I see a lot of airports and I do see some of them on a regular basis. During those visits you see the small changes that happen over the years. Sometimes its a revamped area, it might be a new restaurant. Small changes, but interesting. One of the changes at Seattle airport is the introduction of free WiFi. A great service that not many airports provide. To me it is great progress because it will allow me to work and hook up before there will be a longer black-out in communication. It makes life just that little bit easier when you are travelling. SEATAC did score some points there with me.

However, one issue is still not resolved: I need to have electricity to work as well. Airports are designed in a horrible way when it comes to working: there are no tables, no power plugs in convenient places, no nothing. That is annoying. It is a form of insensitivity that frustrates me. Even modern airports like Heathrow completely ignore my needs as a travelling business person. I like to work, and to (keep on) doing that throughout my travel I require electricity. People will seek it, making them do anything to get it, like this:

So airport management, please provide us with some power in a convenient way.

Posted on Saturday 20 of February, 2010 [01:33:08 UTC]

Most hotelrooms look alike: a bed, a small table, a TV and a bathroom. As far as equipment goes, you generally should be happy when you get some electricity. However, the Courtyard Marriott in Bellevue did provide an excellent equiped room: besides power sockets everywhere, they provided a hub for transferring your laptop video and audio to the big screen TV in your room. This opens up a lot of possibilities, including watching my favourite video streams as well as my own movies. This is a great addition to local hotel services I extremely value.

Posted on Saturday 20 of February, 2010 [01:17:11 UTC]

As many you know, I am not a fan of in-flight entertainment. It is a mediocre way of keeping people occupied, and it generally isn't worth your time considering it as an option. Before my flights I always check what movies my airline offers, and it is a extremely consistent experience: a collossal disappointment. That is why I bring my own entertainment. I'll load my laptop with movies, put XBMC over it and you are in business.

Today, a lot of my fellow passengers found out the hard way that it is pretty smart to bring your own entertainment with you. The crew could not get the in-flight entertainment system to work properly, so almost the entire aircraft was stuck with 1 single movi with horrible sounde, for 10 hours. The only exceptions were the people that brought their own movies, which were about 5 of us on an entire flight. Most of those 5 did not anticipate on having to support themselves for the entire flight, leaving them all with a drained battery halfway through the flight. I was the only one who managed to squeeze over 10 hours of movies out of my batteries, making me the only one not really being affected by this problem.

Posted on Tuesday 16 of February, 2010 [00:10:30 UTC]

Okay, I know that airport security is still a bit ticked off about the Detroit incident, but current security measures at Heathrow do go pretty far. They used to check transit passengers explicitly, which is quite a good approach to security. However, for US flights they introduced a second check: a 100% check of all people and handluggage. It is a fundamentally other approach than the X-Rays used in the first check, so it does add some security, but it requires time. My flight was delayed for over an hour by this, which I consider a huge waste of time.

Such a search requires a lot of time, not because of the slowness of personell, but because many people make a huge mess of their hand luggage. You see collosal balls of wires and adapters comming out of handbags. Putting them back in is challenging. People have a lot of asorted stuff in their bag, including rain jackets, umbrellas and groceries. I timed it: searching such a persons takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Some took 25 minutes.

My bag is extremely organized: everything is strapped together and put in small bags. You can open a bag, inspect and put back in again quite easily. I was through the checkpoint in 5 minutes, including some smalltalk with the security officer.

So my request to fellow passengers is simple: get organized! This is modern air-travel, people do care how disorganized your junk in your bag is. Organize your luggage, it saves all of us a lot of tim at check-in.

Posted on Sunday 14 of February, 2010 [15:49:10 UTC]

It was time for my annual holliday, which traditionally is skiing in the Austrian Alps. As usual, my wife prohibits me to connect to work in any way, so no work phone or work laptop comes along. It's just fun electronics. Usually I do keep track of my personal e-mail and news through WiFi, which I borrow from a near-by hotel. This year, they improved security and required the name of a registered guest and a password. So much for a free connection to the rest of the world. Since I expected some news about a reorganisation, I decided to connect once every two working days through GPRS, just to keep the cost down. Important news items do not cycle that fast either, so I thought it would not matter that much.

Due to this schedule, I missed one news item I would like to have captured. I caught up with it due to a post in a LinkedIn group, but nonetheless, I would liked to have picked up on it quicker. It made the national headlines, so a tighter schedule would allowed me to pick it up.

The item was about the tragic death of my high-school chemistry teacher. A man I spoke to 2 months before on a reunion of our school. It was a man who meant a lot to me during those years: he talked to every authority to help me skip one entire year because it clearly would be a waste of time. He was a man who showed me that work could be so much more than just making a living: he absolutely loved chemistry and the enthousiasm and playfullness he brought to work about the things he taught, also taught me that choosing the right job could bring me much more fullfillment than just a monthly paycheck. A wise lesson since now, almost 20 years later, it is a personal requirement to love my job and the things I do on a daily basis. A man who also shared the love for the little ironies of life, like a school handing out calculators as a gift that clearly do not follow the rules of calculus. But he also was the man who put a piece of cake (inluding lighted candle) on your desk during a chemistry exam, just because he remembered it was your birthday. A man who loved and respected his students and inspired, sometimes even challenged, many of us to do more that just showing up. A truly remarkable man who lived by his principles and still was cheerful each and every day.

Hans, you inspired many of us and will be missed...

Posted on Saturday 13 of February, 2010 [08:15:25 UTC]