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TIL Boeing used potatoes to test in-flight Wi-Fi
(URL) https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/potatoes-wireless/index.html (https://www.cnn.com) text/html
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|u/whatsthehappenstance - 1 month
|
|If you’re not bringing potatoes in your carry-on, you’re not flying the
|right way.
|u/maxstrike - 1 month
|
|People fly without a bag of potatoes?
|u/hoppertn - 1 month
|
|I know right, how else do you make the vodka when you land?
|u/BrokenEye3 - 1 month
|
|People wait until they land to make vodka out of their carryon
|potatoes?
|u/hoppertn - 1 month
|
|Well you could always drink the blue toilet water you filthy
|casual.
|u/Mainbaze - 1 month
|
|I mean you can litterally just buy it in the shop at put it in
|your bag
|u/rypher - 1 month
|
|I know Im privileged but I was raised to use a cheese shredded
|to shred the potato into the blue toilet tang.
|u/maxstrike - 1 month
|
|Nice
|u/rlnrlnrln - 1 month
|
|From sugar, water and yeast, like we always do.
|u/whatsthehappenstance - 1 month
|
|Keep them close
|u/looktowindward - 1 month
|
|Savages
|u/Make_It_Sing - 1 month
|
|Found the pole
|u/PersKarvaRousku - 1 month
|
|I've heard of this weird rawdogging flight trend where people fly
|without a single potato
|u/maxstrike - 1 month
|
|Never fly without at least one potato in your pocket.
|u/gitarzan - 1 month
|
|I was told to remove the onion from my belt before I boarded, so I’m
|guessing no.
|u/callthesomnambulance - 1 month
|
|As was the style at the time.
|u/Far_Collar_2488 - 1 month
|
|I knew someone who actually did this. He didn’t want to buy potatoes
|where he was going so he threw a sack in his carry on
|u/whatsthehappenstance - 1 month
|
|That’s someone who knows their importance
|u/hoppertn - 1 month
|
|Or a Russian.
|u/BrokenEye3 - 1 month
|
|I saw someone do that with a box of donuts. Like, my fair dude, I
|know Dunkin' is kind of a "thing" out there in Connecticut, but we
|*do* have them in LA.
|u/Far_Collar_2488 - 1 month
|
|The same dude got through tsa with a 20 oz water bottle filled and
|unsealed. I’m guessing tsa was confused by the potatoes so they
|missed it.
|u/Upper_Ad_4162 - 1 month
|
|I remember when there were none. The closest one was Vegas.
|u/lapideous - 1 month
|
|I once flew with a whole Costco box of unpopped popcorn in my carry
|on. Apparently it looked super suspicious on the scanner
|u/helpadumbo - 1 month
|
|https://youtu.be/Uet6bfQclFo?si=qJjMniOYuUqQlDaR
|u/bigdaddybodiddly - 1 month
|
|No syrup?
|u/BrokenEye3 - 1 month
|
|Only if it's less than 3 oz
|u/Kithsander - 1 month
|
|Better than the psycho who brought on the bag of pancakes.
|u/Destiiii - 1 month
|
|“Invasive potato type ruins farmers”
|u/Crosswire3 - 1 month
|
|Potatoes do make a decent stand-in for humans as far as the 2.4ghz and
|5.8ghz bands are concerned.
|u/Routine_Ease_9171 - 1 month
|
|I first heard about this a couple of years ago on one of those believe
|it or not posts!
|u/dolladealz - 1 month
|
|Can confirm am a potatoe
|u/Crosswire3 - 1 month
|
|Yes, a common frequency band used for WiFi.
|u/Crosswire3 - 1 month
|
|Hmm, I have been into tech and radio for most of my life and
|it’s always been 5.8ghz. Even among friends and laymen. Must be
|a pop vs soda thing. (It’s pop BTW).
|u/JackBlak - 1 month
|
|You might be getting mobile networks bands and wifi bands
|mixed up.
|u/itsalongwalkhome - 1 month
|
|To be clear i don't get this either and I work with
|networks, we talking about 802.11a/h/n/ac/ax/be which is
|5GHz or 802.11p which is 5.9GHz? Never seen the common
|ones labelled as 2.4 and 5.8 only 2.4 and 5.
