Our airplane has pretty much been broke all afternoon, and it is still broke. The captain’s side instruments are not getting the correct heading information and displaying flags saying it is unreliable. Maintenance replaced one of the AHRS, and still no luck yet. However, I did get an excellent picture of one of the AHRS.

Take note to the yellow sticker on it. I think I need to develop one of those and put it on my iPhone! What do you think?

Now what is an AHRS? I wikipediaed it! It gives a way better explanation on what it does than I ever could explain!

What is AHRS? (Taken from Wikipedia)

Attitude and Heading Reference Systems or better known as Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) are 3-axis sensors that provide heading, attitude and yaw information for aircraft. AHRS are designed to replace traditional mechanical gyroscopic flight instruments and provide superior reliability and accuracy.

AHRS consist of either solid-state or MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers and magnetometers on all three axes. Some AHRS use GPS receivers to improve long-term stability of the gyroscopes. A Kalman filter is typically used to compute the solution from these multiple sources. AHRS differ from traditional inertial navigation systems by using magnetometer and/or GPS data to correct the raw gyroscopic data.

AHRS have proven themselves to be highly reliable and are in common use in commercial and business aircraft. Recent advances in MEMS manufacturing have brought the price of FAA certified AHRS down to below $15,000. AHRS are typically integrated into Electronic Flight Information Systems (EFIS), which are the central part of so-called glass cockpits. AHRS are often combined with air data computers to form an “air data, attitude and heading reference systems” (ADAHRS), which provide additional information such as airspeed, altitude and outside air temperature.

The iPhone 3G has been the best phone I have ever used in my life! It replaces multiple devices into one! It is basically my little handheld computer!

After participating in multiple iPhone 3G forums on battery life, I don’t see anything from Apple or users what they are actually getting in standby times and usage times. Along with a few software bugs in 2.0, this is by far one of the biggest issues that is affecting a lot iPhone owners.    

Now, I know the iPhone 3G uses up a lot more power than the original 1st Gen iPhone. However, normal everyday use of these phones and escpecially mine has proven to be not very good - even with everything turn off (3G, Wifi, GPS, Push). So basically the phone is running just like a normal 1st Gen iPhone in Edge. Apple specifications report around 10 hours talk of battery life on regular old Edge and 5 hours talk on 3G. Now that totally makes sense since 3G uses a ton more power.

Now I am a pretty heavy mobile user, but results I got were pretty sad when running on Edge only.

• On Edge - all other services turned off
• 12 hours Standy with 4 hours of use
• Only around 30 min of call time
• Phone in airplane mode for about 4 hours when I was flying
• Battery at 10%

That was pretty normal times on my battery. I read in a couple different forums where people were getting over 1 day of Standy and bigger usage times.

I called Apple Support on Friday and was giving them my battery times. She couldn’t find any exact numbers but she told me that it sounded like my battery was about half of what it should be getting when on Edge only. I went for the option of having my iPhone 3G replace by Apple and should be here tomorrow via DHL. I could have went to the Apple store to get it replace, but since the store is about 2 hours away and basically there are no iPhones in stock confirmed by iJustine’s video of “The World is out of iPhones”, I just paid $29 in shipping to have the iPhone shipped to me.

Now, this is where I want to hear from all the iPhone 3G owners out there. I want to hear what  your normal battery times in standby and usage times and under what configurations. I haven’t seen a centralized location with this information from real life users. So please post below, and let’s hear what your times are to help out other iPhone 3G owners.

I thought I would also share iJustine’s awesome video of “The World is Out of iPhones”

As a possible tropical storm that is soon to be named Cristobal threatens the Southeastern United States and myself, I decided I would give you a first hand glimpse of the weather outside my window.

This Saturday afternoon July 19 through Sunday, Sunday 20, I am going to be running a live broadcast of the weather outside my window on JustinTV. Come by and take a look and see how the tropical storm is affecting us on the Eastern Coast of North Carolina. I am about an hour and half away from the ocean, but we are still expecting some wind and heavy rains.  

Hope you to see you all in chat, and maybe we will take a drive around when the storms start!

Update @ 2 p.m. Sat July 19, 2008 - It is official now, it is Tropical Storm Cristobal!

Watch live video from ijohnw on Justin.tv

The Apple iPhone 3G! I LOVE IT! Except the battery sucks! - from my experience, the 3G will kill the battery, I had to turn it off in the settings.

Except for the battery sucking, this is absolutely the best mobile device I have ever used! Apple has surely raised the bar on mobile devices!

I spent all night in front of the Apple Store in Durham, NC at the Streets of Southpoint. I arrived around 10:30 p.m. and became the 2nd person in line for the night! YES!  The first person was going to be a freshman in college his year, and he was also the first in line at the same store for the original iPhone launch. He could have not been anymore excited than myself to get his hands on the 16GB white iPhone 3G. I decided to go with black to keep the white plastic from changing colors because of the dirt. Although, I did want the white one!  

