You may not know it, but if you’ve traveled on an aircraft there’s a good chance that you were propelled, safely and competently, by a General Electric CF-6 turbofan engine. It first flew in 1970 and is still going strong today. Originally built for the US military’s collosal Lockheed C5
Continue readingJust What is SOCL?
Information is leaking out about a new social network called “SOCL”. What makes it different from the other bazillion social networks that are starting up, perhaps trying to cut into Facebook’s commercial success, is that is appears to be Microsoft’s own internal, corporate, social network. And it may be soon
Continue readingNew Xbox Dashboard, Dec 6th
Microsoft will begin rolling out a new dashboard for its Xbox 360 games console from 6th December. Apparently based on the forthcoming Windows 8 “Metro” user interface (UI) theme, the dashboard allows horizontal scrolling between “groups” of “tiles”, to use Microsoft parlance. Taking the metaphor one step further, the Xbox
Continue readingAstraeus Goes Into Administration
At noon today, Monday 21st November, 2011, British charter airline, Astraeus, famous for having ex-Iron Maiden front-man, Bruce Dickinson, as Marketing Director and a Captain on their 757 fleet, grounded their fleet and called in the receivers. I shot the picture to the right at 6:30am on Sunday 28th August
Continue readingGoogle, Facebook Will Cause the Next Economic Crisis
I had an enlightening discussion this week with a guy who works on the same product as I do. He is a tad older, wiser and more reflective, so when he said had identified a cycle in human history, I was all ears. Mike, who once designed a mechanism for
Continue readingA Guide to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Perks
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a phenomenal commercial success. It has broken all the sales records that were so confidently smashed by its predecessor, Black Ops. An important part of the game is “perks”. Perks improve your performance by making your less susceptible to attack or improving your
Continue readingSky TV Needs to Treat Loyal Customers Better
Do you know what date Sky Digital started in the UK? I do. 1st October 1998. How do I know this off the top of my head? Well, it all started in the summer of that year… Our analogue Sky box had started to play up in late July, early
Continue readingEmirates Orders 50 Boeing 777-300ERs + 20 Options
Dubai-based airline, Emirates, have placed an order for 50 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft at the Dubai Airshow (#DXB11). It is Boeing’s largest single order to date with a value (at list prices) of over $18 billion. This week Boeing started production of the 1,000th 777 wide-body twin-jet, which is also destined
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