How many large jet flights are there in a year??

originally posted by: waynos
It's not unlike a role playing game akin to Dungeons and Dragons when you observe it for any length of time, except less fact based.

I smite your Chemtrail Ogre with my +5 Mace of Logic.

originally posted by: UNIT76

If you are concerned about the harm to the environment from aviation you should probably start a thread in "Fragile Earth"

that was one of the most banal passive aggressive statements i've ever heard read!?

there are reasons for the various forums, and the T&C's tend to suggest that you should take topics to forums that are appropriate for them.

"Fragile Earth" is a good forum for pollution, overuse of resources, etc.

sorry you can't see that.

i'll bet you're a blogger too, eh?

huh??

I'm honestly curious - what kind of business requires you to travel long distances that can't be handled by a conference call and a fax machine?

All I can think of is some nurses I know who travel for their work -sometimes they're hired within hours of having to be in another city for a few weeks.

Otherwise, I'm coming up blank.

(This comes on the heels of my accidentally getting an email from my dentist's office - it was advertising a week-long junket to Maui for 'continuing education credits' of which only a few hours were going to be the educational part. The rest was a five star resort 5K per person vacation, not counting air fare... your medical insurance dollars at work! Sure they can spend the money they earn anyway they want to, but one wonders how much this sort of thing increases the cost of medical and dental care. Or why 'continuing education credits' couldn't likewise be done via conference calls and Youtube videos.)

a reply to: signalfire
aircraft accident investigation springs immediately to mind....but then I've been involved in that business although not as an investigator.

originally posted by: signalfire
I'm honestly curious - what kind of business requires you to travel long distances that can't be handled by a conference call and a fax machine?

I don't want to get too specific (to keep the anonymity of those I work for), but my work includes doing analyses of certain types of buildings. I need to physically visit those buildings to do so.

Another example that springs to mind that I have seen would be some specialized construction installations. I once consulted with a company that made a specific type of equipment that they were installing in certain buildings all over the United States. The supervisors and engineers for that company were specially trained to understand this equipment, and they traveled from place to place to supervise each installation (even though the actual installation work was done by local contractors).

originally posted by: signalfire
I'm honestly curious - what kind of business requires you to travel long distances that can't be handled by a conference call and a fax machine? .

I am in industrial sales management and while travelling in the territories I manage the respective associates covering them are expected to do a certain amount of cold calling which cannot be done in any other manner then face to face.

a reply to: signalfire

I am joe nobody, but when I first came out of the military, I got a job installing lumber mill equipment. I was trained in how to install and repair it. Now it would have been great if they could install their own, or just ship the 10,000 lb machine back to us, but unfortunately, that wasn't an option. And that is just one obscure profession.

a reply to: network dude

Your example is similar to the one in the second paragraph of my examples.

I might add that in your example, it wouldn't surprise me if the company the manufactured the mill equipment may have even needed to send a team of people out before the installation to verify the dimensions and utility needs of the specif place they wanted to put that equipment -- i.e., maybe they needed to produce installation drawings (where power will come from, how the equipment will tie into existing, etc) prior to you getting there.

Depending on the size of the mill, I suppose it's possible that the mill may have their own staff of industrial engineers who could do that work, but often the installation drawings are done by others, and to do the drawings properly, they need to visit the site to verify what is actually there.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Usually, we would send 4 or 5 people to start with, then, once the big stuff was in place, and all the specialty engineering was done, just leave one guy there to finish.

I know technology has advanced and some things can be done remotely, but there are things that cannot.

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People


I know technology has advanced and some things can be done remotely, but there are things that cannot.

Still need someone to fix the technology that allows things to be done remotely

originally posted by: mrthumpy

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People


I know technology has advanced and some things can be done remotely, but there are things that cannot.

Still need someone to fix the technology that allows things to be done remotely

Well, some of that could be done by local contractors...

...However, depending on how specialized the equipment is, it may be the case that instead of have people all over the place within a relatively short drive of everywhere, it is more feasible to have only a few people trained to do such work, and have them travel as needed to wherever that work is -- which may often require a plane trip.

originally posted by: signalfire
I'm honestly curious - what kind of business requires you to travel long distances that can't be handled by a conference call and a fax machine?

Really , then you must have very little knowledge of the IT world or at a broader scope what it takes to implement new and maintain the old infrastructure of any system.

In the past 3 months I have traveled to San Francisco and New York for my current job.
At my last job I traveled to 27 various locations around North America and Puerto Rico installing networks/PBX's and call recording systems.