Oh, it's been such a long time. And there's nothing much to write. Anyway my simulator exam sessions, or PFT, are scheduled this Thursday and Friday. Have to study a lot.
By the way, my Twitter timeline gets updated more often so you might want to check that out.
As mentioned in my earlier entry about logger device. I'd enjoyed using it for a while but unfortunately I'd lost it in Dubai. -_- Well, I turned it on while sitting in a cab and thought it might get better satellite reception if put in the back of the seat, near the windshield. Then when I got to the place I just jumped off, leaving the tracker behind...
It's a Gisteq Phototrackr unit. It's based on Nemerix chipset and supports 16 channels tracking. My experience with it was good. Almost all the time it's got accurate position. Supplied program, Phototrackr, did a great job downloading data and geocoding photos. It also associated photos to Google Map, letting you see exactly where they were taken.
To be able to continue tracking my photos, I've bought another tracker, this time it's Holux M-241, and it just arrived today.
This M-241 has got a MTK chipset which supports 32 channels tracking. It has a display on it which can show its status, position, etc, and can be used to edit its settings. And it's 30 bucks cheaper than my previous Gisteq. However, it doesn't have extensive software support like the Phototrackr. From my research through the net, there are a few people using it and someone's already posted an alternate solution, so I thought it'd be ok to get it.
Will give it a test run for a few days. More on this later.
Ref: Star King #8 - Five Year Old Blind Genius Pianist (en) on YouTube.
She is amazing!! Blind since she's born. At the age of 3 she heard her mother sing and can play the song right away.
See her 2nd appearance in the show here.
I've just got a new digital SLR camera--the Nikon D300. Took me a long time to finally make the decision (I was about to buy a DSLR when D200 was out to the market, that's a few years now).
After playing with it for a while, I'm getting used to its functions and controls. Quite different from my previous F90x which was bought about 13 years ago back in 1995. It's a nice camera, with good quality images comparing to affordable price.
See some pictures at my flickr page or click picture below.
BMW on the road
Originally uploaded by bitslice.
Watch it tonight 8pm Thailand time on AXN. Last episode of the series. 2 hours.
For rerun schedule, check out axn-asia.com.
On Saturday March 1st, a Lufthansa Airbus A320 made a crosswind landing at Hamburg airport. With strong gust during its final stage of approach, just before touchdown, the aircraft almost had a wingstrike. Watch the video on YouTube.
News article: 24 year-old Co-Pilot Steered The Lufthansa Airbus A320.
Note: People are still misunderstanding that only the pilot (captain) can fly the aircraft. That's not true. Co-pilot (First Officer) can also fly the aircraft, takeoffs and landings, however with final decisions made and assisted by Captain.
The captain, as a Pilot-in-Command (PIC), is responsible for overall aircraft operations and safety. However, he doesn't need to be the one who fly the aircraft. (Read wiki:Pilot in command above.)
For most modern 2-crew airliners, flying is divided into 2 roles, PF (Pilot Flying, or piloting pilot) and PNF (Pilot Not Flying, or pilot monitoring). PF, as the name says, flies the aircraft. And PNF monitors flight parameters and assists PF in whatever he needs.
PF/PNF roles can be switched, i.e. if the captain is a PF, then the co-pilot is PNF, or vice versa.
Photo sharing website Flickr introduced its new service, Video on Flickr. Videos are limited to 90 seconds, and only pro members can upload right now.
Flickr also recently increased picture upload limit to 20MB/pic for pro members, and 10MB/pic for regular members.
Check out the following sample video:
Recently Google has teamed up with Virgin to offer an opportunity to the public to participate in their newest project: a human colony on Mars!
For thousands of years,Check out Virgle now!
the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world's every last nook, cranny and subdivision.
An invitation.
Earth has issues, and it's time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.
Originally uploaded by bitslice
Before, when uploading photos to Flickr, I had to manually edit each picture's description to match with where it was taken, which would be a pain if I had to edit the whole set.
For as long as I can remember, Flickr has this feature that allows you to add specific position information (latitude/longitude pair) to each photo. It also integrates maps and satellite images onto it so you can browse pictures by the place they were taken. I wasn't so interested in it because I didn't have a GPS unit and thought it's too expensive, too large, and too heavy to carry along.
Only until recently I came across those special GPS units designed for tracking photographers (and their photographs, of course). They are compact, light, and in my opinion not expensive (under USD100). They don't have displays, just some status LEDs, and all they do are just recording GPS position on a time interval or a distance basis.
All you need to do is connect the unit to your PC and download the log files. Usually a program is provided to assist you in geocoding (or geotagging) each photo's GPS position. That's all. When you upload your geocoded pictures, if the web supports it, the position will be shown right next to your photo. Check out my picture above to see how it works.
During the past few months I'd been training for new aircraft type-rating, an Airbus A330-300. It's much larger than Boeing 737--with a capacity of 305 passengers, comparing to 737's 149.
An aircraft type determines its route. Larger aircrafts fly to further destinations. (But not always the case, I must say.) A330's destinations are located around Asia and the Middle East regions. I was so excited to explore the new places, and of course the new plane. Before each flight I tried to plan my trip during my stay at that place. (Normally after a long flight, crews get a rest period of say 24 hours before flying back.) Sounds like fun, huh?
However, that's only one side of the coin. Further destination means longer flight time, much longer than domestic routes. Sometimes it even takes the whole night. And I believe you can imagine how it's like to stay up late to like 5 or 6 am. It's exhausting! I always went straight to bed after arrival from such flight. Sightseeing? Nope, maybe next time. So far only few places were visited. And my list still grows. Anyway, that's something I've to get used to. Sigh.
I wish I have enough energy to explore more soon!
Thai Airways A300-600
Originally uploaded by bitslice
A Thai Airways' Airbus 300-600 en route from Beijing to Bangkok on Feb 27th, 2008.
This was shot mid-air over China airspace around Nanning. I was at 11,600 meters (38,100 feet) and they were at 11,000 meters (36,100 feet). We were both heading for Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport (I was back from Shanghai). The newly implemented China RVSM airspace made it possible to spot closer at aircrafts on cruise in the same direction.
.. is now showing on AXN every Wednesdays at 9PM Thailand time. It features 2 Muay Thai fighters from Thailand; Naruepol (นฤพล) and Yodsaenklai (ยอดแสนไกล). They haven't fight yet but from their profiles I don't think they're gonna lose those farangs easily. Let's watch and cheer Muay Thai and Thai fighters!
This year I wasn't around for the new year party as usual. I had to work over the new year like few people. The trip was to Mumbai, India and it was right over the new year period--December 31st to January 2nd.
However, I managed to go to a fancy bar at the hotel for the countdown event. It's pretty expensive, imagine a 1100-Baht 60-ml shot of Johnnie's Black Label, or a 350-Baht Heineken. But at least it's better than sitting alone in the room. By the way, I'm still confused about smoking law in Mumbai because when I asked the waiter whether smoking is allowed in the bar, he said no, I had to go outside to smoke. However, not long after that I saw people smoked. Well, maybe bad communication with the waiter. Anyway, I had a few drinks and did the countdown thing and enjoyed the music. Not a bad night.
I just got back to Bangkok this morning at almost 6am. Weather report at the airport said nice weather and temperature at 19 degrees Celcius. Seems like Bangkok is getting cold again. Cool. Not a bad day to start 2008 with in Bangkok at all.
Happy New Year 2008 to you all!
