Inflight Internet

April 3, 2012 by John Radge

On an American Airlines flight between Los Angeles and New York in December 2010, I looked into the seat pocket and found an information card on the inflight internet service that was available. Looking for a way to kill some of the time on this long flight and curious about what the internet performance would be like at 35,000ft I decided to sign up for an online session inflight. In summary it was unbelievable. For under $10 I had a high speed internet connection inflight for the best part of four hours. You turn on your wifi, select the Gogo Air access point and you are connected. To access beyond the Gogo Air site you need a credit card.

It is possible to stream video and also to make Skype video calls in flight. VOIP calls however are frowned upon, as documented on the seat pocket brochure, as it may impinge upon the serenity of fellow passengers.

The inflight internet service is delivered by Gogo Air. They provided the world’s first wireless broadband network for inflight connectivity. Gogo allows airline passengers to connect to the Internet through a system of cell towers on the ground. Gogo Internet operates on wireless signals provided by Gogo’s Air-To-Ground network, a reliable network of cellular towers spanning from one side of the US to the other. Their Air to Ground (ATG) system is a 3G wireless technology. Gogo’s network and services are available to passengers with laptops and other Wi-Fi enabled devices on all US domestic AirTran Airways, Delta Air Lines, Virgin America flights and on select Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways flights. Apparently some 6,000 aircraft, which includes  thousands of business aircraft, are Gogo equipped.

Gogo owns more than 100 towers, which together form a network over the continental US and parts of Alaska. The towers are cellphone towers that have been outfitted to point their signals at the sky rather than along the ground. The aircraft picks up the signal through a receiver installed on its underside. When it reaches the aircraft, the data signal is distributed throughout the cabin via a Wi-Fi system.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, Gogo recently filed with the SEC to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering.

Gogo has set the bar but it will only be a short while before other companies and airlines start providing inflight internet globally on flights internationally, enabling us to pick our own entertainment, that we can stream to our own laptop or iPad and also conduct business inflight online.

My Daughter on Facebook at 35,000ft  flying between Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Los Angeles

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Flying, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , |

Leaving a Legacy

March 28, 2012 by John Radge

Life distills down to 2 boxes. Well that seems to be my experience anyway. For those that have seen the George Clooney movie “Up in the Air” it also basically lines up with his Empty Backpack Theory. Recently I have had to pack up the lives of elderly loved ones because they have passed away or moved into Aged Care. Literally anything of worth in their entire unit or house fits into two removalists boxes or less. What is keep is material precious possessions such as memorabilia, photo albums and old documents such as passports, birth certificates and drivers licences. Everything else, the furniture, cars and other materialistic possessions are disposed of or distributed to siblings or relatives. Sadly the reality is that photos get relegated to the attic of the sibling(s)/relatives and family stories are lost.

Now this is something that surprises me in these times as my current generation has access to tools to ensure that family photos and stories are maintained and readily accessible into perpetuity (at least for quite a while anyway). These loved ones have left a legacy in terms of photos and stories and it is now up to the Web 2.0 generation to continue these stories. This is particularly important since the elderly these days have lived through a lot. The older generation have lived through different worlds with the Depression, two World Wars and periods of major upheaval in the world.

My grandfather, Jack Vercoe, passed away in 2010. He lived a significant life, spent most of his working life in the Australian Airforce actually and in his twilight years had written memoirs. I took it upon myself to ensure his memoirs were perpetuated by publishing them online in a WordPress Blog. See  http://jackvercoe.com

Now WordPress.com is free to establish and publish a blog as I have done in the case of my grandfather and his memoirs. If you think about it his stories and photos are now available widely published, to the world actually, for the cost of a domain name (<$20/year). There was a bit of work behind transferring my grandfathers memoirs and publishing them online however that pales into insignificance when you think that family history and genealogy has been maintained. His memoirs could very easily be sitting in a box right now in storage.

My father-in-law, Bob Rodger, is another example. Actually he is still at his family home and is mobile so you could say I being proactive documenting his stories online at this time! See http://bobrodger.com.au Bob is another example of someone who has led a significant life and in his retiring years has produced a number of books on his family history. These books deserve to be published online and be available to the broader audience. Again WordPress was chosen as a free option to achieve this.

Is this something that we should take responsibility for? Perpetuating our family history and genealogy via online Web 2.0 tools? Something to think about.

Posted in Life and Self | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

Panoramic Photos on Your iPhone

March 19, 2012 by John Radge

An interesting iPhone App that I’ve used quite regularly is AutoStitch for taking panoramic photos. How it works is you stand in one spot and take a series of photos as you turn around on the spot. Each photo you take should overlap adjacent photos. The AutoStitch app then “stitches” the photos together to make a panoramic photo. I find it quite handy to take a panoramic view if you want to capture a very wide field of view in the one photo such as below. Click on each image below to see full size. If you look at each image closely you can see the ragged top and bottom where I turned on the spot without keeping the camera at the same angle. If I had a tripod this problem will go away.


