Most large aircraft have a tiller, or small wheel that handles nose-wheel steering.
Some aircraft have dual-controls for both pilots, and a few only have a tiller on the Captain's side, requiring the Captain to deal with all ground steering even if the First Officer made the landing.
It also adds a checklist item, if the Captain is incapacitated for some reason, the FO has to get the Captain out of his seat and moved to a safe place so he can switch seats with him/her.
Whatever. If it's truly your "internet addiction" making you miserable, turn the fucking computer off, take the computer outside and leave it on the curb. Cancel the DSL/Cable and move on.
The point is, your comment was elitist and you WERE treating the original poster like shit. Look in the mirror.
I don't have contempt for you or mankind. Since this is only Slashdot, an online website that's pretty much useless for real human interaction I may have a bit of an "I don't give a fuck" attitude when posting on here, but no contempt was conveyed or implied.
It's popular to say "don't be an elitist" these days in large public forums like Slashdot, but the people that actually get shit done ARE elite, whether the masses like it or not.
Only a few people make the decisions to launch Mars missions at NASA, only a few people decide whether to merge large American corporations, only a few people make more than 10 million a year.
Elitism goes hand in hand with our society and capitalism, for better or worse.
Acting like an asshole wile truly being elite is also something our society does, and I agree with you -- that's not appropriate. But going by the definition of elite, there are some damn elite people who also interact with others below their level just fine.
My comment to you was meant as a life-lesson... by crying that people shouldn't be "elite" you're just adding to the pool of people who think everything should be handed to them.
Don't encourage them... if they want something they need to go out and work to get it. Not wait around for someone to be "nice" to them.
The sooner one figures this out in life, the sooner one realizes they're in control of their own destiny.
I got a kick out of your stereotypes, though. I'm actually a normal guy, drive a Jeep, enjoy off-roading with it, am a private pilot, and also like to build or work on tower sites in the backcountry to keep 2-way radio systems running for communications. For my day job I monitor and maintain telecommunications gear.
I have just about zero feelings of "overwhelming insecurity"... you might want to see if you're projecting that one onto others from yourself? I hope not, but hey... it happens... Psychology 101.
Anyway, sorry to evoke such an emotional response from you -- but mediocrity sucks and people who won't or can't take the time to figure things out on their own tend to whine and bitch about others being "elitists", using up all the spare time they had to fix it with whining and bitching. Personally I'm tired of seeing America in this morass of bitching people who won't work hard to fix whatever their problems are.
I'm not saying that's YOU, but I am saying you shouldn't encourage them. You took the reply too personally.
Your comments only apply to air carriers and some well-funded freight operators. Not everyone has TCAS, not everyone has modern equipment, even in the commercial world. And some aircraft are simply too inexpensive in and of themselves to justify adding the things you've mentioned above.
He was talking about flying his own aircraft, most of which don't have:
-> co-pilot (unless you have a buddy who likes to fly with you)
-> virtually no commercial airplanes have a "navigator" anymore (two-pilot cockpits have been all the rage for at least a decade now)
-> at uncontrolled airports you're not even required to carry a radio, let alone talk to "ground control"
-> no "warning" equipment for proximity even the ground other than an altimiter, let alone expensive equipment like TCAS for warning about other nearby aircraft
Additionally:
-> You're NOT required to file a flight plan of any kind VFR.
-> ALL airplanes get within a mile of each other at this really neat place called... wait for it... the airport.
You're talking about things you know nothing about. But we certainly would enjoy it if you came out and flew with us... http://www.beapilot.com/ is a good way to start.
Just keep telling yourself that in the terminal areas you're not susceptible to other idiots flying airplanes. Perhaps you'll believe it.
The reality is that there ARE other bad pilots (and lots of them, I've met a few) out there and they're all near the airports when they do stupid things to kill YOU.
Keep your head on a swivel like you always really do (if you're honest with how you fly safely) and drop the false "there's no way another dangerous/stupid person could hurt me while I'm flying" schtick.
Ever look at the runway incursion statistics and what direction they're trending at airports without ground controllers and ground control radar? Head over to ASRS sometime and just query for your favorite local airport to find reams of stupid dangerous things your fellow aviators have already 'fessed up to.
Be paranoid. They ARE out to get you.;-)
Fly safely, and watch out for those same people driving the SUV's... they have enough money to fly distracted too.
