Asus's EeePC vs. Apple's Air

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The Far Side of Tech.

BA plane crash-lands at Heathrow airport

A British Airways plane crash-landed at London's Heathrow airport on Thursday, slightly injuring 18 passengers and triggering an inquiry into why the Boeing 777 flying in from Beijing landed short of the runway.
Fire engines smothered the aircraft in foam after the landing at the world's busiest international airport extensively damaged its wings and ripped off its undercarriage.

Aviation commentators said the fact that the plane only just cleared the perimeter fence, hit the ground well short of the runway and then slid to a halt pointed to a massive loss of power in the final stages of landing.

The wheels of the plane, which had a routine maintenance check in December, were still in the field where it crashed, several hundred metres from the runway.

'I win the lottery today,'€ Fernando Prado, one of the passengers, said after being safely evacuated by emergency chute from the wreckage.

BA declined to comment on reports of a loss of power. But it praised the pilot and crew for the way they handled the crisis.

'The flight crew showed great courage and professionalism in landing the aircraft safely,'€ said British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh.

'All of the crew did a fantastic job evacuating the 136 passengers. They are all heroes,' he added.

An airport spokesman said in a statement that the Air Accidents Investigation Branch was inspecting the aircraft.

'BA Flight 38 arriving from Beijing made an emergency landing at 1242,' he said.

Passengers were immediately evacuated and taken to a reception centre at the airport.

'Heathrow Airport's southern runway was closed immediately after the incident. It has now re-opened for take-offs only. The northern runway is operating for arriving aircraft.'€

BAA, which runs Heathrow, said 18 passengers suffered minor injuries.

It said 221 flights, from a normal flying schedule of 1,300, had been cancelled of which only eight were long haul.

However, while it had been allowed a limited number of night flights to soak up the backlog, it warned passengers planning to travel on Friday to check ahead.

Normally about 40 flights an hour touch down at Heathrow, just west of the capital, with a further 40 taking off.

A London police spokeswoman said: 'There is nothing to suggest it is terror-related.'€

One eyewitness, Steve Bell, said the wheels were not down on landing, and he heard a grating noise.

'It turned about 90 degrees on landing. Its wheels were not down. Within minutes fire crews arrived and evacuated all the passengers,'€ he told BBC News 24 television.

Among the planes delayed was a flight Prime Minister Gordon Brown was taking on an official trip to India and China.

SCMP Jan 18, 2008

MacBook Air: First look

Apple just announced the .16-inch thin MacBook Air -- a laptop so thin it fits in a manila envelope. The new machine features a full-size keyboard and LED-backlit 13.3-inch display with built-in iSight, and the new larger trackpad supports multi-touch gestures. Just like the iPhone, you'll be able to pan around, pinch to zoom, and rotate with two fingers, and move windows with a flick. Apple got the size down by using the same 1.8-inch 80GB drive that's in the iPod classic, but you'll be able to order a 64GB SSD as an option. The Air eschews optical media, but there's a separate external you can snag for $99 and Apple's also announced a feature called Remote Disk that'll let the Air get data off the optical drive in any PC or Mac running the Remote Disk software. Pricing starts at $1799, and the Air will be shipping in two weeks.

Link to Engadget.

Macbook Air

Apple's new laptop can fit into an envelope.

Sometimes, it's not a good idea to be helpful, or ...

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Tracker phone service proves its fidelity

Tens of thousands of Hongkongers have signed up for a service that allows mobile phone users to learn the location of the person they are calling.

The 3G service, called "Follow Me Follow You", was launched in 2005 by network provider 3HK, a unit of Hutchison Telecom, to much fanfare that it would be used to keep track of errant lovers.

However, a spokesman for the company's marketing and communications department said the service had proved to have broader appeal and application.

"Most subscribers are parents who use the function to search for their kids," he said. "Others use it to locate their elderly parents who may have lost their way home."

Some employers also used it to locate their maid, while friends may simply use it to link up for a dinner or social date.

And, yes, there were subscribers who wanted to keep track of a husband or wife.

But "Follow Me Follow You" requires all users to seek the consent of the party they want to be able to locate. Once registered, a user of the network can access the map location of another user by SMS if the other party has given authorisation.

It also allows a user to set up a scheduled search timetable to track another subscriber's location at a particular time.

The service costs HK$28 a month for unlimited searches.

Legislator Lee Cheuk-yan yesterday urged employers to trust their employees and not to use such technology to invade their privacy.

"Despite [subscribers having to gain consent] in the beginning, it still infringes the privacy of labour. If they have been working for 15 to 16 hours a day, it is understandable for them to just take a nap," he said.

Asked whether there was a privacy issue, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data said they would not comment on individual cases. But according to the Personal Data Ordinance, the data could only be used and collected with the prescribers consent, she said.

SCMP Jan 14, 2008

How does a sewing machine work?

I found this amazing illustration over on Meg’s site and it’s a great way to explain how a bobbin works on a sewing machine.