PARIS: First, we saw a recoil against social networks, then a backlash against blogs. Now, just when digital music has reached enough of a mass audience to make even my tech-challenged sister take the plunge, the Web is awash in anti-MP3 audiophiles.

For those who wouldnt know an MP3 from an Ogg Vorbis, lets review.

MP3 is a digital audio format created in Germany that gained global popularity because it could shrink a CD song into a manageable, e-mailable, Internet-friendly size at a time when slow-moving dial-up Web connections dominated.

Compressing a song tosses out bits and pieces of the music file that we dont generally hear, or at least dont miss.

There are lots of other audio formats today, but MP3 is the most popular, in part because it carries no copying restrictions. So all digital music hardware and software can handle MP3s.

But wouldnt you know it, as soon as something becomes popular, along come the detractors. Music fanatics believe that MP3s have poor audio quality because so much data is eliminated to compress them. And now broadband - or high-speed - Internet connections are commonplace.

That combination has led to a grass-roots following for “lossless” digital audio formats, or those that do some size-shrinking without losing sound quality. (The “true” fanatics, naturally, are against digital music of any kind, preferring the warmth of analog recordings. But thats another story.)

So “lossless” is the newest latest fad in digital music among a moral minority. Apple and Microsoft have their own proprietary lossless formats (Apple Lossless and MWA Lossless), and the free-software proponents have FLAC, which stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an open-source version (available at flac.sourceforge.net/). Another free one is called SHN.

(Of the lossless varieties, the newest generations of iPods can play only Apples.)

One company, called MusicGiants, caters to audiophiles with an online music store selling only lossless recordings (motto: “Upgrade your downloads”) from the major studios, EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner, for $1.29 each (U.S. residents only for now). Many sites that offer live concert recordings, like Live Phish and Live Downloads, do so losslessly.

Of course, as with any kind of digital music, pirated lossless files are more available than the legitimate ones. Lossless Legs (at www.shnflac.net) is a site that claims to share “high-quality, trade-friendly music” from what the proprietors say is an “attempt to keep a legal database.”

And Exact Audio Copy, free from a German site, is one example of software that can turn your CDs into FLAC files.

There are also Dolby and DTS lossless audio formats for the sound and soundtracks on the next-generation DVD formats, HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Even at the Fraunhofer Institute, the engineers behind the original MP3 have a lossless version. But it is unlikely to make tracks the way their first inspiration did because digital music has become so commercial, rather than a researchers pet project.

Lossless compression algorithms “do not diminish the original audio quality in the slightest, because the original audio material can be exactly reconstructed,” a Fraunhofer research paper explains. “This is also of great interest with the digitization, restoration and storage of old recordings.”

Want to know more? Two sites that offer expert advice and resources are Hydrogen Audio and the Lossless Audio Blog.

Dont shed a tear for the MP3, however. Just like social networking and blogging, the MP3 isnt going anywhere soon just because lossless is getting some attention. Its universality - and, especially, its playability on iPods - will keep it in vogue for some time.

In that weird creative-literal way the Internet has of naming things, the opposite of lossless is, of course, “lossy” - as in, MP3s are lossy.

And Ogg Vorbis? Thats just another audio niche format with devoted supporters, but just so you know: Its lossy, not lossless.

THOUSANDS of Edinburgh holidaymakers will jet off to Europe’s hotspots tomorrow in the biggest ever summer getaway.

More travellers than ever before are expected to pass through Edinburgh Airport’s gates this weekend. Palma in Majorca is one of this year’s most popular destinations, along with traditional sunshine resorts such as Tenerife, Alicante and Malaga.

European cities, including Dublin and Amsterdam, are also attracting thousands of holidaymakers and new direct routes to Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany are expected to further boost passenger numbers.

Travel agents today said the lure of cheap flights to the sun, as well as the UK’s dismal weather, is behind the massive exodus.

The record number of passengers to pass through the airport in one day is 34,965, set on June 30 last year. The figure was almost topped last month when 33,391 passengers travelled through the terminal on May 25, but with most schools breaking up for the summer holidays at the end of this week, forecasts suggest the record may be surpassed.

Edinburgh Airport has hired 40 new security staff, installed more X-ray machines and opened a new security search area to minimise delays for passengers.

Managing director David Johnston said: “All of us at the airport are excited at the prospect of breaking our record for the number of passengers through the terminal in one day.

“It would be a great way for us to kick off the summer. The team here at the airport has worked hard to ensure we are prepared for the extra traffic. However, there is a lot passengers can do to help ensure their journey through the airport is as smooth as possible.