|u/MinneAppley - 1 month
|
|I would far rather be seated next to a potato than with some of the
|passengers I’ve met over the years.
|u/DynamiteWitLaserBeam - 1 month
|
|You're in luck. I'm something of a potato myself.
|u/Baked_Potato_732 - 1 month
|
|Me too.
|u/F-Lambda - 1 month
|
|"you remind me of my brother. your head is the spitting image of the
|potatoes he used to eat!"
|u/Jtg_Jew - 1 month
|
|Some? I can’t think of a single random person I’d rather sit next to
|than a sack of potatoes.
|u/AliensAteMyAMC - 1 month
|
|sorry
|u/Kevundoe - 1 month
|
| They also hired potatoes to bolt on the doors
|u/PMs_You_Stuff - 1 month
|
|And for upper management.
|u/Huntguy - 1 month
|
|Potatoes all the way down.
|u/Slim01111 - 1 month
|
|Like their doors
|u/Impressive-Tea8432 - 1 month
|
|Their only non potato employees are whistleblowers and assassins for
|said whistleblowers.
|u/InsertWittyNameRHere - 1 month
|
|I have a feeling that we shouldn’t be blaming the blue collar for the
|failings of Boeing. I can’t imagine one of the maintenance workers was
|the one that ordered the assassination of a whistleblower
|u/Kevundoe - 1 month
|
|Not aware about the assassination but I agree that it’s not the guy
|on the assembly line that is responsible for the quality assurance
|budgets to be cut and for the door falling off.
|u/GorillaonWheels - 1 month
|
|More like Wi-Fries
|u/morekidsthanzeus - 1 month
|
|This deserves to be at the top. ⬆️
|u/MonzaB - 1 month
|
|Wow! A lot of hate on your comment. You don't deserve that.  Peace.
|PS,: Whomever down voted my comment, you are a petty, small person.
|Magic internet points are worthless. 
|u/morekidsthanzeus - 1 month
|
|I got you fam
|u/BrokenEye3 - 1 month
|
|How good of a signal can you get on a potato?
|u/Fit-Let8175 - 1 month
|
|It depends what station the potato is tuned to.
|u/Ok-disaster2022 - 1 month
|
|It makes sense. The potatoes are cheap apparently provide similar EMF
|effects as human bodies. It's cheaper to put potatoes on the testing
|plane than humans, and afterward donate the potatoes to food banks to
|write off costs.
|u/SillyKniggit - 1 month
|
|I’m curious what you think a tax write off is. Because it doesn’t seem
|to match what a tax write off actually is.
|u/MrZero3229 - 1 month
|
|It's a write-off, Jerry. They just write it off!
|u/Agreeable-Spot-7376 - 1 month
|
|“And what’s the deal with the tax return slot in the bathroom? Are
|people writing things off in there?!”
|u/tothesource - 1 month
|
|"You don't know what a write-off is, do you?"
|u/manomacho - 1 month
|
|No…but they do!
|u/WestCoastToGoldCoast - 1 month
|
|[All the big companies are doing it,
|Jerry!](https://youtu.be/XEL65gywwHQ?si=AAa1u8whBJxjWdZi)
|u/GotMoFans - 1 month
|
|Seems like it would be a tax write off if they donated the items and
|can get credit for it with taxes.
|u/hellowiththepudding - 1 month
|
|They are a deduction either way. You can’t double up. 
|u/earthwarrior - 1 month
|
|And even if you could, how much is a few sacks of potatoes? Not
|worth the effort and potentially giving away contaminated food.
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|It's not contaminated if it's been properly handed and stored.
|u/earthwarrior - 1 month
|
|True, but why go through the extra safety measures to save
|$100 at the end of the year?
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|having clean hands and putting the bag on clean floor is
|not that extra ?
|u/cardboardunderwear - 1 month
|
|I don't have a dog in this fight, but you should call
|Boeing and tell them how to fix the door.
|u/Automatic-Alarm-6340 - 1 month
|
|Boeing installed the door correctly, it was a third
|party AMO months later that fucked up while doing a
|structures repair on the frame.
|u/BrokenEye3 - 1 month
|
|It's Boeing, Sol. They don't do "properly".