Shibuya intersection in Tokyo


Art Studio at home

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Software | Tagged , , , , , , , |

Innovative Product: GoPro

March 17, 2012 by John Radge

On a recent trip to the US I was browsing around a surf shop and came across a GoPro stand. For those that don’t know what a GoPro is it is a small “wearable” waterproof and shockproof camera that can mounted on helmets, handlebars, roll-cages, surfboards etc and is targeted at adventure photography to record action video of snowboarding, base jumping, mountain biking, scuba diving and the like. Wikipedia reports that video from GoPro camera’s have appeared in 60 television shows ranging from Mythbusters to Sarah Palin’s Alaska. The cameras have been used to film inside of the mouths of alligators, sharks and polar bears.The story of how this camera evolved amongst the camera giants such Canon and Panasonic is truly amazing and inspirational. Basically on impulse I purchased a GoPro camera with a view that I would use it in the surf and on my motorbike helmet.

The great attributes of this camera is that it is small, light, waterproof, shockproof, single button start-stop,  wide-angle, standard MP4/JPG output and has a large range of mounting kits so you can mount it to virtually anything. Oh yeh, it is relatively inexpensive at around $300.


In researching this camera what I found fascinating was the story behind the camera and its founder/inventor, Nick Woodman. Woodman said he was inspired to start the company following a 2002 Australia surfing trip in which he was hoping to capture quality action photos of his surfing, but could not because amateur photographers could not get close enough, or obtain quality equipment at accessible prices. His desire for a camera system that could capture the professional angles inspired the ‘GoPro’ name. Woodman initially raised money for his company by selling bead and shell belts out of his VW van. While making the belts he came upon the idea of providing a fashionable strap to attach a camera. At the time most straps were rubber wrist straps that awkward, painful or easily broke. A comprehensive story on Nick Woodman and GoPro can be found here (article and photo courtesy of Malakye.com :: Action Sports Industry Career Opportunities Website)

So how good is the video? Check out my footage below of the GoPro mounted on my motorbike helmet.

Posted in Entrepreneurship | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Great Circle Route

June 13, 2011 by John Radge

When travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa from Sydney, Australia you fly over Antarctica. Believe it or not this is the shortest distance between the two cities on two different continents. The flight path is what is called a “Great Circle” track. This means it is the shortest distance between the points and along the way there needs to be constant heading changes. For instance when you leave Sydney you travel SW (see image below.) However when arriving on the African continent you are travelling in a NW direction. Don’t believe me? Take a piece if string and hold it between Johannesburg and Sydney and pull it tight.

Flying over Antarctica is spectacular. Mostly polar weather has Antarctica in cloud but occasionally you will be blessed with an absolutely amazing view of the ice shelf and accompanying icebergs. Also there is opportunity to see Mawson’s hut if your lucky.

Posted in Flying, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

QF32 – Airmanship at its best

May 27, 2011 by John Radge

On 4 November, 2010 Qantas flight QF32, an Airbus A380 outbound from Singapore, ran into serious problems when a turbine on its Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine suffered an uncontained failure. The crew professionally dealt with the incident inflight and successfully landed the aircraft without serious injury. It is also very interesting from a flight operations/safety aspect demonstrating how standards, procedures and training come together to cope with an extremely rare, but serious emergency like this. You must wonder what the outcome would have been for a lesser airline, without the level of competence that was evident in flightdeck and without the landbound resources at hand.

The Royal Aeronautical Society provides a great story with not only an interview with one of the pilots (not the Captain/pilot in command but the supervising check captain) but shows in-flight pics of the emergency as it happened. Royal Aeronautical Society QF32

Some of you may have seen this. A bit “60 Minutes” but an interesting 15 minutes of a great re-telling of the Airbus 380 incident. Sixty Minutes QF32

Posted in Flying | Tagged , , , , , , , , |

Love Bridge in Paris

March 13, 2011 by John Radge

Recently I had an opportunity to ‘stopover’ in Paris for a few days on the way back to Australia from Western Africa. Though I had last visited Paris three years back with my son on a Europe soccer tour this particular visit gave me a different perspective. Without the rush of a strict timetable I had time to absorb what must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

One thing that did catch my attention was a bridge called Pont de l’Archevêché (Archbishop’s Bridge) and is a bridge crossing the Seine river. It is located on the South Eastern corner of the Notre Dame and is very impressive at sunrise.

What tweaked my attention was the thousands of padlocks attached to the fencing on this pedestrian bridge. With closer inspection I realised these padlocks are declarations of couple’s love that now stand time-locked next to one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Notre Dame. Lovers often throw the keys into the river Seine as a sign of undying love, or keep it and open the padlock when they next return to the French capital.

As I’m not one to miss out on the action I ventured to a local hardware store, duly purchased a padlock and summarily proceeded to declare my undying love for my wife on the landmark by attaching my own padlock.

For those that are travelling to Paris and want some brownie points with a loved one I’d suggest you proceed to do the same. Engrave a padlock prior to travelling as this will eliminate the hassle of trying to find a padlock in Paris and wasting time finding a place to get it engraved.

Posted in Life and Self, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , |

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