Movie Review: Red

Red
Earlier this year a movie was released based on a DC property. It was an action movie that told the story of a number of special operations forces who got betrayed by the US government and now are out to clear their names of all wrongdoings, and to kill the man who ordered their deaths. Not so long ago a movie was released based on a DC property about an ex-CIA agent who has a kill order placed on him by the US government because… well, there wasn’t really any good reason. The former movie was the entertaining, but forgettable, Losers and the latter was the entertaining, but much less forgettable, Red.

Now, bear in mind, I liked Losers quite a bit, but I freely admit a lot of that comes from my fondness for the source material (which is far superior). At the end of the day, though, it was a run-of-the-mill actioner with very little to set it apart (though destroying the jet with a motorcycle was pretty cool). Red, for all intents and purposes, is in the exact same situation, except it has two things going for it that Losers didn’t: Helen Mirren and John Malkovich.

Of the two Malkovich is the far more bombastic character; being subjected to daily doses of LCD by the CIA for eleven years can have that effect. He gets most of the best lines and the laugh-out-loud moments of the movies. You will either find him exceedingly irritating or wildly amusing. I suspect there isn’t much middle ground.

Helen Mirren’s character, though, is the one that interested me. Far too often hitmen (or women) are portrayed either as coldly-professional angst-muffins (see: Jason Bourne or the current Bond), or homicidal psychopaths. It’s pretty rare these days to see an assassin who is both at peace with what they do, but able to have a normal life outside of the job. Helen Mirren has that character here. Equally at home having ‘girl talk’ with Red’s resident damsel-in-distress, Mary-Louise Parker, or manning a mounted 50-caliber machine gun, Mirren is a likeable and engaging character. She steals pretty much any scene she’s in (yes, even the ones with insane Malkovich in them).

Of course that’s not to discount Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman – both of whom are on top of their game, but don’t seem to be doing anything particularly new here – and nor does Richard Dreyfuss (in a surprising role), but there’s nothing here for any of those named that puts them apart from any number of other films they’ve done (okay, maybe Dreyfuss is a bit against type). They all play the weary ex-operative roles very well, but that may well be because they’ve done that role a few times before.

If I haven’t talked about the story it’s because you already know the story, and can probably even recite each plot twist before it happens simply by reading the plot summary on IMDB. It’s a by-the-number affair executed about as well as a movie of this type can be. There’s good action sequences, particularly in the dock yard (which, incidentally, is also where Loser’s best sequences come into play, as well). The movie knows when to embrace its own absurdity, such as Malkovich facing down a middle-aged woman wielding an RPG, and when to play it straight. Sure it only gives a small nod to the source material (Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss and John Malkovich wouldn’t have roles in the film otherwise), but it’s a fun popcorn movie that’s worth relaxing to for an hour and a half.

A Trip to the South

Traveling to Gaithersburg, MD on Monday afternoon I have to admit I had virtually no idea what to expect from the company that had paid for my trip and lodging to get out there for four days this past week. One of the workers there, who we'll call Mike (not his real name), was known to me since he had been a former Daniel Webster (DWC) student while I was there. His boss, Steve (also not his real name), was the main force behind all this and the man who had arranged my tickets and hotel rooms, but I had never met him and had only exchanged two or three emails with him.

I arrived at the office a little bit early, despite some dodgy Gaithersburg streets and poor directions. Walking in I found a well furnished meeting room with snack sized bags of oreos and chips'a'hoy cookies sitting in a bowl in the middle of a large table, and an HD television sitting at the far end. I wandered in, but encountered no one. I walked down one hall, aimlessly, and found no one... another hall, and still no one. I wondered if I had the time wrong, but peeking into two more rooms revealed Mike working away at a familiar looking computer console running the same air traffic control (ATC) training software that I had been using for the past year at DWC.

The two of us got to work pretty much right off, going over the plan for the rest of the week. The general gist is that we would work a joint radar exercise with Mike working the entire radar sector for ten minutes before we split into him running approach and departure control (feeder), and me directing the planes in on the last few miles of their arrival (final). It wasn't a particularly difficult problem, but it wasn't supposed to be: the purpose was to show off what the software could do, not what we could do. My portion of the problem started with a trio of planes essentially looking to land at the same time, and then getting three or four more planes trickling in as the exercise wound down.



