If you are wondering "Oshkosh is more than just one day...WTF!?":
I lost power for five days from the Nor'easter a few weeks ago. My surge protector apparently didn't work too well and the contents of my hard drive that has all of my OSH pictures on it is currently unavailable. I have them backed up to another drive, but my photo-editing software is on that other computer, also. The next few days of my OSH experience was shrouded in overcast skies, so editing is definitely necessary to brighten them up a bit. Excuses, Excuses..... I guess I just have been ignoring you all again.
Allow me to revert your attention to something else.
Have you seen the IBM commercial about how the IBM'er dude is going to build a better/smarter planet? Specifically, the 30 second episode about how said IBM'er is going to work closely with Boeing to suddenly land a billion airplanes in 5 minutes at LAX with some new software.........
I tend to be a little cynical when I watch TV, so I immediately asked a few rhetorical questions.
1) So I guess if you fly an Airbus or an Embraer you don't get to land at LAX anymore?
2) Why wouldn't you work with the FAA to build a better NAS?
Since I have a blog, I get to make the second question non-rhetorical.
I bet IBM would love to get their hands on a couple of billion dollars worth of taxpayer money to start working on a system they don't know how to create just yet, and I bet controllers will be ignored throughout most of the process. Or has that already happened? When they show all the planes lined up 5 feet apart in the commercial, how "dramatized" is that intended to be? Is our aviation system safe because we pour money into it at an ungodly rate or is it safe because there is always a person between the planes and the technology (both in the plane and in the tower/radar room) that ignores all the hype and puts safety first?
This is not something to be ignored. A split second after I asked myself the second question above, I immediately thought "I think I heard about this before at the Praxis Foundation. They might be on to something...."
Check them out on the tab to the right under Adjacent Sectors. Get caught up.
I've got a power supply to replace....
Oh, here is a link to that commercial.
Till next time....
DM
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2 comments:
Nice to see that IBM is going to repeal the laws of physics and eliminate wake turbulence!
"Is our aviation system safe because we pour money into it at an ungodly rate or is it safe because there is always a person between the planes and the technology (both in the plane and in the tower/radar room) that ignores all the hype and puts safety first?"
You've asked a brilliant, seminal question. Is aviation safe because of the gizmos or the people?
I would say: it's the people.
Look at where we're putting all the focus: we're investing in gizmos, geegaws, and gadgets in the hope of having fewer safety valves - aka people.
I really want to tell you that you've asked a billion-dollar question, and I think it illuminates the philosophical flaw in industry's plan to sell the US gov't the industry's stuff for the next 20 years: they're maximizing the gizmos and minimizing the people (as in, no more controllers, we're going to have 4D trajectory managers), conveniently ignoring the demonstrated fact that people are the key element of safety.
Too bad industry doesn't sell people, because then maybe we'd focus on people.
My compliments on your most excellent question.
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