It's DEAD again.  I'm speaking about the internet in the middle east.

Something is fishy, don't you think?  Almost one year ago between three and five undersea cables were cut taking out the internet.  It was never fully determined what caused all of those outages.  While some internet in the middle east somes from sattelite, some originates from underwater cable.

Now Egypt, Yemen and Sudan are having problems. 

And here we outsource a host of technology to the middle east, specifically to India.  Last year that was comprimised by the cutting of the cables.  You take for granted that the web is just there, working.  You don't plan on its underwater cables being cut. 

So you have to wonder...

Millions of people across the Middle East and Asia have lost access to the internet after two undersea cables in the Mediterranean suffered severe damage.

Huge numbers in Egypt and India were left struggling to get online as a result of the outage, when the major internet pipeline between Egypt and Italy was cut.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) throughout the region, including those in United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, also reported problems. International telephone calls, which have also been affected, are being rerouted to work around the problem.


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Related from February 2008

Cable Damage Hits 1.7 Million Users In UAE

Land Line 

Cell Phone

Land Line and Cell Phone

So where do you fit in?

I'm to the point where I'm considering getting rid of my land line.  Basically, all it's used for now is calls from relatives, political calls, and donations.

It's funny...after about ten years my daughter is finally considering getting her first land line.  She lives in an area where her cell service keeps breaking up.

"The portion of homes with cell phones but no landlines has grown to 18 percent, led by adults living with unrelated roommates, renters and young people, according to federal figures released Wednesday.

An additional 13 percent of households have landlines but get all or nearly all calls on their cells, the survey showed. Taken together, that means about three in 10 households are essentially reachable only on their wireless phones.

The figures, covering the first half of 2008, underscore how consumers have been steadily abandoning traditional land line phones in favor of cells. "

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In a sense...

Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio suggests that using the internet, spreading information on the web, blogging..all of this in general is so powerful, that it could have been a useful tool back in Hitler's day.  Powerful enough to stop World War II.

A reasonable enough assumption.  One can never know.

"The spread of information on websites and blogs has given the world a new tool to forestall conflicts, Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio said on Saturday.

In his Nobel lecture to the Swedish Academy, the 68-year-old Frenchman said an earlier introduction of information technology could have even prevented the Second World War.

'Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler's criminal plot would not have succeeded - ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day,' he said.

Still, the writer noted that access to computers remains a luxury "

Who knows what history we could be making on FranklinNOW today?

That's text messaging short hand for "Just Do It."

And just do it is what a doctor volunteering in the Congo did when he performed a very complex amputation by receiving his instructions via text message. 

GR8 job doctor!

"A doctor volunteering in war-torn Congo performed a complex amputation to save a boy’s life by following instructions sent by text message from a colleague in London.

David Nott, 52, a vascular surgeon, was working for a Medicins Sans Frontieres hospital in the eastern town of Rutshuru, an area ravaged by bloody battles between Congolese and rebel troops.

Among the hundreds of wounded soldiers and civilians brought into the hospital in October was a 16-year-old boy who had been caught in the midst of a gun fight between advancing combatants in a forest in the Nyanzale region. "

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Oh…I would love it for science and nature programs.  Or science fiction!  But I know those of you out there  would be thrilled to have it for sports.  Well, the possibility is not that far off in the future.  And it’s out there without having to wear those freaky glasses, too.

Remember: You haven’t lived until your home computer says “hello” and asks you to “please enter a number.”

I recall my first home computer in the very early 1980s.  I suppose I can only liken the excitement of opening the box and setting it up to how it must have felt when my parents got their very first television.

It didn't look like these three 1980s home computers...visit Modern Mechanix to read about them by clicking the image below.

Will your teen be driving it?

Do you like to be a backseat driver for your teen? 

Do you want to be your teen's safety belt? 

Then maybe you want to buy a Ford.

Ford has a new “MyKeyTM System” for to snap up if you are the type of parent who wants to “encourage their teen-agers to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, and increase safety-belt usage.”

Yesterday a different “vote” took place while our presidential election was running its course.

This was a battle between Silicon Valley and Dolly Parton…and it was regarding an ongoing issue with the airwaves.  It seems Dolly thinks she and T.V. land have first dibs on “white spaces” for Wi-Fi when it comes to wireless transmissions.  They are already using them, you see.  Google and Microsoft, among others, want those spaces opened up to the public…and why not? Why should Dollywood corner that market? 

Well, the F.C.C voted Dolly down.  Dolly Parton is really smart about her music and she can really belt out a song.  She really shouldn’t be worrying her pretty little ‘ole head about such technical things like a little static anyway…

“In her letter to the F.C.C., Ms. Parton conceded that she did not understand all the technicalities of the debate. But based on the counsel of others, she concluded that the potential problems were serious. She called the proposal “a dangerous and shortsighted answer to a highly complicated question.” The Broadway League and Ms. Parton’s representatives said she was too busy to comment further.”


Airwaves Battle Pits Dolly Parton Against Google

F.C.C. Defies Dolly Parton, Opens White Space Waves

Read about it HERE

"Following the lead of many libraries, schools and workplaces, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines announced that each will ask AirCell, the provider of their in-flight wireless service, to filter the content. The goal: to block passengers from surfing Web sites that may offend those seated nearby.

Will other airlines do the same? And should they? Airlines and many well-mannered travelers are all over the map on this one."

Continued

I guess I didn’t know I needed to carry a GPS  when I brought my laptop somewhere with me.

This is comical.

Perhaps it isn’t the software, Geode, by Mozilla; perhaps it is the article.

Maybe it's both.

“Where am I? The Firefox location tool that helps know where your computer is."

“In the future Geode will be able to tell you if you are at home or at work”

'You’ve arrived in a new city, a new continent, a new coffee shop. You don’t really know where you are, and are looking for a good place to eat,' reads the Mozilla Labs blog.

'You pull out your laptop, fire up Firefox, and go to your favorite review site. It automatically deduces your location, and serves up some delicious suggestions a couple blocks away and plots directions there.'

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?





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EVERYONE knows I’m a Lost fan.  And Lost wouldn’t be lost if it weren’t for aviation.  Why, one of the main characters, who has been rescued from the island that was his home for several months, spends his weekends flying in hopes of repeating the crash that made him “lost” in the first place!

But Lost isn’t the only movie or show that features aviation that’s been a hit with me. How about the original Tarzan The Ape Man?  The plane crashing in the jungle…with an infant onboard, raised by apes.  He grows up to fall in love with the beautiful Jane.  Not trying to make “apes” the feature, but you can’t forget that King Kong, while on top of the Empire State building was attacked by a plane.

And then there’s Top Gun, with Tom Cruise, or Cliff Hanger with Sylvester Stallone.  Or Apocalypse Now with Marlon Brando, Memphis Belle or A Bridge Too Far.

Can’t forget Airplane!,    Planes, Trains and Automobiles, or Home Alone. 

I know, some of these movies have aviation touching them only for a short period of time, while others have them as the main focus.  But it was important just the same.  The movie wouldn’t have gotten where it was supposed to be without aviation.  Just like we wouldn’t be where we are today without it. 

Just think where we have come and how quickly since 1903 when the Wright Bros. had their first success.

Aviation.com recognizes that and has put together what they believe are the Great Innovations In Aviation....

Take a look…what do you think?