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Nogobo I'm at an Amerisuites in Sterling, VA. No idea where this is, other than not very close to the airport. A $13.50 cab fare, precisely. It took until 9pm for United to cancel the flight. The official reason: the pilot didn't like the sound of something in the cockpit. The unofficial one comes from the workers behind the counter at the Red Carpet Club: "Yeah, right." Many of the 400 passengers were queued up. United = U.S.Aeroflot. It took until 10:30 before I got vouchers for the hotel and the cab. Then I had to find the luggage and wait in more lines. It's almost 1am. I need to be up at 4:45. That's 1:45am West Coast time, where I'm headed. I haven't had more than 4 hours sleep in at least as many days. This shit's getting old. Airbo It's 6:56pm EDST here in the Red Carpet Club at Dulles Airport. A thunderstom outside is a virtual IMAX movie viewed through these walls of glass. Lightning hits the construction cranes on he far side of the control tower. Massive 747s glide slowly along the ground like manta rays on wheels. My 747 — United Flight 1 (yes, one) to Los Angeles is not among them. It was supposed to leave at 6 but the pilot didn't like a sound he heard in the cabin. With 100 people already loaded the mechanics took it for a spin, came back, disgourged the loaded passengers and put the plane "on decision" for a 7:30 takeoff while the interested parties debate the matter. Meanwhile I have a reservation for a morning flight that still gets me home at 10-something AM. United will put me up for the night if I choose not to go. Of course I don't have any fresh clothes or anything. Not even a charger for my cell phone, which is nearly dead at this point. But not the laptop. The geniusi at the Apple Store got the thing running again. Took about an hour, during which I talked with a guy who had a new Titanium. I asked how he liked it. In a word, he didn't. Not much, anyway. The problem with all these super-thin laptops is that the trackpad is flush with the rest of the palmrest, where the heat from the palms of your hands moves the cursor around unintentionally. A lot. Here on my slightly fatter laptop the trackpad is in a recessed area. It's also smaller, so it's never a problem. The Titanium's screen, being so large, is also kind of uneven in brightness and color. Anyway, this guy kept talking about how great his old 3400 was, with its dual PCMCIA card slots, dual battery bays, etc. etc. Mostly he regretted laying out almost $4 large ones for the thing. It's sexy, but hey. She's not that good. At least that was the implication. I still like the form factor, the size, the shape, and most of the package. It's not as beautiful as the new iBook (which bears zero resemblance to the "Barbie case" series it replaces), but it's a bit more upscale performance-wise. A G4 vs. a G3, for example. Faster hard drive. More memory capacity. The main problem for the Titanium is that the top iBook features a CD-ROM burner, while the Ti does not. I like the concept. Great for back-up, and for doing a lot of what we used to do with floppies. Anyway, gotta go check on the plane. It's pushing 7:16. Decision time is 7:30... My bet is that it won't fly. We'll see. Fixbo I'm in limbo while my laptop is being fixed. But this isn't just any limbo. It's a beautiful but strangely non-slick retail establishment where they have full-time tech support people on hand. And they're good because the company moved them from the corporate tech support facility in Austin to wear the label "genius" and work behind the "Genius Bar." There's no queue. People are free to hang at the bar and talk tech trash for as long as they feel like it. The wa is very laid back, informal and informative. Surreal, actually. Especially in the midst of all this white, which feels a bit like the Afterlife as conceived by Woody Allen working with whoever conceived the sets for A Clockwork Orange. I speak of course of the Apple Store in Tyson's Corner, Virginia. While a new system is being installed on my hard drive, I thought I'd come over and blog on a new iBook. I am in lust with this iBook. It is the most beautiful computer I have ever seen or touched. See? The trance state is in full force. Probably something to do with the 802.11 waves that saturate the premises. Or maybe it's Buyer's Gas. Who knows. Gotta go back to the bar. Then Dulles Airport. Then home.
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