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Computers Key To Air France Crash 911

Michael_Curator writes "It's no secret that commercial airplanes are heavily computerized, but as the mystery of Air France Flight 447 unfolds, we need to come to grips with the fact that in many cases, airline pilots' hands are tied when it comes to responding effectively to an emergency situation. Boeing planes allow pilots to take over from computers during emergency situations, Airbus planes do not. It's not a design flaw — it's a philosophical divide. It's essentially a question of what do you trust most: a human being's ingenuity or a computer's infinitely faster access and reaction to information. It's not surprising that an American company errs on the side of individual freedom while a European company is more inclined to favor an approach that relies on systems. As passengers, we should have the right to ask whether we're putting our lives in the hands of a computer rather than the battle-tested pilot sitting up front, and we should have right to deplane if we don't like the answer."

Comment Re:I can see it now (Score 1) 554

One of the problems with tabs is that operating systems seem to be designed to handle window-based multitasking. Take OS X for example. Expose works wonders with multiple windows, but does nothing to help our 10, 20, 100 tabs in Safari or Firefox or even any non browser app that uses tabs.

Comment Re:And how about... (Score 1) 554

...not having 500 tabs open, just because you want to read them in the next 3 years or something? ^^

You know, there is a feature called "bookmarks" for this.

Sometimes, we keep tabs open to maintain the current state of the page, which may be different the next day or hour (something URL bookmarking doesn't address).

Comment Re:Virtual TI (Score 1) 776

One thing I wish more basic calculators had was the multi-line display of those TI graphing calculators, where multi-line = more than two lines. This would be for the display of recent history of calculations. I'm surprised we don't see this option in bundled calculator apps in the OS.

Comment Re:Um, doesn't the phone have asian language input (Score 1) 392

"it's getting a sound thrashing from Moto and Samsung, who've cornered the Asian market where touchscreens are popular for their ability to let users input Asian languages without all that fiddly Qwerty nonsense."

The iPhone does have non-QWERTY touch-based Asian input. It looks gesture based, and it's been available since firmware version 2.0.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/05/iphone-firmware-2-0-adds-chinese-handwriting-recognition-newton

It looks like the submitter didn't do this homework before posting.

Feed Science Daily: Particle Emissions From Laser Printers Might Pose Health Concern (sciencedaily.com)

Certain laser printers used in offices and homes release tiny particles of toner-like material into the air that people can inhale deep into lungs where they may pose a health hazard, scientists are reporting. Researchers classified 17 out of 62 printers in the study as "high particle emitters" because they released such elevated quantities of particles.

Feed Science Daily: Fish Eyes Could Hold Clue To Repairing Damaged Retinas In Humans (sciencedaily.com)

A special type of cell found in the eye has been found to be very important in regenerating the retina in zebrafish and restoring vision even after extensive damage. Scientists believe they may be able to use these cells -- known as Müller glial cells -- to regenerate damaged retina in humans, according to a new study published in Stem Cells.

Fibs - Fibonacci-based Poetry 276

Gregory K. writes "April is National Poetry Month (and, it turns out, Math Awareness Month), and on my blog, I decided to get people writing poetry based on the Fibonacci sequence. The poems are six lines, 20 syllables long with the syllable pattern 1/1/2/3/5/8, though they can go longer, obviously. I've been calling 'em Fibs, and people have been writing them on pop culture, politics, math, and more."

Comment Is the price difference worth it? (Score 1) 1132

The total price difference between a home built and a manufactured pc is probably a few hundred dollars but is it worth it to build it on your own? You have to spend time to get the parts and make sure they are all going to work together and get the right case to fit everything. Also you have no warranty if you screw something up, you can't call up thhe manufacturer and complain. All the time you spend gathering and build, and testing might not be worth saving the few extra hundred dollars.

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