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In Praise Of National Pride While Abroad {Gadling}
Apr 10th 2012 10:22AM I lived in Heidelberg as a student in 1996-97, and at that time with Kosovo it *was* overrun with Americans. I visit there every year, and now it's much more overrun with Chinese and Japanese tourists that come on a day tour. Why? The large military base outside of Heidelberg is being closed down and the number of troops stationed there has been dwindling since 2005. They've been in Iraq and Afghanistan since then.
Heidelberg is a wonderful overnight location. Arrive about 5pm, after the buses leave, have dinner at one of the many great local restaurants, and stay in a 300-year old home for the night. Get up and have breakfast and a walk along the river and castle in the morning, and be on your way by noon. Of course, you can easily stay 2-3 days and wander into the Neckar valley (best kept secret in Germany for authentic travel... see Bad Wimpfen).
First generation Apple TV owners: checkout aTV Flash {TUAW.com}
Sep 8th 2010 10:40AM @Zoidbert Do you have a lot of storage space? I use the same process then use Handbrake to encode the .dvdmedia file as an .m4v, drag it into iTunes, and watch on the AppleTV. It even keeps the audio as Dolby 5.1 (select "AAC Passthru" under audio). The file size is much smaller and the quality is nearly the same, or as good or bad as you want it. My Shawshank Redemption .m4v file is 1.13 GB for a 2:22 min movie, with full Dolby 5.1.
When I first started ripping CDs, I had to rip to a .WAV file, then encode those into MP3s. Keeping the .dvdmedia files are like listening to WAV files: great quality, but lots of opportunity to shrink the file size down to about 1/6 of the original.
iPads on the virtual flight deck {TUAW.com}
May 17th 2010 1:46PM It's high time Jeppesen had an app. I have a Jepp login and can build a trip kit, then email
myself the PDF. But due to the effective dates and revisions I'd always want a new kit for each day. Too bad there is no Jeppesen app to download charts for a segment then store them for offline viewing, with auto updating ability.
White House pushing for answers to airline industry woes {Gadling}
Nov 14th 2009 9:20PM Increasingly cramped? Airline seats have been the same width since 1958. If "personal space" had a 5 year moving average, it would be absolutely flat.
Galley Gossip: A question about why flight attendants are fat, old, grumpy, lazy and ugly {Gadling}
Feb 9th 2009 11:08AM Perhaps if the USA didn't have laws like those banning sexism, age-based hiring, and weight standards, we could have "throwback" employment laws too. The time of sex in the aisles is gone. Being an FA is a profession, just like any other for which there is constant training and emphasis on service delivery. Too bad that "Big Daddy" is confusing the airplane with a Hooters.
I'm a red-blooded American male, but I would hate to think of the consequences to my family if those same foreign employment laws applied to me or my wife. Would you get fired for gaining 20 pounds, or even being married? Those were the old "throwback" laws that existed in the 1970's here. I'd much rather have a professional workforce than a ditz parade down the aisle.
Now if you want to talk about service delivery and onboard experience, sure the foreign carriers have the US beat. But remember that most are state-sponsored and are an extension of the country's tourism board. Coupled with discriminatory hiring practices, well yes it's easier to have throwback standards.
-Signed,
A UA dispatcher who is glad to work with some of the finest in the industry.
United Airlines secretly raises ticket change fees {Gadling}
Apr 24th 2008 8:45AM Can we stop with the "screwed" commentary? This fee is completely avoidable, just don't change your ticket. Also UA offers same-day standby. Have a flight at 5pm, but your meetings are done by noon? You can standby, for free, for an earlier flight, while having the original 5pm flight as a guarantee.
Vista beats OS X? Really? {TUAW.com}
Apr 9th 2008 7:23PM I really want a Mac. I really do. But right now I am leaning toward a 3.0 Ghz HP desktop with a 22" LCD. Here's why:
• Drivers. One of the things I want my new computer to do is 3D graphics simulation. It's a well known fact that the Radeon HD card in the iMacs is hobbled by poor drivers. I am hoping that Apple will upgrade to Nvidia cards in the iMacs, like the Mac Books.
• HDMI. I want to output my computer's screen to my plasma via HDMI, and the PC has that (with 5.1 sound, I might add). iMac does not. At least, not easily (iMac uses a DVI plug with no sound).
• 3.0 Ghz. No iMac is at 3.0 Ghz yet, and that's a 20% increase over the base 2.4 Ghz.
• Price. Yeah I said it... Once I get MS Office ($129), that is less than iWork ($79), Parallels, and Windows XP for Parallels.
I plan on getting Vista 64-bit, since that is the way things are headed, and I have checked about 64-bit drivers and all apps have them available. I really wish that iMac could do the above things... Please Apple, upgrade the iMac to 2.8 Ghz base model with Nvidia graphics and an HDMI port. I'll buy in a heartbeat if that was the case.
