Thursday, 5 February 2009

Gak boleh moto di Carrefour?

Setiap awal bulan, seperti hari ini, saya selalu pergi ke Carrefour di Jalan Sukajadi, Bandung, untuk belanja bulanan. Hari ini saya kesana bersama teman saya, Rachim.

Kebetulan teman saya ini baru beli kamera baru, jadi dia gatel pengen foto-foto di setiap tempat yang kami kunjungi. Nah, pas sedang belanja di carrefour, ada promosi mie instan. Untuk menarik perhatian pembeli, mie instan itu disusun oleh petugas sedimikian rupa sehingga membentuk cup raksasa. Karena dianggap lucu, maka teman say foto itu cup raksasa.

Pas selesai foto, ada seorang petugas menghampiri kami dan bertanya:
"Dari mana mas?"
"Hah...? Dari mana?" Jawab saya bingung, kan aneh ada orang tiba2 tanya dari mana...
"Iya, mas nya dari mana?? Kok foto2?" Jawab petugas itu lagi..
"Ooooh, itu lucu sih, jadinya saya foto" Jawab teman saya..
"Gak boleh mas, harus ada ijinnya kalo mau foto2" kata petuga itu.
"Ya udah deh, nanti saya hapus" kata teman saya lagi,

Setelah memastikan foto tadi dihapus, petugas itu pergi.

Yang saya bingungkan, apakah benar di Carrefour tidak boleh ambil foto? Kalau iya, kenapa tidak ada papan pengumuman larangan memotret di Carrefour? Selama ini saya belum menemukan papan larangan berisi tulisan itu sih, atau saya yang tidak melihat? Aneh!!!

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Preference Dalam Memilih Pesawat di Indonesia

Karena saya suka sekali traveling, maka transportasi udara merupakan salah satu yang saya beri cukup banyak perhatian. Hal ini disebabkan karena citra dunia penerbangan Indonesia yang masih dianggap buruk oleh dunia internasional, jadi saya juga mulai mempelajari sedikit tentang penerbangan di Indonesia.

Apabila saya ingin terbang, maka saya sudah membuat list airline besar Indonesia yang akan saya naiki. List ini saya urutkan berdasarkan keamanan/safety dan kenyamanan, baik mulai dari proses booking hingga kenyamanan service onboard, yang murni pendapat saya, yang saya kaji berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi dan beberapa cerita dari orang-orang yang saya percaya, jadi jangan 100% percaya ya,, hehehe. Berikut listnya yang saya urutkan mulai dari yang terbaik:

1. Garuda Indonesia (GA)--> www.garuda-indonesia.co.id (bisa booking online, dengan kartu kredit saja, dan agak ribet)
2. Mandala Air (RI)--> www.mandalaair.com (bisa booking online, dan mudah)
3. Air Asia (QZ/AK)--> www.airasia.com (bisa booking online, dengan kartu kredit saja atau mandiri banking)
4. Citilink (GA) --> www.citilink.co.id (bisa booking online, dengan kartu kredit saja)
5. Sriwijaya Air (SJ)--> www.sriwijayaair-online.com (tidak bisa booking online), seandainya dia bisa booking online dengan mudah, maka SJ akan ada pada no.2 pilihan saya.
6. Merpati Nusantara (MZ)--> www.merpati.co.id (bisa booking online)
7. Batavia Air (7P)--> www.batavia-air.co.id (bisa booking online dengan kartu kredit saja)
8. Lion / Wings Air (JT/IW)--> www.lionair.co.id (bisa booking online, dan mudah sekali)

Jadi, apabila saya harus terbang, yang akan saya pikirkan sebagai alternatif pertama adalah no.1 dahulu, apabila harga dan waktu tidak cocok maka baru turun ke pilihan ke-2, dan seterusnya.

update tgl 27 Februari 2009

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Asal Mula Nama Boeing 7x7

Mungkin banyak yang bertanya-tanya kenapa pesawat-pesawat komersial Boeing selalu berangka boeing 7x7, mulai dari 707, 737 series yang terkenal, dan 7 7 lainnya. Nah kebetulan ada teman di forum yang posting tentang itu, jadi saya kopiin kesini.