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|Dirty Experience just took a different meaning lol
|u/cardboardunderwear - 1 month
|
|aaannnnd that brings us back to using actual humans right?
|u/hellowiththepudding - 1 month
|
|That is false in the US. A $100 donation for Boeing would save
|them $21 in federal tax.
|u/trireme32 - 1 month
|
|That’s a deduction, not a write off
|u/sargonas - 1 month
|
|Corporate treasurer for a nonprofit here. Everything below this post
|is making me laugh so much I’m not even gonna bother getting
|involved in this conversation.
|u/Northern23 - 1 month
|
|Are you even allowed to write off an item you donated/gave away?
|Isn't write off only for items you destroyed? For example,
|Samsung giving free Galaxy Flip phones is a marketing expense.
|Samsung destroying CPUs wafers because they failed quality is a
|right off. Samsung donating fridges to a food bank is a donation.
|u/sargonas - 1 month
|
|I am not a US tax lawyer, I pay someone else to do that for me,
|but any donation of goods (not money) by a corporation to a
|qualified organization (meaning a nonprofit, such as a 501(c)(3)
|organization), can be written off, regardless of why it was
|originally obtained or what kind of secondary benefit you might
|get from the act of a donation (such as an inference that it
|could be considered a PR or marketing benefit).
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|Corporate, non-profit ? Lol
|u/sargonas - 1 month
|
|It’s literally called a “nonprofit corporation“… (in this
|particular case it is a maker space/hacker space that is
|entirely funded by membership dues and donations, all of which
|go back into funding the operation of the organization, it’s
|facilities, business operations, etc.)
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|that sounds like just a for-profit that barely makes it into
|positive lol
|u/sargonas - 1 month
|
|As long as the consumables are restocked, the workshop tools
|are maintained, new shiny equipment is bought when required,
|the bills and building mortgage are paid, and members feel
|they get value from the facility, we really don’t care how
|much we bring in extra since no one paid and all that. The
|fact we happen to currently have a 6 figure war chest is
|just icing on the cake honestly. :)
|u/solarriors - 1 month
|
|GG but why am I downvoted ?
|u/lumathrax - 1 month
|
|They were organic taters shipped from Ireland
|u/yabucek - 1 month
|
|In reddit mythology, a tax write off is a spell that a company/rich
|person can cast to get everything for free.
|u/recycled_ideas - 1 month
|
|Not OP, but they said write off the cost, not recoup the cost, which
|is pretty accurate. You write off the cost, but don't get the full
|cost back. Now I'm not an accountant so I don't actually know
|whether Boeing could classify the potatoes as a business expense
|(which they were) and claim them as a donation for tax purposes as
|well, but either way they're going to write off the cost even if
|that's only going to be <insert corporate tax rate> discount.
|u/cox4days - 1 month
|
|Donating food is a write off though
|u/hellowiththepudding - 1 month
|
|So is buying potatoes to test your equipment. You can’t deduct
|them twice.
|u/cox4days - 1 month
|
|That's a business expense not a write off (you probably can't
|use potatoes for science and then eat them anyways)
|u/smokeymcdugen - 1 month
|
|Expenses for R&D are taxed differently than normal business
|expenses. They get a dollar for dollar tax reduction, which
|is why many companies operate at near 0 profit. They put in as
|much as they can to R&D so they don't get taxed for the excess
|revenue.
|u/hellowiththepudding - 1 month
|
|What exactly do you think a write off is? It’s deducting the
|cost of the item… You are unironically espousing the Seinfeld
|meme while replying to a thread about it.
|u/shaunrnm - 1 month
|
|So is the expense of the potatoes regardless. Could be dropping
|them out the back door, still be able to write of the potatoes.
|u/cox4days - 1 month
|
|That is not a write off
|u/hellowiththepudding - 1 month
|
|You are so confidently wrong. 
|u/shaunrnm - 1 month
|
|Businesses write off expenses. Payroll, fuel, electricity, raw
|materials, design fees, consultants etc all get written off.
|It's reducing the profit, it's being written off.