“Removing coats, jackets and laptops for security screening before they reach the security line helps save time. Passengers should also be aware of the restrictions that remain in place, which mean only liquid containers up to 100mls, packed in clear, re-sealable plastic bags, can be permitted through security.”

A “welcome team” has also been deployed to meet passengers when they arrive in the terminal.

New destinations on offer include Oslo, Toronto, Munich, Zurich, Dortmund, Stockholm, Bergerac and Avignon.

Sean Tipton, spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents, said: “With one of the worst summers in the UK in living memory, it’s no surprise that record numbers of people are heading abroad for guaranteed good weather.

“In addition, the cost of foreign holidays is at an all-time low, partly due to the influence of no-frills carriers and the traditional carriers which have responded by offering excellent deals.”

The number of new direct flights available from the Capital has soared in recent years.

At the same time, domestic travel has stagnated or dropped, as fewer holidaymakers need to switch planes at English airports such as Manchester, Gatwick or Heathrow.

The city’s airport is now on the verge of becoming the busiest in Scotland, having steadily caught up with Glasgow’s traffic figures.

WASHINGTON: At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta Air Lines jets take off an average of 10 minutes after pushing back from the gate - three minutes faster than in previous years.

Thanks to new technology, planes take off following a narrow route, so that jets right behind them taking different routes do not have to wait as long. That makes the system move a bit faster.

“The pilots say, Wow, this is kind of neat, ” said Joseph Kolshak, executive vice president for operations at Delta.

Delta, and also Alaska Airlines and UPS, is demonstrating pieces of the possible future of the air traffic system in the nation, hinting at what aviation might be like - if the airlines and the federal government can get the details worked out.

All three airlines use refinements based on the constellation of GPS, or global positioning system, satellites. Many of these save at most a few minutes. But in a crowded system plagued by delays, that may be enough to help smooth out bottlenecks.

The use of satellite navigation and other tools and techniques by the carriers represents a step toward replacing a 50-year-old system of radar and radio beacons.

In the process, they are pulling along a slow-moving government agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, that is eager for better air traffic control systems but short on money and the authority to put changes in place.

It is a revolution in technology, but also in politics. Previously, the FAA usually bought new systems on the ground and told airlines to equip themselves to use them; now the airlines are taking the initiative to outfit their planes, with safety regulation from the FAA.

Airlines are even developing their own approach patterns for airports, which has almost always been a government job.

UPS Airlines, working with Aviation Communications and Surveillance Systems, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is developing a landing pattern based on separating planes by time, not distance, so they land at the briefest safe interval.

“Were going to create the future, because we think we know where its going to go,” said Karen Lee, director of operations at UPS.

This is in contrast to the traditional way of doing business, which she described as, “when the FAA tells us what the roadmap is, well start building the stuff to do it.”

This is not quite do-it-yourself air traffic control, because everything requires FAA analysis and approval.

But the agency is encouraging airlines to innovate, and is getting itself out of the picture, in many ways. For example, on Thursday it awarded a contract to a team led by ITT, an engineering and manufacturing firm, worth $207 million initially and possibly up to $1.8 billion, to build and operate a national network of radio receivers to accept signals from airplanes in flight.

Each plane would give its position as determined by the GPS satellites. The ITT contract is part of a system that would process that data to allow controllers and pilots in flight to see a display showing where all the planes are.

Another big step for the agency, which it hopes to take this year, is to publish a proposed rule giving the schedule for when airplanes will have to be equipped for satellite navigation and surveillance.

No one knows how much this will cut delays and improve capacity.

But there are glimpses. One is in Juneau, Alaska.

For years, airplanes could not safely find the runway there, nestled in between mountains, unless clouds were at least 1,000 feet, or 305 meters, above the ground and visibility was more than two miles, or 3.2 kilometers.

And if there were clouds, there was only one way out, to the west, with a quick U-turn, which could be frustrating for travelers.

To assure that the plane could accomplish that maneuver under worst-case conditions - an engine failure on takeoff - Alaska Airlines often had to leave passengers or freight behind at the airport.

Today, its planes land there as long as clouds are 337 feet above the surface and in visibility down to one mile. And they can take off in either direction. Of the approximately 3,600 flights the airline operated in and out of Juneau last year, 754 could not have been attempted in years past.

“Its a thing of beauty,” said Kevin Finan, acting vice president for flight operations at Alaska Airlines.

The more reliable operations happened because of a system developed largely by the airline.

Through a combination of the GPS, traditional navigation aids and instruments on board that give the planes position by measuring each turn, pilots of the Boeing 737s flown by Alaska Airlines know their position within 600 feet, the airline equivalent of the head of a pin.