Comment Re:A genius has been lost (Score 2) 42
I think Clementine was my favorite, for it showed not just his imagination and humor, but his skill.
I think Clementine was my favorite, for it showed not just his imagination and humor, but his skill.
There is only partial truth to what you say about the software: The modern engines have micro-controllers of their own and that firmware comes from the engine makers. Hardware linkiages are very unlikley to cause a fire. So again, it would be unlikely to be Boeing's fault but more to the point, to say it once again, the fault is most likely to be maintenance performed by the airline.
Trying to blame any manufacturer for a problem on an aircraft built 25 years ago is quite a bit silly. It's flown for a quarter century already.... And by that we mean that specific plane. The first 767 left the factory in 1981.
Boeing does not make engines. In this case GE made them.
However neither are to blame on a 25 year old aircraft unless thye engine just came back from major overhaul which is often done by GE (now GE Aerospace) or a subsidiary. I've seen no indications of this.
Instead the blame goes to the airlines maintenance personnel.Generally speaking Delta is considered world class in this aspect, but when you are one of the largest airlines you will have incidents. Right now the almighty algorithm finds aviation incidents hot and promotes them to peoples feeds.
You missed the part where all pilots were qualified to fly the 737 MAX according to Boeing. Well, Boeing lied.
This cannot be emphasized enough: Boeing lied.
I do not remember all the details right now. But in order to fit a larger engine with enough ground clearance, they had to change its thrust angle slightly. They told the FAA there were no changes that pilots needed to know about or retrain for. They lied, to airlines, to the FAA and to the public. The two crashes were due to pilots not knowing about the changes.
Because I am drunk, this Independence Night,
I watch the fireworks from far away,
from a high hill, across the moony green
Of lakes and other hills to the town harbor,
Where stately illuminations are flung aloft,
One light shattering in a hundred lights
Minute by minute. The reason I am crying,
Aside from only being country drunk,
That is, may be that I have just remembered
The sparklers, rockets, roman candles and
so on, we used to be allowed to buy
When I was a boy, and set off by ourselves
At some peril to life and property.
Our freedom to abuse our freedom thus
Has since, I understand, been remedied
By legislation. Now the authorities
Arrange a perfectly safe public display
To be watched at a distance; and now also
The contribution of all the taxpayers
Together makes a more spectacular
Result than any could achieve alone
(A few pale pinwheels, or a firecracker
Fused at the dog's tail). It is, indeed, splendid:
Showers of roses in the sky, fountains
Of emeralds, and those profusely scattered zircons
Falling and falling, flowering as they fall
And followed distantly by a noise of thunder.
My eyes are half-afloat in happy tears.
God bless our Nation on a night like this,
And bless the careful and secure officials
Who celebrate our independence now.
Rollover protection is part of why A pillars are so much thicker now. The first time I drove one of them, it amazed me how much I had to keep moving my head just to keep track of what was across the intersection.
Good point. I'd never thought of it that way.
The problem you miss is that some of us would rather not even pay for the addled video. Prime didn't change its fee when they added video, so give me a video-free alternative at a lower price. I resent paying for something I don't use.
I wonder if anyone has ever done studies of ad effectiveness vs frequency. If they had half the ads which were twice as effective, they could charge twice as much and have the same revenue and happier customers. There must be some sort of Laffer curve. No ads == no revenue but more watchers. 100% ads == no watchers and no revenue. Where is the sweet spot? Some old TV shows were 55 minutes long with 5 minutes of ads, then they switched to 50 minutes and 10 minutes, so they have to chop out 5 minutes to syndicate them.
I bet the broadcasters have done the studies, and 10 minutes must produce more revenue, but I'd really like to see those studies.
When they first bundled video with Prime, I figured it wouldn't be too long before it went south. It did. Series would include the first season only, they dropped a few I was in the middle of watching, they shifted some shows to Britbox and others which had been included.
Then they announced the ads, and I stopped watching. You're going to charge me for something I didn't ask for and can't get a reduction for not using, AND you're going to interrupt it with ads? No thanks. Stopped watching. Well, I was probably watching only one or two shows a week.
But it still annoys me that I'm paying for something I don't want which is supported by ads. I've been watching how much free shipping I get and comparing to Walmart and others. It's close enough that one more screwup and I might dump Prime.
I wouldn't be surprised if the multiplicity of keyboards does contribute. I learned in keypunch days, on cards, and they all had the same keyboards. Probably the first 10 or 20 years after were on desktop machines with builtin keyboards and they were all the same, or PCs where I could supply my own keyboards. Then came the world of laptops. It seems like every one has a different feel and different layouts for functions keys, numeric keypad, and CTRL/SHIFT etc. Right now, I have several laptops, all from the same manufacturer, and yet they have annoying little differences (half size arrow keys vs full size, ESC and ~/` subtly different) which always slow me down when switching. I could plug in my own keyboard, but then they wouldn't be laptops any more, and I'd probably have to buy a dozen keyboards before finding one I liked.
I never took a class, I don't follow any particular pattern. Someone told me my fingers look like a spider crawling over the keyboard. But I don't watch my fingers, so far as I'm concerned, I do touch type.
And it does come with experience. The more you type, the more your fingers know where the keys are and you look less and less.
If you want to take a class to touch type, go ahead. But I would not call it necessary. Just type, and the more you do, the more you learn, like anything else.
Sorry Mr Pedant. This is 2025, not 1937. Can you show me where one of these hydrogen jet engines is for sale today?
Not enough, and not at night or on cloudy days.
I remember reading about this and electric planes in Aviation Week and other media long ago. Hydrogen takes up something like 5 times the volume of jet fuel; there's no room for it. Hydrogen jet engines don't exist, and using fuel cells to spin electric motors is going backwards. Batteries might some day be energy-dense enough to be useful, but their weight doesn't diminish during flight like liquid fuel does.
The basic arithmetic just doesn't add up. Short range electric airplanes are not only short range, but their payload is limited. They're solutions in search of a problem.
A man is not complete until he is married -- then he is finished.