|u/BeefistPrime - 1 month
|
|If it worked like people think, like, donating money or scrapping
|equipment just came right off your tax bill, no one would pay taxes.
|Why pay taxes instead of just giving to your favorite charity?
|u/wimpires - 1 month
|
|Ignoring the last sentence because that's not how things like that
|work. The article talked more about speed. They can set up potatoes
|and move them around with ease. Whereas hundreds of volunteers/people
|would take hours to organise  Speeding up rapid testing/prototyping
|from weeks to days.
|u/ArmNo7463 - 1 month
|
|On the one hand, it makes total sense as you say. On the other, I
|find it much more fun to think "Of course that's why Boeing jets are
|dropping like flies, they're engineering the fuckers using farm
|produce. Maybe that's why Starliner is stuck... They used a carrot to
|design the thrusters."
|u/NaGaBa - 1 month
|
|They had to stop using frozen potatoes after they kept flying right
|through the front windscreen
|u/Valiant_tank - 1 month
|
|No, no, the frozen food that they use is chickens for engine testing
|lol.
|u/JasonShort - 1 month
|
|I used to build roller coasters. We used 250 lb bags of corn feed for
|cows.
|u/HitchedUp - 1 month
|
|You needed to plan for cows on roller coasters?
|u/JasonShort - 1 month
|
|Fat Americans. Yes we called them cows. 😀
|u/HitchedUp - 1 month
|
|Oh, you mean fat people are cows. Okay.
|u/JasonShort - 1 month
|
|I was a contractor for Universal Studios. Did rides in Florida, LA,
|and Japan. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of stress.
|u/JasonShort - 1 month
|
|The stress of handling emergency situations changed how I look
|at all rides now. Sort of ruined the magic. One time in Japan
|I argued with the lead engineer about e-stop calculations. He
|was way more senior so I let it go. The acceptance test included
|a max weight take off followed by an emergency power loss before
|the first loop. The only smart calculations are “can we make it
|over the top, or should we lock all the brakes”. The one thing
|you can NEVER allow to happen is guests trapped upside down.
|His calc was wrong. The coaster locked with 1/3 inverted in the
|first inverted section. The corn feed bags fell out and made a
|HUGE mess. There were birds all over the site for weeks after.
|Took three days to get the coaster unlocked safely and back to
|the cradle. I never worked with that guy again. I am not in
|the industry anymore. Now I work at a large software company in
|Seattle. Very different.
|u/Highpersonic - 1 month
|
|> His calc was wrong. The coaster locked with 1/3 inverted in
|the first inverted section. That would be a bitch of a
|rescue
|u/Cvarns - 1 month
|
|I've had it with these motherf#$&ing potatoes on these motherf@+*ing
|planes!
|u/Ghost17088 - 1 month
|
|Guess Apple was too expensive. 
|u/ZachMN - 1 month
|
|Do they earn frequent fryer miles?
|u/Unique-Steak8745 - 1 month
|
|Why are most the comments dumb jokes instead of any information about
|the article??
|u/747ER - 1 month
|
|People see the word “Boeing” and decide to make jokes about the only
|thing they know about Boeing, rather than contributing anything
|useful.
|u/ZachMN - 1 month
|
|Not true; we’re also joking about potatoes.
|u/BurrrritoBoy - 1 month
|
|You blew the doors off that one !
|u/super_aardvark - 1 month
|
|Because the article is right there for you to read. And it's not that
|interesting.
|u/ZachMN - 1 month
|
|The ones in the back of the plane are coach potatoes.
|u/ShepardCommander001 - 1 month
|
|How are you holding up? BECAUSE I’M A POTATO.
|u/CocconutMonkey - 1 month
|
|Ding, fries are done
|u/Drone30389 - 1 month
|
|And chickens to test windshields.
|u/42brie_flutterbye - 1 month
|
|Is potato
|u/tim_Andromeda - 1 month
|
|And evidently, also uses potatoes to implement in-flight WiFi.
|u/bust-the-shorts - 1 month
|
|Using Reddit servers to test WiFi, makes so much sense it’s frightening
|u/joeljaeggli - 1 month
|
|We used barrels of water but the premise is the same
|u/spotcheck001 - 1 month
|
|Beats having an onion tied to your belt.
