Aaron Parecki

@aaronpk I am too very impressed with zoom, it just works, even on my odd Linux Arch setup with wayland (it works to share the screen) and a bluetooth headset.

@oyam @aaronpk In that case, I was definitely violating that, too. To be honest, I was pretty preoccupied with the part of the page that said "<b><i><u>$25,000</u></i></b>"

@ablaze @aaronpk Ah ok, that makes sense. I did some research on it couple of years back, and FAA always deferred to individual airlines to make the call on that. The airline has the authority to disallow calls, but it's not an FAA regulation. Some in-flight companies (like GoGo) explicitly forbids VoIP calls in their ToCs (at least used to) that you agree to when you join their network.

@oyam @aaronpk It was in the back of the United in-flight magazine, and I believe I actually misspoke because of an argument we had. I said, "there is no regulation." She got mad, left, came back with the magazine, and it was a "guideline," not a regulation.

@ablaze @aaronpk Did you by any chance grab the pamphlet/page from her? I'm not aware of an actual VoIP ban by FAA, but flight attendants sometimes confuse it with regular cell calls. Although, many carriers block VoIP calls via their in-flight WiFi, due to noise complaints, etc, as well as bandwidth concerns. Some technologies work around that, but if VoIP is "blocked" (as far as they're concerned) and you're on a call, you're more likely to be mistaken for doing a cell call.

@aaronpk Yes, VOIP calls. I actually ignored her at first, and she came back shaking with rage and waving a printed FAA page in her hand and told me she would tell the captain I was ignoring her instructions if I didn't stop. I stopped.

@aaronpk but being on plane internet is such a reliable excuse for not joining any conference calls

@aaronpk Last time I took a call on a plane, the flight attendant interrupted me and told me I was violating FAA regulations and subject to a $25,000 fine if I didn't hang up immediately.

@aaronpk It’s actually a really interesting hybridg eng/AI approach: they build an ML model from past Zoom interactions to create a simulacrum of each user which speaks on their behalf. What you’re hearing is just a generative model of the person you’re “talking” to saying what they’d be likely to say in real life; same on their end. It’s *incredibly* bandwidth-efficient. The protocol just sends a tiny presence packet with your user ID once per second to keep your avatar talking.