Planes overhead • Hacker News Board

Re: Planes overhead

#31

Post by dazbradbury » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:30 AM UTC

I'm currently sat in Heathrow airport, one of the busiest airports in the world.

Result: none.

Re: Planes overhead

#32

Post by obiterdictum » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:30 AM UTC

frisco wrote: post #3

Wolfram Alpha might be the most advanced piece of web technology nobody needs.

Actually it's currently used in Apple's Siri to answer factual questions.

Re: Planes overhead

#33

Post by sabatier » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:37 AM UTC

Does not work over the UK. Grrrr

Re: Planes overhead

#34

Post by w1ntermute » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:57 AM UTC

frisco wrote: post #3

Wolfram Alpha might be the most advanced piece of web technology nobody needs.

I need it all the time for use as a scientific calculator that blows anything else in existence out of the water by a long shot.

Re: Planes overhead

#35

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 8:59 AM UTC

dazbradbury wrote: post #31

I'm currently sat in Heathrow airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. Result: none.

[deleted]

Re: Planes overhead

#36

Post by scorpion032 » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 9:15 AM UTC

frisco wrote: post #3

Wolfram Alpha might be the most advanced piece of web technology nobody needs.

Except until you integrate it with Siri (Only iPhone 4S, for now) and suddenly it is the technology everyone needs.

Re: Planes overhead

#37

Post by plam » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 9:15 AM UTC

dazbradbury wrote: post #31

I'm currently sat in Heathrow airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. Result: none.

the program probably counts an airport as a flight path's end point. so none of the planes is counted as "in flight".

Re: Planes overhead

#38

Post by tonylemesmer » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 9:16 AM UTC

Data is delayed iirc

Re: Planes overhead

#39

Post by kalid » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 9:31 AM UTC

Dobbs wrote: post #30

Just realized wolfram alpha works really well for doing complicated data conversions, particularly data transfer rates. 100 Terabytes a month in megabits a second.

Shameless plug: you might like instacalc which can do these conversions too:

http://new.instacalc.com/366

You can even use made-up units ("hits", "people", etc... has a pluralizer). I made it as a personal productivity tool and have a slew of updates in the works =).

Re: Planes overhead

#40

Post by soult » Sat, Nov 12, 2011, 9:43 AM UTC

I am surprised nobody has mentioned Flightradar24[0] yet. It displays planes on a Google Map with altitude, airline and flight path information. The data comes directly from ADS-B receivers of volunteers, so only planes with ADS-B transponder are shown and the coverage outside of Europe is spotty.

Living in the path of a mid-size airport this tool is great for identifying noisy airplane types.

0: http://www.flightradar24.com/