|u/Sprinkle_Puff - 1 month
|
|What did they call me!?
|u/apparent-puma - 1 month
|
|We do that all the time in ireland. It's not anything special.
|u/rorrak - 1 month
|
|Not a single potato complained about poor WIFI! Amazing.
|u/TheSecondAccountYeah - 1 month
|
|Jesus
|u/eat-pussy69 - 1 month
|
|That explains why the WiFi is so fucking horrible
|u/Ssutuanjoe - 1 month
|
|At the time of me commenting, there's not one LOTR reference. Not one.
|I'm genuinely surprised
|u/amisexySB - 1 month
|
|Aruba used water bags for stadium WiFi testing
|u/BoxTopPriza - 1 month
|
|So they thought potatoes w e re equivalent to passengers. As a sometimes
|passenger I think I am insulted But my potatoes say they were the ones
|insulted.
|u/sethasaurus666 - 1 month
|
|Potato 1: Oh, my. I was hoping you'd be the sky-candy on this flight.
|You're looking especially delicious this evening. Potato 2: I love it
|when you demean me, Rick.
|u/SurfingLemur - 1 month
|
|And than those potatoes make career in QA field.
|u/fourtytwoseven - 1 month
|
|Great! Maybe they should send a few hundred pounds of potatoes to the
|ISS. Problem solved.
|u/oceanduciel - 1 month
|
|GLaDOS has entered the chat 
|u/AlaskanSamsquanch - 1 month
|
|I am potato.
|u/ScottOld - 1 month
|
|Now they use whistleblowers
|u/P4S5B60 - 1 month
|
|Boeing …. Just stop , you were a cornerstone Company now your just a
|corporate shitshow with the bean counter mentality that has killed
|people and endangered others . No pride no QC
|u/elcheapodeluxe - 1 month
|
|Why are you against using potatoes to test wifi? Or is it just a knee
|jerk reaction?
|u/P4S5B60 - 1 month
|
|Knee jerk ? Have been paying attention ? Perhaps ask the Astronauts
|stuck at the Space Station? Or maybe the families of the
|whistleblowers or the victims families of all the avoidable
|catastrophes , jeez I don’t know is that knee jerk ?
|u/elcheapodeluxe - 1 month
|
|Well one presumed you were talking about the content of the post
|and... One presumed wrong.
|u/cardboardunderwear - 1 month
|
|ngl they had me fooled too turned out it was just a random
|diatribe about boeing that just happened to be in a thread about
|boeing. Boy is my face red!
|u/P4S5B60 - 1 month
|
|Is presumed the same as assumed ? Well you know what they say
|about that right ?
|u/747ER - 1 month
|
|Not that it’s the only thing wildly incorrect about your post, but
|it’s probably the most important: no whistleblower was killed. One
|guy committed suicide *eight years* after he was a whistleblower,
|and another guy died of a respiratory infection he gained after
|contracting pneumonia in hospital after he self-admitted for
|something else. He, too, was not a whistleblower at the time.
|Hate Boeing all you want, it doesn’t really affect me if you do,
|but please don’t spread dumb conspiracy theories about those two
|people being “murdered” and then claim to be sympathetic towards
|their families. It’s extremely disrespectful.
|u/P4S5B60 - 1 month
|
|Never said anything about the Company having anything to do with
|their deaths nor did I imply anything else . And I don’t hate
|Boeing either , but clearly their current corporate culture is
|not about quality or safety. Nor is it about compliance or
|transparency
|u/PotentialSquirrel118 - 1 month
|
|Looks like they got the C-Level people on a 737MAX after all.
|u/Fit-Let8175 - 1 month
|
|Aren't potatoes better to test tv's?
|u/theshysamurai - 1 month
|
|I didn't realize how much wifi potatoes use
|u/UncleRudolph - 1 month
|
|They then moved the potato’s into their C-Suite
|u/surprisedcactus - 1 month
|
|Maybe those potatoes should work for their quality assurance department
|u/conflagrare - 1 month
|
|Looks like the Boeing C Suite are personally testing the plane.
|u/lordtaco - 1 month
|
|Then they used mashed potatoes to patch the hole in the side of the
|plane.
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