After several months when we all heard that corporate jets were the mark of the truly immoral bank or corporate CEOs, it seems that private jet companies are starting to take notice: All this bad press is putting more pressure on them than they would like to in difficult times like ours.
Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna Aircraft (the Empire, here) are fighting back with advertising to support the idea that it’s only true visionaries who are able to forget about all this and will keep using and buying their corporate business jets. Say that to Richard Wagoner Jr or to Dick Fuld! Or speak of stimulus ads!
According to the International Herald Tribune and Reuters, Cessna Aircraft is saying “Timidity didn’t get you this far” or “True visionaries will continue to fly” in their message. Hawker Beechcraft is also promoting its King Air 350 as “the world’s greenest and highly efficient aircraft“.
I am not sure whether this will really boost sales abck to stratospheric levels, but it’s an example of companies which are decided not to let the business go down the drain, despite bad times and worse PR.
Is it the crisis, the recession or what? People would like you to think that you can now get a private jet for nearly nothing.
Jumpjet is trying to make it more affordable than many business trip tickets
Aviation told us about microjets, like those from Eclipse Aviation intended to make it more affordable than any time before.
Lunajets wants you to fly like a Very Rich Person (VRP is so much better than VIP) but for prices between €990 per seat and €12,500 for a full cabin. You get to search for the best flight for you.
Same thing with Last Minute Jet Charters which offers a good search engine for your private jet.
ElleJet Aviation Services is explictly selling seats available on what they call “empty legs” (trips returning the plane with no passenger, but where you could be booked; A little like those young student who cross the USA in rental cars that they bring back to base for a small fee).
Sure, GM sold all its 5 private jets after the December news fiasco. But did they depress the private jet market, too? Is it really so cheap?
In our short series of “How do you make…”, here is the industrial manuacturing of terrestrial globes How would you do it? The same way as described here?
Even more when you unload a tank rail car. If you let the hot gazes cool down into the tank, here what can happen. Always check the security valves, or be ready to pay the price: $22,000 to $80,000 used (but usable).
I found this nice article of the same title (”10 things Linux does better than Windows“) on TechRepublic.com. I found it interesting because I could not really find all 10 of them. Will you be able to list all of them?
TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): Linux is less expensive in an enterprise because of the high cost of per-seat licenses.
Desktop: Nowadays, Linux is as easy as Windows for most entry-level users.
Server: So many servers are now running on Linux.
Security: Windows progressed a lot recently, but is still the target of a lot of malware, virus, Trojans, etc. that Linux has avoided by immunity through faster problem fixes.
Flexibility: Linux is amazingly able to adapt itself to various applications and environments.
Package management: Installation of new applications in Linux is years ahead of the dinosaur Install-Software solution of Microsoft.
Community: Not that the Linux community would be larger, but it is so much more active and willing to support all kinds of users.
Interoperability: Windows works well with Windows. For the rest, just go to Linux if you want to interoperate with Apple OS X, various Unix systems, various Linux distributions, OS/2, PlayStations, PDAs, and… Windows.
Command line: You may not need to use it, but when times come for it, Linux command line is worlds better than Microsoft mock-up.
Evolution: Do you remember the feel of going from XP to Vista? Do you remember how many times Microsoft forced you to upgrade machines? Linux is much more adaptable and provides a proven smooth path to newer, better versions.
Some of my best images are available are posters, cards, prints, laminated prints, etc. on RedBubble.com. I like the quality of their service, their prices and the broad support (including good discussion forums about photo).
What you’ll like even more is that they reduced the shipping costs to NOTHING for a week. They are celebrating their shipment of 100,000 photo/art masterpieces around the world. At this moment, they decided to offer one week of free shipping. You just have to use the following coupon code when checking out: ‘100000masterpieces’
PS: The promotion will expire at 2359 on 30 October (GMT). Just in time to prepare your gifts for Christmas or for your 2009 new year’s cards.
Some have been surprised by one little habit of mine around my PC (I should say ‘my PCs”): I keep a detailled log of everything I do on my PC in a plain old school paper book. It may be a software installation, a parameter change on another software package, the update of a driver. Everything goes in there.
Main advantage: When my PC stops working perfectly, I can easily recognize what changed. Usually, I (like everybody else) say that I did not touch anaything before it stopped working. Bit when I check, I can find wat I did.
It also works for the configuration of a Local Area Network… even in a company. But beware of not writing down passwords that would then be left in an open paper book…
YWantVisits.com (SEO, traffic optimisation and web site revenue maximization)
Your opinion will be welcome, but -remember- this is beta-test. So, it is full of bugs, problems, issues and don’t come back and complain if your significant other dumps you because of it.
