I did read other sources. I talk to people who read other sources. Enough to know Airbus hides info from pilots -- critical info such as pitch trim, throttles that don't move as autothrottle adjusts power, and provides no tactile feedback to the stick. Airbus isn't a seat-of-the-pants airplane, you almost have to think like a passenger, not a pilot. That's what I got from reading other sources. Was that the conclusion you hoped I gave you? No? Oh well -- that's the conclusion I reached over the years of this accident being known, as well as other Airbus incidents involving their computers.
I cite Wiki because they have a fairly consice and correct account -- despite your objections and claims of rollbacks and edits.
On AF 447 BEA blamed training, cockpit ergonomics and incorrect procedure. They didn't even mention the role FEP had. It seems the French authorities like to shield Airbus from responsibility and scrutiny.
Here's something Wiki doesn't mention but other sources do: The AF 447 pilots thought they were in an overspeed, not stall. They mis-interpreted stall buffeting as a sign of overspeed. In the context of an overspeed their stick actions make sense. But it's not that simple. The Airbus flight controls don't' talk to each other. The left seater can't tell what the right seater was doing. One of them pulled the stick back all the way and kept it there. I read somewhere, forgot where, that the other pilot did the opposite at the same time. Sorry, no citation for that one. Go look for it yourself.
The crew was confused and even panicked for many minutes. They were passengers in an airplane that was perhaps too smart for it's own good.
1. Did they not see the altimeter unwinding?
2. Did they not see the artificial horizon showing more blue than black?
3. Did they not see the variometer showing a high sink rate?
4. Did the airplane hide / misrepresent reality? Or did the crew just completely ignore what the above instruments were showing?
I hate to pull this card, but have you flown? Have you soloed? Have you felt how an airplane shakes as you near a stall? In a small airplane you can even hear how the sound of the whoosh of the air over the wing changes as you approach a stall. The controls get all mushy. Pity, that AF 447's crew couldn't feel the stick go slack on them as they stalled. Or maybe their training was so lacking that they'd also ignore *that* sign. All I have is a few hours, a few solos and a few landings in a rope-and-pulley Cessna -- but that gives me a fair idea of how it feels to fly an honest airplane. I can't even imagine how it must feel (not feel?) to hand-fly something as fast and heavy as an airliner *with no stick feedback!*
As for the Paris Lawnmower, I'd like to think an airplane which would've done what the control inputs asked for would've flown out of that mess. You keep looking away from the fact that Airbus' FEP has screwed more than a few pilots over.
You think Airbus is innocent, I think their design philosophy is presumptuous.
That's why I said and highlighted "erroneous" in my second post.
From the first scraps of info that I heard on this flight when it happened, my first thought, and that of an aviation geek friend, was "Don't they teach basic stall recovery? Don't they teach cross-referencing airspeed vs. altitude?"
Did you read the article I quoted? They flew the airplane all the way to the floor in a stall. Every time they pushed the nose down the stall horn started. Every time they (erroneously) pulled *UP*, it silenced. Absent any visual cues and without cross-referencing instruments, they thought they were making things better by maintaining that attitude.
The point I was trying to make is, if the FEP would've allowed the stall horn to sound when at that high alpha, MAYBE they would've kept pushing the nose down, horn be damned, and fly the plane out of the stall. The FEP, to me, was not the cause but definitely a huge contributor.
How about this one? I jokingly call this one the Paris Lawnmower. Airbus A320, during a demo at the Paris Airshow. You know, home court. FEP again got in the way, the pilot asked for more power and up elevator, the computer told him to get bent.
The crew applied full power and the pilot attempted to climb. However, the elevators did not respond to the pilot's commands, because the A320 computer system engaged its 'alpha protection' mode (meant to prevent the aircraft entering a stall.) Less than five seconds later, the turbines began ingesting leaves and branches as the aircraft skimmed the tops of the trees. The combustion chambers clogged up and the engines failed. The aircraft fell to the ground.[2]
There was a theory floated by some that Airbus messed with the FDR data and threw the pilot under the bus. Airbus denies this. We'll never truly know.
And I should know better than to take your flamebait, but here you go: I'm not just a fan of Boeing, I'm a fan of most airplanes out there, old and new, little and big, from many eras, from many makers. Aviation is one of humanity's most useful, influential and coolest achivements. The DC-3 transformed America, The Jet Age (on the wings of the 707 and DC-8) truly transformed the world.