The above is a rough representation of my first portion of the exercise. All three planes, left to their own devices, would pretty much connect in a spectacular aluminum shower somewhere northwest of the airport. My initial reaction was to throw Chataqua in front with Cactus behind him and close out with N1KA, with the next batch of planes arriving just as N1KA was lining up for his final approach. It turned out that this caused Chataqua and Cactus to come in too close to each other, so I ultimately decided to put Cactus in front, followed by N1KA and Chataqua bringing up the rear.



We ran the problem about five times and called it a night. Steve popped in at some point, as well as his boss, and we all went to dinner before retiring to the inn (except for Mike, who was local) and going to bed. The next day the problems would begin.

While trying to fine tune the problem we made some changes to planes that wouldn't affect me, but the tinkering would eventually cause N1KA to stop responding to anything. We ran the problem several times, even replacing N1KA with a new plane entirely, but we just could not get the plane to respond at all. Going back to a previous save worked for a while, but making one absolutely trivial change brought the problem right back to the forefront. Since we couldn't get it fixed, and we were trying to show off the program at its best, we decided to delete the plane entirely. This made my task (already simple) exceptionally easy. Sequencing two planes is practically the first thing we learn. We ran that version of the problem about ten times, including three times where we recorded it to be played on an iPad's video player, before packing everything up into a series of boxes and trucking off to Arlington, VA (my hometown).



Mike and I arrived in Rosslyn County late that night – Steve and his boss remained one more night in Gaithersburg – and checked into our new hotel rooms... with a free upgrade to suites (very nice) for reasons beyond my ken. If you've never had the 'pleasure' of visiting Rosslyn, picture this: someone transplanted a five or six square mile segment of New York City high rises, cleaned it up a lot, and then built a modern day hobbit shire under it. It's rather surreal. I stayed on the 10th floor of the hotel, which gave a beautiful view of Washington DC and the Potomac River, but just about every store in the area is built either underground or into the side of hills. For instance, there's a full Mobil station with stop'n'shop eatery built under a church, but still just a single, level turn off the main road.

It's a strange place.

The next day was relaxed by most standards, we had an appointment at the meeting room where we would present our program to setup our gear and make sure it all worked with the equipment we had brought. We had a few blips, but nothing serious. We ran the problem one time (now somewhere near our thirtieth total run, counting aborted attempts of trying to get N1KA to respond) and left. I spent most of the rest of the day reading.

Thursday, the day of truth, was when we would make our presentation to an unknown number of people working for a major aerospace company and certain ranking officers within the FAA. We arrived at our appointed time, only to find that the groups before us were running behind (no surprise) and so we sat around twiddling our thumbs for a good half hour before getting on with the show.

Testing the equipment quickly before the presentation revealed no flaws, so away we went. Steve's boss introduced us and laid out the point of the exercise, which took about five minutes, and then we started.

I had a very hard time looking professional, given that my task for ten minutes boiled down to “not fidgeting”, which of course meant itches popped up all over my body. Such is the way of things. The program started well, with the system responding exactly as it should... until Mike called up Chataqua 19...

Mike: Chataqua 19, Manchester Approach, descend and maintain 6000.

Chataqua 19: Say again

Mike: Chataqua 19, Manchester Approach, descend and maintain 6000.

Chataqua 19: Say again.

Audience: *muffled laughter* (though not malicious, more “yeah, I've been there...” chuckles)

Me: (to myself) Ffffffffuuuuuuuu...

Mike gave up for a bit before trying again. Same results. He decided to leave Chataqua alone for the rest of the problem. Suddenly I'm down to one plane. Now, normally I'd be thrilled. One plane? Are you kidding? Let me go home and get my cats, they'll direct this plane in for me... But not really in this case, since this was a great chance to do some showing off for the FAA. Mind you I wasn't wired with a microphone like Mike was, but still. Ah well, not that big a deal in the scheme of things.

The rest of the problem ran smoothly, with Cactus being sequenced in absolutely perfectly behind the last plane Mike controlled, some fifteen miles ahead of him (the ideal is to get them around three miles apart). I got one of my trickle jets coming in just as Steve determined that we were starting to lose the crowd, and had Mike shut it down. At the end of the day this is what I did...



Honestly I was a bit disappointed that I didn't really get to show off at all, but so what? I essentially got a four day paid vacation (plus three days spent at my parent's home prior to that) and a chance to play with the next generation of ATC training software that DWC uses. It was a great experience all around, and the real goal of the exercise – showing off the software to investors – was a resounding success as everyone in the room seemed genuinely impressed by what they saw. I might have asked to do things a bit differently if I were to do it again, but I'm satisfied with the trip on the whole.

