Dr. Chucks Blog

Off to a concert with 8 inches of snow on the ground. Hee hee. Luckily we are in a Subaru.

Well I upgraded to 10.3 and my blog app stopped working. Fooey.
I would write one if I had some time. I wonder how Mac can break something in a minor release as simple as a blog program – ah well.
Back to web forms – ick!

Writing a book

Well – I had 20 hours in planes and airports and had a chance to go back after Rich and my on-again off-again book. This time (the fifth try) I want to call the book “Building and Maintaining a Home or Small Office Network”.
It was not so hard because all through the different directions that we have taken the book, at its heart the book that we wanted to write was a step above the rest of the books. I just eliminated all the “using stuff” and focused on the building, understanding, and maintaining.
One cool idea is to get www.homenetworkguys.com up and running. And then turn any chapter that did not fit into the new book into a standalone tutorial – as such we end up with three tutorials plus some tutorials from the first version of the book from 1999.
So after I got off the plane in Detroit, the first draft was done and ready for close-in read-through – very-cool.
What is even cooler is that I did part of the writing white watching under the Tuscan Sun – A chick flick about writer who gets divorced and moves to Italy on a whim – OK as chick flicks go – pretty formulaic.

Review of the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330

On my recent trip to South Africa, I was able to fly on both an A330 on Northwest and a Boeing 777 from KLM. Wow wow wow. Compared to any other planes in the sky – these are a cut above. Coach on these planes is almost as restful as the (one time) I flew in Business class on a 747.
It is kind of crazy when an american carrier like NWA with along tradition in the Northwest purchases and European built Airbus while the Dutch carrier KLM pick the pride of the Boeing fleet. And NWA and KLM are completely partners.
Bummer how the KLM dudes don’t let elite frequent fliers board first – I think they have figured out that mass boarding in random order is just as good as the structured “15 rows at a time” approach used by US carriers – but that is not what this column is about.
Good News about both planes
Both planes have a personal video system which is free – it has lots of movies, video games, music channels, etc. Wow. Both have really cool headrests. It seems as though they use the same base technology from Panasonic but configure it quite differently. The 330 has a 2-4-2 sitting arrangement while the 777 has a 3-3-3 arrangement – both work pretty well. The 777 has the biggest engines I have ever seen – I am guessing it help s in the fuel efficiency.
Places where the Northwest A330 wins

• Power Outlets under the seats – that handle both 110 and 220V – this is money in the bank. Big. This is enough to win my vote on its own, As a matter of fact I am typing this while plugged in on a 330 over the Atlantic.
• The 330 has a handicapped bathroom – this is also big enough for people to change clothes without ending up in the toilet.
• The music and map software works better on the 330 – you can watch the music and play music at the same time. Also the maps on the 330 are far more interactive and fun to play with – but they seemed buggy – the estimated time to arrival was always way wrong – which made it less fun. Also the data display seemed to be up too long when I really want to see the map more.
• The 330 has personal air conditioner vents – like older planes.
• The 330 claims to have in seat E-Mail – but it does not work – and there is no mechanism to pay via credit card. Cool idea if it worked.
• The 330 has less luggage space but it is easier to get stuff into and out of the storage space.