Wanting to have a pilot have the ultimate say is why I'm not too keen on pilotless aircraft under the current state of the art.
AF 447 would've had a better chance if the idiotic Airbus un-overridable Flight Envelope Protection had not silenced the stall horn when the aircraft exceeded what the FEP thought was a valid angle of attack.
The high angle of attack *was* valid, it was reality, it was happening, and whenever the pilots would push the nose down to correct the stall, the stall horn would come on again, so they would pull the nose up again. Which *erroneously* silenced the alarm.
The stall warnings stopped, as all airspeed indications were now considered invalid by the aircraft's computer due to the high angle of attack.[27] In other words, the aircraft was oriented nose-up but descending steeply. Roughly 20 seconds later, at 02:12 UTC, the pilot decreased the aircraft's pitch slightly, airspeed indications became valid and the stall warning sounded again and sounded intermittently for the remaining duration of the flight, but stopped when the pilot increased the aircraft's nose-up pitch. From there until the end of the flight, the angle of attack never dropped below 35 degrees.
You see the problem there? The plane thought for the pilot, and it thought wrong.
FWIW, Boeing's FEP can be completely over-ridden, but not Airbus'. Even with all the benefits of FEP, I think the pilot should always have final say.
Let's see, what could possibly go wrong with entrusting the keeping of the nation's confidence to a CEO that pretty much steered HP right into the iceberg.
No. Just.. no. NO fucking way.
The only way I'd accept this is if she outsources Congress to a call center in India. They can't do any worse than the locals!
I'll miss the show as it exists now, and not just because of the cars and the trips and the stunts - I'll miss it because Top Gear UK isn't afraid to call a manufacturer out on a bad car. That's something the US version can't, and won't do -- because in the US, you don't badmouth the very people who give you money in exchange for advertising on your show / magazine.
It was good while it lasted, and it's remarkable it lasted this long.
I did go to Lowes, and Target, and even the hated Walmart - none of them had what I was looking for, so yeah, Amazon had it.
For truly big-ticket items such as washers, dryers, etc - that I would buy at a local store. But vacuums, wine fridges, etc? Amazon. The local selection of those two items, for example, is thin to none. Each store carries the same crap bottom-end vaccums and dyson hi-end, nothing in between. Amazon had the in-between. Wine fridge? None locally. I called. I perused web pages. "Online only." So I did! Just not at that particular store's site.
The last two appliances I bought at local stores were a coffemaker and a toaster. Oh and some power tools from home depot.
It's telling that selection is narrower and inventory much lower than it was 10 years ago. The big-boxes are feeling pain.
Retail is dead anyway, but the brainless corpse hasn't quite gotten the message yet.
I miss the day of the independent hardware store, grocer, pharmacy, camera shop,hi-fi store, etc. The first wave of crushing those small businesses came in the 70's - 80's in the form of malls. Many independents went to the malls and survived. Those who refused, well -- I've seen entire city blocks of shops and cinemas close due to the malls. (Santurce, Puerto Rico, for example, lost I'd say over 90% of its cinemas and retail stores, all due to one mall.)
During the 90's big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart, etc. came and shredded what was left. Now malls are populated by franchise chains, not independents - and the malls themselves are a dying breed in the US.
So what do I think of Amazon and other e-tailers? I love it. Shopping for some things such as shoes and clothing can be a bit difficult, but for other goods such as music, blurays, books, parts, etc -- I don't even bother going to a mall, what with the crowds and stupid, ignorant sales staff. With Prime and a few dollars i have to wait only a day. Surely I can do that! Maybe not 20 years ago, but now I have the patience.
For some of my fringe hobbies I go out of my way to support the small businesses. Like Marshall Street for disc golf, for example - they're a little store in Massachusetts. Or Airline Museum for aircraft die-casts. Or RightStuf for anime. It's not all about Amazon, one can (and should!) give business to small online shops who deserve it!
Amazon is revenge on the big-box stores for wiping out small-time merchants. I don't think it set out to be that, but every time I see a walmart close I grin a little. I resented it when they popped up, and now I don't mind seeing them go.
I've even bought a few appliances from Amazon, without showrooming. Careful reading of descriptions and in-depth studying of reviews help to offset losing the ability to hold the object in your hand prior to purchase. So far I'm happy with my online appliance purchases.
