Air Osama?
from the oh-come-on dept
Salon is running an extraordinarily long piece wondering if would be terrorists are using Microsoft's Flight Simulator to plan attacks. This seems like yet another "blame the technology" article, though, the author seems to deny that. He does seem upset that the FBI isn't investigating this angle, though. The fact is, there are plenty of other things to worry about than whether or not a potential terrorist knows how to fly a plane via a video game. Also, it's a bit odd that someone just now decided to write such an article. There were some over-reactions in the days after September 11, when some retailers pulled Flight Simulator from their shelves, but to suddenly bring it up again is simply trying to stir up trouble where none exists. As one pilot quoted in the article points out, the Flight Sim angle isn't really important: "If you wanted to point an airplane at something on the ground and crash into it, you don't have to know a hell of a lot."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Home-made scud?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]