Russia Tour, Day 1.5

Jet lag is affecting me, so I've gotten up at midnight to do a bit of work in my hotel room.

Before I left, I researched the eight companies I'm visiting this week, and one thing stood out: almost all are dependent on Microsoft. In most cases, none of the software runs on Linux or Mac.

Being Russia, I would have thought Linux would be popular in the technical fields these companies support, but no. Especially -- especially! -- since they tend to have their own kernels. So, highly independent on the kernel, but highly dependent on the rest of the code.

That'll be one of the questions I'll have for them. If you are wondering about anything, send an email to grabowski@telus.net

Speaking of jet lag...

I was fascinated by the Airbus A330's navigation system, which showed that we had traveled 49,000 miles in just four hours. (Click photo above.) The closer the airplane got to Zurich, the higher the mileage zoomed, until about an hour before landing the counter stayed stuck at 115,076 miles -- the total trip distance is just 4,000 miles. (The distance remaining was accurate.)

Now, that kind of concerns me, because the display shown to passengers is retrieved from the airplane's navigation system. I wonder (1) what causes this bug; and (2) why it still exists.

Comments

[RobiNZ]

Perhaps they've hooked the "odometer" (whatever it's called in an aircraft) instead of the tripmeter to that display!