Pilots don’t turn their phones off in the air either (via Gizmodo.com)
The FAA has issued an alert to airlines telling them to tell their pilots to turn their phones off.
The US FAA has issued an alert to airlines following an inspector’s report that a first officer’s cell phone began ringing at a critical phase of a takeoff recently, an incident the agency says was “a potentially serious hazard”.According to the FAA air safety inspector who was riding along on an unnamed airline’s flight from the jump seat, just prior to reaching V1, the speed after which pilots generally are committed to taking off rather than aborting on the runway, a rather loud “warbling” sound was “detected” by both crewmembers.
“It was later determined that the sound came from the first officer’s cellular phone, which had been left in the ON position,” the Safety Alerts For Operators (SAFO) note reads.
“As a result the ring tone caused a distraction between the crewmembers during the takeoff phase and could have led the to crew to initiate an unnecessary rejected takeoff,” the letter continues.
The 
KwaZulu-Natal will meet all deadlines and obligations for the much-awaited Soccer World Cup, the provincial government said on Thursday. Addressing editors on the province’s readiness for the soccer tournament, Premier Sbu Ndebele said the 2010 projects were well on track.
Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, said the 2010 Soccer World Cup will be one of the sources of output growth improvement next year. Presenting his Budget in Parliament, Manuel said he expects output growth to improve then, supported by public infrastructure spending, lower interest rates and a recovery in the world economy as well as the World Cup.
THE delay in awarding bus contracts to meet demand for the 2010 Soccer World Cup is causing concern for local bus manufacturers, who warn that the longer they have to wait, the more strain it will put on delivery and that necessary job training will suffer.
More South African soccer fans are likely to watch the 2010 World Cup matches in so-called fan parks than in the 10 designated stadiums. “The fan parks may constitute a ‘bigger’ World Cup than in the stadiums,” SA Local Organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan told MPs on Thursday.
Tickets for the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup go on sale on the Internet in just under three weeks at a prominent South African bank. With Monday having marked 500 days to the World Cup kick-off on June 11, 2010 — today there are 495 days to go — tickets for the event go on sale in 20 days’ time, on February 19.
A survey by football’s governing body FIFA has found that more than half of South African people are worried about the country’s high crime rate impacting the 2010 World Cup.South Africans are happy to have the World Cup, but worried about crime during the event.
It’s no big secret that we’re all a bit worried about World Cup 2010 in South Africa right now. And though those concerns are very much legitimate, I think it’s time someone offered a few rays of light to counterbalance all the World Cup 2010 doom and gloom.
With only 500 days remaining until the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the governing body would focus its attention on the infrastructure and arrangements surrounding the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. FIFA secretary-general Jérôme Valcke said during a press conference in Johannesburg that the organisation was satisfied with the…
Hubless bikes are kind of like hover boards – cool, but stuck firmly in the future. That doesn’t mean we can help ourselves from swooning every time we see the hint of one.
Exhibition space is selling fast and ITS companies from South Africa and abroad are invited to become sponsors and / or exhibitors at the e-Transport Conference and Exhibition The overall theme is Moving People Smartly: Transport Solutions for FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 and beyond. It takes place on 24-25 March 2009 at the Sandton Convention Center.
To view the programme, click 
As ITS deployment intensifies, the need to expand and improve the communication layer becomes increasingly important Different technologies provide divergent benefits and the challenge is to find an inclusive solution. On 11 February ITS South Africa hosted a workshop in Durban on Communication Applications for the Transport Environment in cooperation with the ITS Centre of Excellence and the eThekweni Transport Authority. 70 delegates attended it.
An SME company based in Italy is looking for a partnership. It is a leading Italian player in the Intelligent Transport Systems market, with advanced technology products and system solutions.
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DigiCore Holdings, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed vehicle telematics company, recently increased it’s shareholding in it’s DigiCore Deutshland subsidiary from 50% to 100%. The group has over the last 3 years followed a policy of purchasing 100% shareholding in the offshore entities over a period in order to exploit synergies and align strategies throughout the Group.
Kapsch TrafficCom AG recently had great success in France, the Czech Republic and Italy. In the next three years, Kapsch TrafficCom France will impelement four orders for the biggest French road operators (Vinci, APRR and Sanef Groups) and the tag issuer Axxes. In total, Kapsch will supply over half a million on board units and related accessories to France for an order value of around 10 million EUR.
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MaxID’s focus is on the design and development of rugged mobile terminals and the ancillary technologies for data acquisition and communications such as biometric applications, RFID, Barcode scanning, GPS positioning, and GSM/GPRS. They are represented by Mr Selwyn Jackson. Please contact him at Telephone +27 11 234 2110 or 
