ats:
"The best AJAX apps are still very Web-like (as in, the Back button always works); but they're faster and more responsive and nicer to look at."
A point I agree with -- breaking the usual browser model is a bad thing -- but are there any good examples of AJAX apps that actually follow this rule? The flagship ones (read: Google, open.bbc) break it all the time.
It's possible that I'm atypical, but there aren't any AJAX web applications that I use now, because they're all so horrific in this regard -- if I'm using a web app, I want to be able to give links to other people, bookmark things inside it, and so on.
(Incidentally, I do find myself wondering whether we could do a nice CSP-ish model of this, rather than continuations -- i.e. you write your code that interacts with the user as a single process, with channels to/from the user to communicate along...)
ats: "Just to repeat, then: [the A380] has the lowest fuel consumption per passenger of any large commercial airliner yet built."
Interesting article about the environmental impact of flying.
(I wonder if that statistic takes the energy-content differences between gasoline and high-octane aviation fuel into account.)
I'd find it more interesting to see a comparison between air and surface environmental cost for public transport; the only flying I'm going to be doing in the foreseeable future is to academic conferences, and there's not really any other option there.
I'm probably going to be going to a conference in September in Edinburgh, and I'll (hopefully) be flying because it's faster and cheaper than the train (and much faster and a bit cheaper than driving), even if I do so by flying to Europe and back.