riddler

My take from the report is that one of the computers got moisture in it, causing bad data to be sent to the flight computer, which cause the aircraft to nose up drastically on takeoff. It definitely shows on the video. That caused a stall on takeoff, and at that point, it's difficult to recover. The report also said that the pilot is supposed to turn on a pitot-tube warmer to remove moisture, but did not (although it doesn't say why, but implies lack of procedural training). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

"because the only difference between a suicide and a martyrdom really is the amount of press coverage." - Chuck Palahniuk Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

And good news for the rest of us Last year, I was coming home late from the DZ on Saturday night, and in the middle of downtown Denver, there was a pack of at least 20 naked MOPED drivers They had helmets, at least ... Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I'm a scuba instructor, and I've never heard this called "dry-drowning" - in SSI, it falls under the 'pulmonary edema' umbrella of illnesses, which we would treat with 100% oxygen until they get to medical care ... IF we could identify it! The problem seems like it's really hard to identify. People get tired (for a variety of reasons), change behaviour (excited or tired or overwhelmed) and have difficulty breathing (wet suit or BC too tight or a number of other reason) all the time when diving. Usually we identify problem from a combination of symptoms, but it's really hard to tell with borderline cases. You don't want to over-react to every little symptom that someone has, but you don't want them to walk around sick or dying either. Scary stuff. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

More and more, it just doesn't make sense for an American company to go public. It used to be an easy way to get rich and stamp out the competition. These days, it's open season for frivolous lawsuits and loads of government regulation. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Answer: If you are a rich individual or corporation, you are above the law. Most of the time. Sometimes you get caught and are ordered to pay a fine, but you almost never actually have to go to jail. Joe Nachhio was convicted a year ago; he'll die of old age before he ends up in prison. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

It's a sign of poor DZ management, IMO. There really are instructors in the world that do it just for the money. Don't like their jobs, don't have marketable skills other than jumping, don't even really like people. There really are DZOs that would rather have unfriendly instructors that rush students on the plane than instructors that take the time to make sure the student and gear are OK and having a good time. There are instructors that use too much drugs and alcohol. Maybe it makes them feel good that night, but the next working day they are tired and irritable. It definitely makes them a liability. I've seen all the above. And it's not like I hang around the DZ all week - I'm just a weekend jumper at the best of times. This is a common theme, but not uncommon circumstances. The solution is that the DZO needs to be accountable and on top of it. There are a lot of people in the world, and the DZO needs to make sure the instructors are doing a good job as well as marketing the dropzone. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I hear they have to pack the Bold canopies in tandem rigs, 'cause the Zero Perosity fabric is so thick Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

This is one of those records that I think can and will be broken. After all the setbacks Fournier has had, I hope he does it. Landing a wingsuit - no this one - yes I have a photo of myself and Kittinger somewhere - he is a decent guy, and he will be the first to say that he never set his record with the intent to set a record. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

It's worth learning a few signs in another sign language - I'd like to learn how to sign "you put the BS in BSL" My fear is that they would know, in American Sign Language, how to call me an ASL (.) Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Nah - someone got a pic of him driving around town the other day. Here it is Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Nice pics, Twardo Your stories about your boys are great - keep 'em coming. We just had our second daughter last week. The first one is already 19 months , and I keep hearing flyangel2's words "the hours go by slow, but the years go by fast." Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I appreciate the help, but I don't really need it, since I've already used iTunes, I don't like it, and I have (IMO) a better way. Sure, I could also try knocking off the first eight bits and converting the byte stream from big-endian to little-endian. Point is, if I just use other third-party (free) software, I don't have to muck around with each file. Saves a lot of time. Yeah, I got the same list before I bought all the junk I bought into everything the marketing people told me, just like you. But I put my initial recommendation there based on real-world experience, not from reading Wikipedia. I thought that would have more value to the original poster. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I wasn't able to get iTunes to save files to anything other than m4a. Admittedly, I haven't tried in a few years. I have a Creative Zen:vision M, and it cannot play m4a. I also have SanDisk on my Blackberry, and it cannot play those file types. The only place I've been able to play m4a is iTunes, iPod and Apple computer. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Same story here. First in my family to get a four-year degree. $35K in student loans - this was 15 years ago, when that was a lot of money Took me nine years to pay them all off. I don't regret it, and in a few years, neither will you. The total increased income over your lifetime makes it pay for itself several times over. But yeah, what a stupid system. The governments in most first-world countries pay for their best students to go to college - an investment in the education of our citizens pays for itself several times over, too. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