It would be deliciously ironic if there's a renaissance of the small independent shop away from a mall. I'd love to see that. But then I'd love to see things made in the country of purchase again (USA for me) but that's, for now, just a dream.
Retail is dead, it shot itself in the head years ago. Good riddance.
LIK = Logitech Illuminated Keyboard. (that's what they themselves call it, LIK)
Scissor-action, good feedback with minimal noise, key dip is about halfway between a laptop and a model M IBM. Adjustable backlit keys.
I have two, one for work one for home. Both were bought 2007 from local retailers. Trouble is, both initial purchases (from two different stores) had keys that would fail to strike about 20% of the time, so back to the retailers both went.
The replacements have been good. Still using both daily.
you guys still don't get it. the point is the government is a place of power over the entire population. they control everything, each citizen and every business.
You got that backwards. Business puts people friendly to their businesses in power. Business tell gov't what to do, with money and favors.
Cree for the higher lumen stuff, and Ikea (dunno who makes theirs) for the 200-lumen stuff.
Both the Cree and Ikeas I get are 2700k, and trust me on this.. I was a huge tungsten snob, it's all about the color temperature.. I bought the LED lie hook line and sinker.
All of mine are opaque (soft white) and when they're in the fixtures, they're indistinguishable from the tungsten.
My power draw for my lighting (all-up) was around 550 watts. Now it's around 56. (both figures calculated by totting up all the wattage from all the fixtures)
There's also a knock-on effect, the LEDs run so much cooler I suspect the AC runs less. Maybe not a lot less, but any less is welcome.
The only thing I haven't LED-ified is the home cinema, due to the lighting requirements there it's all MR-16 mostly 10* 20w spots on a dimmer, rarely run them brighter than 50%. For now I refuse to give these up.
Oh the bathroom is also still tungsten. Four huge 25w globes. These new filament-type LED may just the thing to LED-ify the bathroom.
And yes.. I've also noticed a lack of bug-attraction with LED, as evidenced by the two 1000-lumen LED monsters in the garage. Barely any bugs wander in. A moth maybe. A bee, once. But nothing near the bugstorm induced by my very brief fling with CFL. Very brief. Like 2 days. I hate them. Hate hate hate!
Anyone join me in a virtual toast? My glass has an old Scotch in it. We'll raise and clink glasses, and echo Kirk's toast.. all those years ago.. 1984, wasn't it?
Anybody else work in IT and is starting to get depressed?
Starting to? Been going on for a while, for me. But it isn't the computers nor the internet which are rotting away it's the companies behind it all -- and the Governments which the companies run!
How to get out of this mess? I fear the only way is to go off the grid as much as possible.
Or a global revolution, and not the it's-morning-in-america-hold-hands-sing-kumbaya good-hearted revolution, I'm talking pitchforks, torches and worse, far worse.
It's gotten to where I just don't read the news much anymore, and i think the last time i purposely turned my tuner to CNN was the 2008 elections.
Now, everytime I go in the break room and CNN is on, I immediately flip it to Science or History. Maybe someone will learn something useful or interesting from How it's Made while they get their coffee.
..When I hear this, what my brain sends back to me is "We just struck a deal with Apple and Google to let them have our way into your phones whenever we want."
On the one hand, it is a majestic airplane, with a good ride, and enough room in it to do whatever you want with it. Flying White House, Flying Pentagon, both been done forever. NEACP (Kneecap, or "Gordo") is another favorite 747 of mine.
On the other hand, the 747 was the airplane that killed Pan Am, and therefore I resent it a bit. True, Trippe went completely bonkers and bought too many too soon -- Pan Am would've been better served by updating its extensive fleet of 707 instead -- but the 747 was more airplane than the world needed then.. and maybe even now. 747 was Pan Am jumping the shark.
And that brings me to the point of this post: While the 747 in Air Force One colors is really nice, no airplane wears that paintjob better than the 707 did. Especially with the check in the tail, which the 747 lacks.
The new one better have a polished underbelly and a blue and silver check in the tail, just like the original Loewy design for Air Force One when it was a 707.