If the opposite is acting like a self-effacing, fall-in-line, nice guy... I'd rather take the parent poster's road.
Enjoy the lowest common denominator - you deserve it. Mediocrity is where you are and where you're headed. Don't bother with the seat belt, it's a pretty bland tasteless ride.
I guess I'm just idealistic -- I'd like to think that we have more power than we ever truly exercise as "the masses" because we're too busy/dense/whatever to organize just a little bit more. We're also kept "just happy enough" not to say anything about things like Iridium bailouts. Paying for roads and bridges - sure. Paying for Iridium? Iffy. But you (and I) let it slide because we assume someone's really looking out for our better interests. Of course, they're not... they're looking out for their own interests, just like most (if not all) humans.
There's no reason we can't demand to not have to pay for the billionaire boy's club's toys. We just don't.
I agree with your analysis of history, but I hope for a day where we at least SAY something while we're getting bent over on bailing out Corporate America.
As far as Regan-omics goes... I'm not going to go there really... just a comment or two: Largest deficits EVER (well at least until THIS particular supposedly-"conservative" took office), huge military buildup that ended the Cold War but at a huge cost. (Luckily we won, let's not attempt the same tactic with China or we're thouroughly screwed.)
From personal experience, my middle-class family was never poorer ever -- than we were under Regan and the recession in the early 1980's. Lots of macaroni and cheese dinners back then. Would prefer a better fiscal plan than that going forward, thanks!
It especially cracks me up that every so-called conservative since Nixon has effectively raised taxes by running the country into huge debt and then expecting the next Democrat to foot the bill later on with tax increases. Great plan if you can pull it off! What a marketing coup to call that "conservatism"! Amazing, really.
But that's a discussion for another day.;-)
Thanks for the good discussion -- a couple of sub-six-digit slashdotters actually having a real discussion -- they're getting rare around here!
A non-profit called Edge of Space Sciences has been doing this locally for over a decade.
They actually have great video of lots of flights, they have their payloads nailed down to designs that work and are practical, and they've been involved with helping University students all over the U.S. fly payloads for their aerospace engineering students.
Almost every major city has a high-altitude ballooning club similar to EOSS already.
This isn't news.
Reading about a bunch of guys strugging through dumb stuff they could have by-passed by asking some intelligent questions on a couple of ballooning mailing lists isn't interesting at all, other than the "let's enjoy this train wreck" factor.
If they were discovering something new about high-altitude weather ballooning, perhaps it would be worthy of a front-page post.
I understand your argument that this may have been a bad example, but I think not.
Look at who benefited the most - the largest customer of Iridium (by far) is the US Government.
So... the US Government bails out Iridium, ultimately somewhere at taxpayer expense, and then becomes the primary user of the constellation. The founders run away with millions in golden parachutes, and someone winks and nods and says "thank you" over a glass of Scotch and dinner.
You're arguing that it's a "useful piece of technological infrastructure". Perhaps. How many times have you used Iridium this year?
Would it still be useful to you if you had to pay the TRUE cost of using it, or is it a nicely subsidized toy paid for by those of us who do NOT use it?
I personally have used Iridium once, and didn't need it. I was north of the Artic Circle at a fishing camp, and one of the guys forced us to rent a phone. Meanwhile, every other night that week we esaily made telephone patches through an amateur radio and a wire antenna strung in the trees behind the cabin. One was hideously expensive (both directly in per minute operating costs to us and to the taxpayer) the other required about 10 brain cells and a free test, along with a $400 radio and a spool of wire.
Usually such large government-funded "for the betterment of the people" infrastructure improvements ARE payed for by the government indirectly this way in the U.S., and I'm simply questioning whether or not the rest of us really desire to pay for them this way.
Telecommunications infrastructure is similar -- sure it was all put in by private companies pre-deregulation but they were hugely government-subsidized.
I have friends who now own ex-AT&T microwave facilities that are radiation shelters, blast-hardened behemoths who paid pennies on the dollar for them because they're no longer useful to Uncle Sam and the overall telecommunications industry. They're in odd locations and while some good use is coming from them, can we ever really get back the amount of money they was poured into them out of our own pockets? Were they worth it at the time? Those are important historical questions to learn from when looking at yet another bailout like Iridium.
