Boeing 787 Dreamliner flys for the first time
Around 10:30 pacific time this morning, the Boeing 787 'Dreamliner' took off for the first time from Everett Washington, and was slated to land a little under 4 hours later near Seattle.
Apparently the scene brought in around 25 000 people to watch the commercial jumbo-jet take off. It landed in Boeing's Seattle tarmac without a problem.
There are already roughly 840 jets on order, the first of which should be delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways next year.
The 787 brings new design with lightweight composite materials making up nearly half of the aircraft, while traditional aircraft usually are made of aluminum and titanium. Boeing says this design should use 20 percent less fuel, and reduce emissions.
Source: msnbc.msn.com
787 First Flight
What do you think of the Boeing 787?
Facebook – wayback
Well, it's consumed many people's lives, including my own. So I decided to see what it looked like "way back" August 6/2005 to be exact.
It's come a long way, from looking at the way-back it appears your groups and friends were limited to your own college or university.
You can use Thefacebook to:
• Search for people at your school
• Find out who is in your classes
• Look up your friends' friends
• See a visualization of your social network
check it out: facebook way-back
use the way-back machine: way-back machine
Geocaching – let the games begin!
Something that has interested my mind for a while, it's geocaching. For those who have heard about it, you know the basics I'm sure, if not here you go:
Geocaching, as basic as I can explain it, is finding a "cache" hidden by other users, they often include a log book, and some goodies that you can take (and leave your own goody for the next hunter!), or just sign the log-book and take nothing-leave nothing (TNLN - your first geocaching lingo!). You the hunter, find this cache with a set of coordinates of latitude and longitude, and maybe a hint of what its hidden near or in.
You can geocache on everything from your smartphone, to your vehicle GPS (not built in units, as you'll likely have to walk or hike a bit to your cache), or more advanced units for mapping. The more basic the unit, the harder (but funner) the hunt will be.
This past weekend, I went out and did some more hunts, we were successful in finding three of the four we went to find. I'm sure Ill be back some day to find that number four 
.
For more information check out geocaching.com.
Questions or recommendations? Let me know!
Airplane Humor
Got this e-mail from a co-worker. In our field, this really got some laughs.
1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory.
2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again.
3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous.
4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.
5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. Because when it stops, you can actually watch the pilot start sweating.
7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.
8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp.
11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice-versa.
12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds.
14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made.
15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
17. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly the earth repels them.
18. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
19. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
20. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, experience usually comes from bad judgment.
21. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible.
22. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed.
23. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law. And it's not subject to repeal.
24. The four most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, gas back at the airport, and a tenth of a second ago.
25. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are, however, no old, bold pilots.
Wireless Electricity
Ive had this hope and dream for a while now - wireless electricity. Now, I don't have the brains or money to do this, so I'm glad Sony came through.
They have developed a prototype, and the technology has a way to go, but it looks promising. "In tests the company succeeded in sending a conventional 100 volt electricity supply over a distance of 50 centimeters to power a 22-inch LCD television."
The prototype is about 80% efficient Sony has stated, and actually quite bulky, a 40 cm coil of wires to produce a magnetic field, for the secondary coil to induce the current.
I really like this idea for larger items like televisions, computers, printers and devices that don't need to be moved, and are already somewhat large to start with, so the added size wouldn't be a huge drawback
Full Article at IT News
Honda EV-N concept
Wow! I like the styling, it's a little retro car, looking like it came from the 60's with technology coming from the modern times. I'm not usually one for small cars, but its just got that look to it, it looks like that car that everyone drew when they were 6, because it was easy to draw. I think that style carries over to the hard product, the lines are round and smooth, very pleasing to the eye.
The personal downer to me (as of technology available now), is its an electric car, which I just can't see the benefit for most people who use their cars for more then just a 10 km commute each day - but that's another matter. Also, since the car is being designed in the eastern world - we will likely never see it here. It is unfortunate that Europe, Asia, and the countries of the eastern world get smart, stylish, and powerful cars while we are stuck with cheaper and uglier versions with a severe lack of power.
That sleek style carries on to the interior with a smooth minimalistic dash and passenger compartment. Some other cool features are a built in UX-3 unicycle, interchangeable upholstery, and a solar panel roof!
It's still a concept for now, but I think the car has definite potential if it happens to go into production, and hopefully some large auto manufacturer deigns a more efficient system for running and charging electric cars. I suppose we will have to wait and see.
Full Article at AutoBlog.com
The Associate by John Grisham
My favourite author is John Grisham, in fact, he is the only author I have branched out to read. I've got a good part of his collection of books, the most recent being "The Associate". I haven't dug into this one, but don't worry, I'm going to begin reading, well, as soon as I'm done typing this!
If you've got some other authors for me to check out you think I might enjoy, feel free to let me know!
Roller Derby – what?
Roller Derby? I bet you are asking yourself "I thought that was a sport where chicks beat on each other around a track, and wasn't it played like, 30 years ago?" Well, your right, but the sport is once again gaining popularity all over north america.
In the United States it has caught on already, and some advanced teams have their own banked track arenas. For the other teams in Canada and USA that can't afford to have dedicated arenas, they play wherever they can find a smooth surface large enough for the track and spectators. The E-Ville team played in an old hangar last night as seen in the pictures to follow.
The games always prove to be an interesting and fun time for both players and spectators. If you are lucky enough to grab suicide seating (seating right next to the track), you might even catch your own derby girl!
I'm not going to get into details of how the game works, but to put it simply:
The girls with the star panties on their helmets are jammers, they score points. For each opposing member they pass without penalty, they get one point. The other girls skating try to block the other jammer from getting points, and help their own jammer to gain points.
All derby leagues are always looking for fresh meat (new players to train up), officials and referees, so if it interests you, get in contact with your local derby league! For Edmonton and area check out e-ville or the oil city derby girls.
Another option is to join the Oil City Derby Girls on Oct 10 at 7PM at the Crown and Anchor Pub, #100-15277 Castledowns Road, for a "Meat and Greet", for only $10 you get a steak supper, and an evening of entertainment with the guys and girls of OCDG!
If you can't make the meet and greet, but are interested in joining, head over on recruitment night, Oct 13 at 6 PM.
For more information about roller derby and the OCDG, check out Oil City Derby Girls
Also, thank you to Trailer Trish: You can also get in contact with the e-ville team at e-villederby.com
Greetings from the BlackBerry
Hello everyone! How fitting my first post come from the crackberry! Well, as you'll find out soon enough, this little device is attached to my fingers or pocket at all times. So I figure I will likely and hopefully end up writing a lot to this blog via the crackberry.
That's about all I've got to say for now, its late, and I want to sleep!
Cyborg