Comments on: Airbus A330, Health Insurance, And A Bird’s Nest http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/36 science and technology: the funny side. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:39:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: flapper http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-106 flapper Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:49:45 +0000 http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=36#comment-106 Is it safe to surf the net when you are in an air craft? I think the sites that are being watched or surfed by the passengers should be monitored to avoid "delays" and all. Is it safe to surf the net when you are in an air craft? I think the sites that are being watched or surfed by the passengers should be monitored to avoid “delays” and all.

]]> By: Anonymous http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-36 Anonymous Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:19:56 +0000 http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=36#comment-36 Modern aircraft provide internet connection services to passengers. I've never spent the outrageous prices for mile-high access so I can't comment on how zippy the internet is within the plane. But, bandwidth good enough for web access (Youtube, hulu) should be MORE than sufficient for streaming multiple channels of telemetry data and cockpit audio. That's actually a pretty modest amount of numbers compared to streaming video.<br /><br />There may be times that the internet access is unavailable in which case the block box continues doing what it does. But, most of the time, the plane should be streaming data to a secure website. And, as soon as the plane drops from the sky, they can pore over the data. Maybe that info could processed on the ground and also be used for preventative measures as well?<br /><br />Doesn't seem too hard.<br /><br />Dave - can you make it happen?<br /><br />- ivan Modern aircraft provide internet connection services to passengers. I've never spent the outrageous prices for mile-high access so I can't comment on how zippy the internet is within the plane. But, bandwidth good enough for web access (Youtube, hulu) should be MORE than sufficient for streaming multiple channels of telemetry data and cockpit audio. That's actually a pretty modest amount of numbers compared to streaming video.

There may be times that the internet access is unavailable in which case the block box continues doing what it does. But, most of the time, the plane should be streaming data to a secure website. And, as soon as the plane drops from the sky, they can pore over the data. Maybe that info could processed on the ground and also be used for preventative measures as well?

Doesn't seem too hard.

Dave – can you make it happen?

- ivan

]]> By: Anonymous http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-32 Anonymous Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:24:37 +0000 http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=36#comment-32 Percentage is a relative term. If you lost 50% from where you were, it only takes 50% gain of that original total to get back to where you were. But you need a 100% gain if you move your starting point to 50% of the original total. It's just math games.<br /><br />You're just mixing relative and absolute terms. Say you want to make $100,000 investing. Well, if you start with a dollar, you're going to need a helluva return rate (assuming a fixed time in which to make the target amount). If you start with $100,000,000, you can make that $100,000 with a mere 1% return rate.<br /><br />Regarding the real-time telemetry from aircraft, that's a great idea. I suspect that it is not practical to have every airplane sending a rich telemetry stream back all of the time. Imagine the bandwidth, antenna network, and storage required. But at least we now have some real-time telemetry, so perhaps your vision is the direction in which we are already going. Percentage is a relative term. If you lost 50% from where you were, it only takes 50% gain of that original total to get back to where you were. But you need a 100% gain if you move your starting point to 50% of the original total. It's just math games.

You're just mixing relative and absolute terms. Say you want to make $100,000 investing. Well, if you start with a dollar, you're going to need a helluva return rate (assuming a fixed time in which to make the target amount). If you start with $100,000,000, you can make that $100,000 with a mere 1% return rate.

Regarding the real-time telemetry from aircraft, that's a great idea. I suspect that it is not practical to have every airplane sending a rich telemetry stream back all of the time. Imagine the bandwidth, antenna network, and storage required. But at least we now have some real-time telemetry, so perhaps your vision is the direction in which we are already going.

]]> By: Anonymous http://scienceaintsobad.com/archives/36/comment-page-1#comment-31 Anonymous Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:56:50 +0000 http://scienceaintsobad.com/?p=36#comment-31 Perhaps the financial analogy of fiscal equity gains & losses to the pool of water is that it's much easier for me to leak 50% of the volume into the lawn and a lot harder to extract it back into the pool (Losing money is easier than making money so it's a not a linear function...or I'm just a pessimist ;-) Perhaps the financial analogy of fiscal equity gains & losses to the pool of water is that it's much easier for me to leak 50% of the volume into the lawn and a lot harder to extract it back into the pool (Losing money is easier than making money so it's a not a linear function…or I'm just a pessimist ;-)

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