By examining an older "neat infrastructure" paid for by taxpayers, we can determine the future course of Iridium... it's still going to be space junk someday -- we just need a measuring stick to determine if the constellation was ever worth the COMPLETE costs through it's lifespan to know if the government subsidy and our paying for it was truly worth the costs.
Looking at AT&T's business numbers today, even after selling off all these cold war assets, they're still swimming in red ink, and their child just purchased them. It's a hard comparison since deregulation is also thrown into that mix, but it's obvious AT&T pre-deregulation couldn't pay for itself in any way other than innovation at AT&T Labs. They used the false profits to continue to extend state of the art. Iridium is a closed system and there's no side-benefits like the overall land-based telecommunications industry, so perhaps there's an argument there that Iridium being "disposable" is even worse an investment in the future than investing in a government-funded land-based infrastructure was 20 years ago.
It's all very interesting. We'll never figure it out. The people making millions off of all of it certainly aren't going to publicize the true ways they get paid.
Iridium got the "Bankruptcy Carwash" so many American businesses get. File bankruptcy, start under a new name, and continue as if the business plan wasn't totally fucked from the beginning. Oh yeah, and send the CEO packing with a golden parachute so he's not inconvienienced by his fuckups. That wouldn't be civil.
Individuals never could do this as easy as businesses can, and now our elected officials have made that even harder. Why not at least level the playing field and require businesses to pay back their debts just like individuals are now required to? Because that "wouldn't be good for business".
We're all paying for Iridium, we just don't want to admit it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm addicted to my daily routine.
Most large aircraft have a tiller, or small wheel that handles nose-wheel steering.
Some aircraft have dual-controls for both pilots, and a few only have a tiller on the Captain's side, requiring the Captain to deal with all ground steering even if the First Officer made the landing.
It also adds a checklist item, if the Captain is incapacitated for some reason, the FO has to get the Captain out of his seat and moved to a safe place so he can switch seats with him/her.
Whatever. If it's truly your "internet addiction" making you miserable, turn the fucking computer off, take the computer outside and leave it on the curb. Cancel the DSL/Cable and move on.
Take responsibility for your life.
The point is, your comment was elitist and you WERE treating the original poster like shit. Look in the mirror.
I don't have contempt for you or mankind. Since this is only Slashdot, an online website that's pretty much useless for real human interaction I may have a bit of an "I don't give a fuck" attitude when posting on here, but no contempt was conveyed or implied.
It's popular to say "don't be an elitist" these days in large public forums like Slashdot, but the people that actually get shit done ARE elite, whether the masses like it or not.
Only a few people make the decisions to launch Mars missions at NASA, only a few people decide whether to merge large American corporations, only a few people make more than 10 million a year.
Elitism goes hand in hand with our society and capitalism, for better or worse.
Acting like an asshole wile truly being elite is also something our society does, and I agree with you -- that's not appropriate. But going by the definition of elite, there are some damn elite people who also interact with others below their level just fine.
My comment to you was meant as a life-lesson... by crying that people shouldn't be "elite" you're just adding to the pool of people who think everything should be handed to them.
Don't encourage them... if they want something they need to go out and work to get it. Not wait around for someone to be "nice" to them.
The sooner one figures this out in life, the sooner one realizes they're in control of their own destiny.
I got a kick out of your stereotypes, though. I'm actually a normal guy, drive a Jeep, enjoy off-roading with it, am a private pilot, and also like to build or work on tower sites in the backcountry to keep 2-way radio systems running for communications. For my day job I monitor and maintain telecommunications gear.
I have just about zero feelings of "overwhelming insecurity"... you might want to see if you're projecting that one onto others from yourself? I hope not, but hey... it happens... Psychology 101.
Anyway, sorry to evoke such an emotional response from you -- but mediocrity sucks and people who won't or can't take the time to figure things out on their own tend to whine and bitch about others being "elitists", using up all the spare time they had to fix it with whining and bitching. Personally I'm tired of seeing America in this morass of bitching people who won't work hard to fix whatever their problems are.
I'm not saying that's YOU, but I am saying you shouldn't encourage them. You took the reply too personally.
Your comments only apply to air carriers and some well-funded freight operators. Not everyone has TCAS, not everyone has modern equipment, even in the commercial world. And some aircraft are simply too inexpensive in and of themselves to justify adding the things you've mentioned above.
