The last few weeks have had me shuttling back and forth between our current home (in Maryland) and our soon-to-be-home (in Connecticut) several times to take care of various house purchase related things. For the most part, I've chosen to travel by car since it takes just about as long to travel by car as it does by air or train, and traveling by car gives me more schedule flexibility.

On my last trip up, I drove across the Tappan Zee Bridge into New York, then up the Saw Mill River Parkway and then over into Connecticut. The vehicle of choice was the Mini Cooper. Driving through New York kind of brought back memories of childhood living in New York. And, me being me, the inevitable comparison list between then and now started forming. Here's what I remember about this list I made as I hurtled up the road to Connecticut.

Car:
Then: Little Green Volkswagen
Now: Little Green Mini

Gas:
Then: $.36/gallon
Now: $3.00/gallon

Turnpike Rest Stop Food:
Then: Lousy mystery cafeteria food
Now: Lousy fast food

Toll Booths:
Then: Get a ticket, pay cash
Now: One word: EZPass

Guidance:
Then: Paper Maps and good sense of direction
Now: GPS and good sense of direction

Speed Limit:
Then: 65 or 70
Now: 55 or 65

Road Conditions:
Then: Bumpy
Now: Bumpy

Another thing I reflected on was the stretch of New Jersey Route 17 through Paramus that I typically take to get to the Tappan Zee. I remember this route well from childhood too. It's changed a lot, but my favorite diner (the Suburban Diner) is still there as is that funky Holiday Inn across the street from the big mall (though it's a smarter Holiday Inn Express now and the lousy Chinese restaurant it used to have is now gone). The other random thought was memories of my favorite burger place, The Country Burger. Unfortunately, a great little restaurant that first had the misfortune of having a McDonalds get installed next to it, and then being burnt to the ground in a fire.

But in the end, the thought of me driving (and not my parents) to a house my wife and I (not my parents) will own, where once again I'm going to have to deal with a well, septic tank, propane tank, fuel oil, and (more) snow, as well as two kids and a dog made me wonder where all the time has gone....31 years since I left that part of the country, I will soon be returning.

Tags: Travel

On the trip to San Diego last week, I was met by a happy surprise - WiFi on my Southwest Airlines flight. Southwest Airlines is currently running trials on WiFi Service on some of its flights. I believe they currently have 3 planes equipped with this service. During the trial period, the service is free. It is satellite based internet service and appears to go through Directway (or Hughes Network's satellite network) with the equipment apparently through Row 44 (per internet searches on this topic).

On a long non-stop flight like Baltimore to San Diego, WiFi was very welcome. It was easy to connect (my MacBook Pro found it quickly) and the performance was pretty good, as long as you remember it's satellite. Your data packet goes up to a satellite in geo-synchronous orbit, back down to the ground, and then out to the internet. Speed of light suggests you'll have at least 300ms of travel time between the plane and a ground-based router (where's the FTL when you need it?). And then the time it takes to make it across the internet to wherever you're going. I saw ping times ranging anywhere from the 700ms range to over 2000ms (yes, that's 2 seconds per packet roundtrip). I wouldn't want to do interactive editing.

Throughput was pretty good too overall. Pushing a 5MB file out to my server was about 30KB/s max - varying between 20KB/s and 38KB/s. Pulling the same file across to my laptop from my server was initially about 30 KB/s, but then it looks like some sort of burst mode kicked in
after 10 second as I got about 300 KB/s after that. VPN worked, and I was even able to acid test the link by firing up our corporate ERP software from the plane. Slow, but usable in a pinch.

Other nice things - the Yahoo! sponsored web page showed flight status while you were connected, so you could see where you were along your flight. VoIP was specifically banned (hooray for privacy!) and there were warnings that large downloads would be restricted. For doing email, IM, Facebook, and even transferring files, this service was quite good.

Bad things - bring a spare battery. No power outlets. Service improved as I think people ran out of battery. And remember, the service is in beta test. Zandra also managed to get a WiFi equipped plane the day before, but on her flight, the WiFi wasn't working.

How much will it cost when it's released? The web survey suggested they were thinking $4.95. Given the popularity and the fact that several people were asking for it on the flight back, I fear the price will be higher in the end. If the service is this good, though, it might very well be worth it!

Good job Southwest! 10 thumbs up for the service!

Tags: Technology, Travel

A sample from our recent vacation photos. Which one is James?

Tags: Travel

When traveling anywhere, you often notice things that not only do you not see at home, but really draw your attention as being interesting, or worthy of mention at the least. Especially true when going overseas.

On my last trip the following items kind of stood out in my mind:





Package of Kleenex from Hungary with a Ratatouille theme. Just kind of cute. And the package is interestingly square instead of rectangular.




Our taxi which had an ominous telephone number...




This is most interesting - this is the switching control panel from the Hungarian Railroad station that we visited. One of the members of the group from our partner company had a big interest in trains, so our assembly plant staff arranged for a "Behind the Scenes" tour of the local train station. This was "State of the Art" when it was installed in the mid 1970's. And is still in use today. I wonder if it even has solid state technology...




Finally, a picture from the Duty Free shop at the Vienna Airport. We put these tiny little warning labels on our cigarettes. These are nice, big, simple, easy to read labels. Love them. Wish we could have them here. But interestingly, you see a lot more smoking in Vienna. I came out feeling a bit like an ashtray every time I went indoors to a restaurant or some other public place. Wonder why this is? Maybe they should have the warnings in German/Hungarian/local language? Or is it in English because the cigarettes are American?

Tags: Humor, Travel

Coming back from visiting the family on Tuesday, we were seated in front of a family (mom, dad, and 3 year old girl) where after getting on the plane, the girl was screaming rather hysterically. All the parents on the plane felt bad for the family as mom and dad were working very patiently and diligently to try to calm the frightened girl down.

Then Mr. Jerk sitting a row or so behind them shouted, "Get her off the damn plane. I paid good money for this seat and I can't take this anymore. Get her off the plane now."

I think most of the plane was in shock at Mr. Jerk.

All the parents in the front part of the plane then sprung into action to try to help calm the girl down, which she eventually did after about 10 more minutes. Too bad none of us had brought anything to take care of Mr. Jerk.

Talking with the parents later (who were very appreciative of all the support and even let Andrew watch a movie with their daughter on their computer), it turns out the little girl's last flight had been quite traumatic. Their plane had been clipped by another plane on the runway with their plane getting the other plane's winglet stuck in their tail cone. So even to an adult, yes, I'd be traumatized too. Much less a 3 year old girl.

So to Mr. Jerk out there - get off *my* airplane next time.

Tags: Travel