OK editing this one after post by superfletch. The second link doesn't work. I agree with Billvon who said that everyone that jumps should have medical insurance. Maybe in the future, dropzones will require health insurance to jump. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I recommend you do not use iTunes to imports CDs. iTunes will save the songs in m4a format, which only plays on iPods. Lots of devices play MP3 now, like cell phones, and they will probably not be able to play those m4a songs. Use another CD-ripping tool, such as Winamp to rip the songs, and make sure they are MP3 format, which gives you the widest possible usage with your devices. Those songs will still play with iTunes in the MP3 format. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

We prefer curves to angles, but we'll take what we can get Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

When I was 10 years old, I was on a little-league football team. I wasn't very good. The coach, who was very competitive, put me in the game only twice the entire season, for very short periods. I worked hard in practice, but I hated football after that experience because I never got to play. Years later, I had friends that played college football, and they had similar stories. They went on to other teams and became very good players as adults. I think it's fine to praise children for their talents when they are young. When we judge children for their lack of ability, we are never giving them a chance to get better. The best compliment I can give my children is that they worked hard to accomplish something, not if they are "good" or "bad" at something. The story has a happy ending - I was the top earner for the little league team doing door-to-door sales. Today, I own a successful business doing consulting work Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Would the rest of us receive pics as a reward for good behavior? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Lots of different advice on this thread, so I'll repeat this one, which I think is the first thing for you to re-examine. When you quarter your slider, make sure it is even between the lines and the slider stops are all the way down. When you cocoon the canopy, make sure the slider stops are all the way down. When you are laying the caopy down and getting air out of it, make sure the slider doesn't move. When you put the canopy in the bag, make sure the slider is all the way in there. I check and recheck the slider more than any other thing when I pack. It makes a real difference on openings. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Wal-Mart - at times, it's over the top and I certainly didn't agree with some of the slant (I don't, for instance, believe the corporation is racist). But overall a good movie. The worst part for me was seeing the sweatshops in China - millions of human beings living in squalor. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That's because they all suck! I can't think of one US carrier that I would recommend. I really hope things are better in other countries (I've heard yes and no on this). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