After sitting all night, the store opened at 8 a.m. with a lot of enthusiasm. We were the first new iPhone customers to enter the store. Well, at least he thought he was going to be one of them.

As he was going through the AT&T setup, the computer told him he needs to go to the AT&T store to get his new iPhone 3G. He was rejected by the Apple Store from purchasing the new iPhone. He didn’t have a business plan. Come to find out, I think he had a corporate discount applied to his current plan which made AT&T think it was a business customer. I ran into this same problem and had to call AT&T and get the FAN removed. Once it was removed, the process worked like a charm. I am now an iPhone 3G owner - Black 16GB.

Unfortunately, the first person in line didn’t get his iPhone after waiting from 10:30 at night till 8 the next morning. If this was myself, I would have been one mad customer.

A couple of the news stations were there along with a group of students from Savannah Art College. I ran across their video on Youtube about the first person in line getting rejected from getting his iPhone 3G.

If that was you, what would you have done? If this happened to you, what did you do? Do you now have an iPhone 3G?

A couple awesome Twitter users have come up with a standardized theme designed to help customize and extend your Twitter page. @richmahn started the trend and was soon followed by @problogger and @waynesutton.

I downloaded the Photoshop files and developed the background image for my twitter page. The final result is….   

Thanks again to the guys who developed this!! If you want to download the Photoshop files, you can do that at http://www.box.net/shared/lgw2pz4gso @WayneSutton uploaded them!

Once you upload your new background image, let me know in the comments! I would love to see what you did! Also, make sure you follow me on Twitter - @ijohn

This has been an awesome 25th Birthday! I spent the day around Raleigh, NC, and one of birthday splurges I got was these delicious cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe in downtown Raleigh. They are absolutely delicious!

When I got home, one of the best people ever (Dylan aka @Partyboy911) and his sister Nicci made this video for me! It is absolutely the best birthday video ever made! Thank you Dylan and Nicci! You guys are awesome!!  

What could have been a better birthday? Thanks to everyone who has wished me Happy Birthday today! You all are awesome!

I love flying! but unfortunately not a lot of positive things are coming out of the airlines. With the cost of oil rising, it doesn’t seem like its going to get any better in the near future. I am immersed in the airline world almost everyday. You see things changing all the time, and most of it isn’t good.  

One of the biggest things the airlines are freaking out right now is about gas. One of the ways to help conserve gas on the ground is limit the APU usage and hook up ground power. The APU on the aircraft provides the plane with power and air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. It is like a little engine in the back which supplies those two things on the ground. When ground power is hooked up to the airplane it will only provide you with power for the airplane.

In the middle of an 85 degree day after passengers got off an airplane, I walked off the airplane. The ground crew came running up to me and told me to turn off the APU so they could hook up the ground power to the aircraft as they are now instructed to do. I told him since we are only staying on the ground for a short period of time, i wasn’t turning the APU off so I can provide air for the passengers since it was hot. The ground person came back at me and told me this “Passengers buy tickets to get somewhere, not comfort.”

Unfortunately, this is what the airline industry is starting to turn towards. They are cutting costs and forgetting about why we are here. It makes me sick to see it turning towards this!

You might have a different perspective from being a passenger or you might agree. Share your story and your thoughts! I would love to hear it!

One month free trial of Netflix

I absolutely LOVE Netflix! The ease of finding movies, having them sent right to your doorstep, sending them right back through the mail with no postage, and having a list of all the movies you want to see are just some of the awesome features you get! Wait, I forgot to mention some movies and TV shows you can view online!

What a free trial month for Netflix? This coupon code expires on June 15, 2008. All you have to do is follow this link, sign up, and you will get a free month of Netflix!

One month free trial of Netflix

If you don’t like the service after a month, just cancel and you won’t be charged a dime.

The service is awesome, and it is my only choice to get movies!

How do you like Netflix? What is your favorite part of having a Netflix Account?

What a great day for Nintendo and the Wii! These new Wii Fits have been selling like hot cakes! All the online stores from Best Buy, Toys R Us, Amazon, and Gamestop are all sold out. The stores are even sold out! I really didn’t think the Wii Fit was going to be this big of a game, but after huge sales in Europe and Japan, I knew it was going to be a hot seller. I did preorder my Wii Fit at Gamestop, and it will be in on the 2nd shipment on May 23. However, I couldn’t wait for another two days. This is how I got my Wii Fit today along with a review and unboxing!

