July 23rd, 2008
A helicopter was flying around above Seattle yesterday when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft’s electronic navigation and communications equipment.
Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter’s position and course to steer to the airport.
The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, drew a handwritten sign, and held it in the helicopter’s window. The pilot’s sign said “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.
People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER.”
The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely.
After they were on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the “YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER” sign helped determine their position in Seatle.
The pilot responded “I knew that had to be the MICROSOFT building because, similar to their help-lines, they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer.”
July 7th, 2008
I can’t decide between the Canon EOS 450D, the EOS 400D or the Nikon D40. They all look so good. The 450D scores a 5 star at Amazon.co.uk, whilst the other two score a 4.5. Reviews seem good as well.
So why the difficult decision. I want to buy the Nikon. Plain and simple. So what holds me back. The fact that over the last 20 years or so I have only used an EOS (film). They have been brilliant cameras and I have one now - film again - I’m told I can use the lens.
The EOS reviews all state these cameras are good. Likeable in use with a few niggles. Well you would expect some niggles. It is the lower end of the market. And maybe that’s the answer - it is the lower end so get the best value!
July 6th, 2008
This is a NAS but a small one. It is fitted with two 2.5in 500GB disks, making it about the same width and length as a regular 2.5in portable hard drive - about twice the height.
It connects via an Ethernet port - all three speeds available (10, 100 or 1000) and has a USB interface. No fan but it has air vents on 3 sides of the case. It can be configured Raid 0 (striped) or Raid 1 (mirrored). It also has an iTunes server, DNLA compliant media server and a print server.
It is easy to set-up using the out of the box software - current price around £300.
July 6th, 2008
Just seen an advert for kart plans - yes - something I have wanted to do for years…. So is it here we go?
Off Road Go-Karts
About Them:
WELCOME to Redwood Engineering home of our DIY plans & kits.
We have been building off road karts for over 20 years. Supplying KARTS, PARTS & PLANS to all over the world.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED to build your buggy is featured in our karts parts, kits & plans.
Plus get FREE technical advice for any build QUESTIONS you may have.
July 6th, 2008
The new Mac keyboards feature an Expose key on [F3] that when pressed shows all the open windows on your screen. So the trick now is to use the [F3] key to do the rest:
Cmd + [F3] will show the desktop
[Ctrl] + [F3] will show only windows from the front most app.
