two questions after returning from a trip

[da]

1) Why do airplanes need a separate kind of headphone plug? If they didn't, people would be more inclined to use their own headphones, and the airline wouldn't have to hand out disposable headphones on the flight. (They are disposable; if you give them back, they go straight into the trash). This bugs me. Why does it make sense to them? Economically: say 300 pair x $0.50 cost to the airline = $150 could be saved on each long-haul flight. How much would it cost to retrofit the planes for regular 3.5mm stereo headphone jacks? Say a highball $100 a seat- it would pay for itself in 200 flights. I remember when the airlines used to sell the headphones, but now they just give them away. I'm sure it's not an image thing; it sure isn't glamorous to rip into a packet of headphone.

2) Why do washing machines have a separate dial for clothing colour when they already have a setting for temperature? If I set "hot/cold" and "colours" does it modulate the hot temperature downward? I don't tend to think it does, since the water feels just the same whether it's on "whites" or "colours."

To tie these two questions together, if I'm going to accidentally send a piece of electronics through the wash, I'm really happy it was my headphone airplane adapter.

Comments

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

1) Yeah - that's always driven me crazy. Years ago, when I was on a Canada 3000 flight, they gave us headphones that had a separate plug that was just an adaptor for the regular headphones they gave out. I now just have those two adapters and I bring my own.

2) I've always thought it was weird, but I suppose that for people who can never remember which is which, it's a godsend. ;)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

As for 2), I have a sneaky cynical suspicion it's mostly cosmetic and doesn't change the temperature. :)

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Maybe they don't want the hassle of 200 people a day saying 'I left my expensive headphones on your flight 215'?

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

1) a lot of airplanes now have standard jacks. i carry an adapter for my regular headphones with me when i travel, just in case :) and some airlines still sell the headsets. swiss air charges an absurd 5 euros.

2) that is pretty silly.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Aha! I haven't been on any with standard jacks, though I don't fly very often. I was trying to remember if the newest AC planes I had been on had standard jacks to go with the seat-back entertainment units, and I concluded they had the old-style ones, because I remember trying to watch one of the movies on a seat-back with their headphones (instead of my headphones, because I forgot my adapter on that trip). 5 euros is absurd, though it's more or less in line with what they cost when I first flew. When $5 felt like a lot of money to me. :)

[chezmax]

1) Many just use standard headsets now. The flight to Japan had standard headsets (and seatback entertainment). All WestJet flights I've taken have standard plugs.

I imagne it's a matter of inertia. Who knows why they diverged from the standard when they implemented stereo sound...

[kraig.livejournal.com]

So they could sell you $1.50 headphones for $5, and you couldn't use your own.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

1) Because they used to charge money for rental of headphones. The special plug was specifically to prevent people from using their own. In fact, many newer airplanes, now that this practice has gone away, are being built with regular headphone jacks. The last flight I was on had regular headphone jacks.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Some of the airlines didn't do so well at making "custom" plugs -- they just had two mono jacks, so supposedly you'd have to use their magic headphones to get the music. Except that (a) you could plug in to one jack and get one channel, and (b) those of us wily enough to save converters could bring along a 2-mono-to-stereo adapter.

But if they are standardized now.. no, I'm still hanging onto that adapter. Who knows when it will be useful again.

[ckd]

I remember when airline headphones were just tubes that carried sound from the speakers embedded in the armrest.

[cypherpunk95.livejournal.com]

In fact, I was just on a flight that had both the tube audio plug, as well as a standard stereo headphone jack. When the volume was up loud, you could hear the sound coming out of the "tube" holes, even when not wearing headphones at all.

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

1) Used to be so they could charge for the earphones, and yes, I remember the ones that had the "stethoscope"-like tubes too.

2) Not all washers do that, I believe that Maytag and possibly Whirlpool tried that in US. Some things are not as apparent as the water temperature and, if I remember right, the *real* difference was that "whites" was actually a cottons cycle and "colors" was a permanent-press cycle. If that's the case, there may or may not be a cool-down phase before rinse begins (all real permanent-press cycle should have that at least if one is washing in hot water) and the spin speed will be slower (which is great so it won't set creases in permanent-press clothing), which is a bad choice energy-efficiency-wise if one really does have stuff that holds water, like cotton, in the load. I can't really explain *why* they thought that the change would be better for the consumer, maybe they thought most consumers had synthetic-fiber clothing that was colored and all cotton would be white, which even then doesn't correlate. Anyway, usually cottons has a long wash with high speed agitation and high speed spin, no cool-down; permanent-press a medium wash with high speed agitation and low speed spins with a cool-down phase; a delicate cycle would have a short wash at low speed (or, and inexpensive machines without 2- or 3-speed motor, a wash cycle that is composed of agitate/soak periods), a cool-down phase and low-speed spins; if you have a wool cycle, it's usually a brief wash at low speed, *no* cool-down phase and medium- or high-speed spins (wool felts if you agitate it too much or if it suffers a thermal shock, which is the reason it's usually washed in cold water, but if the cycle can guarantee warm wash and rinses, it can go on that too, which explains the "warm/warm" settings too).

Hm... it's a bummer when one is about 12 days behind on LJ. But at least the answer to (2) is the rumors I got from the appliance-related websites a few years ago.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. :)