Busy, Busy (and me in a pirate costume)

As I sit here in Rosslyn -- a county in Arlington, VA that is something like a proof-of-concept for what a modern hobbit village would look like -- I reflect on the coming days, and the the last week. Traveling to my old home city of Arlington has been an interesting experience, partly because of my adventures on this particular trip, and partly because I deign to make the trip as rarely as possible outside of family events and holidays. But this particular story does not start there.

On Thursday of last week, the 23rd of September, I traveled from my studies in Nashua, NH to the airport in Manchester, NH... but not to begin my travels to Arlington. No, based temporarily at Manchester was a wing of old World War 2 era airplanes -- a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator, a P-51 Mustang (training variant) and a T-6 trainer. I had, several weeks prior, booked a 30-minute flight on the B-17 in question, and after a brief walk around of the planes on display I entered said B-17 and took that flight. I will speak more on that adventure in a later post.

On Friday I returned to Manchester airport, this time with the intent to head for Arlington. Normally I make the hop from Manchester to Baltimore, MD, which then concludes with an hour long drive home (normally with one of my parents picking me up, so a two hour trip for them). This time, though, my flight was paid for by a third party, so I determined to fly into Reagan National Airport, which is mere minutes from my parents' home (it's so close that if I call my parents immediately after landing, they can get to the airport from home just as I exit the arrivals door). Having not flown into or out of Reagan in a long time I had forgotten how particularly unique that approach is. Depending on which side of the plane you're on you get either an excellent view of the monuments in DC and the Smithsonian, or a sobering view of the National Cemetery, crowned by the Lee House. Both sides of the plane are treated to an extreme closeup view of the Pentagon.

Saturday I ventured out to visit with my friend Bill Brooks, his wife and son, and his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. We departed from there to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which was celebrating Pirate Weekend. We were all dressed up in pirate costumes, including Bill's two-year old son -- his stroller had a covering that made it look like a boat, with an included plush anchor, that was hand-designed by his mother-in-law... who also made most of the costumes (except her own, strangely enough). I shall saw, though, that it was NOT a good day to be wearing full-length sleeves and long pants... but my margin to complain is minimal since the women had it even worse. Nevertheless we braved the sweltering heat and had a merry time at the festival, with Bill's son winning second place in a children's costume contest.



Then on Monday I left Arlington for Gaithersburg, MD to meet up with a former classmate of mine and his boss, who were now part of the company that designed the radar simulation equipment that Daniel Webster uses for its air traffic control lab. That adventure is currently ongoing, culminating in a presentation before 30-odd members of Raytheon and the FAA tomorrow evening. I will write more about this later, though exactly what I'm allowed to reveal might be rather restricted.

After tomorrow's activities I will proceed back to Nashua for the foreseeable future, except for a stop in Boston on Saturday. The musical "Wicked" is currently touring in Boston, and though I've seen it in Chicago before, it is such an enjoyable musical that I have determined to watch it while it is relatively local. I plan to also enjoy the Boston Aquarium while I am there. I doubt I will post on it, but know that I am rather looking forward to the whole trip, despite taking place in Boston (I will be taking the train into town rather than attempting to drive through that cesspool of traffic jams).

And that is my past week in summary (excluding my frequent excursions to attempt to conquer the world in the newly-release "Civilization 5")

And We're Back

My blog over in Crankyville is having some technical issues* that I need to sort out, so for the next bit I'll be back to updating here. Actually I'll probably just stick to updating here as it's a bit easier and I have a nifty app on my iPad which lets me make posts from there. Shiny.

*So I updated WordPress to the latest version which broke one of the plug-ins I had installed, however the break was so big that it actually affects the admin side as well... meaning I can't disable the plug-in. I figured I could do that manually by jumping into the mySQL database and hitting the toggle there, but apparently when I hit my bookmark I accidentally tagged my login for the entire websites administration rather than for my SQL administration... which have two different logins and passwords. So I'm trying to login into the admin using my SQL user/pass and manage to lock myself out of my website. Completely. I cannot access any facet of finite-eternity.com from my home network. I can from any other network, but since I don't spend much time on outside networks (at least, not in a capacity that gives me time to do personal work), so I haven't gotten the issue fixed yet. Hopefully I'll work on it some this weekend when I'm at my folks' place.

