Saw yesterday night on TV. 

Last Saturday, during powerful storm Emma,  39 years-old Lufthansa pilot attempted to land his Airbus A320 with 131 passengers in Hamburg’s Fuhlsbüttel airport.

Facing winds up to 90 km/h at the moment of the landing,  the left wing grazed the runway for a moment, but the pilot was able to stabilise the aircraft and take off.

The plane landed safely 15 minutes later on its second attempt.

All passengers and crew were unharmed and the aircraft was only slightly damaged. After having its wing tip replaced the A320 was expected to be back in service on Monday. 

Well Done Captain !  

Tags: air, airbus, aircraft, aircraft crash landing a320 lufthansa hamburg airport l, airport, ATT, lan, landing, light, minutes, passengers, power, safe, storm, take off, www, XP, youtube

Toshiba will soon start production of 2 new interesting products which may find their way into future mobile/portable devices.

First are the new SATA SSD (Solid State Drive) drives on 1.8' and 2.5' formats. According Engadget 32, 64 and 128 GB will be available. Speed announced is read 100 MB/s while reading and 40 MB/sec writting.

With such capacity, traditional mechanical hard disk will slowly disappear from portable devices. With no moving parts, a solid state drive largely eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive.

The second interesting product announced by Toshiba is the so called "Super Charge ion Battery" (SCiB) which is at this stage not intended for portable devices but for industrial systems and electric vehicles.

SCiB Major Characteristics

• Safety : SCiB adopts a new negative-electrode material that offers a high level of thermal stability and a high flash point electrolyte. Its structure is resistant to internal short circuiting and thermal runaway

• Long-life cycle : Capacity loss after 3,000 cycles of rapid charge and discharge is less than 10%. SCiB batteries are able to repeat the charge-discharge cycle over 5,000 times which is equivalent to more than 10 years with a once-a-day recharge-discharge cycle.
• Rapidly rechargeable : Safety characteristics of SCiB allow recharge with a current as large as 50 amperes (A), allowing the SCiB Cell and SCiB Standard Module to recharge to 90% of full capacity in only five minutes.
• High power (practical capacity) : The SCiB has an input-output performance equivalent to that of an electric double layer capacitor.
• Temperature : Extreme temperatures supported with sufficient discharge at temperatures as low as -30°C.

SCiB batteries will first be available on the market in March 2008 with the following specifications:

• Nominal voltage  : 24VDC
• Nominal capacity : 4.2 Ah
• Size : 10x30x5 cm
• Weight : 2 kg

Perhaps these batteries will also find other field of application,  but for portable devices they will need to become lighter and slimmer..but batteries that get charges in  five minutes are definitively very attractive for mobile users. 

What do you think ?  

Sources: Engadget Toshiba 

Tags: 2007, 2008, 24, api, arc, art, ATT, batteries, blog, capacity, ces, CTU, delay, failure, fast charge, find, flash, fon, hard disk, hdd, ia, im, lan, laptop, LED, light, minutes, mobile, nomadcom.net, portable, power, rechargeable, safe, safety, SCiB, Solid State Drive, SSD, technology, toshiba, user, vehicles, wp, www

As advertising on Fon web pages says it :

• At home you're a "Wi-Fi King"
• Away you become a "Wi-Fi beggar" 
  (or sometime even a Wi-Fi thief)

  so, why not to

• Share some Wi-Fi at home
• and get free WiFi access wherever you find a FON Wi-Fi access point (+360'000 members worldwide)

 

 That's the concept of Fon Movimiento but you can find more details on Fon pages or Wikipedia.

Hardware requirement :  

Benefits :

• Cheap wireless AP (with an "easy to get" voucher or invitation) : 20€ with shipping included.
• You're a Linus and get free access to others FON Wi-Fi access points
• You're a Bill and get 50% of the fees, currently $3.00, charged to Aliens (non FON members) for a day pass to connect through their route.