Places where the KLM 777 wins

• The wide range of movies – the KLM 777 had about 60 movies while the NWA had about 15. The KLM includes classics like Casablanca and Some Like it Hot so I could watch things that I would never had time for on a 12 hour flight.
• The LKM has better headphones although you have to put on the foam ear padding.
• The KLM has a drinking fountain by the bathroom that you can go up and get a drink at any time.
• The video screen must be adjusted when the person in the seat in front of you leans back. The 330 allows a wider range of adjustment for a six foot person. On the 330 you have to hunch down.
• The KLM has much more storage space – Interestingly – the design seems to be stolen from the 747 with clamshell doors that use the empty space in the top of the plane. But the material on the inside of the storage makes it hard to get the bags in and out – they make a scratching sound.
• The interior of the 777 is swooping and has a relatively high ceiling – and given that it has more storage space – this is quite a trick. But you don’t get a personal air conditioner vent because the ceilings are so high.
• The 777 has a better console for the personal video control – it seemed like I hit the wrong button less often than in the 330. The navigation was more natural – the 330 (NWA) navigation kept making you click rather than just cursor movement.
• The 777 has a cell phone at every seat as the back part of the console. You can pay by credit card – I did not try it cause I was having too much fun.
• The 777 maps are like the old DC-10 – not very sexy – but rock solid reliable with almost perfect time estimates.
• The 777 had less music, but a better selection – I particularly liked the ambient mood music (like the stuff at Target) – that is perfect background for working on the plane (at least for me).

Conclusion
If you have a chance fly on either of these planes – jump at it – especially if you have kids. They will totally love the personal entertainment system. The KLM has the edge but the NWA is completely adequate. Too bad they could both have all of the nifty features. If I really had to pick it would be the 330 for the power outlet. But if they added a power outlet to the 777 (hint hint) then it would be an unqualified engineering achievement.
In a way, it seems as though the 777 was trying be a “better plane” than the 747 – it is a smaller but better plane – and I think that Boeing accomplished that. The A330 is a better, upgraded, intercontinental A320 – and they accomplished that as well. All in all, both companies were quite successful and can be very proud of the planes.
But again, both of these airplanes are an absolute delight – it is just that geek-engineer-types over analyze things :)
P.S. Movies I watched

• The Battle of Shaker Heights (NWA)
• Radio (NWA)
• Anger Management (KLM) (I quit after 30 minutes – I love both Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler – but the movie was lame).
• Tomb Raider 2 (KLM) – I thouht that it was pretty good for a sequel – the romance added a dimension.
• The Fighting Temptations (NWA)
• Under the Tuscan Sun (NWA) (Yes – I was running out of options)
• Casablanca (KLM)
• Out of Time (NWA) – I watched this twice – I did not like it the first time – but stuck it through the second time and liked it. At the beginning it looked kind of fomrmulaic, but with some patience it had some neat aspects.
• Runaway Jury (NWA)
• Some Like it Hot (KLM) – But I quit half way through
• The Fugitive (KLM)
• Matrix Reloaded (KLM) (for the sixth time)
• Daddy Day Care (KLM)
• Good Boy (NWA) – A really lame kids show about dogs from space – (I tried to like it for 40 minutes and then gave up)

And a few more on the KLM flights that I forgot. On NWA they have an annoying thing from Kristi Yamaguchi – She is the coolest but becomes annoying when you are on a four movie marathon and she pops up every time.

GPL – I am going to do some posting about GPL

There are a bunch of folks that are very pro-GPL – with great fervor.
I am very anti-GPL but talking to the folks in South Africa, I am trying to find some middle ground. I will be doing some Blogging on it Pro and con. I have some stuff that I have not yet posted that is very “anti-GPL” but before I post it, I want to think it through a bit.

Hey – I am back in Amsterdam

I had very little connectivity while in South Africa – at night all the dial-ups got clogged.
All in all it was a wonderful experience – Capetown is a must see for your basic DINC couples – it is so cool. My favorite things were Table Rock and the Moyo at the Spier Winery.
The people were very nice.

My first post from South Africa!

Connected at 28.8 – it is good to make sure that things still work at the “real-world” speeds. Stuff works great.

Off to Cape town

I hope that I have internet access while there.

A test post on my new account

I just realized that I am posting from admin – so I switched.

Why can X.11 on Mac OS/X only run on Mac 10.3???

They finally have X-Windows on Mac OS/X – it is free but when you download it it demands to run on Mac OS 10.3 (which everyone ha to buy). Great marketing on the part of Apple :)
But there is a version at http://sourceforge.net/projects/xonx/ that was an earlier release that I downloaded at the Amsterdam airport – ha ha!