Comments on: Great Idea #63

By: engels

engels — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:47 +0000

I don’t think this will take off.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:41:49 +0000

What am I missing? A modern passenger jet has a broadband network connecting flat panel displays on the back of each seat.

I have…never seen anything like this on the twenty or so planes I have been on in the last three years. By “A modern passenger jet” do you mean “Singapore Airlines”, or “The first class section of a modern passenger jet”, or something else entirely?

By: HH

HH — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:40:11 +0000

What am I missing? A modern passenger jet has a broadband network connecting flat panel displays on the back of each seat. The aircraft can be easily be equipped with satellite-delivered Internet service. A touch screen browser interface can make available the content of any newspaper in the world that is available through a web site. Problem solved.

By: Mikhail

Mikhail — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:18:10 +0000

#14 – They do do that – have newspaper kiosks in airports and other places. Print any of the 500 newspapers in 28 languages on offer. But this concept for some reason has never really taken off. The economics must be wrong, or we are becoming a less reading people, or both. :) Unless you expect this as a free perk from the airlines, this ain’t happening. And given the state of airline business these days, I wouldn’t count on it.

By: flubber

flubber — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:18:23 +0000

Even laser printers give off some VOCs like toluene, xylene, etc., and fine particulate matter.

The reduced atmospheric pressure at altitude (pressurized to the equivalent of 8,000 feet) makes VOCs more volatile, liberating them at a faster rate. The cabin air “turns over” much faster in a commercial airplane however, compared to your standard office building, which will flush the bad air out pretty fast.

I still wouldn’t want one on an airplane near me, but I’m admittedly a bit of a nutter.

By: joseph duemer

joseph duemer — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:17:48 +0000

@5: Tom, my last flight was a couple of months ago. I’m still suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

@3: Bubba, you fly first class? I’m an academic, so that curtain has never parted for the likes of me.

By: foolishmortal

foolishmortal — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:54:44 +0000

You go to smoke a cigarette and someone has to pwn you. Put some kind of anti-pwning device under the seat cushion, too.

By: foolishmortal

foolishmortal — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:52:15 +0000

Or, instead of putting a printer on the plane, install Kindle clones on the armrests. And instead of selling newspapers, sell selections from the Library of Congress, or such subsets as are available. You’d make money doing that.

By: HH

HH — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:24:15 +0000

Putting more pulp into the waste stream makes no sense in an era in which every airplane seat has a digital display on it. The green solution is to make your local newspaper available on the screen in front of your seat. This can be done using software called a “web browser.”

By: bicycle Hussein paladin

bicycle Hussein paladin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:49:33 +0000

I think it’s a great idea. Except, instead of putting the printer on the plane, just have them near the gates and charge a couple bucks or whatever for it there.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:44:24 +0000

In the early 1990s, the EC sponsored a series of brainstorming forums to identify future technologies in different industries, called Eurinfo. The Publishing/Media Forum specified a newspaper much like the one you describe. The results of these forums were published, and 16 years have passed. There has to be a good reason why no company has run with this idea in the meantime, perhaps insufficient demand, the logistics of supply, or opposition from powerful entities in the existing media distribution channels.

By: Sk

Sk — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:43:46 +0000

Given that this only works on ‘long’-i.e. transatlantic, flights, and given that, as we all know, such flights are the absolute worst thing for the environment that an individual can do (you should drive an SUV for a year before you take one transatlantic flight, n’est pas?), and given that the only people insensitive to continue taking transatlantic flights are Rethuglicans (after all, we are facing the end of civilization if we don’t CHANGE within three years, aren’t we?), well, doesn’t that mean that the only paper that would engage in such a business, selling to Rethuglicans, is the Wall Street Journal? And do we really want to expand the reach of the Wall Street Journal?

By: abb1

abb1 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:39:29 +0000

Terrorist threat should be considered – paper cuts can be nasty.

By: ajay

ajay — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:49:36 +0000

mikhail:The weight of such a printing kiosk with paper and such is about the weight of one person + about the size as well.

What??? All you need is an A3 laser printer, not some sort of enormous hot-lead press. I think your maths is off.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:57:34 +0000

Eh. One of the perks of travel is stepping off the treadmill of the news cycle. Implicit in emplaning to Europe, z.B., is the immediate cessation of involuntary demands on one’s attention. Lousy Verizon cell phone doesn’t work over there; don’t call me, I’m in another century.