Risks :

• Your ISP may not like it, even if on their side they sell unsecured access point. So, it's up to you.. ask your ISP if you can share your connection.. or don't !   

Installation :

• Sign On Fon.com and order your Fonera
• Once you have it, connect it to your Internet router
• From your computer connect to the open FON_AP wireless network
• Launch your browser, you're automatically transfered to fon.com pages.
• Log On, change settings of your Fonera (password, SSID, WPA Key, etc..)
• Restart the Fonera or wait 24 hours
• Connect to your newly created wireless private network (by default named "my place").
• That's it… the whole process took about 10 minutes. 

Tags: 2007, 24, 802.11, access, advertising, art, blog, ces, community, computer, connection, find, fon, fon movimiento, fonera, fonero, free, Great Ideas, ia, im, install, internet, Internet World, King, lan, launch, map, minutes, mobile, Mobile Communications, network, Nomad Tools, nomadcom.net, On The Road, Our World, password, risk, safe, share, shared, space, telecom, Telecommunications, thief, Travel, web, website, wi fi, wifi, wireless, wordwide, world, worldwide, wp, www

Sanyo will release next month its first USB charger specially made for their Eneloop "ready to use" upon purchase rechargeable batteries.

The charging time is approximately 280 minutes for two AA size and 120 minutes for two AAA size batteries. The charging speed is doubled when users charge only one battery at a time.

 
The cable of the USB charger can be rolled up and stored within after use.
Dimensions : 93mm x 47mm x 17.5mm for 48g.

Eneloop are Ni-MH rechargeable batteries that can be used like a dry cell battery – ‘immediately after purchase" and later recharged up to 1000 times.

Sources : Ubergizmo, Sanyo

Tags: 2007, arc, ATT, batteries, blog, cable, ces, charger, ecological, eneloop, Gadgets, Great Ideas, ia, im, lan, LED, minutes, nomadcom.net, rechargeable, recyclable, release, sanyo, space, usb, user, wp, www

In the past, a Vsat installation on board of a vehicle could not be used when the vehicle was on the move.

The mobile system "IPStar MVV" here on the left has the following features :

• Quick deployment in less than 10 minutes
• Automatic Satellite Acquisition and Antenna Pointing System via GPS
• Proven IPSTAR 1.2-meter high efficiency antenna design
• STAR topology
• 1W or 2W options for IPSTAR Outdoor Unit sub-system
• IPSTAR Indoor Unit sub-system, configurable bit rate of up to 4Mbps Receiving and 2Mbps Transmitting.
• Environmental Control Unit (ECU) and Cooling System
• Optional IP Application sub-system
• Optional single-thread and fully redundant electronics
• Optional diesel generator with power distribution unit and emergency stop.

Now IPStar (broadband satellite for Asia & Pacific) launches what they presented in Telecom World in Hongkong last December: IPStar iMove, a 5.5'' (1.5m) flat, roof mountable, array antenna system made by RaySat  (SpeedRay 3000) with the following features:

• Highly efficient automatic deployable antenna.
• Built in Satellite acquisition and antenna pointing system.
• Mountable on a variety of land and water vehicles.
• IPSTAR iMove system can Transmit up to 2Mbps and Receive up to 4Mbps.
• Optional voice, video and data application subsystem.

 Next step, to find a real working demonstration vehicle !

Tags: 2007, antenna, asia, blog, communication, design, emergency, find, hi speed, ia, im, imove, install, internet, ipstar, King, lan, launch, list, low profile, minutes, MIT, mobile, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, On The Road, power, satellite, space, telecom, vehicles, video, vsat, water, world, wp, www

Some ICT specialists found what they consider the best way to quickly and securely install Windows Vista in about 2-3 minutes. As announced everywhere, Vista needs powerful hardware…even for such installation as you can see on this video.

 

 

Source: Mr. Lavomisse 

Tags: 2007, blog, Fun, Great Ideas, howto, ia, ict, im, install, lan, list, microsoft, minutes, nomadcom.net, power, quickly, securely, space, video, vista, windows, windows vista, wp, www, youtube

That's all the time it took me today from the moment when I stepped out of flight TG-510 (5 min ahead schedule) to my place in Sukhumvit/Nana area. 