Ooh ya, artikelnya pake bahasa inggris, saya males ngartiin, jadi met membaca aja. :)

from www.boeing.com

Why 7’s been a lucky number

BY MIKE LOMBARDI


One of the most frequently asked questions posed to Boeing company historians is, "How did Boeing come up with the 7-7 name for its commercial jets?" There are many myths about the Boeing 7-7 name, one of the most famous brands in history.

People who lean toward math and engineering are certain that 707 was chosen because it is the sine of the angle of wing sweep on a 707. It's not, since the wing sweep is 35 degrees and not 45. However, more people lean toward superstition and feel that the positive connotation of the number seven was the reason it was selected.

The truth is a bit more mundane. Boeing has assigned sequential model numbers to its designs for decades, as have most aircraft manufacturers. Boeing commercial aircraft use their model number as their popular name: Model 40, Model 80, Model 247, Model 307 Stratoliner and Model 377 Stratocruiser.

Boeing planes built for the military are best remembered by their military designations, such as the B-17 Flying Fortress or the B-52 Stratofortress. These airplanes also had Boeing model numbers assigned to them-the B-17 is the Boeing Model 299 and the B-52 is the Boeing Model 454.

After World War II, Boeing was a military airplane company. William Allen, Boeing president at the time, decided that the company needed to expand back into commercial airplanes and pursue the new fields of missiles and spacecraft. To support this diversification strategy, the engineering department divided the model numbers into blocks of 100 for each of the new product areas: 300s and 400s continued to represent aircraft, 500s would be used on turbine engines, 600s for rockets and missiles and 700s were set aside for jet transport aircraft.

Boeing developed the world's first large swept-wing jet, the B-47. That aircraft sparked interest with some of the airlines. One in particular, Pan Am, asked Boeing to determine its feasibility as a commercial jet transport. At the same time, Boeing began studies on converting the propeller-driven model 367 Stratotanker, better known as the KC-97, into a jet-powered tanker that would be able to keep pace with the B-52 during in-flight refueling.

Boeing product development went through several renditions of the model 367, and finally a version numbered 367-80 was selected. It was soon nicknamed the "Dash 80."

Boeing took a calculated risk by financing the development and construction of the Dash 80 prototype with its own funds. The goal was to put the airplane into production as both an Air Force tanker/transport and a commercial jet transport.

Since both of these offspring of the Dash 80 would be jet transports, the model number system called for a number in the 700s to identify the two new planes. The marketing department decided that "Model 700" did not have a good ring to it for the company's first commercial jet. So they decided to skip ahead to Model 707 because that reiteration seemed a bit catchier. Following that pattern, the other offspring of the Dash 80, the Air Force tanker, was given the model number 717. Since it was an Air Force plane, it was also given a military designation of KC-135.

After 717 was assigned to the KC-135, the marketing department made the decision that all remaining model numbers that began and or ended in 7 would be reserved exclusively for commercial jets. (After the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger in the late 1990s, the model number 717 was reused to identify the MD-95 as part of the Boeing commercial jet family.)

Other than the 717, the only anomaly to the Boeing commercial jet numbering system was the Boeing model 720. The 720 was a short-range, high-performance version of the 707 and was first marketed to the airlines as the model 707-020. United Airlines was very interested in the 707-020 but had previously decided to go with Douglas and the DC-8. To help United avoid any negative public relations for going back to the 707, Boeing changed the name of the 707-020 to the 720.

Since the naming of the initial 717, all Boeing commercial jets have been named in succession based on the 7-7 formula: 727, 737, 747 . up to the latest Boeing commercial jet transport, the 7E7.

michael.j.lombardi@boeing.com