Note: Most (if not all) of the photo-related news here will be applied to YLovePhoto.com as soon as I feel free with this new web site.
How could we ignore the launch of Chrome, the new browser from Google? Every is babbling about it, everybody tried it (it can be downloaded here).
But after one test run, I believe that I should explain something. Yes, this is a marvellous browser because it takes most of the good things from FireFox, Opera or Safari (all IE competition). I immediately noticed:
No space is lost in useless graphical waste, everything is concentrating on user display,
The good tab management,
The impressive performance,
The name-completion in the address bar.
Some will also have noticed the more technical features like:
The separation of applications running in different tabs,
The very small footprint (including for the Javascript).
But, all this is hiding a very critical reality: Google did not even try to make a mere browser (it even lacks a simple RSS feed manager). They are more interested in doing more than Internet Explorer competiton. Much more.
Chrome (tasks)
The impressive advantage of this browser is elsewhere: it will fight against Microsoft applications allowing to work online in the best possible conditions. Chrome is nearly an Operating System competing with Windows. Yes, because where Windows offered a vehicle to sell Microsoft Office, Chrome will allow Google to develop a wider range of online tools in the path opened by the Desktop applications and GMail.
It will hurt Microsoft real bad. Chrome is obviously the best browser to support this approach. Rock solide, fast (very), reliable and able to support application crashes.
Preliminary disclosure: Usually, I refrain from commenting about issues relating to my own employer. But today, Johnson Controls issued a press release unusually significant that I assumed would be worth an exception.
The American economy is in pain, the automotive industry is in pain: General Motors should see a slowdown of 30% or more, Ford forecasts 22% less activty from one year to the next and Toyota would be good at only loosing 7,5%. With this, nobody should be surprised when automotive part manufacturers are preparing to quickly reduce the costs like is done by most car manufacturers (GM is announcing regularly plant closings).
It is in this context that Johnson Controls announces an important restructuration. We will know details only later, but it is clear that $450 to $500 millions of restructuing charges will lead to major job layoffs. JCI only gives the general orientation and says that they want to cut down automotive plants/footprint in the USA, follow the move toward Low-Cost Countries including in Europe. Which is normal since interior vehicle parts (like large plastic parts) are very difficult to transport and car manufacturers are also moving toward Eastern Europe.
If you add to it the difficulties of real estate in the US, a market where JCI is very present with its Building Efficiency division, it is easily understood that adaptation will touch this branch too, since experts do not forecast any quick improvement in this part of the American economy.
These intense perturbations in the immediate environment of Johnson Controls may have enough power to bring some auto parts manufacturers down to their knees. The most fragile ones may have to take really drastic measures (or more drastic than massive layoffs, if you follow my reasoning). But Johnson Controls could well be among those who will survive best (or relatively best); According to Investopedia.com, Johnson Controls and Autoliv are those most apt to protect themselves.
A martial arts adept knows how much you have to repeat the same basic exercise (a kata) before mastering free fight. This is the same with most pianists who need to practice long and often to get reflexes, natural grace.
So, why not the same for programmers?
Dave Thomas decided to create basic exercises for the software developer. To be practiced continuously with not constraint of environment or language. He called it the Code Kata.
I no longer write a lot about software programming (I no longer code by myself nowadays) but it was such a great idea, a flash of light so obvious and elegant that I needed to share with you. No programmer should avoid the regular exercise of Code Kata. Many companies should also force their own software developers to apply it.
Sometimes, you hust have to understand the cryptic codes used around the world of airline travel. The companies are using them, probably not just for the sake of being incomprehensible, but the result is the same. I recently found the right place to look for this information, a web site to search for all airline-related codes:
I used it to find the meaning of the two-letter IATA code of the company name in a flight numbers (CZ3572 is a flight of China Southern Airlines and MU2511 is another flight from China Eastern Airlines) because an assistant had booked me electronic tickets forgetting to tell me which counter I should go to register on the following day.
Project Offset, the running name of a company who promises to build one of the most expected action epic video games, has announced in February that they were bought by Intel. However, I have to admit that nothing has been shown since. Not even the slightest hint at what Intel intends to do with it.
Is the development still going on?
Just to let you salivate a little in advance, here was the trailer “leaked” to the Internet earlier in September 2007.
