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Comment FAA, not FCC (Score 1) 449

14 CFR 91.21: Portable Electronic Devices
(a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, no person may operate, nor may any operator or pilot in command of an aircraft allow the operation of, any portable electronic device on any of the following U.S.-registered civil aircraft:
(1) Aircraft operated by a holder of an air carrier operating certificate or an operating certificate; or
(2) Any other aircraft while it is operated under IFR.
(b) Paragraph (a) of this section does not apply to—
(1) Portable voice recorders;
(2) Hearing aids;
(3) Heart pacemakers;
(4) Electric shavers; or
(5) Any other portable electronic device that the operator of the aircraft has determined will not cause interference with the navigation or communication system of the aircraft on which it is to be used.
(c) In the case of an aircraft operated by a holder of an air carrier operating certificate or an operating certificate, the determination required by paragraph (b)(5) of this section shall be made by that operator of the aircraft on which the particular device is to be used. In the case of other aircraft, the determination may be made by the pilot in command or other operator of the aircraft.

Comment For some, maybe (Score 1) 738

I'm forty-two and an independent developer and my rate has gone up every year. If, as the article suggests, you allow your skills to go stale, then yes you will find it hard to get work. Duh.

If you keep yourself up to date and manage your career like any other field, you'll do fine. This doesn't mean you have to spend all of your free time training yourself on the next new thing, but you find work that involves newer technology and you learn how it works on the job. If you have a reasonable amount of curiosity you'll do this anyway.

It's worthwhile to talk to recruiters now and then to learn what skills are pulling in the top rates in the market. You may not want to pick them up (no matter how valuable, I simply won't do SharePoint), but you can find out where the market is heading. Networking with recruiters and colleagues is priceless, and it doesn't take much more than an extensive LinkedIn profile.

Personally I find I'm most effective when I switch back and forth between architecture (which emphasizes soft skills and leadership) and hands-on development (to keep my technical skills sharp). It's fun, challenging, and based on my experiences in the market, highly valuable. I try to cover as much ground as possible so that I'm as marketable as I care to be. Also, I don't commit to a particular technology/process/tool as if it's the "holy grail" of development. These things are like fashion and you need to roll on to the next new thing as it comes, even though it may be worse than the technology that it replaces.

Stay humble, stay curious.

Comment Re:Short Answer: No (Score 1) 274

The MEMS gyros in an iPhone are worthless for this kind of application. Various people have tried to use them for emergency attitude indicators etc in small planes and they simply don't have the stability required. The GPS is nowhere near accurate enough for altitude: you need WAAS (which isn't available in all parts of the world) or LAAS (which you'd need to build yourself). The accelerometers are also not up to any kind of inertial guidance task: it's not what they're built for. iPhones have an amazing array of sensors, but they're intended for handheld operation.

The only way I could see this working would be a fairly large (6-20' wingspan) airplane or perhaps helicopter with a piston engine (you need the size and power to overcome inevitable mountain turbulence: mountains make their own wind, especially when they have snow/ice on them) and a whole pile of advanced avionics and software. Which wouldn't be cheap, or all that safe, really. I'd hate to be in the air with it unless it had some kind of see and avoid technology, and I'd hate to have it crash on me.

Also in the US as many others pointed out it wouldn't be legal.

Space

Building Blocks of DNA Confirmed In Meteorites 145

MistrX writes "Researchers announced that the components of DNA have now been confirmed to exist in extraterrestrial meteorites. A different team of scientists also discovered a number of molecules linked with a vital ancient biological process, adding weight to the idea that the earliest forms of life on Earth may have been made up in part from materials delivered to Earth from space. Past research had revealed a range of building blocks of life in meteorites, such as the amino acids that make up proteins. Space rocks just like these may have been a vital source of the organic compounds that gave rise to life on Earth."

Comment Re:The new truism (Score 1) 384

I'm not sure what you're talking about. If I wanted to buy a +40 jillion sword of epic wanking for WoW, I could go to any number of sites, and pay cash for that. I could do it *right now*. I could buy Diablo 2 items *right now*.

It is true Blizzard sells pets and crap like that for cash, but it is not true that they are selling anything different now. They're providing a cash auction house where PLAYERS can sell stuff to OTHER PLAYERS for money. In short, they're targeting the third party sites that sell items. That's it.

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