Movie Review: The Losers

Posted at Blog of Inanity -- comments may be posted using openid or facebook profile.

NHL Playoffs 2010 Round One

My absurd write up on the upcoming round 1 of the NHL Playoffs posted here: Blog of Innanity

You can now post comments using your facebook profile or open id. I'll see if I can figure out how to make blogger/blogspot work, too

Review: Heavy Rain

Post at my primary blog site.

My other blog now allows you to leave comments using your facebook account login, so no need to signup for yet another superfluous website :)

An Aviation School Without an Aviation Program

Cross posted at Blog of Inanity.

Daniel Webster College announced suddenly today that their Flight Operations program is no longer going to be offered to incoming students, although current Flight Ops majors will be able to finish the program through the school. I have had most of the day to mull this over and the initial shock of the announcement has largely subsided, so it's time to look at this rationally as much as possible. First and foremost, however, is that this does not directly impact me nor any of my ATC classmates.

In regards to the decision itself there isn't much to say, it's a purely financial decision and in truth it is probably a long time coming. Before ITT bought Daniel Webster the college was reportedly some 25 million in debt; I don't care how you cut it, that's a whole lot of debt. I don't have access to the financial sheets, but I'd bet a good portion of that comes from the flight ops portion of the school. Learning to fly is expensive, both for the students and for the schools. It's no secret that DWC charges almost three times the rates of standard, non-degree based flight schools, but they also have a significant amount more expenses. Clearly DWC was ill-advised financially to be continuing the program, no matter what tradition might dictate.

The core downside with dropping flight ops, though, is the impact that it has on the other aviation programs, like ATC, and the perception of the school in general. Daniel Webster is primarily known as an aviation school and now they don't have an aviation program, so what is their selling point? They also have a business program and are developing nursing and education programs, but what separates them from the hundreds of cookie-cutter schools out there that offer these programs... and at a significantly lower price? The other part of this is that the other aviation programs thrive off of the people who drop out of flight ops (for a variety of legitimate reasons), and that source is now gone. I don't know how many people this covers, but I do know that a good portion of the current 315 class (of which I am part) are former flight ops. While I wasn't a member of Daniel Webster's flight ops the reason I decided to follow ATC was because I was introduced to it as a pilot, and that's a common theme among many ATC students (though not all... some of my classmates have never been in a plane smaller than a 737).

The other factor here is that even though all current students will be provided with the resources they need to graduate from Daniel Webster, how many of the Freshmen and Sophomores will want to? Furthermore how many of the instructors will want to stick around? I'm sure they'll do their best, but no one wants to remain on a sinking ship any longer than they have to. The simple feeling of betrayal which was clearly prevalent in this morning's town hall meeting will drive students away even if the other factors weren't in play. It's bad press for the school on the whole.

The last piece of this puzzle comes with the incoming flight ops majors in the Fall... or rather the lack of them. Although an olive branch was extended to the current flight ops majors at DWC, those who enrolled in the Spring to join DWC in the Fall are SOL. They will be or have been informed by letter of the removal of the flight ops program, and given the option to transfer to another department (three guesses as to how many will take them up on the offer). I wouldn't be surprised if we lost a lot of inbound students who aren't flight ops majors simply because it sounds like such a sketchy move.

However, at the end of the day the number crunches factored in all these things and still said that they were losing more money on the flight ops program than it was worth. No matter how much it may suck for flight ops majors DWC had to make the call, and they did. The students may bitch, moan and kvetch about how ITT is screwing up DWC, but it was DWC that made the call in this case. There may have been pressure from the ITT executives to some degree, true, but the blame should not fall at their feet. There have been rumors about the flight program being canceled since at least May 2009, well before ITT bought out the school.

DWC was in debt long before ITT came along and this would have happened sooner or later. ITT may be the "bad guys" here (though they aren't), but it was DWC's poor financial planning that got everyone in this situation to begin with. I know some students have said that the would have preferred to see DWC be financially ruined (which it already was) than to lose the flight ops program, but that's largely a knee-jerk reaction. Schools, like everything else, have to adapt to survive. Will DWC remain the school that attracted us all to it in the first place? No, it won't, and that is a HUGE loss, far more than any financial spreadsheet can account for. But it is ultimately up to the students to determine what the atmosphere at DWC will be moving forward from this, no matter what ITT might want. ITT may be altering DWC in many strange ways over the next several months, but credit where credit is due: the fault for this cut lies at the feet of Daniel Webster College.