I can't think of a better airplane than the 747 for Air Force One. a 777 doesn't have the cubic footage, the 787 is even smaller. And a civilianized C5 would just be wrong, just plane wrong. As for Airbus, Air France 447 and the one that crashed during the Paris Air Show have left me with a bit of disdain for their particular style of fly-by-wire. I don't think Boeing's take on FBW is as demented. I'd rather fly in a beat-up smokey Super 80 than in any Airbus.
But I really like what Mini, Jag and some others (lambo?) are doing -- they replicate the *pop* you sometimes got out of hi-strung carburetted cars when you let up on the gas. This pop was made by a bit of unburnt gas going into the pipes when the throttle plates would snap shut.
The modern version just randomly squirts a bit of gas into the exhaust to make the pop artificially when you let up the gas. And I'm totally cool with this. In my mini it's selectable by sport mode. I love this feature. It reminds me of old sports cars.
Mine's a polite little pop or two. The F-Type jag sounds like a machinegun, and the Aventador I heard the other day had so many pops on upshift that it could've been confused with an mg-42.
All artificial, but not piped in through the stereo. A joy to hear in a garage or a tunnel.
Digital pianos do this too -- they replicate (or for lesser pianos, sample) artifacts of real pianos. Because people found out that a perfectly tuned piano with no mechanical noises is boring.
See, before the interwebs and computers, there was no mechanism to tap into an entire country's phone systems.
Didn't the English have a room in London where *every*single*wire* coming into the country went through? Weren't they reading each and every cablegram coming in and going out?
That was in WWI.
Yes, technology advances make it exponentially easier now, but don't for a second think that en-masse wiretapping is a new thing enabled by the Interwebz.
Slashdot Mirror
I did read other sources. I talk to people who read other sources. Enough to know Airbus hides info from pilots -- critical info such as pitch trim, throttles that don't move as autothrottle adjusts power, and provides no tactile feedback to the stick. Airbus isn't a seat-of-the-pants airplane, you almost have to think like a passenger, not a pilot. That's what I got from reading other sources. Was that the conclusion you hoped I gave you? No? Oh well -- that's the conclusion I reached over the years of this accident being known, as well as other Airbus incidents involving their computers.
I cite Wiki because they have a fairly consice and correct account -- despite your objections and claims of rollbacks and edits.
On AF 447 BEA blamed training, cockpit ergonomics and incorrect procedure. They didn't even mention the role FEP had. It seems the French authorities like to shield Airbus from responsibility and scrutiny.
Here's something Wiki doesn't mention but other sources do: The AF 447 pilots thought they were in an overspeed, not stall. They mis-interpreted stall buffeting as a sign of overspeed. In the context of an overspeed their stick actions make sense. But it's not that simple. The Airbus flight controls don't' talk to each other. The left seater can't tell what the right seater was doing. One of them pulled the stick back all the way and kept it there. I read somewhere, forgot where, that the other pilot did the opposite at the same time. Sorry, no citation for that one. Go look for it yourself.
The crew was confused and even panicked for many minutes. They were passengers in an airplane that was perhaps too smart for it's own good.
1. Did they not see the altimeter unwinding?
2. Did they not see the artificial horizon showing more blue than black?
3. Did they not see the variometer showing a high sink rate?
4. Did the airplane hide / misrepresent reality? Or did the crew just completely ignore what the above instruments were showing?
I hate to pull this card, but have you flown? Have you soloed? Have you felt how an airplane shakes as you near a stall? In a small airplane you can even hear how the sound of the whoosh of the air over the wing changes as you approach a stall. The controls get all mushy. Pity, that AF 447's crew couldn't feel the stick go slack on them as they stalled. Or maybe their training was so lacking that they'd also ignore *that* sign. All I have is a few hours, a few solos and a few landings in a rope-and-pulley Cessna -- but that gives me a fair idea of how it feels to fly an honest airplane. I can't even imagine how it must feel (not feel?) to hand-fly something as fast and heavy as an airliner *with no stick feedback!*
As for the Paris Lawnmower, I'd like to think an airplane which would've done what the control inputs asked for would've flown out of that mess. You keep looking away from the fact that Airbus' FEP has screwed more than a few pilots over.
You think Airbus is innocent, I think their design philosophy is presumptuous.
That's why I said and highlighted "erroneous" in my second post.
From the first scraps of info that I heard on this flight when it happened, my first thought, and that of an aviation geek friend, was "Don't they teach basic stall recovery? Don't they teach cross-referencing airspeed vs. altitude?"
