Smalltalk with James Robertson

I'm on the road, blogging from my iPad. I decided to give the 3G a shot, and so far it's worked pretty well. I was able to look up traffic reports earlier, and it's all been cool. We got a late start though - we'll be arriving around 11. The reunion should be interesting.

I'm on a little road trip tomorrow - heading to my 30th high school reunion in East Fishkill, NY. Since my parents moved to Florida, there hasn't been a reason for me to head there in a long time - it should be interesting to see what's changed. I'm heading up with an old friend - we went to junior high and high school together, so it should be a fun road trip.

I've complained about Heathrow before, but today it seems fine. Security was breeze - they didn't even go through the whole "remove your shoes" nonsense that the TSA is obsessed with. Once inside, I found a seat with power nearby - like JFK in NYC, they have little power stands scattered around.

The WiFi isn't free, but an hour at 4 pounds isn't completely out of bounds, either - and it's better than what I suffered through at my hotel this week :)

I'll be heading home via Ottawa in about two hours - hope it's a nice, quiet flight :)

Technorati Tags: lhr

After going to bed last night, I flipped off what I thought was the light switch. Sadly, I didn't notice that the switch I hit was labeled "Room" - so I turned off everything. I woke up to find that my MBP was hibernating and on reserve power (with the terrible bandwidth, I started a download before I went to sleep). Tonight, I'll have to pay a lot more attention to the switches....

The room here at the Park Hotel is small, but comfortable enough - but boy, the wifi is just terrible. I feel like I'm getting dialup class service, and I'm paying extra for it...

This Air Canada Airbus is nice in a lot of ways - power at every seat, both standard US style plug and USB port. The only thing missing is internet service :)

When this gets posted, I should be on my way to London for Camp Smalltalk. I should be there Thursday - anyone want to hit a pub on Thursday evening?

I feel better about traveling with my iPad already:

I'll be heading to London next month - I arrive on July 15th, just before the Camp Smalltalk event (which I'll be attending). Anyone in town up for an evening at a pub on the 15th?

Technorati Tags: smalltalk, london

You can read plenty of missives about how air travel was once an awesome experience - like many things, it looks like the passage of time has softened the (very) rough edges:

I have a copy of TWA's flight schedule from June 1, 1959. The first jets were being introduced into the fleet, but the vast majority of flights were still on propeller-driven aircraft. There's an ad in the timetable for TWA's low coast-to-coast "excursion fares." Los Angeles to New York was only $168.40 roundtrip, if you traveled Monday through Thursday in Sky Club Coach class. That bargain is roughly equivalent to $1,225 today, before tax.

These fares weren't valid on the fastest aircraft, so you had only two options, neither of which went nonstop. There was the 10:10 a.m. departure from Los Angeles that arrived in New York at 11:41 p.m. that night or the 7:55 p.m. departure that arrived at 10:56 a.m. the next day -- more than 12 hours in the air. This was on a Lockheed Constellation, which, while beautiful, bounced you around in the weather at about 20,000 feet, far below the 35,000 to 40,000 feet you'd cruise at today. Even when the weather was good, that trademark prop vibration left you feeling like you were sitting on a washing machine for hours after you landed.

Sure you say, but at least it was elegant? Well, maybe in first class (and the article doesn't give a price for that). However, back in coach? Just like coach now, you had to bring a box lunch yourself. And bear in mind that a transcontinental flight now, even with one stop, is less than half that time - and you're likely to have some entertainment options, even if it's just seatback power and your own gadgets :)

The "golden age of flying" wasn't quite so golden...

Technorati Tags: air travel