted, readers may be relieved to know."
Just in time for Microsoft to announce a hand-held without wireless capabilities! Sure, it'd be opportune... but I doubt I'm the only one who wouldn't buy it.
If I only had a moose...
You mean the headphones they hand out free? Not sure how you can fleece someone with a free product. I've been on 4 different airlines in the past year and the headphones were always free to use.
oogly boogly!
whilst I would like to see some research done into this I think that it seems like a fairly sensible policy if there is insufficient knowledge currently to be sure of the effect that it might have. If it saves even one life it seems to be worth the inconvenience (which is pretty minor anyway).
That idea can get pretty silly. For instance Peanut butter can kill people with severe allergies, ought we ban all peanut butter in public places? Bee stings can kill certian people, ought we ban bees? A CD could presumably kill someone in exactly the right circumstance ought we ban CD's? A Scarf could kill someone too (and have killed many children), it's only a small inconvenience to go without one so ought we ban scarves?
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Next time I'll just WALK to Japan.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/30
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
the DS and PSP are obviously easier to ban because everyone knows what they look like and that they have wireless, but for most electronics, can you really tell just by taking a look at them whether or not they have wireless? For example, some mp3 players have wireless, some don't. Other than perhaps Zune(and who actually has one of those?) and the iPod touch(which could be an iPhone in airplane mode once it reaches Japan :P) I doubt very many flight attendants could tell you on the spot whether or not a given device is wireless or not. So if they cannot enforce the ban, why have it at all? You are just going to make people angry without adding any safety.
But this does make the environmentalist in me happy, maybe more people will take the train vs. a plane for domestic travel, and having lived in Europe, the US and Japan, I can say that the Japanese is by far the best. Though one thing I still cannot understand in both Europe and Japan is why are plane tickets more often than not cheaper than train tickets?
Monstar L
Any RF transmitter has the potential to cause interference with the aircraft's communication and navigation systems. Besides the intended signal, transmitters also produce spurious outputs and noise at other frequencies. This can be a real problem for systems that deal with weak signals like GPS receivers. It doesn't take much power to jam a GPS receiver. A plane full of wifi devices could create an interference nightmare.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
This is the nanny society we live in. In fact, many schools DO have a total ban on peanut butter just for that reason. Having a "peanut free" table instead would discriminate against the poor kids suffering with a peanut allergy. Yes, even at a high school, where the kid with the allergy should have enough sense not to eat another child's food by that age. I've lived with severe allergies my entire life, but a total ban on anything like that is insane.
It's a minor inconvenience to the public if we lock you up for the rest of your life on the off chance that you might someday, accidentally or deliberately, kill someone, hurt someone, or hurt someone's feelings. If it saves just one person's life, limbs, or dignity, how can it not be worth it?
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
They should ban transmission of RF - so your laptop/cellphone is fine as long as you turn off the radio part. I'm not sure if the DS or PSP can disable it's wireless capability but if it can - then you should be able to play games while on board, just not interact with other users.
Amazing how people in government/management are all technically inept, isn't it?
You can easily turn off the wireless with a switch.
There isn't a switch in the DS, but it's not on unless you use a game that turns it on.
That entirely depends upon the pilot and the weather.
If this 'wireless' thing is such a big issue and the people see that there is no wire, they'll ask you to stop using it.
Now, we being the ingenious lil monkies we are, can easily take a single black wire and electric tape it to the inside of the headphone and then to the device. It doesn't have to be molded or connected in any way shape or form to something useful, just a nice thick attachable cable that stewardess can see and identify and pass on by.
Stewardess: Excuse me papa san, you can't use that headphone on the plane
Me: Why not?
S: It's a wireless headset, it can crash the plane, eat babies, and summon Godzilla.
Me: It's not wireless, it's got a cable hooked into it, see , can't be wireless when it's got a wire!
S: Ok, carry on, enjoy air tokyo
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
Yeah, you know what? Anyone that allergic ought to be wearing a fucking surgical mask. Hundreds of people - whether adults or children - should not have to change their eating habits for one person. Peanuts are not only tasty but they're nutritious as well. I'd certainly rather kids be enjoying some peanuts at lunch rather than some of the crap served by, and present in, public schools...
I believe there was a man who went by the name of Darwin who would have something to say about this.
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
A lot of peanut allergies are really severe, and just the dust from someone a few seats over eating peanuts can cause a sometimes severe reaction.