Did you read the article I quoted? They flew the airplane all the way to the floor in a stall. Every time they pushed the nose down the stall horn started. Every time they (erroneously) pulled *UP*, it silenced. Absent any visual cues and without cross-referencing instruments, they thought they were making things better by maintaining that attitude.
The point I was trying to make is, if the FEP would've allowed the stall horn to sound when at that high alpha, MAYBE they would've kept pushing the nose down, horn be damned, and fly the plane out of the stall. The FEP, to me, was not the cause but definitely a huge contributor.
How about this one? I jokingly call this one the Paris Lawnmower. Airbus A320, during a demo at the Paris Airshow. You know, home court. FEP again got in the way, the pilot asked for more power and up elevator, the computer told him to get bent.
The crew applied full power and the pilot attempted to climb. However, the elevators did not respond to the pilot's commands, because the A320 computer system engaged its 'alpha protection' mode (meant to prevent the aircraft entering a stall.) Less than five seconds later, the turbines began ingesting leaves and branches as the aircraft skimmed the tops of the trees. The combustion chambers clogged up and the engines failed. The aircraft fell to the ground.[2]
There was a theory floated by some that Airbus messed with the FDR data and threw the pilot under the bus. Airbus denies this. We'll never truly know.
And I should know better than to take your flamebait, but here you go: I'm not just a fan of Boeing, I'm a fan of most airplanes out there, old and new, little and big, from many eras, from many makers. Aviation is one of humanity's most useful, influential and coolest achivements. The DC-3 transformed America, The Jet Age (on the wings of the 707 and DC-8) truly transformed the world.
Wanting to have a pilot have the ultimate say is why I'm not too keen on pilotless aircraft under the current state of the art.
AF 447 would've had a better chance if the idiotic Airbus un-overridable Flight Envelope Protection had not silenced the stall horn when the aircraft exceeded what the FEP thought was a valid angle of attack.
The high angle of attack *was* valid, it was reality, it was happening, and whenever the pilots would push the nose down to correct the stall, the stall horn would come on again, so they would pull the nose up again. Which *erroneously* silenced the alarm.
From the Wikipedia article:
The stall warnings stopped, as all airspeed indications were now considered invalid by the aircraft's computer due to the high angle of attack.[27] In other words, the aircraft was oriented nose-up but descending steeply. Roughly 20 seconds later, at 02:12 UTC, the pilot decreased the aircraft's pitch slightly, airspeed indications became valid and the stall warning sounded again and sounded intermittently for the remaining duration of the flight, but stopped when the pilot increased the aircraft's nose-up pitch. From there until the end of the flight, the angle of attack never dropped below 35 degrees.
You see the problem there? The plane thought for the pilot, and it thought wrong.
FWIW, Boeing's FEP can be completely over-ridden, but not Airbus'. Even with all the benefits of FEP, I think the pilot should always have final say.
OMG Ponies was the best /. prank ever! I kinda wish they made it a selectable option!
Hard to believe that shit was 9 years ago.. x.x
Let's see, what could possibly go wrong with entrusting the keeping of the nation's confidence to a CEO that pretty much steered HP right into the iceberg.
No. Just.. no. NO fucking way.
The only way I'd accept this is if she outsources Congress to a call center in India. They can't do any worse than the locals!
I'll miss the show as it exists now, and not just because of the cars and the trips and the stunts - I'll miss it because Top Gear UK isn't afraid to call a manufacturer out on a bad car. That's something the US version can't, and won't do -- because in the US, you don't badmouth the very people who give you money in exchange for advertising on your show / magazine.
It was good while it lasted, and it's remarkable it lasted this long.
in BOFH speak, from a couple of decades ago.
What is old is new again?
I did go to Lowes, and Target, and even the hated Walmart - none of them had what I was looking for, so yeah, Amazon had it.
For truly big-ticket items such as washers, dryers, etc - that I would buy at a local store. But vacuums, wine fridges, etc? Amazon. The local selection of those two items, for example, is thin to none. Each store carries the same crap bottom-end vaccums and dyson hi-end, nothing in between. Amazon had the in-between. Wine fridge? None locally. I called. I perused web pages. "Online only." So I did! Just not at that particular store's site.
The last two appliances I bought at local stores were a coffemaker and a toaster. Oh and some power tools from home depot.