What really irks me, though, is how they informed all of us that they had made this call. Before 8 AM this morning no one had the slightest clue what was coming down the pike. A cryptic email was sent to all students informing them that classes from 10 AM to noon were canceled and that aviation students should report to the auditorium at 10 and all other students at 11. There was no hint at all what this would be about except that it probably involved the aviation school. Apparently the psychology majors also flipped out since a rumor went around saying their program was going to be cut, too. Many classes after the 10-12 time frame were canceled simply because of the emotional stress of the whole ordeal.

The people who should have had answers for us didn't, the people who should have let us know things were happening didn't, and no one did anything to temper the rumor mill. The greatest sin, in my mind, comes from Interim President Nadine Dowling. Generally speaking a president, even an interim one, needs to be able to communicate with their constituents in both positive and negative forums. President Dowling showed that she does not have that ability. Yes, she had the unenviable task of breaking very bad news to a crowd of people who turned very hostile on her, very fast. But, she handled the situation so incredibly poorly that what little respect I had for her evaporated.

President Dowling needed to be able to do two things to survive this town hall intact: give straight answers and take responsibility, if not for herself than at least for the board of directors she represents. While it's true that great leaders are excellent wordsmiths who can artfully evade any question they don't want to answer, they also know when it's time to come clean. Just as a general clue, when someone says repeatedly, "you aren't answering my question" and refuses to budge until you answer it, it's probably time to give them a straight answer. At the very least try a different evasion tactic if you must and don't try to use the exact same answer each time. Trust me: it's not going to work.

The other aspect, taking responsibility, was also not handled well at all. Once it became clear that the crowd was out for blood (did anyone really expect otherwise?) President Dowling threw the head of the aviation department, Professor Price, under the bus and left him for the lynch mob. By virtually all reports Professor Price did not in anyway deserve to be cast as the villain in this tale, and that's exactly what President Dowling attempted to do (and succeeded at to a certain degree). I consider that reckless and irresponsible. It's the President's job to protect those under him or her and to take the heat when it is warranted.

President Dowling may be an amazing administrator who can work miracles in back-office politics. Perhaps she can make budgets balance themselves with but a few short keystrokes. Or maybe she just has great blackmail material. I don't know. But what I do know is that she has no public presence to speak of (this was the first time most students, including myself, have even seen her) and she can't handle herself in an open forum by any stretch. We do know that she's in the front running for becoming the full President of Daniel Webster College, and it is that thought more than any other that really disturbs me.

Movie Review: Ponyo

Crossposted at http://blog.finite-eternity.com/?p=225

The latest offering from Studio Ghibli and legendary film animator Hayao Miyazaki is a G-Rated tale of a fish who wants to become a human. The fish, Ponyo (Noah Cyrus), is the daughter of underwater spirit Fujimoto (Liam Neeson) and Gran Mamare (Cate Blanchett) who encounters a young human boy named Sosuke (Frankie Jonas) who takes her in and takes care of her, despite her extremely odd appearance. The story that follows is a straight-forward affair that is equal parts Little Mermaid and Pinocchio as Ponyo tries to stay human while her father tries to bring her home.

Ponyo is without a doubt one of the purest expressions of the core concepts that Miyazaki has been utilizing for years. There's lots of alusions to the damage humans have done to the environment without quite becoming heavy handed or preachy (though it is close at times), there's a 'villain' who isn't evil, but rather misguided, and there are characters who accept absolutely fantastic concepts like water gods and goldfish becoming humans without the slightest bat of an eye. It's not the best Miyazaki story out there, but it is one of the more charming ones. Just like Kiki's Delivery Service there's no particularly major conflict to the story, it's just a journey of discovery. Even the disaster of a tidal wave absorbing all the city does little to dispel everyone's good mood, and the structures and roadworks now beneath the waves are entirely unscathed by the encounter. It's one of those idealistic and absurd events that only a select few could possibly pull off, and Miyazaki is one of the best of them.

