"Flight Sim enquiry raises terror alert"http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34776.html

Not only OT - Off Topic ........ but also OTT - Over The TopDavid

More like a LOS! I'll leave it to your imagination as to what it means :-lol

Or a LOB :-lol :-lol :-lolDavid

Ah yes, another example of stunning journalism: "At one time it was rare to find US citizens, in the safest and most prosperous country in the world, jumping at their own shadows." -- what planet is this writer from? My country, the good old USA, the safest country in the world? You gotta be kidding! Has he seen the stats on murder in this stronghold of security? hoo boy.

Police State :(Are things like this considered normal over there? If not, I'd imagine the police officer would have felt pretty stupid.The real moron is the clerk at Staples. I mean, if flight games were illegal tools used by terrorists, why do they sell them at all?-How can I help you?-I'd like to report an act of terrorism.-Go ahead-Yeah, a mother bought a flight game for her 10-year old son. Oh, and she's a USAF reserve pilot BTW.-We'll send someone overIf this is something that happens every day in the US, then it's really scary. The I'm surprised there aren't louder protests because then it has really gone too far. It's actually quite amazing, they are installing spyware on people's computer, destroying airports, sending troopers to people who buy flightsims, and blaming it all on the war against terror. Whatever happened to that "freedom" of yours? I really hope this was an isolated incident, and that it's not routine to get night-visits from armed troopers after buying Counter-Strike or Flight Simulator.

I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but here it goes anyway.If I remember correctly, our leaders had issued a High Terror Alert for the period prior to and during the holidays, correct? Now granted, that clerk at Staples might have overreacted just a tad, but chances are, he was doing exactly what his bosses had instructed in reporting the inquiry about the Flight Simulator program. Also it was widely reported just after 9/11 that the terrorists had used MS FS for "practice". Now just suppose for a moment that the woman bought FS and really WAS connected to terrorists but no report was made to anyone in authority. She turns the sim over to the bad guys who use it to set up a scenario and then on Christmas Day or maybe New Year's Eve, there is another strike against the country. I can hear the screams of outrage about why wasn't this person investigated. Okay, so we were lucky nothing DID happen over the holidays. But it seems to me the authorities in the Staples situation were caught between a rock and a hard place. It was a judgment call all around that turned out not to be necessary, thankfully. Sure, the whole thing could probably have been handled more discreetly but I believe, given the circumstances as we know them, things turned out relatively well. -Lindy :-wave

"If I remember correctly, our leaders had issued a High Terror Alert for the period prior to and during the holidays, correct?"Correct."Now granted, that clerk at Staples might have overreacted just a tad, "Certainly."but chances are, he was doing exactly what his bosses had instructed in reporting the inquiry about the Flight Simulator program."Then the bossed and the ones who instructed them also overreacted."Also it was widely reported just after 9/11 that the terrorists had used MS FS for "practice". "They also took flying lessons. I doubt you could learn to fly a big jet with the "precision" they did just by playing a computer game."Now just suppose for a moment that the woman bought FS and really WAS connected to terrorists but no report was made to anyone in authority."If the authorities considered FS to be such a threat, they would ban it or require ID or something for everyone that bought it. It's just a game."She turns the sim over to the bad guys who use it to set up a scenario and then on Christmas Day or maybe New Year's Eve, there is another strike against the country."The bad guys would just download it from the net or get a pirated copy from China. Computer games are very easy to find, illegally and legally.If someone played Flight Simulator for a few weeks then tried to hijack and fly a real plane, I doubt they would manage to do much more than crash the pane somewhere in the middle of nowhere. If they didn't play flight simulator, the same thing would happen."I can hear the screams of outrage about why wasn't this person investigated. "If this actually happened, and it turned out that the person had played FS prior to the attack, there would certainly be screams of outrage, but in reality, FS wouldn't have had much to do with it. You would still need to take flying lessons in order to fly the plane.Also, do you seriously think they would use planes again? The raised airport security would make it virtually impossible.The US authorities should stop terrorizing the public and try to protect them instead.

Well the terrorist's planning leaves something to be desired if they haven't even went to the store to buy the vital planning tool (FS) at a point where the country is already on a high terror allert.Seriously though, if FS is a security threat then they should stop selling the damn thing or at least impose restrictions on it instead of harassing the people the who buy it. - Oyvind

OMG! You don't actually believe that crap? The Register makes this stuff up!! Come on, do you actually think buying a flight simulator at a legit store is enough probable cause to call in the troops(state troopers, that is)? Especially on Christmas for a 10 year old? NOT! "The Register" is to computers as "The National Enquirer" is to news here...don't always believe what you read...

Likely the story was taken completely out of context or entirely fabricated. In any case, I don't believe for one 1/4 of a 100th of a second that it happened. ON the other hand, we here in the USA have become unconfident and paranoid...and I won't continue to prevent a political rant, but the article is a sign of the times and is stupid. Randy Jura, KPDX

If all she did was go into the store and ask about the flight sim, how did the clerk and police know where she lived?