Category Archives: Tech

An automated collision avoidance system warned of a close call

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A reader writing as Pete808 left the following comment, which appears to provide additional details showing why our United flight to SFO on March 21 abandoned it’s initial landing attempt and powered up, went around, and made another landing attempt (this second one was successful).

Pete808’s findings show how much information can eventually be gleaned from existing public data.

Here are his findings, which initially appeared in a comment but are being elevated here because of their importance.

Here’s what I found by doing some additional internet research. By the way, I have no training or experience as a pilot or air traffic controller, although I’ve flown to SFO quite a few times.

In any event, one can go to LiveATC.net and listen to or download the archived air traffic control recordings for SFO for March 21, 2026. The archives are in half hour segments. After what seems to be a routine clearance to land, the archive for “SFO Tower” has a very cryptic communication from UA 373 a little more than halfway through the recording covering the time period beginning at 2200Z (Zulu or UTC time which is 3 pm SFO time). UA373 indicates that he’s going around although I couldn’t really tell what was being said by listening. In response, the tower controller tells UA373 to fly the runway heading and eventually to contact NorCal Approach.

If you review the archive for NorCal Approach for the period starting again at 2200Z, at around 23:45 into the recording the controller asks UA373 to say the reason for the go around and UA373 replies that they were responding to an RA. An RA is apparently a Resolution Advisory from the ACAS system (Airborne Collision Avoidance System), which is an onboard aviation safety system designed to prevent mid-air collisions by independently detecting nearby aircraft and advising pilots on avoidance maneuvers.

Although two planes landing on parallel runways is pretty routine at SFO with the aircraft required to maintain visual separation, the instructions with respect to ACAS Resolution Advisories is to do what the RA says. So even though UA373 was supposed to maintain visual separation from the other aircraft and even if that visual separation was still being maintained by UA373, when the RA was given by ACAS, the crew of UA373 was obliged to follow it.

Hope your health issues get resolved favorably.

Of course, I got curious

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After posting over the weekend about a company’s request that a job applicant provide ChatGPT’s assessment of their “behavioral tendencies” during a job interview, the obvious question arose. What would ChatGPT say about me?

So I put the question to it.

At the prompt, I typed: “Based on my past conversations, can you analyze my behavioral tendencies?”

Here’s its summary.

If I had to summarize your tendencies in a few phrases:

* Analytical but not detached
* Structured thinker
* Fact-check oriented
* Curious across domains
* Pragmatic
* Attentive to behavioral nuance

Of course, its answer is based on my specific uses and types of interactions. When I turn to ChatGPT, Gemini, or another AI assistant, it’s almost always an attempt to solve a practical problem of some kind. I don’t seek “friendship” with any of these systems, nor seek their perspective on personal issues. I treat them as tools. I’m trying to understand and experiment with their best uses.

In any case, here’s ChatGPT’s more complete assessment.

Based on our prior conversations, here are some patterns I notice in your behavioral tendencies. I’ll keep this grounded in observable themes rather than speculation:

1. Analytical and Evidence-Oriented

You often ask precise, fact-based questions — legal status of cases (e.g., *Lind v. Grimmer*), historical verification (e.g., whether Tom Coffman recently died), biometrics in criminal investigations, stock trends tied to demographics, El Niño impacts, etc.

This suggests:

* Comfort navigating complex information
* Interest in verification and accuracy
* Likely habit of cross-checking or thinking critically about sources

2. Problem-Solving Mindset

You request step-by-step Sudoku solutions and structured transcripts with timestamps and speaker labels. That indicates:

* Preference for clarity and procedural logic
* Appreciation for organized presentation
* Possibly a background where structured reasoning is important

3. Long-Horizon Thinking

Your question about stocks benefiting from aging baby boomers, and your work supporting a retired administrator with memory issues, suggest:

* Awareness of demographic and aging-related shifts
* Patience with long-term dynamics
* Practical engagement with aging and cognitive change

4. Observant of Behavioral Detail

Your questions about your cat’s fixation on the garage and nesting behavior were nuanced and contextualized over time. That reflects:

* Attentiveness to patterns
* Sensitivity to environmental triggers
* Willingness to look beneath surface behavior

5. Direct but Not Dramatic

Your communication style is concise, low on emotional signaling, and oriented toward clarity rather than persuasion. You tend not to embellish questions — you get to the point.