Which isn't to say that the story is absolutely perfect, this is very clearly a kid's movie through and through. We're not talking Dora the Explorer levels of simplicity here, but at the same time this is not an overly complex story. The only shades of gray in the story come from Fujimoto, who is the nominal villain of the story although he's not evil, just overbearing. He's ultimately motivated to (over)protect his daughter from what he perceives as the corrupted human world, but aside from his tidal wave never does anything outwardly aggressive (yes, in real life a tidal wave would be an extremely aggressive act, but here it's just one of those things and no one really cares beyond the fact that it's an inconvenience). Even when he could do evil and nasty things he doesn't, he simply wants to protect Ponyo and he steps aside with no protest when it becomes clear that she wants to continue to walk the path of humanity. Cackling, ranting villain he is not.

At the end of the day if you've never seen a Miyazaki film before there are worse places to start, but there are also better (Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky come to mind). If you are caring for a youngish child that you need to distract for a while Ponyo should more than get the job done, and you won't be bored in the process. All told it's cute, it's enjoyable, it's richly animated and it's largely cynic free (which is a refreshing change every once in a while, even for a Cranky Kitty like me).

Monday, February 1, 2010

Irish Controllers Strike

(Cross posted with new blog location at Finite-Eternity.com)

In an interesting bit of ATC revolt, Irish air traffic controllers threatened to strike recently after 14 of their fellow controllers were suspended for refusing to work with new technology. This is not a particularly new thing for controllers to refuse to do -- many of the so-called NextGen systems the FAA is working on are reportedly rather crap, and can even be significantly less safe than the systems they're replacing. I don't know how ICAO (the international analogue of the FAA, although unrelated) and the IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) are handling the upgrading and reinvention of the ATC backbone, but from the sounds in Ireland they're developing along similar tracks. If the equipment they're boycotting is unsafe (and I do not know that it is... controllers can be just as fearful of new tech as anyone else, whether warranted or not) then I agree with their stand.

The meat of the story, however, is that news leaked out that the Irish controllers, through their union called IMPACT, is also demanding a pay raise. Now, as an ATC hopeful I should probably raise my fists and demand better job pay, but the fact is once you get past a certain annual pay (which I arbitrarily set at around $70k) your right to bitch about not being paid enough plummets rather rapidly. Irish Controllers average about €115,000 per year (roughly $160,000 on the current exchange rate), so I don't think I can hold much sympathy for them on this particular claim.

After grounding more than 20,000 fliers the IAA and IMPACT went to the bargaining table and the 14 controllers who started this whole thing are back at work. A ruling was filed by the labor court, however, which said that (paraphrased) the controllers should shut up about the new equipment since it's a regular part of evolving the air traffic control system. The same court, a few days later, recommended that the IAA buck up and increase ATC pay by 6%, in two phases. The first phase, with a 3.5% pay increase, would go into use by January next year and the second phase, with 2.5%, would start in July 2011. Both would have back-pay included back to the 2009.

What a big mess. The question still remains, though, of what equipment the controllers didn't want to use.

The iPad, and Alternatives

So... the iPad... atrocious name. Yeah... moving on.

I'm not going to bother going over the specs and all that rot, I'm simply going to go over my own thought process on it. I've been in the market for a portable note-taking / media device for a long, long time. Pretty much for as long as I can remember, really. My iPhone suffices fairly well on the media side of things, but the ability to take easy notes on an easy to transfer medium (i.e. digital) is really what I've always wanted. The iPad doesn't offer that, though there is a degree of potential within the app community. The lack of a stylus input is huge in this regard.

The other major factor of the iPad for me is the eReader functionality. In theory sticking it on the iPad is very good for me, but in practice it's not all that great. I already own a substantial collection of ebooks, but they're primarily in the LRF/LRX system (Sony's proprietary format). There are no app store apps that read LRF/LRX that I'm aware of, and I doubt that Sony is going to want to release their eReader software on a competing format (it took them more than a year to release the book purchasing software for the Mac). I'm sure there are plenty of third-party converters out there, but I don't know that the hassle is worth it. On the other hand, Sony has done away with DRM on most of their books so batch converting might not actually be that hard.

