New PC works
I slapped in the Windows 7 Pro disk and switched it on and it booted from it, then started loading Windows files... and promptly stalled. Hmm. Bugger. OK, try again... and that was the last problem. Windows installed, no network driver, oops. Installed the motherboard disk. OK, now networked. Installed the cooler controller, now I can see it isn't hot. Installed the PNY graphics disk. Now I have 1920x1080. Installed the Samsung Blu-ray driver disk... but that will have to wait for another day. Adobe reader updated itself so I guess I am on the net. Went to nVidia and installed the latest drivers. OK, seems good. Right, anti virus software, Comcast provides that free. Two minutes later I had recovered my ID and changed my password and ten minutes after that Symantec was installed. So finally, Windows updates. 90 updates! Time for bed then. But this morning it seemed to have installed them all and rebooted. I shut it down and tonight will install Mint Linux.
Anyway, are they really sure this is a good idea, I don't want to be five and a half hours from the nearest place I can stop without risking death.
ETOPS 330
ETOPS is Extended Twin Operations, it allows the 'reliable' modern twin engine jets like the A330/A350 and Boeing 757/767/787 to operate hours from the nearest airport where they could land in an emergency. ETOPS 330 means you can fly five and a half hours from the nearest big runway. At cruising speed that's something like 2500 miles. So you could fly on the US east coast when the only runway where you could land safely is on the west coast.
The rhetoric is that these engines and planes have proven very reliable, none if the ETOPS planes has had two engines fall to pieces in the air. But a friend of a friend was flying a 777 across the Atlantic when he lost an engine, his diversion airport was Keflavik in Iceland and he said that the two hours from losing an engine to shutting down in Iceland was the longest in his entire life.
So how about losing an engine over the North Pole in winter? Five hours to an icy landing in northern Norway or Greenland? It seems like only a matter of time before this questionable decision comes home to roost.
Anyway, are they really sure this is a good idea, I don't want to be five and a half hours from the nearest place I can stop without risking death.
ETOPS 330
ETOPS is Extended Twin Operations, it allows the 'reliable' modern twin engine jets like the A330/A350 and Boeing 757/767/787 to operate hours from the nearest airport where they could land in an emergency. ETOPS 330 means you can fly five and a half hours from the nearest big runway. At cruising speed that's something like 2500 miles. So you could fly on the US east coast when the only runway where you could land safely is on the west coast.
The rhetoric is that these engines and planes have proven very reliable, none if the ETOPS planes has had two engines fall to pieces in the air. But a friend of a friend was flying a 777 across the Atlantic when he lost an engine, his diversion airport was Keflavik in Iceland and he said that the two hours from losing an engine to shutting down in Iceland was the longest in his entire life.
So how about losing an engine over the North Pole in winter? Five hours to an icy landing in northern Norway or Greenland? It seems like only a matter of time before this questionable decision comes home to roost.