The totally off-topic thread

[anat0l]

Wandering dangerously close to topic for a moment -- what's a good J seat on CX's A330 (flight is listed as 33B)? Seatguru/Seatexpert aren't being as helpful as I'd like, and FT doesn't appear to have many recommendations either.

I've selected 21K for the moment (I figure being close to the galley for champagne topups isn't such a bad idea), but v open to suggestions.

What flight have you got the 33B for?

I sat in 17K; K side faces the wall. I'm not really big into the whole top-ups thing so not a big worry for me. 17K was assigned for me at check-in (couldn't do it any other way); I just took it because it was in the first J cabin and it was on the K side.

The second cabin might be better as it has less rows than the first one, but if J is full-ish it might take a while for you to get service.

 

[notzac]

what flight have you got the 33b for?

cx105 (hkg/adl/mel)

 

[Flashback]

Happy to report I survived the night, but still in much pain !

 

[anat0l]

cx105 (hkg/adl/mel)

LOL same flight as me when I tried CX J; all the way to MEL I assume?

In which case, I wouldn't worry too much about seat selection. You will get dinner service (express service available) then lights out fairly quickly. The crew aren't overly sociable and will be in the galley merely to respond to your requests (I just walked up; didn't use call bell).

As usual, avoid bulkheads due to the traffic to bathrooms, they are located on the K side, not the A side.

There's one reason to choose middle of the cabin - furthest away from the bathrooms (and your pax on either side will hopefully only go the the bathroom nearest to them, ensuring that they will almost always never cross your path).

The FT CX FAQ gives no specific information about good seats in J, although it does recommend not sitting in the second J cabin, which is although smaller than the first cabin, it is closer to pleb class and the proximity to the frontmost pleb toilets and the second J toilets + galley can mean more noise.

The champagne on serve was Deutz - not the greatest drop in the world by two miles, even when mixed into one of Cathay's signature drinks, Pacific Sunrise (champagne with Drambuie, add lemon & orange zest). Cathay's signature non-alcoholic drink - Cathay Delight (a green concoction) - is a very nice combination of kiwi fruit, coconut juice and mint - I'd highly recommend trying it.

Oh, and bring something to do in ADL. You'll be sequestered into the International gate lounges after you deplane in ADL and go through transit security. There is next to nothing to do there; there are no power points or desks (unlike in the rest of ADL airport); you will have no access to the QP; you can't go back landside. I listened to my iPod but otherwise I was bored absolutely ****less.

ADL-MEL refreshment service is a sandwich, a canape and a tiny salad with drinks.

 

[thewinchester]

Best. headline. ever.

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo
By BO-MI LIM
Thursday, May 3, 2007; 3:34 PM
The Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea -- They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety.

As part of its annual city festival, the South Korean capital staged Thursday what was billed as the world's first high-wire championship, drawing 18 contestants from nine countries for three days of supreme feats of concentration.

Each acrobat must navigate the 1.2-inch-thick wire that spans the river, with the top prize of $15,000 going to the person crossing it fastest.

 

[anat0l]

Best. headline. ever.

Nerd. :mrgreen:

 

[samh004]

Don't rely on Emergency wards though - they may make you wait for several hours as you'll be a low priority case. Find a 24 hour surgery or similar who can sort it out.

You mean like one run by Dr. Nick Riviera?

Srsly, get an iPhone. Decent Android handsets are at least another year off I reckon (though the Motorola Droid looks pretty cool).

I’d have to agree with all points. Even the latest and supposedly greatest Google Nexus One looks like a poor phone.

Best. headline. ever.

That is pretty awesome!!

 

[straitman]

Happy to report I survived the night, but still in much pain !

Have you had your hand looked at yet :?:

 

[Flashback]

Have you had your hand looked at yet :?:

Nope. It's kinda sore.

 

[samh004]

Nope. It's kinda sore.

What happened to make it sore in the first place?

 

[Flashback]

What happened to make it sore in the first place?

Long story.

 

[straitman]

What happened to make it sore in the first place?

I didn't want to ask that because as thewinchester pointed out it seems that Flashware is a walking disaster at the moment :!: :shock:

 

[samh004]

Long story.

I didn't want to ask that because as thewinchester pointed out it seems that Flashware is a walking disaster at the moment :!: :shock:

Well maybe another time over a beer or something!

 

[anat0l]

Or over the glass of red I just spilt on the carpet! Woops, I'm dead meat for that!

Try Perrier and salt. Although if the stain is very well in, then we have a problem, Housten.

 

[RB]

White vinegar is good for red wine removal

 

[anat0l]

Here's a question.

My dad just gave back a computer to a guy who lives a couple of streets from us. The problem was that he couldn't run any programs (or almost any). A message kept telling him that the program was infected and he needs to buy this antivirus program to clean his system and get it going again. All calls to Windows Update, Control Panel, Task Manager etc. were all immediately killed.

I was suspicious of this behaviour from the start and all roads pointed to malware or a virus. Surprise surprise it was - I had to boot into Safe Mode and disable any out-of-ordinary start-up items. I then rooted out the offending software and deleted it, then I rebooted as normal and used Spybot to delete any remaining traces.


This was one of those "Your computer is infected!" things with fake virus scanners which cause all sorts of problems. You usually find them on ad bars, especially on torrenting and file sharing sites (but not limited to those).

My question is: How do you educate people to look out for internet security threats?

You can't easily say, "Stop using file sharing" or "Stop using torrent sites". I've downloaded stuff using torrents for a while now with no problems. Torrents are not the source of the problem - sure, people have downloaded spurious torrents even though the name is spelt correctly. But saying that torrents are bad because of that is wrong.

Telling people, "Just use this virus scanner and ignore everything else - it will likely harm your system" would probably protect them but in theory is also an incorrect statement.

I guess I've only had a few experiences in having to deal with malware and viruses on my own computer; in all cases, no data loss, but by and large I've surfed all sorts of things on the web and I have been able to sidestep all of the junk and malware that's out there. But I don't know how to describe how I avoid malware/viruses to computer novices. (Apart from be aware of scripts as attachments in emails, but that requires some knowledge of file types for email attachments, plus a lot of viruses now just bundle the script with a different "file type signature" in the first few bytes so that a program like Outlook may see it as a .doc file but instead the Open command will trigger the script!)

 

[JohnK]

But if you go, there’ll be even less for drinks on Wednesday nights

Maybe if I stopped going to BNE drinlks more locals would turn up.

 

[notzac]

My question is: How do you educate people to look out for internet security threats?

Simple solution: get a Mac.
Seriously, unless you lock a Windows PC down fairly tight, it will acquire all sorts of rubbish because people cannot be told. Macs aren't perfect, but they're (currently) a significantly smaller target and thus there is less harmful stuff out there for them. Security is generally better as well.

 

[Mal]

Macs aren't perfect, but they're (currently) a significantly smaller target and thus there is less harmful stuff out there for them. Security is generally better as well.

While security may be better on a Mac, that isn't a solution.

Macs only have a lower risk profile at the moment due to their install base. If every stupid idiot who owned a Windows box went out and got a Mac, then malware writers would move to the Mac environment. This is already being seen.

It's the same issue with using a *NIX environment.

 

[Mal]

Maybe if I stopped going to BNE drinlks more locals would turn up.

I'd start a London drinks night (and the beer is cheaper over here! ), but somehow I think I would be the only regular attendee - and most times it would be just me!