What balances most of that out is the not inconsiderable weight of the App Store. Without the App Store the iPhone is just a snazzy phone with a few cool features, but with the app store it's a wunderkind that's able to handle just about anything. Now, in fairness, most of the games on it simply blow, but with a good sized display the potential is there. Traditional RPGs and SRPGs could thrive on the iPad, though there hasn't been much support yet (Square has announced planned releases for Final Fantasies 1 & 2, which could really get the ball rolling). Most of the major companies have scorned the iPhone (with a few notable exceptions, like EA porting a few solid titles like Need for Speed: Shift), but the independent market has been screaming for YEARS for someone to give them their fair shot at the big time, and the iStore offers just that. Low development costs could also entice companies to put out more experimental games on the system as a test-bed, or low cost continuations of existing series (EA tried this with Mass Effect: Galaxy... unfortunately the game blew, but it was a noble effort). Where episodic or dlc content has thus far really failed to take the world by storm, it could very well succeed on the iStore. And that's not even going into all the extremely useful utilitarian apps the store already has.

For my money the MSI Tegra-2 or the Cydle M7 seem like they might work out as better bets ($500 and $200, respecitvely). Although, in truth, what I really need is a Boogie Board Paperless Tablet, just with options for saving whatever I write rather than being a high-tech etch-a-sketch.

Unfortunately none of these options really cover what I'm looking for, but a few days after the Apple announcement the 8.9 inch ExoPC Tablet was announced with a 1.6ghz processor and 2GB ram. It also runs on Windows 7 and it's 32gb harddrive is expandable with a standard SD slot (a huge advantage). The fact that it runs Win7 and not Android, or the iPhone OS, is a big advantage since that means I can (in theory) download the Sony eReader software and read using that on the tablet, plus I might even be able to get it to run PC games that I have through Steam (no CD-Rom drive means I couldn't load up, say FFXI, but that's not that big a deal since the GPU probably can't handle all that much beyond Tinker or Peggle anyway (there's no word on what the GPU is, so no way of knowing it's capability... it would be really sweet if I could load FFXI on it though). No other details are really out about it just now, but if it has stylus support than this sounds like it'll be the one for me. It's also out in March and retails at the same price for the equivalent iPad 32gb hd (without 3G). I will be watching this one very closely.

The PiperSport Announced

Piper announced that they would be re-entering the market they helped invent, the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA). Rather than design a new plane from the ground up – or just modify their venerable Cherokee – they purchased the rights to Czech-based CZAW SportCruiser. It’s an interesting move for Piper since, on one hand, it’s not really their aircraft so they lose a bit of the credibility if it takes off big. The PiperSport will initially ship with only minor modifications, mostly in terms of changes required for FAA regulations as opposed to ICAO regulations (which are minimal), and an upgraded avionics package including optional autopilot. On the other hand it saves them years of research and design to put them on almost equal footing with Cessna and their C-162 Skycatcher, which should begin production later this year.

The SportCruiser hasn’t sold particularly well, but flight tests made by Piper and independent pilots suggest that it is actually a good plane with no known flaws. The design is already roughly similar to Piper’s Cherokee, so Piper is certainly planning to market this as a gateway to bigger Piper aircraft, or as a hobby plane for pilots of bigger craft who want a plane they can take into the air with less prep time. Based on videos and pictures it’s actually a pretty sleek little plane they’ve acquired, too, and that can’t hurt their prospects.

Currently the biggest mainstream competition on the LSA market is the aforementioned Skycatcher, and it should be interesting to see how the two compete. A fair bit of the competition will come down strictly to brand loyalty, both Piper and Cessna have been in the game so long that they each have their fanboys who will swear by nothing but their personal favorite… and their kids and grandkids will, too. It’s true that companies like Diamond have been eating into the market lately with some truly impressive aircraft (like the DA20 and DA40), but at the end of the day the Big Two still lead the way. There’s plenty of room in the LSA market for all the children to have their fun.

Of course the LSA market isn’t quite like the regular aircraft market. Companies like Cessna and Piper have made their way by offering entry level planes for decades, and then offering bigger and better planes – like the Citations and Seminoles – to more avid flight enthusiasts. There will always be a market for the bigger planes, for the people who can afford them, but the fact is that the vast majority of pilots will never fly anything more powerful than a Cessna 172. Thus we’re looking at the biggest market segment out there, but the LSA competes directly with that market.

If your customers want a twin-engine turboprop plane there aren’t that many options on the field, so you won’t have to do an incredible amount of marketing if you happen to want to sell one. If you are trying to sell a single prop LSA, though, then you have to compete directly with not just other LSAs, but also every other single-prop plane on the market… and some of the older ones are really cheap (relatively speaking). A brand new LSA will cost around $125,000 all in, whereas you can get a used Piper Cherokee for around $35,000-$40,000 easy. Of course, you might not want to… there’s a lot to be said for vintage, but I personally want to know that I’m not going to have to overhaul my entire plane to make sure it can fly safely.

