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| Saturday, March 23, 2002 |
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Tuguys 
| | So I'm sitting here at the hotel talking with Kevin Werbach and Elliot Noss of Tucows, chilling before the conference starts, bathedin wi-fi, and therefore on the Net as well as in Arizona. |
| | [Later...] Now I'm sitting with Andre talking about layers of culture and identity, referring to the drawing near the bottom of this piece here, which was borrowed this drawing that Stewart Brand came up with for the Long Now site. He'll be here too. |
America Waste
| | I got up at 4, left for L.A. just after 6, and arrived at Terminal One at about 7:50, exactly two hours before my America West flight was scheduled to depart for Phoenix. There were two lines stretching a hundred feet in each direction from the skycap desk at the curb. Only one skycap was working both lines, which didn't move. Inside were much longer lines, snaking back and forth, for baggage check. They did not appear to be moving, either. The shortest line was for the counter that said "E Ticket check in." I had an e-ticket, so I waited there. One guy was behind the counter, and he spent most of his time on the phone or disappearing. After about half an hour in which only three sets of passengers (two couples, one enormous family from some other country) were processed, I did the math. It looked like it would be 45 minutes at least before I got to the counter. The other, much longer, line for the rest of the ticket counter wasn't even creeping. The people behind the counter were all on the phone or disappearing, just like the guy behind the e-ticket counter. It was unreal. |
| | The woman in front of me in line was scheduled for the same flight. Like me, she was a high-mileage flyer with United, but was taking advantage of cheaper fares with America West. Both of us were regretting the mistake. When she finally got to the counter, it was 9:20. The flight was half an hour away. After talking to the guy behind the counter, she turned to me and said, "We're not going to make it." Seems all the counter machines were screwed up, and the baggage was backed up too. They'd have to find us flights on other airlines. I gathered America West was sending off less-than-full flights because they just couldn't process the passengers fast enough. Though I don't know. Or care. |
| | Long story short, I eventually got scheduled on a 3:30pm Southwest flight, but made it on an 11-something flight as the last stand-by. |
| | If the flight back on Wednesday actually carries passengers, it will be my last with America West. |
Next Stop: PC Forum
| | I wrote another rant about what The Industry (which is what they call Entertainment here in Southern California) is trying to do to the Net — in preparation for Day One of PC Forum, when FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Hillary Rosen of the RIAA and other characters will be speaking and hanging out. It should be up soon at the Linux Journal site. Keep checking back. |
| | I wrote it, by the way, before Michael Eisner's congressionl sock puppet, Sen. Fritz Hollings, introduced a flat-out-fucking-insane bill that Cory calls "The Anti-Mammal Dinosaur Protection Act." Cory will be at PC Forum too. Also Clay, I see (I'm looking at the program here...). And Dan. |
| | I plan to be getting some nice hang-time there in with Andre Durand, who has moved PingID pretty far downstream, and rather fast, too. He also just brought up the DigitalIDWorld site, where you'll find interesting content by some rather familiar folks. [Disclosure: I'm here as a guest of PingID.] |
| | Also looking forward to seeing the Sputnik guys. |
| | Okay, time to catch some sleep before I drive. |
Varieties of No
Belated happy St. Patty's Dean
| | I missed Dean's birthday last Sunday, also St. Patty's day. He's joined me on the far side of 50. Reminds me of Fran Leibowitz' advice: "Look in the mirror. You're never going to look any better than you do right now." Horrible thought, but worth sharing. |
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