I woke up this morning at 6:30 a.m. to throw some clothes on and rush out of the house. I wanted to be at the local Sam’s Club by 7 a.m. for when the doors opened for only business members. Thank god I do have a business card! I got there right at 7 with 4 other people waiting to get in the doors. As I approached, they opened the doors of the Sam’s Club, and we immediately went to the gaming section. No Wii Fits…Ugh!

So we went to the front of the store to find out that they haven’t even been brought from the back and the box wasn’t even opened. The guy arrived with a very small box with only 5 Wii Fits. I was the 5th person! Woohoo! This morning I walked out of Sam’s as an extremely happy but tired Wii Fit owner. I will probably cancel my preorder at Gamestop on the 24 or so for the Wii Fit, unless someone out there wants to work out a deal to get your hands on a Wii Fit? Contact Me!

The first thing I noticed about the box was it was really slim. I thought the box would have been much bigger. It did come with a nice little carrying handle though!

After placing the Wii Fit disc into the console, the beautiful Wii Fit Channel appeared in the top left of the screen.

The Wii Fit start screen is just as beautiful as the little channel icon. It does also come with soothing music. You need to get a Wii Fit though to hear the music :)

Next, I did the set of tests and questions for the Wii to calculate my weight and BMI. MY BMI is 18.82 and just in the normal range for my height and age.

After calculating your BMI, it shows your Wii Fit Age from a series of balance tests you perform on the balance board. It showed I am 6 years older than I actually am! We need to get working on that!

It’s time to get on to the real games of Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games!

I first started off with Strength Training. The exercises were tough starting out! They included lunges, push ups, and a couple different ab workouts. I definitely felt an all body work out, and I am still sore as I am writing this post!

Aerobics was awesome! Your Mii was on a stage and you had to follow along the foot steps to the music that your Mii was doing while the crowd cheered you on! Totally cool! It also has hula hoop where you start off with one hula hoop and Miis throw more hula hoops to you over time. I had about 5 different hula hoops going at once. You were on a timer to see how many spins you got!

Yoga was totally awesome too! It has many different difficult Yoga positions to achieve while trying to balance yourself and keep the red dot still in a little yellow circle. That is how Wii Fit calculates your score after every activity. It is based on your balance. I can’t wait to continue practicing Yoga and unlock more of the exercises!

I only tried a couple balance games. They were the ski jump, skiing, and high rope walking. These again were all based on balance!

All the exercises provide you with an explanation and a demonstration by your Wii Fit instructor. You can have your choice of a male or female. Unfortunately when they talk, their lips don’t move. I found that a little weird. They provide awesome instruction and encourage you to do your best!

Overall, I am sooooooo stoked about the new Wii Fit! It is definitely a new innovation that will help get people off the couch and get working out! Nintendo has a lot of potential in the Wii, and they are using it to their full advantage. It will definately be interesting to see what game companies take advantage of the Wii Balance Board to develop games for the Wii also!

Great job on all your work Nintendo! You did an awesome job with Wii Fit! Continue developing and innovating the technology to give us more wonderful entertainment, games, and fitness for our bodies!

Here is a short slideshow myself unboxing the Wii Fit. You can also view it on my Flickr Account.

Did you get a Wii fit today? How did you get yours? Are you still searching for one? What is the best part of the Wii Fit? I want to hear your opinions and stories!

What a great ending last night to American Idol! I hope you all voted for your favorite Idol!

This morning, the predictions from Dial Idol show David Cook with a considerable lead to be the next winner as American Idol. Dial Idol makes these predictions based on the busy signals.

David Cook - 40.9
David Archuleta - 29.3

This just might be enough to say David Cook will be the winner after David Archuleta brought his A game and had a knock out performance last night!

I voted from 9 p.m. till 1 a.m. on my iPhone nonstop while two computers were voting for David Archuleta. I’m hoping that was enough to make him the winner! We’ll have to tune in and see tonight!

This is what Dial Idol said on their website about the predictions:

Let’s be clear - DialIdol is definitively predicting that David Cook will win American Idol. No ifs, ands or buts about it. No crazy margin of error claims or anything. The DialIdol scores are significantly different enough to wash all that out the window.

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me given that David Archuleta “knocked out” David Cook during the performance show so before you decide to skip the results show tonight you might want to consider that I myself will be watching with the usual uncertain anticipation that has become habit for me!

DialIdol.com got slammed pretty hard last night by lots of fans trying to see DialIdol’s predictions. Page load time was in the neighborhood of 1-2 minutes from 9pm - 1am. Sorry about this. Sometimes it seems that it is easier to predict who will win American Idol than it is to predict how much traffic DialIdol will get. :)

Who was your favorite last night? Do you think Dial Idol has their predictions right on the money?

Update 5-21-08 @ 10:30 a.m.

Zaba Search has their own little polling results with calling and texting votes taking into account. They show the margin is a lot less…who is right? Take a look at Zaba Results, and I guess we’ll find out tonight!