6. Blending Personal and Professional Domains

You move fluidly between:

* Legal and policy questions
* Health questions
* Pet behavior
* Writing/editing tasks
* Personal narrative (e.g., the rescued puppy story)

That suggests intellectual flexibility rather than a single-domain focus.

It then offered to “describe possible blind spots or growth edges.”

I decided to stop while I was ahead!

A first experience with Starlink high-speed internet

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In less than two hours, our Hawaiian Airlines flight will land in Long Beach, California. We’ll be there for a week, mostly to see several Lind cousins, along with a friend from high school, and another old friend of about 50 years who happens to now be retired in LB.

My dad grew up in Long Beach before finding his way to Hawaii, and three surviving cousins are still living in the area.

But getting there provided an opportunity to try out Starlink. Hawaiian started offering free in-flight Starlink internet last year, I believe, but this is the first time I’ve tried it out. And I have to report that the user experience is excellent.

Screenshot

I am sorry to say that Starlink is several times better than whatever system United has been offering. Sorry because I have a very strong hostile reaction to Elon Musk and would rather not support his enterprise. But Starlink just works. And it’s fast. I haven’t experienced any lost signal or dead periods. United is reportedly shifting over to Starlink, but I haven’t run into it yet on any United flight. I would say that they should get a move on and complete the transition, based on my single-flight experience.

It was simple to join the Starlink network once our flight got underway. It was as simple as turning on wifi and selecting the “Starlink WIFI on Hawaiian” network. Bam! Instant connection. And it is impressive in use. Little latency, and a snappy feel.

I’ve been able to send texts with photos, go through email, read the news, etc, etc. All the normal online activities have worked fine. And it works well both on my phone and iPad.

So I would give it a 10 out of 10!

I wonder what Hawaiian has to pay to offer complimentary Starlink?

Anyway, this is just a quick report from the field. Or the sky, I guess, to be precise.

Disaster narrowly avoided

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[This was first posted over on Facebook earlier this morning]

Siri just saved my day, and my week.

The crisis arose early this morning, soon after we were seated in the Trivet restaurant just off the main lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Auckland. We were shown to a table along the window, and were working on our first cup of black coffee as we began thinking through our breakfast options.

I was checking out the morning news on my iPad when disaster hit.

It started when I went to take a look at the Wall Street Journal. A main title page appeared, just white screen with “Wall Street Journal” emblazoned across the center.

And then it the screen froze.

The WSJ page of news headlines never appeared, the iPad stopped responding to anything. It was completely frozen. Nonresponsive. I couldn’t get out of the white WSJ page, and the iPad failed to respond to anything of the usual things.

There’s usually a simple solution to situations like this. Power down and restart. So I pressed the top “on-off” button and a volume button at the same time, and waited. After a few seconds, this combo should lead to a another button that will shut down the iPad.

But this time, nothing happened.

I tried several times, alternating between the up volume and down volume buttons. No effect. The killer WSJ screen continued be displayed with no viable options apparent.

For a few minutes, I was stumped, and began considering the prospect of spending the rest of our time in Auckland without access to my the wonders that the iPad . It wasn’t a pretty picture. Depressing, really, and an indication of how addicted we are to digital communication and maintaining our presence in the digital world.

At this point, I started looking at the screen as kind of an “escape room” challenge. This involved tapping different places on the screen to see whether I could generate any reaction. There was a WSJ logo up in the top left corner, but it went nowhere. I tried taping the usual places, screen corners, etc. I tried swiping up, down, and sideways. One finger, two fingers, multiple fingers. Nothing I did got a reaction.

But then I noticed the horizontal line at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on it seemed to have no effect. Then I tried a “click and hold” on that line, and the edges of the screen started glowing, indicating Siri has been summoned.

Another few seconds, and a query appeared from Siri.

“How can I help you?” Or something to that effect.

I first asked if I had correctly recalled the two-button move as “shut down” command. Siri confirmed this was the correct say to power down.

So I explained my ipad would not power down.

And Siri instantly replied, “Do you want to power down this device?”

Do I ever!! YES!

The screen went black. And I felt a huge rush of relief.

When I rebooted, all was well. The iPad awoke, the frozen WSJ screen was gone, and I was free to share the moment with you.

I should have realized Siri could take control of the iPad like this even though the device seemed to be nonreponsive. And now I wonder whether a “hey, Siri” would have summoned its help earlier despite the frozen screen.

No, I’m not going to try and recreate the issue to test that hypothesis. And I’ll probably avoid rechecking the WSJ anytime soon.