30% of this time was spent walking inside the airport terminal building from concourse C to Immigration counters.

Airport limousine costs 900 THB but Taxi Meter are available on level 1, so no need to go to the shuttle linked transportation center.

 A large serie of photos of Suvarnabhumi airport before official openning are available on Mcot web site.

  

Tags: air, airport, Bangkok, blog, flight, HP, ia, im, King, lan, light, minutes, nomadcom.net, photo, space, Suvarnabhumi Airport, tax, term, transportation, Travel, uk, web, wp, www

After having eared good and bad news about the new Bangkok International Airport, now it's my turn to tell about my own experience using for the first time the brand new airport facilities.

Going there : I left Sukhumvit area around 16h00 today and arrived 25 minutes and 65 baths (toll way) later in front of the entrance 4 at the airport In short, "piece of cake". No traffic jam, lot less confusion in front of the terminal.

Check-In : less than 5 minutes chrono, but ok using counter for Star Alliance Gold member (got the Gold card yesterday…just in time). Anyway for other passengers check-in seemed to be as smooth as mine.

Immigration : all counters opened, 60 immigration officiers on duty at this section, 15 pax ahead of me. Bad luck we fell on the slowest guy in town, who needs an average of 3-4 minutes per passenger to give the exit stamp…. 17h00 sharp, still 7 pax ahead but for immgration officers a new shift starts. The "turtoise" is off and replaced my someone fresh… Good news ! average time per pax falls down to 30-40 seconds ! 

International Boarding : This area looks like a shopping mall with a luxury and internation brands. Few places to have a drink or some food and as mentionned on many websites, only few places where to seat and rest as well as restrooms.

Business Lounge
Very crowded as only one is available for the time being. Certainly the longest lounge I ever seen (I guess about 50 meters long)
 
Changes with Don Muang

• No more luggage security scan before check-in
• No more camera at the immigration counters
• Laptop computers to be removed from their bag for x-ray screening

Otherwise, an international airport often looks like another International Airport and Suvarnabhumi is no more than one among others. 

More about arrival area next week

 

 

Tags: air, airport, art, Bangkok, blog, camera, card, ces, computer, computers, ia, im, International, laptop, minutes, nomadcom.net, officer, passengers, screen, security, shift, space, take off, term, traffic, Travel, uk, web, website, wp, XP

Apparently an ad published in the French magazine "Le Point" 19th of March 1979…

Is it a real ad or a hoax? 

VIA PIA
New York via Pakistan International. One of the companies offering scheduled flights to New York. Departure from Orly Sud, offering best flights to the cities in provinces. A new proof of PIA’s efficacy. PIA is an international company expanding business successfully: 3 000 000 passengers this year, a departure every 6 minutes. Success thoroughly built on customers’ satisfaction. For having an excellent flight to New York or 60 other metropolises in the world travel via PIA.

Sources : Presse-Citron, 11Sept 

Tags: arc, art, blog, ces, cities, customer, flight, ia, im, International, lan, LED, light, minutes, nomadcom.net, Our World, passengers, press, space, Travel, world, wp, www, XP

A nice applic that shows you with a 10 minutes delay all air traffic around major US airports. Click on the thumbnail to monitor LAX (Los Angeles Intl. Airport).

AirportMonitor is a dynamic, interactive display of air traffic and flight information available on many airport Web sites. AirportMonitor tracks flights from approximately 100 miles from the terminal right down to the runway. View information such as flight origin, destination, aircraft type, altitude, and flight ID. AirportMonitor has a ten minute delay and filtered information for security purposes, but replays with full flight information are available for the previous three months.

Source: Java.com 

Tags: air, aircraft, airport, blog, Cool Software, delay, flight, im, ITU, lan, light, minutes, nomadcom.net, security, space, term, traffic, web, wp, www