Boeing has never been the same since McDonnell-Douglas used Boeing's money to buy their way into controlling Boeing. The same senior management group who screwed up MDD have wound up taking Boeing to the edge of self-destruction.

From the USAF tanker debacle through to FOD in brand new 787s & KC-40s and the MCAS disaster in between, Boeing is no longer the engineering company that introduced the 777. The 787 roll out on July 8th 2007 when it was practically held together by tape & glue and the 787 battery issue were some of the biggest indications of their down hill run away from engineering standards, quality & safety. Throw in the relocation of their HQ away from their production centre and their demise was locked in :(

I've loved Boeing products in the past but they really need to sort their shit out and return to their quality & safety roots. All that we are seeing now (including their issues with their Starliner launch earlier in the year) is purely down to hubris and an engineering organisation being run by marketing & accountants.

I'm hoping for change and a return to their former glory but I'm concerned that it just won't happen :(

Nice thought and worth evaluating. That said, there still has to be space to add the tank (space is a premium, especially in fighters) and the gear to pressurise it with the OBOGS output.

Of interest, on the F-22 the hypoxia issues were primarily due to the life support gear the pilot actually wore (a special g-suit for use in the F-22 as opposed to other g-suits for F-16s, F-15s, etc :) ). Not sure if this is a factor with the Supers but it's certainly indicative of the complexity of the system (everyone was looking at the OBOGS and pressurisation gear when it turned out to be the clothing - DOH! :) )

Part of the problem is the number of variables involved (so many components of the system), plus it's an intermittent issue, so it's hard to lock down.

Pulling the OBOGS and replacing it with O2 tanks would involve significant engineering along with increased system weight and maintenance requirements (O2 bottles & lines are heavy plus require specialist maintenance to refill, equipment on the ship/base, etc).

Wondering if it will be something like the F-22 hypoxia issue which wasn't just the OBOGS but also the g-suit gear which was contributing to pilots experiencing hypoxic symptoms:

https://www.airforce-technology.com/news/newsroot-cause-f22-raptor-hypoxia-identified-usaf/

The whole OBOGS situation is something we're watching closely down here in Oz given we're also operating the Super Hornet, Growler and F-35...

Why not, it's worked with religions for millenia :)

This could have a fascinating result:

1) Organisations sign up to host their own "so cool" root domain, expecting that lots of companies will be "forced" to register their key words in the new root domain

2) Companies finally wake up and say "WTF? We don't need this shit" and don't buy in

3) Lots of organisations who did #1 realise they're not going to be able to make enough to pay ICANN let alone cover their costs

4) Scumbuckets come in and start domain-squatting, setting up crap sites, etc

The above may well lead to:

5) People stop trusting domains and use search engines more (it's happening more & more now anyhow - most people can't remember even simple domains and use search engines to find them)

6) More legal cases for domain-squatting and illegal use of registered trademarks/keywords/etc

7) No more "gold rush" mentality for the opening up of new TLDs

8) Bad press for ICANN and fewer groups willing to take part in the next "all new territory" TLD funding drive (leads to less $$$ for ICANN)

Yeah, I'm just dreaming. ICANN is rapidly joining the RIAA & MPAA as a prime example of a bloated, self-serving organisation that's doing all it can to hang onto a way of existance that's no longer viable :(

Insightful???? I thought he was joking! :)

Following an upgrade from Ubuntu v8, I'm running Ubuntu v9.04 (Jackalope) on an EEE PC and sound was completely fraked. After doing some research, I uninstalled PulseAudio from my system and now it all works fine. Still a few tweaks required, but dang, it works.

Why the hell does PulseAudio exist if it's such a piece of crap? Why is it in Ubuntu by default?

Maybe it has great potential and could be a wonderful thing, but until "it just works" it should be an optional extra, not installed by default.

Not sure if you'd heard of these guys:

http://internetrightsandprinciples.org/

They used to be the Internet Bill of Rights group but changed their name recently.

While many in this conversation have said we don't need to separate online/computer rights from general rights, this seems to only be the case in a "perfect world." Sadly, all too many countries pay lip service to the UN Declaration of Human Rights (if they bother at all) and even supposedly democratic & free countries butcher our rights in the online/communications world (Echelon, Australia's proposed Internet Filter, data retention acts in the UK & Korea, etc).

Between the efforts of the IRPDC and the Association for Progressive Communications (with their Internet Rights Charter as I mentioned previously in this discussion) there is work being done to raise awareness of our digital rights, not least of which is knowledge that we even have them let alone that they're being ripped from us.

The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) produced their Internet Rights Charter to help provide a basis for taking the UN's Declaration of Human Rights into the online world. It's amazing the number of countries that signed onto the Declaration of Human Rights but think nothing of censoring and snooping on people on-line.

Worth checking out and contacting APC in addition to EFF, etc.

>What would you say first to an alien?

Gesundheit, perhaps? :)

"We have more poisonous things that creep, crawl or slither than I'd care to name"

Now now, don't bring politicians into this story... :)

Actually, I was just using Fox News as an example so people would understand what was being meant by a "slant" on reporting. I don't watch TV and the news sources I know about are from down here in Australia (News Corp vs FairFax vs ABC vs others :)

Figured I'd use Fox 'cos most of you lot are yanks - don't want to have people going "What's Fairfax????" :) :)

Maybe those reporters and editors should also send the letter up the chain to their owners. How many times has a Murdoch or Packer dictated what can & can't be published?

It doesn't take much effort to determine the bias of the reporting source and adjust accordingly to the news being presented (*coff* Fox News *coff*). We shouldn't have to, but it's the way it is.