He was talking about flying his own aircraft, most of which don't have:
-> co-pilot (unless you have a buddy who likes to fly with you)
-> virtually no commercial airplanes have a "navigator" anymore (two-pilot cockpits have been all the rage for at least a decade now)
-> at uncontrolled airports you're not even required to carry a radio, let alone talk to "ground control"
-> no "warning" equipment for proximity even the ground other than an altimiter, let alone expensive equipment like TCAS for warning about other nearby aircraft
Additionally:
-> You're NOT required to file a flight plan of any kind VFR.
-> ALL airplanes get within a mile of each other at this really neat place called... wait for it... the airport.
You're talking about things you know nothing about. But we certainly would enjoy it if you came out and flew with us... http://www.beapilot.com/ is a good way to start.
Just keep telling yourself that in the terminal areas you're not susceptible to other idiots flying airplanes. Perhaps you'll believe it.
;-)
The reality is that there ARE other bad pilots (and lots of them, I've met a few) out there and they're all near the airports when they do stupid things to kill YOU.
Keep your head on a swivel like you always really do (if you're honest with how you fly safely) and drop the false "there's no way another dangerous/stupid person could hurt me while I'm flying" schtick.
Ever look at the runway incursion statistics and what direction they're trending at airports without ground controllers and ground control radar? Head over to ASRS sometime and just query for your favorite local airport to find reams of stupid dangerous things your fellow aviators have already 'fessed up to.
Be paranoid. They ARE out to get you.
Fly safely, and watch out for those same people driving the SUV's... they have enough money to fly distracted too.
If the opposite is acting like a self-effacing, fall-in-line, nice guy... I'd rather take the parent poster's road.
Enjoy the lowest common denominator - you deserve it. Mediocrity is where you are and where you're headed. Don't bother with the seat belt, it's a pretty bland tasteless ride.
Quite a good intelligent response. Thanks.
;-)
I guess I'm just idealistic -- I'd like to think that we have more power than we ever truly exercise as "the masses" because we're too busy/dense/whatever to organize just a little bit more. We're also kept "just happy enough" not to say anything about things like Iridium bailouts. Paying for roads and bridges - sure. Paying for Iridium? Iffy. But you (and I) let it slide because we assume someone's really looking out for our better interests. Of course, they're not... they're looking out for their own interests, just like most (if not all) humans.
There's no reason we can't demand to not have to pay for the billionaire boy's club's toys. We just don't.
I agree with your analysis of history, but I hope for a day where we at least SAY something while we're getting bent over on bailing out Corporate America.
As far as Regan-omics goes... I'm not going to go there really... just a comment or two: Largest deficits EVER (well at least until THIS particular supposedly-"conservative" took office), huge military buildup that ended the Cold War but at a huge cost. (Luckily we won, let's not attempt the same tactic with China or we're thouroughly screwed.)
From personal experience, my middle-class family was never poorer ever -- than we were under Regan and the recession in the early 1980's. Lots of macaroni and cheese dinners back then. Would prefer a better fiscal plan than that going forward, thanks!
It especially cracks me up that every so-called conservative since Nixon has effectively raised taxes by running the country into huge debt and then expecting the next Democrat to foot the bill later on with tax increases. Great plan if you can pull it off! What a marketing coup to call that "conservatism"! Amazing, really.
But that's a discussion for another day.
Thanks for the good discussion -- a couple of sub-six-digit slashdotters actually having a real discussion -- they're getting rare around here!
A non-profit called Edge of Space Sciences has been doing this locally for over a decade.
They actually have great video of lots of flights, they have their payloads nailed down to designs that work and are practical, and they've been involved with helping University students all over the U.S. fly payloads for their aerospace engineering students.
Almost every major city has a high-altitude ballooning club similar to EOSS already.
This isn't news.
Reading about a bunch of guys strugging through dumb stuff they could have by-passed by asking some intelligent questions on a couple of ballooning mailing lists isn't interesting at all, other than the "let's enjoy this train wreck" factor.
If they were discovering something new about high-altitude weather ballooning, perhaps it would be worthy of a front-page post.
I understand your argument that this may have been a bad example, but I think not.
Look at who benefited the most - the largest customer of Iridium (by far) is the US Government.
