I don't know, maybe to make aviation safer so it doesn't happen again, whatever "it" may be.
Why should Twitter bother debugging outages? Why should Facebook bother issuing post-mortems when bad things take their systems out? Just chalk it up to solar flares or blame some rogue developer and shrug your shoulders.
Sure, although the NationAir DC-8 tragedy was a different jet. The 777 is significantly more advanced and I believe has some sort of fire detection in the wheel well; they would have known very shortly after takeoff if there was smoke. Unless we're saying that the fire immediately disabled the ability to communicate the fact that there WAS a fire to the pilots...
...but that seems unlikely too, because I imagine the 777 has backup systems that would alert pilots in case a system as critical as the fire detection equipment in the wheel assembly was not responding.
I'm not saying the fire scenario is impossible; I'm still erring on the side of this being a tragic systems failure, and not a malicious act. I just think it might be entirely unlike anything we've seen in the past.
Never underestimate "pilot familiarity." In an emergency, a pilot is going to favor an airstrip he/she is familiar with over an unknown one. Perhaps the captain was more familiar with Langkawi?
Depression isn't just /like/ physical pain. It can cause real, physical pain. Pain, for which you go to doctors who say "oh, you're fine." Pain for which you go to dentists only to hear "oh, you're fine."
In many (most? all?) people depression has a physical manifestation. It hurts. It aches. It's not a "hole in your heart," it's like having the flu. All the time. It's not like a toothache. It is a toothache. This distinction has to be made because it's important: the pain is real - even if it is just created by brain chemistry.
I think this is cool, but I think the true power of this really is in the answers bit. Wouldn't it be cool - after getting engagement from a few thousand people taking pictures and asking questions - to snap a picture of something and have the answer pop up automatically without asking the question?
If they did that - i.e. compare the photo to other similar looking photos - it would reduce a lot of redundant questions and also make it immensely powerful. At that point it isn't a social network anymore; it's a collective intelligence search engine.
This is relatively similar to how it works in Israel.
To get internet access you actually need two things: infrastructure and an ISP. Infrastructure is through one of two companies (although it may be more now? I'm not sure): Bezeq (DSL) or HOT (Cable). After that you choose your own ISP.
Typically infrastructure is the more expensive of the two, and the ISP is quite cheap.
It's also illegal to have binding contracts for utilities here so if HOT pisses me off, I can switch to Bezeq. If my ISP pisses me off I can switch to another one within 20 minutes. I think this latter point is actually the most effective in getting what I want from my providers. Customer service here is pretty awful usually (and this is from a person who used to live in NYC and had TWC), but when they know they risk losing you very easily it's easy to get what you want.
I think if you unbundle and do away with contracts you'll get a pretty powerful combination.
What about navigating TFRs? Class B airspace? What about failures of the rotors whilst flying over heavily populated areas? Will these things be equipped with TCAS to avoid oncoming traffic? What happens if the path-finding algorithm to get from Amazon's warehouse to your house goes batshit insane and flies it in the approach path to LAX? Who files the flight plan for each of these things?
To quote Steve Yegge, "people will die... if it's YOU... you're going to be really pissed off." [0]
Israeli border control also no longer stamps passports. They give you a little slip of paper with your picture on it. This piece of paper is your "temporary visa."
I don't know, maybe to make aviation safer so it doesn't happen again, whatever "it" may be.
Why should Twitter bother debugging outages? Why should Facebook bother issuing post-mortems when bad things take their systems out? Just chalk it up to solar flares or blame some rogue developer and shrug your shoulders.