It's telling that selection is narrower and inventory much lower than it was 10 years ago. The big-boxes are feeling pain.
Retail is dead anyway, but the brainless corpse hasn't quite gotten the message yet.
I miss the day of the independent hardware store, grocer, pharmacy, camera shop,hi-fi store, etc. The first wave of crushing those small businesses came in the 70's - 80's in the form of malls. Many independents went to the malls and survived. Those who refused, well -- I've seen entire city blocks of shops and cinemas close due to the malls. (Santurce, Puerto Rico, for example, lost I'd say over 90% of its cinemas and retail stores, all due to one mall.)
During the 90's big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart, etc. came and shredded what was left. Now malls are populated by franchise chains, not independents - and the malls themselves are a dying breed in the US.
So what do I think of Amazon and other e-tailers? I love it. Shopping for some things such as shoes and clothing can be a bit difficult, but for other goods such as music, blurays, books, parts, etc -- I don't even bother going to a mall, what with the crowds and stupid, ignorant sales staff. With Prime and a few dollars i have to wait only a day. Surely I can do that! Maybe not 20 years ago, but now I have the patience.
For some of my fringe hobbies I go out of my way to support the small businesses. Like Marshall Street for disc golf, for example - they're a little store in Massachusetts. Or Airline Museum for aircraft die-casts. Or RightStuf for anime. It's not all about Amazon, one can (and should!) give business to small online shops who deserve it!
Amazon is revenge on the big-box stores for wiping out small-time merchants. I don't think it set out to be that, but every time I see a walmart close I grin a little. I resented it when they popped up, and now I don't mind seeing them go.
I've even bought a few appliances from Amazon, without showrooming. Careful reading of descriptions and in-depth studying of reviews help to offset losing the ability to hold the object in your hand prior to purchase. So far I'm happy with my online appliance purchases.
It would be deliciously ironic if there's a renaissance of the small independent shop away from a mall. I'd love to see that. But then I'd love to see things made in the country of purchase again (USA for me) but that's, for now, just a dream.
Retail is dead, it shot itself in the head years ago. Good riddance.
LIK = Logitech Illuminated Keyboard. (that's what they themselves call it, LIK)
Scissor-action, good feedback with minimal noise, key dip is about halfway between a laptop and a model M IBM. Adjustable backlit keys.
I have two, one for work one for home. Both were bought 2007 from local retailers. Trouble is, both initial purchases (from two different stores) had keys that would fail to strike about 20% of the time, so back to the retailers both went.
The replacements have been good. Still using both daily.
you guys still don't get it. the point is the government is a place of power over the entire population. they control everything, each citizen and every business.
You got that backwards. Business puts people friendly to their businesses in power. Business tell gov't what to do, with money and favors.
Cree for the higher lumen stuff, and Ikea (dunno who makes theirs) for the 200-lumen stuff.
Both the Cree and Ikeas I get are 2700k, and trust me on this.. I was a huge tungsten snob, it's all about the color temperature.. I bought the LED lie hook line and sinker.
All of mine are opaque (soft white) and when they're in the fixtures, they're indistinguishable from the tungsten.
My power draw for my lighting (all-up) was around 550 watts. Now it's around 56. (both figures calculated by totting up all the wattage from all the fixtures)
There's also a knock-on effect, the LEDs run so much cooler I suspect the AC runs less. Maybe not a lot less, but any less is welcome.
The only thing I haven't LED-ified is the home cinema, due to the lighting requirements there it's all MR-16 mostly 10* 20w spots on a dimmer, rarely run them brighter than 50%. For now I refuse to give these up.
Oh the bathroom is also still tungsten. Four huge 25w globes. These new filament-type LED may just the thing to LED-ify the bathroom.
And yes.. I've also noticed a lack of bug-attraction with LED, as evidenced by the two 1000-lumen LED monsters in the garage. Barely any bugs wander in. A moth maybe. A bee, once. But nothing near the bugstorm induced by my very brief fling with CFL. Very brief. Like 2 days. I hate them. Hate hate hate!
LED FTW
It would be a waste of ink and paint. Good cartoons do require the viewer have *some* brainpower and *some* willingness to learn / embrace new things.
Now, if we expose them to 24x7 Barney, their collective heads would surely implode!