So... the US Government bails out Iridium, ultimately somewhere at taxpayer expense, and then becomes the primary user of the constellation. The founders run away with millions in golden parachutes, and someone winks and nods and says "thank you" over a glass of Scotch and dinner.
You're arguing that it's a "useful piece of technological infrastructure". Perhaps. How many times have you used Iridium this year?
Would it still be useful to you if you had to pay the TRUE cost of using it, or is it a nicely subsidized toy paid for by those of us who do NOT use it?
I personally have used Iridium once, and didn't need it. I was north of the Artic Circle at a fishing camp, and one of the guys forced us to rent a phone. Meanwhile, every other night that week we esaily made telephone patches through an amateur radio and a wire antenna strung in the trees behind the cabin. One was hideously expensive (both directly in per minute operating costs to us and to the taxpayer) the other required about 10 brain cells and a free test, along with a $400 radio and a spool of wire.
Usually such large government-funded "for the betterment of the people" infrastructure improvements ARE payed for by the government indirectly this way in the U.S., and I'm simply questioning whether or not the rest of us really desire to pay for them this way.
Telecommunications infrastructure is similar -- sure it was all put in by private companies pre-deregulation but they were hugely government-subsidized.
I have friends who now own ex-AT&T microwave facilities that are radiation shelters, blast-hardened behemoths who paid pennies on the dollar for them because they're no longer useful to Uncle Sam and the overall telecommunications industry. They're in odd locations and while some good use is coming from them, can we ever really get back the amount of money they was poured into them out of our own pockets? Were they worth it at the time? Those are important historical questions to learn from when looking at yet another bailout like Iridium.
By examining an older "neat infrastructure" paid for by taxpayers, we can determine the future course of Iridium... it's still going to be space junk someday -- we just need a measuring stick to determine if the constellation was ever worth the COMPLETE costs through it's lifespan to know if the government subsidy and our paying for it was truly worth the costs.
Looking at AT&T's business numbers today, even after selling off all these cold war assets, they're still swimming in red ink, and their child just purchased them. It's a hard comparison since deregulation is also thrown into that mix, but it's obvious AT&T pre-deregulation couldn't pay for itself in any way other than innovation at AT&T Labs. They used the false profits to continue to extend state of the art. Iridium is a closed system and there's no side-benefits like the overall land-based telecommunications industry, so perhaps there's an argument there that Iridium being "disposable" is even worse an investment in the future than investing in a government-funded land-based infrastructure was 20 years ago.
It's all very interesting. We'll never figure it out. The people making millions off of all of it certainly aren't going to publicize the true ways they get paid.
Iridium got the "Bankruptcy Carwash" so many American businesses get. File bankruptcy, start under a new name, and continue as if the business plan wasn't totally fucked from the beginning. Oh yeah, and send the CEO packing with a golden parachute so he's not inconvienienced by his fuckups. That wouldn't be civil.
Individuals never could do this as easy as businesses can, and now our elected officials have made that even harder. Why not at least level the playing field and require businesses to pay back their debts just like individuals are now required to? Because that "wouldn't be good for business".
We're all paying for Iridium, we just don't want to admit it.
And configurable logs that can be configured WITHOUT restarting the parent application are even better.
You can still buy dot-matrix printers from Epson for about $200. Knock yourself out.
Yeah... um... okay.
So just in case I happen to run into the copyright holder who might see my copy of their work in black and white I'll keep that in mind.
Who cares?
It passed. OBD-II is a standard. However additional data beyond OBD-II's spec can still be proprietary.
We'll all enjoy watching the camcorder bounce off your head in turbulence.
Who the hell numbers their trains with six digits?!
Well it's not like the projects are required to accept the patches created by these people. What are you thinking?
At least you got the napkin!
And of course, many of the IPv4 complaints are already addressed with IPv6, but the "market" has genuinely refused to implement it.
How exactly is that different from any "normal" day?
Welcome to the bleeding edge. ;-)
Not only did Henry Ford pay his workers, he paid them much better than the going rate for such jobs at the time.
I think Microsoft needs a cattle prod for their Longhorn, to get it out the door.
Nice to see they're considering adding features added to other OS's 20 years ago, though.
Just buy a blackberry. Leave the toy phones for the kiddies.