As I am writing this article, I am in Shanghai for a profesionnal trip (my company seems to believe that I can improve some things in our manufacturing plant of Pudong, in the suburbs of this big Chinese city). As an amateur photographer, I took some time for myself to look at some photo opportunities here. Two remarks may interest you too.
Shooting in Shanghai
The most obvious observation in this gigantic city of 17 million people is that the air is full of dust. And I mean it. Everybody notice it. The city is under permanent construction (or is it “re-construction”). Zillions of trucks are moving earth around to help build sky-scrappers all over the city. This and the overall industrial pollution makes it amazingly foggy.
I wanted to shoot a few photos; Don’t even think about deep landscapes (even from the highest buildings): On the clearest day, the sky is white and the visibility is limited to a distance surprising to even my pre-informed self.
However, Shanghai is one the modern world cities where night shots are a real pleasure. There is light and contrast everywhere: Buildings with lights from top to bottom, giant ads, displays of all kinds and all sizes, ligthed boats on the Huangpu river. So much light that you may even forget your tripod if your willing to shoot at high ISOs.
Click on the thumbnails if you want to access the larger versions
Buying photo equipment in Shanghai
OK! Shanghai is less attractive than Hong Kong, but China is usually a place where you can find photo bargains. In Shanghai, the place to go -apart from the usual electronics malls found all over the city, like in Pudong (South of Shiji Avenue)- is the big photo market at Luban Lu and Xietu Lu (in Chinese, “Lu” means “road”), that I found easly thanks to Internet (it is just North of Lupu bridge and Zhongshan N° 1 Rd, in Puxi).
Click on the thumbnails if you want to access the larger versions
You will find there anything for photo and photo activities. 6 floors of small shops. Of course, you will find camera sales on 1st floor (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Pentax, Sigma, etc.). But as in many Shanghai malls, the higher you climb, the better bagains you find (until you reach a level where most offers are presented in approximate stacks and packs).
Apparently, the risk of seeing fake products is limited, but it may be very difficult to find the difference between an original product and a fake one. However, I did not find any price obviously too-low-to-be-true (a sure mark of fake products), just a lot of good bargains and some less impressive prices. Apparently, prices are a little better than most Europeans prices (even taking into account an added VAT to be paid when returning home) with nothing Earth shattering. However, you must remember that haggling is standard practice here. Some advice:
Know the European price of the item you want to buy (not to be taken by a bad price in the heat of the moment),
Know the exact Euro-Yuan conversion rate (everything is paid cash in Yuans (or RMB) which is currently about 10 yuans for 1 euro),
Ask for the price in simple English (”for this, how much?”),
The sales people will show it on the screen of a desktop calculator. You can make a counter proposal just by typing a different value on the same desktop calculator (a 5% discount seems to be standard). If the sale is possible, a frank smile will be enough and an exchange of “OK” will be clear.
Always keep in hand the item you’re interested in. Don’t let the sales guy go to the back of the shop (to pack it, or something). There is always the risk seeing him/her returning with a different product than the one you paid for.
People are very welcoming and even customers proposed to assist me and shopkeepers not speaking English. Many people where genuinely interested in knowing where I came from, what I wanted to find, etc.
Speaking of bargains, I saw a few things that could interest Minolta and Sony DSLR lovers like me: The last 3 floors host a large number of second-hand shops of relatively good quality. Plenty of equipment from all the brands you could expect and a few more… Examples of Minolta second hand lenses:
Minolta Apo G 300mm/2.8 for 17,500 RMB, including the original hard box and in good condition (a fair bargain if you don’t count VAT)
Minolta Apo G 600mm/4 for 38,000 RMB, without the original hard box, but in perfect condition (60% of normal eBay price, plus VAT. A great bargain for a several kilos of glass and metal)
Minolta 1.4x converter for 1,800 RMB, like new (a fair price)
Sony 2x converter for 3,200 RMB (not so great, even for a near perfect piece)
So, you can dig and find a few good things. Or you can run for the shops specializing in lighting equipment (fourth floor). Or you can look for the designer’s Leica shop on the last floor. Or you can shop around for a half-priced tripod (all brands are available plus a few good local copies).
Conclusion, for now
Shanghai is a neat place to be if you love big cities and skyscrappers. Tourism is quite pleasant there and hundreds of thousands of expatriates (and more tourists from all over the world) have made the local people really welcoming.
Click on the thumbnails if you want to access the larger versions
Are you looking for information and news about digital
photogaphy and digital SLR cameras?
They are now grouped again in my new web site YLovePhoto.com.
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