Nothing kills time like the Internet, and no where do I need to kill time like I do on a cross-country flight to New York. Sadly, the Internet hasn’t really been available to plane passengers, though I gather that we can expect to see a change in this policy in new airplanes relatively soon. JetBlue has already begun testing of email and IM access on its San Fran-New York routes, and American will offer full net access hopefully some time in 2008. In the deeper future, the gargantuan Boeing 787 Dreamliner is expected to provide Internet access when it hits the skies in the next year or two. Check out the Star Trek like cockpit, pictured at right (and here are some more pics of the Dreamliner, before it gets scotch and baby vomit spilled on it, of course.)
The FAA, however, has pointed out a bit of a security flaw in the Dreamliner set up: the Internet access point on the plane is hardwired in with the main navigation and control computers for the plane. So, theoretically, any passenger could hack the flight controls. I’m pretty sure this is the sort of thing Commander Adama was worried about when he said no networking the computers on the Galactica.
