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Long flights are boring places. Even if you pack a book (or 200), a portable video game system, and a magazine or three, at some point you're bound to get bored of all your available options and want something else to do. With the promise of mid-air Internet access, you could be downloading new stuff or just playing online games whenever you exhaust your carry-on entertainment reserves. But, a debate is growing over whether airborne travelers should be allowed to surf anything they like, or whether their access should be locked down tighter than the PCs at an elementary school library.
The argument is over whether people can be expected to act responsibly with their computer usage online. Will people take the opportunity to make loud, tasteless VOIP (as in calls via Skype or similar services) phone-calls and disturb the entire cabin? Will lonely businessmen start perusing adult sites while sitting in coach class next to unwilling participants who'd rather not see their naughty content of choice? The AP's take is that all this and worse will be happening; people will be doing all sorts of lewd and uncivilized acts with their Wi-Fi connections. However, Ars Technica has a much more realistic perspective, likening mid-air Internet access to what you'd find at any Starbucks; people working quietly and in general not disturbing anyone else.
What's your take? Will Internet access from flights make long journeys better or more irritating?
From Slashdot, AOL Money & Finance, Ars Technica
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Comments
25
Subscribe to commentsricky whittenDec 29th 2007 1:47AM
control,control,control gets more invasive. Just how much Nazi control shit are Americans able to take.Fascism is a Hellish government. Slavery for regular folk, as the corporates,elites and Beelzebush type pukes get it all!
Jim JohnsonDec 29th 2007 2:02AM
Of course they should be censored. The last thing we need is some pervert showing his sick choices to the kid next to him or fanning disgust with ultra anti-social scum sites to a family trying to relax on vacation.
TechMessMgtDec 29th 2007 3:26AM
Airplane internet would be cool if you could get rid of the clacky clack of the keyboard. That just drives me nuts when I am trying to relax. It's worse than a conversation on the cel phone. Overhearing a call might be interesting or funny, as often as annoying. There's no room on the planes as it is. There's always an elbow wrestle for the arm rest, and you should bring knee pads to guard against the moron in front who insists on crushing you with the back of their seat. A recent episode found my knee wedged between the magazine pocket and metal framing under the leather. The idiot in front slams back his chair pinning me and brusing the knee as we are taking off. Where's the right to quite enjoyment anymore? You pay premiums to sit next to people who don't bathe, wear gallons of cheap perfume poluting the area around screaming unruly children with matching parents, hours of unwarranted delays, rules so backward the Wright Brothers are laughing in their graves, Wal-mart snack foods, and poor service overall. Welcome to the new Trailways in the sky.
JamieDec 31st 2007 8:58PM
Everyone knows it's ridiculous that cell phones interfere with airplanes' electronics - and of course they make me turn off my self-contained iPod too. Guess what, people, iPods don't receive or send out anything to interfere with anything, ever.
As for people who want peace and quiet - do not get on an airplane and expect to get it! Squaling children and guys like the one on my last trip, in the seat behind me, who decided to give a loud running travelogue the entire trip are just some of the things that make that impossible already. God, I would LOVE the distraction of being able to surf the internet and/or get some work done on what is already going to be an intolerable trip. Porn? What is to stop anyone NOW from viewing already downloaded porn or, heaven forbid, R - rated movies on DVD players onboard? If I am looking at something they don't like - don't look at my screen. I don't like the way your kid smells, or kicks the back of my seat-no one is stepping up to do anything about THAT. We need the internet to distract us from the cattle call with peanuts that an airplane trip is now. And enough with the censorship - I don't need the government censoring any more than they already do. STOP IT!!!
TaylorJan 2nd 2008 2:33PM
I don't mind wi-fi connectivity but please do keep cell phone use off during flight. It's bad enough enplaning and deplaning and in the terminal. People just are not aware enough of themselves to deal with it responsibly. And of course if you put wi-fi on the planes, your company will expect you work non-stop on that six hour flight. Won't that be fun ?