So if your definition of politics includes economics, it must also include theoretical physics (I knew Einstein was a politco!), bumblebees (always hated the little yellow and black bastards) and chow mein. In other words, everything is political? I guess I could stretch everything in the known universe to be part of engineering - it would greatly improve my job prospects ... Personally, I think politics and economics can overlap, but economics is the driving force, whereas politics is the excuse. I guess I already said that a few times. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I own two iPhones (one for my wife and myself) that we use for home phones, and I've always owned Blackberries for work. I recently upgraded from a Blackberry 8700 (Cingular) to a Verizon BB8330. Yes, I have a lot of cell phones I should also mention that I've used both the Jabra BT800 and the BT8040 as bluetooth headsets, and they both seem to work well with both phones. I upgraded to the Jabra BT8040 because it can connect to both phones at the same time, and it's so light, I barely feel it and can run with it without it dislodging. After spending several weeks with the BB8330 and several months with the iPhones, I've come to the conclusion that the iPhone really isn't that great. The Blackberry is a much better device, particularly the 8330. But even the BB8700 with Cingular service was as good or slightly better than the iPhone. I will admit I'm biased toward Blackberries and the 8330 is the best model I've owned (I've owned three different ones for 7 years now, going back the old greenscreen 6700) and they are rugged, well built and work great. Here are some good things I have to say about the iPhone. The touch screen is nice - it works well, but the keyboard is lame. It's cool to have the iPod built in (I have a 16Gig model, and my wife has 8Gig, which seems to be more than enough). Some of the apps on the iPhone are well thought-out; the YouTube player works well most of the time, the weather app is convenient, Maps works pretty well IF you are in a city - once you get out into open highway, it really can't find you at all. The WiFi capability of the iPhone is very handy, although it seems to lose the WiFi connection once or twice a day, and I have to reset that. Sound quality is OK on the phone, fine from a bluetooth headset, and the speaker quality seems to be better in the iPhone than on the Blackberry. The email service seems to work pretty well. I jailbroke the iPhone but did not unlock it (with two iPhones, AT&T's family plan was reasonable enough). The GPRS data is also unlimited, which is comforting, so I never have to worry about using too much. Visual voice mail is OK, but the interface isn't that great, so it's not all that. Finally, the widescreen on the iPhone is about the nicest part of it. Here's what I like about the Blackberry 8330. It's smaller and lighter than the iPhone and handles well. The keyboard is very fast and works great. Verizon's EVDO-rev A network is FAST, easily moving as fast as my (8MB) Cable modem at home! Two convenience keys, new trackball, USB connector/charger are all really nice. Battery life on the BB is about 50% longer than on the iPhone (and you can REPLACE the battery, but I've never replaced a BB battery, even after more than three years of usage). It has a slot for microSD, so I put in an 8 MB chip, and now I have as much storage space for music, pics, videos, etc as my wife's iPhone. The BB Curve has built-in GPS, and it's TRUE GPS, not cell-tower triangulation like the iPhone. Stupid Verizon DISABLED it, though - jerks - more about that later. It opens microsoft documents in email (although rendered poorly), and as always, the Blackberry email service is superb. The camera on the BB8330 is better than the iPhone, because it has a flash (both have 2 Megapixels quality). A2DP works great from the Blackberry, and I listen to music and language tapes streaming into the bluetooth headset for hours at a time. Having microSD makes it comparable to the iPod capability of the iPhone, and A2DP gives it a boost over the iPhone's iPod player. It streams video just as fast as any home network (again, the RevA EVDO network). I pay an extra $15/month to get tethered modem access for my laptop when I'm traveling, and it works perfectly (limited to $5 gig). The Verizon service is also about $20/month less expensive than AT&T's. Here's what sucks about the iPhone. Most of iPhone's suckery comes from AT&T wireless. Their stupid EDGE (GPRS) is slow to the point of non-usability. And paying for the two-year contract AFTER paying full-price for the phone is a crock of shit. The original point of the contract was to offset the cost of the phone, but now AT&T is forcing you into a contract and giving you NOTHING. The iPhone is locked to AT&T for five years, so you're stuck with them, unless you want to hack your phone and risk bricking it. And AT&T drops call ALL THE TIME, despite their marketing about "fewest dropped calls". I've had T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, and AT&T is the only one that lost calls on a routine basis - they are the worst carrier in the US. Other suckery about the iPhone - A2DP doesn't work, and it won't until Apple wants to sell you their own bluetooth headset. Did I mention the keyboard sucks? No backlight on the camera. The map location by triangulation only works about half the time, and never outside a city. Not being able to play Flash is truly lame. No Java is even worse - what crawled up Steve's butt when he made that lame-ass decision? It's as if the iPhone was rushed to the market way before it's time so that Apple could claim to "invent" it. They didn't invent ANYTHING on the iPhone (look at LG's touchscreen phone available in Europe two years before the iPhone) - they didn't even invent the name iPhone (Apple had to buy it from Cisco). It's a little more susceptible to breaking from drops than the Blackberry - my wife dropped hers and the AT&T chip popped out, so she couldn't make calls. AT&T will REFUSE to insure the thing (getting insurance on my BB was easy with Verizon for $6/month). And it's thrice as expensive to purchase as the BB8330 ($500 vs. $170). Even if you hack it, your only other choice is T-Mobile, which provides great customer service, but the network is just as slow as AT&Ts. Here's what I hate about the BB8330. Verizon. Period. Verizon disabled the GPS chip so they could sell you a very crappy service called VZ Navigator that works half the time and costs an extra $10/month. The GPS chip works if I call 911, but doesn't work for personal navigation. Verizon disabled the WiFi (who knows why). Verizon limits you to 5 Gig on the wireless data, so you will get screwed if you use a lot of web browsing (remember, there's no WiFi). The Blackberry itself is a great phone, and I can't find anything bad to say about it, except maybe the screen isn't as big as the iPhone. But this fantastic phone was crippled by stupid marketing people at Verizon, who should be first against the wall when the revolution comes. I could go either way on the security issue. The iPhone is easy to hack, and that's a good thing, since Apple didn't take the time to perfect it in the first place. The Blackberry is nigh unhackable (never been done, as far as I know), since it uses 2048 encryption for the OS. But I wish to god I could hack it and get the GPS and WiFi back into it (stupid Verizon marketing). All said and done, I think the Blackberry 8330 is a superior phone than the iPhone. If you're considering an iPhone, well, don't (remember, I have two of them). Get the 8330 from Verizon (unless you are already boycotting Verizon, then go with Sprint's version). Sadly, the choice between them has a lot to do with which carrier has disabled the most services and provides the worst connections. I'm not paid to endorse any product - just wanted to share my 2 cents for anyone considering an iPhone. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD