Tuesday, October 07, 2008

MCAS Miramar 2008 Airshow F-22 Raptor

I've seen many shows, I can't even count how many times I've seen the Blue Angels but the F-22 was something totally different. This plane did things I wouldn't have expected to see out of a Robotech cartoon. The thrust vectoring really does make a difference, while other shows showed off speed and power, this aircraft danced across the sky, making incredibly tight turns. Remember the movie Top Gun and the spin that killed Goose? This plane did that on purpose and it was a strange sight to see a big fast military jet doing the tricks that are normally reserved to aerobatic biplanes.









Monday, October 06, 2008

Zune finally adds support for Audible.com

I admit it, I like listening to audiobooks when I drive cross country and usually with my 1000 mile hauls and the cost of CD's, it can been an expense proposition. I did the Twilight series while driving 3000 miles over to Arizona and northern California which was a hundred bucks give or take. Which would have cost me a fraction of that if I could have downloaded it on my Zune which wasn’t compatible with the format at the time.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I downloaded the Zune 3.0 firmware. Wow, neat, games, down load songs directly from any public Wi-Fi through the Zune Marketplace and it labels songs that it plays through the FM receiver that you can download if you like. While all of that is cool, the best thing I found last week was support for Audible.com. Yay, instant gratification at the click of a button, 7.49 the first 3 months and 14.95 for each month after which gives me one downloaded book per month and 30% off all of my other downloads. Yes, it might be a lot spend for a non-reader but for me, it’s days off of my life searching through stores or waiting for something to arrive in the mail through Amazon.

Suddenly, that long drive doesn’t seem so long and lonely anymore.

Miramar Air Show 2008 MAGTF Display (Marine Air Ground Task Force)

Marines showing their stuff, it gives Joe Public a small but exciting glimpse of what the real deal is like. The show is put on by regular Marines with no other special training then doing what they normally do day to day yet they pull it off perfectly each year.