Veda #28 : Lights Out 10:43 PM

Day 28
"Why do pilots always dim the light inside the cabin whenever they need to take off or landing the airplane?"


"For safety regulation, the lights inside the cabin will be dimmed, and please raise the shade, adjust the seat, and please remain seated until this aircraft fully stopped". For you who travel with aircraft a lot, maybe you've remembered the standard operation procedure at the airplane whenever they need to landing or take off. The pilot usually gonna dim the light inside the cabin to ensure safety and follow the flying regulation.
Did you know why?

There are actually two moments when the lights are killed in the cabin. The first is merely a flicker. Airline electrician John Payton explains, ''While the craft is at the ground, it is hooked up to an auxiliary power unit, which provides power for lighting and ventilation. When the engines are running, they switch over to power generated by the engines and disconnect the auxiliary unit.''
This way, the power that being used for the interior light gonna switched to help the engine boost. Also, cutting the use of cabin electricity provides greater electrical potential for the plane to use on landing.

Some safety instruction said that during take-off and landing, you are asked to raise your shade so that in the event of an accident you can see through the window to help you remain oriented (which way is up, etc.). Because of this, it lets you see what hazards there are outside the plane (fires, debris and such), which would be important during an evacuation. It also serves as a way to let light into the cabin and make it easier for rescuers to see inside. If it is dark outside, they dim the lights to help your eyes adjust to the darkness, so if anything happens and it goes dark, you're not suddenly blinded while dashing for the exits. It also makes the emergency path/exit lights more visible, as these might be the only lights you see in an emergency. As with the shades, it allows you to see outside for orientation, because with the cabin lights burning brightly, the glare would make it impossible.

But if you're referring to the practice of main cabin lights being extinguished during take-off, it has absolutely nothing to do with safety or technical problems. The flight attendants turn out the lights; United Airlines captain Mike Lauria claims that the lights-out custom is motivated by passengers' desire to better see the lights outside the plane on take-off.
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Veda #3 : Why Only 160?? 9:21 PM

Day 03
Question by : none - "Why i can only type 160 characters when i'm sending text message?"

Have you ever experience something like this : you want to talk about things with your friends, families, or colleagues, then you're texting them, trying to explain something, but unfortunately the text has reached its limit at 160 characters?
why only 160 you asked? (or in this case, i'm the curious one). There seem to be varying stories about the history of SMS, some say it’s the amount of characters on a typical postcard, yeah right, based on the research, most of the postcard sent contain about 150 letters, more or less. But i'm not talking about postcard tonight, hoho, maybe some other time, i'll find the answers.


Now, we know who resposible for the limitation. Once at 1985, a Germany named Friedhelm Hillebrand sat in front of his typewriter, alone in a room in his home in Bonn, and typing randomly several questions, and random things that came across his mind. He then realized that he was never type or use letters more than 160 characters. (my question is : why did he do that?don't he had something to do beside counting the letters?).

Friedhelm Hillebrand

Anyway, based on that magic number, he asked all the GSM carriers at that time to use 160 as texting limit. He could do that because, unfortunately, his position as the chief of non-voice services comittee of Global System for Mobile Communication Group at 1986. This format is still used up until now and being used by one of the social networking site, Twitter. (what?you want to know why Twitter use this number too?)

Here's a hint or quick tip for you who want to text someone about something long (err...referring to the long story, not the story about long thing) and doesn't want to be trapped with this limitation, use this : "call me!important!" :p

Satisfied? :)
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