Anyone join me in a virtual toast? My glass has an old Scotch in it. We'll raise and clink glasses, and echo Kirk's toast.. all those years ago.. 1984, wasn't it?
To Absent Friends.
I know you're probably going for Funny (which it is!) but sadly chopping fingers off to fool biometrics has been done before.
Problem with using the machete technique on the iPhone is that it requires a live body.
Anybody else work in IT and is starting to get depressed?
Starting to? Been going on for a while, for me. But it isn't the computers nor the internet which are rotting away it's the companies behind it all -- and the Governments which the companies run!
How to get out of this mess? I fear the only way is to go off the grid as much as possible.
Or a global revolution, and not the it's-morning-in-america-hold-hands-sing-kumbaya good-hearted revolution, I'm talking pitchforks, torches and worse, far worse.
It's gotten to where I just don't read the news much anymore, and i think the last time i purposely turned my tuner to CNN was the 2008 elections.
Now, everytime I go in the break room and CNN is on, I immediately flip it to Science or History. Maybe someone will learn something useful or interesting from How it's Made while they get their coffee.
..When I hear this, what my brain sends back to me is "We just struck a deal with Apple and Google to let them have our way into your phones whenever we want."
..but I feel a twinge of nostalgia on hearing this. I cobbled more than a few hi-fi experiments using parts sourced from rat shack in the 80's.
Still have an Archer SWR meter. And a Micronta multimeter I strongly suspect is a Fluke in a different dress.
Oh well. Fare the well, Rat Shack.. you failed at adapting to a world without buggy whips.
On the one hand, it is a majestic airplane, with a good ride, and enough room in it to do whatever you want with it. Flying White House, Flying Pentagon, both been done forever. NEACP (Kneecap, or "Gordo") is another favorite 747 of mine.
On the other hand, the 747 was the airplane that killed Pan Am, and therefore I resent it a bit. True, Trippe went completely bonkers and bought too many too soon -- Pan Am would've been better served by updating its extensive fleet of 707 instead -- but the 747 was more airplane than the world needed then.. and maybe even now. 747 was Pan Am jumping the shark.
And that brings me to the point of this post: While the 747 in Air Force One colors is really nice, no airplane wears that paintjob better than the 707 did. Especially with the check in the tail, which the 747 lacks.
The new one better have a polished underbelly and a blue and silver check in the tail, just like the original Loewy design for Air Force One when it was a 707.
I can't think of a better airplane than the 747 for Air Force One. a 777 doesn't have the cubic footage, the 787 is even smaller. And a civilianized C5 would just be wrong, just plane wrong. As for Airbus, Air France 447 and the one that crashed during the Paris Air Show have left me with a bit of disdain for their particular style of fly-by-wire. I don't think Boeing's take on FBW is as demented. I'd rather fly in a beat-up smokey Super 80 than in any Airbus.
"Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!"
But I really like what Mini, Jag and some others (lambo?) are doing -- they replicate the *pop* you sometimes got out of hi-strung carburetted cars when you let up on the gas. This pop was made by a bit of unburnt gas going into the pipes when the throttle plates would snap shut.
The modern version just randomly squirts a bit of gas into the exhaust to make the pop artificially when you let up the gas. And I'm totally cool with this. In my mini it's selectable by sport mode. I love this feature. It reminds me of old sports cars.
Mine's a polite little pop or two. The F-Type jag sounds like a machinegun, and the Aventador I heard the other day had so many pops on upshift that it could've been confused with an mg-42.
All artificial, but not piped in through the stereo. A joy to hear in a garage or a tunnel.
Digital pianos do this too -- they replicate (or for lesser pianos, sample) artifacts of real pianos. Because people found out that a perfectly tuned piano with no mechanical noises is boring.
Have you?
Do it. Now. Don't give robocallers / wildly inaccurate collection agencies an inch.
Who cares? Is Dice taking slashvertisement money from IBM now?
Whores will gladly accept money from anyone -- especially staid old companies looking for one last fling before The Inevitable comes and claims them.
See, before the interwebs and computers, there was no mechanism to tap into an entire country's phone systems.
Didn't the English have a room in London where *every*single*wire* coming into the country went through? Weren't they reading each and every cablegram coming in and going out?
That was in WWI.
Yes, technology advances make it exponentially easier now, but don't for a second think that en-masse wiretapping is a new thing enabled by the Interwebz.