by Suw on October 26, 2006
As if flying isn't enough of a hellish chore these days, with daft hand luggage restrictions, over-zealous security and long waits, the French have decided to go one better with their new MP2 terminal at Marseilles:
The city of Marseilles has seen the future – it has no carpets. A minimalist, no-frills air terminal, intended specifically for low-cost airlines, opened yesterday beside the city's existing airport.
Carpets are replaced by a painted concrete floor. There is no air conditioning. Passengers have to carry their own bags from check-in to security control. There are no luggage trolleys. There are no shuttle buses or swivelling gangways to reach the aircraft. Travellers walk across the tarmac to reach their planes.
Independent Online Edition > Europe
Wonderful. That's just want I wanted. A miserable flight that lands at a miserable airport. It sounds worse that Charles de Gaulle:
The MP2 terminal at Marignane, near Marseilles, looks remarkably like a
freight hangar. That is not surprising. Two years ago, it was a freight
hangar.
…
Passengers will be encouraged, and expected, to spend as little time in
the terminal as possible. There are only 30 seats in the whole building.
Bugger that for a game of soldiers.
technorati tags:flying, marseilles, airports
by Suw on October 26, 2006
I really hate it when software updates break things, particularly when that update is to Firefox and the thing it breaks is the one extension that makes me love Firefox. I've just installed Firefox 2.0, which means I've just discovered that 'extensions' have now become 'add-ons' and that the one extension I loved is not compatible with 2.0.
I love Tab Mix Plus, and I'm glad to see that there's going to be a new version soon, but surely Firefox is sophisticated enough to scan through our extensions and tell us if there are any that are not going to be compatible? I would have waited a week to install Firefox had I realised that it would break my favourite extension.
So I'm going to try Flock for that week. Annoyingly, you can't import your bookmarks from Firefox into Flock, which means I had to port them from Firefox to Safari and thence into Flock, but I seem to have mislaid some along the way.
Kevin's been raving about how great Flock is – seems it is finally fulfilling some of the potential I saw at BlogOn last year. I'm not sure if I'll move my blogging from Ecto to Flock, but I might give it a shot. Certainly Flock's Flickr uploader is better than either 1001 or Uploadr, so I'm already converted there. Still, I'll spend a little time setting things up, and I've set Flock to be my default browser, and we'll see what we see.
Meantime, shame on you, Firefox. For the next release, how about you work on notifying us when we update if you're going to break things?
by Suw on October 26, 2006
Ten people have now signed up for my pledge to stop drinking sugary drinks for three months, so I have only another ten to go! If you're interested in giving up all those evil sugary drinks, please sign up before 22 November.
This is something I really want to do – even need to do – but it will be so much easier if I have some moral support behind me every time I'm confronted with the evil temptation of a can of Coke. Think of it as an opportunity to be the little wing?©d angel sitting on my shoulder whispering supportive phrases every time the devil of sugary drinks suggests that I mainline some Ocean Spray Cranberry and Blackcurrent.
by Suw on October 26, 2006
From the ORG blog:
Should the term of copyright protection on sound recordings stay at 50 years or be extended?
This question has been hanging in the air for the last couple of years, with the music industry lobbying government for an extension on the grounds that the royalties they earn from old recordings are essential to bringing new acts to the stage and supporting ageing musicians. They believe that copyright term on sound recordings should be the same length as the copyright in the composition, which currently stands at life plus 70 years.
On the other hand, copyright reformers argue that term should remain the same in order to protect the public domain and to free the huge number of old recordings which are no longer commercially viable and therefore not being released by the record labels. They also argue that there is a greater economic benefit to allowing works to pass into the public domain after 50 years so that new works can be made from them and new businesses that specialise in niche markets can flourish.
This question of term extension, along with many others, is now being considered by Andrew Gowers in his Review of Intellectual Property which was commissioned by the Treasury and is due to report before the end of the year.
The Open Rights Group believes that term extension is such an important issue that it deserves focused and rigourous discussion, so we've invited people from number of backgrounds to give us their thoughts and opinions.
We would be delighted if you could join us – the event is free to all, but places are limited so book now!
Schedule:
6.00pm – Registration.
6.30pm – Keynote by Professor Jonathan Zittrain, Chair in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University.
7.30pm – Panel Discussion, moderated by John Howkins, RSA & Adelphi Charter; guests include Caroline Wilson, University of Southampton, Faculty of Law; others TBC.
8.30pm – DJ set by The Chaps, playing a pre-1955 public domain set.
10.00pm – Close.
Date:
Monday 13 November 2006
Location:
Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square
London, WC1
United Kingdom
Nearest tube:
Holborn
If you sign up, but find you are not able to come, please do let us know so we can release your seat to someone else.