Myth. Peanut allergies can be severe, but never that severe. If you were in a peanut processing facility, or the person a few seats over was smashing hundreds of peanuts into peanut butter, maybe. Just eating peanuts is going to produce an infinitesimally small amount of dust. The likelihood of inhaling even a single particle of dust in that scenario approaches zero, and is not far from the likelihood of inhaling a piece of peanut dust that was picked up on the wind from a chinese peanut factory and blown around the world and directly into your mouth. They are both statistically implausible. And even if it were to happen, a single piece of peanut dust is not enough, in any recorded case of peanut allergy, to cause even a noticeable reaction.
Enough peanut allergens can actually be transferred through saliva (kissing) to cause a mild reaction in the severely allergic but even that is very infrequent, and I can't find a single case of death as a result (No, the death of the Quebec girl had nothing to do with her peanut allergy, contrary to the media reports, it was a cigarette-induced asthma attack)
Random and weird software I've written.
Sorry, but I fly on noisy commercial turboprops a lot (EMB 120 Brasilias), and I wear noise canceling headphones starting the instant those loud bastards start up. Many regular passengers do. I don't plug them into my ipod until the "OK to start your electronic devices" announcement. I've never had any question from a flight attendant. They're all wearing hearing protection too.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Some people have peanut allergies so severe that even talking about peanuts is potentially fatal.
No. I just flew cross country (JFK/LAS) twice in the last four days. The speech says that anything with an internal transmitter must have that transmitter disabled but the devices themselves are allowed. In fact I was playing MarioKart on my DS Lite most of the way back from Vegas (and my boyfriend was playing Phoenix Wright on his).
You try spending an overseas flight without a PSP and then tell me it's a minor inconvenience. I generally can't sleep on planes, I can't read for more than 8 hours streight which is usually only half the flight. I'll go crazy without something to keep my mind occupied. My PSP has been a saving grace while flying and long flights are the only reason I bought extra batteries for it.
Someone save me from this sanity.
Hey, if your kid is so allergic that my normal kid has to eat bologna sandwiches instead of PB&J, you can either pay to have your kid put in a bubble, pay to have your kid put in a private school, or pay to have my kid eat bologna. Your rights end where my nose begins, and this works both ways. I may have no right to knowingly make your kid sick, but you have no right to expect me to pick up the tab for it either.
Some people have peanut allergies so severe that even being on the same planet as a peanut is potentially fatal.
Some people have peanut allergies so severe that even talking in a language that has a word for peanut is potentially fatal.
Some people have peanut allergies so severe that even the existence of the idea of something that may be vaguely peanut-shaped is potentially fatal.
sigs are hazardous to your health
That's debatable. They are suspected of causing the crash of Crossair flight LX 498.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
That's a myth: Statistically there are usually some switched-on mobile phones on a plane, and those devices are anyway regulated for frequency bands other than the ones used by air traffic systems and the like.
:) and in the interest of the cell phone companies to preserve network stability.
The real reason is that when you are in the air, they will try and contact - at their maximum power because of the distances involved - the multiple cell network stations the plane passes as it flies at a high speed. This screws with the switching system.
So it's in the interest of the user to turn it off to preserve both battery power and their genetic material
Ok. Lets say you have a kid. this kid is so allergic to peanuts that they could die, not from eating, but simply by being around someone that is eating peanuts or a product prepared with peanuts.
No, let's not say that. First, let's see if there's any evidence at all to back up claims of such hypersensitivity, because without some I simply cannot believe that anyone could suffer any reaction at all from being near me as I eat peanut butter. If it were true, then those people would have to refrain from going anywhere where nuts could be consumed - restaurants, cafes, bars, coffee shops, even just out and about. They'd be prisoners in their own home.
Yes they do have some nutritional value but 2/3 of the calories are pure FAT . ! I know this is offtopic
It is, but so was the OP bringing up the fact that they're tasty and nutritional. It's completely irrelevant - unless it can be demonstrated that a significant risk exists from someone eating peanuts or peanut-containing food in proximity to someone who is allergic, then there simply is no need to ban them.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
You flacid apologist! Life's not fair. Sometimes people have things that are wrong with them to cause them to be incompatible certain environments. I moved from a capital city to a redneck city in the middle of nowhere when I was in the 8th grade. Nearly everyone there was a sexist, racist, homophobic wanker, and it sucked cause I was a city kid with .. y'know .. common sense. I was totally incompatible with that environment. But there was nothing I could do about it because that was normal there. No amount of stomping my feet was going to stop everone there from being a fuckhead. So I got the shit kicked out of me a lot, and it was generally a pretty messed up experience, but what's the moral of the story?
You should stay away from things that hurt you. The world does not exist to suit your needs. You exist in the world, find your own place in it rather than forcing other people to adapt for you.