Comments on: Wasting The Big Bucks

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 01:11:11 +0000

The Canadians would show up just after the prices dropped at the end of summer and stay 6 months. There’s a local AM station that carries the CBC news on the hour. Now they can’t stay more than a few months because of the changes.

The Germans were swimming in the Gulf when it was 50°.

There are more Russians, but not in the numbers of the Germans, and they don’t spend money like the Germans.

The things is that these people bought time-shares and condos, so the real estate market has been slammed. If you bought a condo thinking the rents would cover the costs, you’re screwed.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:48:53 +0000

One of the three hotels in Death Valley National Park just had to lay off an employee with 15 years tenure because the German tourists no longer wish to brave the U.S. airports. For tourism it’s past the point of cutting off fat, now they’re having to cut off muscle because of the DHS goons terrorizing foreign tourists so badly. So it’s not just Florida’s tourism that’s hurting, it’s everybody. Used to be the most common language you heard in Death Valley in the summertime was German. Now… well, probably still German (masochistic krauts want to experience 120F temperatures up close and personal, having lived in Arizona and experienced 115F temperatures up close and personal I gotta say they’re screwed up in the head). Just not so many of them.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:19:23 +0000

We have made it a pretty bad situation for anyone to visit and we are paying the price on the Gulf Coast, because the Canadians and Germans just aren’t coming in the numbers we need during the winter.

By: Mustang Bobby

Mustang Bobby — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:05:03 +0000

Patrick Smith at Salon.com's "Ask the Pilot" has a posting about airlines that brag to their customers about flying around the world and not flying through the U.S. As he asks, "What have we come to?"

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:23:37 +0000

Just another reason for people not to fly to the US. If that had happened to my Mother, someone would have been wearing her cane as a necktie.

By: Cookie Jill

Cookie Jill — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 16:15:23 +0000

I prefer flying out of Burbank, although, the landing and take off are a little nerve racking as you have smaller planes, smaller runway and closer proximity to houses.

But, you have smaller lines and crowds.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:43:55 +0000

It’s a damn database, not an accounting system– redundant servers and a RAID array. You could build the damn thing from parts in less than six hours.

I worked on one banking system, and the computer room lights wouldn’t dim if there was a city wide black out. They had a true UPS power system for the entire room with status lights indicating grid, battery, or generator power. They had three servers available in case of failure. It was a package, not a custom solution.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:21:21 +0000

This is ridiculous.

I’ve done work on two large-scale systems that had to run 24×7, systems on which people could not only be mightily inconvenienced but also lose tons of money from extended outages. In both cases, my clients’ backup systems were awe-inspiring. In the case of one client, I was present one time when a widespread city power outage brought down their primary system; the well-thought-out procedure for bringing up the redundant system and getting it online was impressive, and downtime was measured in a small number of minutes, not hours.

So why the hell can’t Customs do something like that in LAX?