The LSA market is also much more open to smaller developers, including ones who previously only dabbled in Ultra-lite aircraft (a whole different market entirely, but still similar). Sadler, for instance, made a name for itself in the early 80s with its SV-1 Vampire ultralite, and now they’re taking the basic frame of the SV-1 and turning it into a full on LSA (and, might I add, it looks really sexy). It’s a huge market, and growing bigger. The PiperSport has its work cut out for it, but the brand name should help significantly. I’ll be watching the LSA market wars with significant interest.

NASA Presents... The Puffin

NASA has come up with bat**** crazy ideas in their time, but their newest product, the Puffin, is certainly rating pretty high on that list. It's simply a rendering at this point, but the very idea of a personal VTOL aircraft for every house pretty much fills me with terror. I don't trust most people to ride a bike correctly (and I'm talking about the manual kind), let alone an aircraft. Hell, if it were up to me about 3/4ths of the car licenses in America would get revoked today.

Let's put that aside for a moment and look at the actual tech, though. NASA is promising a battery driven, propeller operated personal aircraft. The projected aircraft is about 12 feet tall with a 13 foot wingspan, but with a very slender fuselage design. The electric power is important since traditional airplane engines, whether they be jet or propeller, rely on air intake to work properly (the oxygen in the air acts an enriching agent allowing combustion within the engine) and an electric engine does not need that. We don't use batteries to fully power planes, though, because the technology for batteries that can put out the kind of power to keep an airplane in flight just doesn't exist... yet. There are a lot of prototype and proof-of-concept models out there for small, electrical aircraft, but nothing feasible has yet been produced.

The other major advantage to NASA's design is that it is ultra quiet, thanks to the lack of combustion. That combined with its projected 150 mph cruising speed (with a top speed said to be around 300 mph) actually makes this a really nice aircraft for travel. It is hindered by it's mere 50 mile range, but this is supposed to be a commuter aircraft that you would theoretically use to get to work or to run errands.

The viability of this comes down, ultimately, to the threshold of competence required to operate the Puffin. NASA will, of course, want to have a low threshold so it can push more units, but in the interest of public safety I really think it should be set somewhere around the level of sport pilot (the lowest pilot rating you can get, it still takes a good 20-25 hours to earn at the absolute least). But, given that you can fly an Ultra-Lite without any license, even a driver's license, I suspect it'll be on the low end. And that, quite honestly, scares me.

I am, however, amused that they would name it after a bird very closely related to penguins, a bird which cannot fly.

Boeing Restores a Lockheed Clipper

Boeing recently announced that it has acquired an old Lockheed Constellation (a "Connie") that they are restoring and moving to their Seattle based Museum of Flight. This particular plane flew for Trans-Canada Airlines -- the company that would become Air Canada in 1965 -- before being converted into, of all things, a restaurant in Toronto. It has spent the last twenty years or so gathering rust before Boeing stepped in to save it. The Canadian government wanted to keep the plane in Canada, but no companies stepped forward to pay for the restoration work and it eventually was granted to Boeing. The plane should be on display in Seattle before the end of the year.

The Constellations served for a short time in the US military just before the end of World War 2, but saw the majority of its use as an elegant airliner from 1945 to 1967. It was a distinctive aircraft with its triple tail-fin design and sleek, often customized, cabin. That cabin was also the first to be pressurized which gave the plane a longer range and was more comfortable for the passengers. Another side effect was that it was cheaper to fly -- flying higher eats less fuel and often results in faster flights -- and the savings were passed on to the customers. It primarily saw use as a trans-oceanic plane that only needed to stop once or twice when crossing the Atlantic. Despite continual modifications by Lockheed over the years the Constellation was eventually replaced by the new jetliners like the Boeing 707 and DC-8.

I personally think it's a great gesture by Boeing to restore such a noteworthy aircraft built by one of their greatest rivals (the two companies were most recently going head-to-head to earn the contract that would eventually lead to the F-35 Lightning II). The Constellation is an important part of aviation history, and a huge contributor to making air travel, as we know it today, viable. Boeing says that their next major restoration project will be a Boeing 314 "Clipper" (the flying boat) that they plan to recover from the waters near Hawaii. No restored B-314's currently exist anywhere in the world (only 12 were ever made, and all have been destroyed or scuttled).