Posts by Matthew Speed

Mythbusters RFID episode axed after 'pressure' from credit card firms

How sad

So now instead of people knowing how unsafe this technology is so they can demand it be made better, the masses will be left unaware and at the mercy of the people smart enough to figure this out anyway.

SMS used to land plane

Sorry but this isn't the first

My father, flying in Texas in Cessna 182 N96928, lost power in flight to his panel a couple months ago. He used his iPhone to contact everyone he could think of until he found someone who was then able to alert his destination airport of his situation. While his passenger (also a pilot) sent and read messages he successfully landed the plane without incident thanks to his text communication with people on the ground.

USAF ramps up kill-bot fleet following Gates sackings

This policy needs to change

It is unfortunate that the USAF is excluding a great number of excellent candidates from their pool with this "actual pilot" requirement. There exist a great number of people possessing great intelligence and situational awareness who could not meet the physical rigors of piloting a real world fighter plane who would probably be great computer aircraft pilots. They could make it a warrant officer position like the helicopter pilots in the Army and could probably find a fair number of disciplined, post high school gamers to take turns and keep the UAV pilot ranks filled.

Predator kill-machine pilots suffering 'chronic burnout'

This makes perfect sense

I am a pilot who spent a fair amount of time using MS Flight Simulator before I flew IRL. When I go back and use FS now I find it very tiring because my mind is used to getting a great deal of input about the entirety of my situation via my eyes, ears and body. In a remote piloting situation the controller's mind is trying to render the world he cannot see through the screen. This is no different than asking a computer to display a static graphic vs create it on the fly. It simply takes more processing power to do the latter and given the fact that these guys have destructive force at their command their psyche will demand of them that they know everything they can to ensure things go right.