Two things

First, the A380. Now that Airbus's double-decker A380 has successfully completed its first test flight, it's an appropriate time to point out that in the near future, the Boeing 747 will no longer be the largest passenger jet out there. That's historic. Someone else put it quite nicely:

"Anyone in aviation can tell you that first flights rank way up there on the list of exciting, memorable, and emotional highlights in our industry. You might even add "spine-tingling" to those descriptions.

So, it's got to be a great feeling for the Airbus team, now that the A380 has completed its first test flight early this morning (Seattle time). "Hats off" to them."

Where did that quote come from? Boeing's web site.

Sure, it's all marketing- Boeing is smart enough to realize that it's smart to be a bit conciliatory toward their arch-competitor.

But I appreciate that.

Second, George Bush. I watched his press conference tonight (only the fourth prime-time press conference of his presidency, for what it's worth), and this nugget jumped out at me.

And I quote: "One of the reasons why I thought it was important to have a missile defense system is for precisely the reason that you brought up. Perhaps Kim Jong Il's got the capacity to launch a weapon and wouldn't it be nice to be able to shoot it down?"

Here, read it again: "One of the reasons why I thought it was important to have a missile defense system is for precisely the reason that you brought up. Perhaps Kim Jong Il's got the capacity to launch a weapon and wouldn't it be nice to be able to shoot it down?"

Here's my favorite part: "...wouldn't it be nice to be able shoot it down?"

Maybe, instead of hating George W. Bush, I actually love him.

Seriously.

Maybe everything's going according to plan.

Best Tiger review

If you're the kind of hardcore computer geek that likes to read software reviews by even harder-core computer geeks, then you need to know about John Siracusa. I've written about him before on this blog, so I'll keep this short: His review of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is out, and it's a doozy.

John's the only guy I know about that can write a review that includes both pixel by pixel visual critiques and information about low-level kernel locking. He can take the subatomic view of an operating system while still not losing sight of the big picture, and if you want to know more about Tiger, start with his review.

Spider-bite

This article contains the sentence: "Within minutes his hand had swelled to the size of a balloon."

Worth a read.

White-noser

The formula

Wow- it worked!

So I just discovered a really, really awesome use for Tiger's (Mac OS X 10.4) Dashboard feature- quick blog posts.

I'm using the DashBlog widget, which is available here.

Great stuff!

If this appears on my blog...

...then the DashBlog widget works.

The Dark Tower

Stephen King began writing "The Dark Tower" in 1970 and finished it in 2004. It began as a loose, open-ended series of verbose short stories written by an inspired and unstructured young man. It ended as a several thousand page, seven book epic that has come to symbolize the career (to date) of one of the most successful professional writers the world has ever known.

Another way to look at it: "The Dark Tower" is right up my alley. It embodies the type of story that I have forever been inspired by and have always dreamed of creating: the ever-long epic jourey, an exciting, rushing wave made up of all sorts of fascinating characters and locales, real-world elements woven in with the supernatural... a wave that builds and gathers up the reader (or audience) with its force, brings us along for one hell of a ride, and then finally crashes ashore, leaving us soaking wet and shuddering with excitement, ready (but not wanting) to stand up and look for the next adventure (which is where I find myself tonight, having just finished it).

And on top of that, it's got great context. Thirty-four years of time between the first and last pages, and all of the intrigue that goes along with a story that was as long in the making as it is in the taking.

Nice work, Steven King. You've done something that I've always dreamed of doing- and you've inspired me to keep trying.

Thank ya.