(Actually from last night during the flight, but then I got home…)

As part of my new position for CampusEAI I’ve had a fairly aggressive travel schedule over the past few weeks (the cost of not relocating). It has however forced me to become much more closely acquainted with the airlines (and Continental in particular) and prompted a few observations:

1. Upgrades: Getting upgraded is nice. The biggest problem? Generally people who travel enough to get upgraded are flying on business — and — hence flying at the same time as others flying on business (who fly even more). It’s almost disheartening to watch half the people waiting for the flight standup when they’re boarding Elite Access. Still, it’s nice when it happens.

2. Delays: So far out of 6 flight segments between Newark (EWR) and Cleveland (CLE) I’ve been delayed 3 times. It doesn’t seem possible to get delayed by less than about an hour either, though so far I’ve been fortunate enough with nothing longer than about 2 1/2. Still, a 50% hit rate is pretty… good? bad?

3. Airline Clubs: Worth every penny. If you travel a lot. Normally I try to cut my arrival at the airport pretty tight with my flight departure, to grab more time at home with the kids, but during those aforementioned delays… There’s a big difference between an hour delay in the concourse fighting it out with other grumpy bench residents, and an hour delay while sitting in the lounge on the wifi, by the bar, munching on an apple.

4. Security: Surprisingly I’ve actually gotten used to security — to the point where someone I was traveling with was like “wow — that’s crazy” and my instinctual response was “eh”. Of course, I no longer travel with belts, a watch, coins in my pocket…

5. Pricing: This is kind of a crazy subject. Right now — a Sun-Wed roundtrip between EWR-CLE is ~ $260. A Sun-Tue roundtrip? ~ $850. Whaaaat!?!?! I’m not sure that there’s any way to explain that other than trying to segment the market into business travelers,since who else would stay less than 3 days? Though, if I book 2 weeks at a time, with 2 weeklong stays that just happen to overlap… hmmm…

In general, business travel (especially regular, sustained travel) has been something to endure. It feels good to vent though

Just got off the plane and am at the hotel for the Sakai Conference (explains the flurry of blogging — no distracting internet, so time to write )

I’ll be out in Newport Beach, CA from Fri 11/30 – Fri 12/6. If you’re around (esp. Fri night) and looking for something to do give me a holler. Especially if you’re from around NYC — I’m trying to work out a NYC Sakai User Group meetup sometime, maybe wed or thu night. JA-SIGers feel free to give a holler too.

Made it into JA-SIG: ran into Susan on the flight from Newark, which was kind of surreal. The irony was that immediately before seeing her at the gate, I was thinking to myself how strange it is that I’ve never run into anyone else I knew while travelling out to one of these conferences.

Arriving at the hotel was nice, must have done something right since there was a cheese plate sitting on the table in my room Dinner was good too — a bunch of committee types went out to this brazilian-style BBQ place Texas de Brazil which was great, if far too much food.

The flight into Amsterdam from Newark was about an hour late, unsurprisingly. Once here things were pretty smooth — the train to Amsterdam Central Station was very nice. Once I got to Central station, I spent a few minutes trying to sort out the right tram to take to the Movenpick for the Sakai conference, then decided it was simpler just to walk since I could see the building. It was hot, but Amsterdam is a neat city, so (minus the sweat) not bad. For future reference, 10:30AM is clearly too late to walk, especially with luggage.

Tags: sakai, conference, travel

(at the last minute) I’m going to be in Amsterdam next week at the Sakai conference. I’d love to link up with anyone there — IM jayshao or drop me email through the contact form and let’s pick a time to get together.

Personal

I’m originally from St. Louis, MO, but really grew up in New Providence, NJ (home). I spent a stint in Beijing, PRC but now hang my hat in Piscataway, NJ. I have three beautiful children: Chris (5), Leila & Penny (both 4) and an amazing wife Lisa who holds everything together. Given the 3 small children, and immediate proximity from our current location to their grandparents I’m fairly rooted in NJ, though I love travel and do hope to someday be able to have a pushpin in my world map on every continent.

Professional

I’m a Rutgers University graduate who is currently employed as a Sr. Java Developer at ContextWeb focused on our Server-Side Ad delivery platforms, though I am also keenly interested in Web 2.0, online collaboration, and identity management issues.

I also perform independent consulting related to portals, learning management systems, enterprise architecture & object oriented design, open-source software and community involvement, and agile development practices.

I have also worked for: the CampusEAI Consortium where I led development of the myCampus social portal platform, Rutgers Office of Instructional and Research Technology working the Sakai implementation, and Enterprise Systems and Services as an Application Developer focused on the myRutgers portal, which is based on uPortal project, as well as Identity Management.

Richard Scoble of Microsoft asked:

“Mark: tell me what you can do on a Mac that you can’t do on a PC? Give me, say, five examples. Here’s your chance to do some great advertising for Apple. The kind they can’t buy.”

While I don’ feel the zealous need to defend my choice of personal computers, it didn’t seem like it would be bad as an intellectual exercise. It does make me articulate the reasons I prefer Macs to Windows PC’s. They are:

1. System-wide spellchecking (services)
2. Syncing/802.11/Bluetooth that works
3. Media Creation, Manipulation & Organization
4. UNIX/Scripting/Developer tools
5. Lower Maintenance & Trouble-free Operation Continue Reading »

Judging from the entries made on one police blotter after another, cars around the nation are having their gas tanks sugared by those whom their owners have displeased. Why is this happening? Because, according to widespread belief, sugar poured into a gas tank will Sugar, Sugar turn into a poor man’s version of liquid cement and quickly render the vehicle’s engine unfit for anything but a junkyard. In theory, the sugar dissolves into the gasoline, then travels along the fuel lines into the engine, where the heat of the vehicle’s operations melts the sweetener into a dense sludge that gets into every nook and cranny of the engine. The sucrosed engine seizes and halts the vehicle in its tracks, but the real damage comes when the engine cools and the sludge hardens to rock-like consistency. Only the replacement of the entire engine will render the car fit for use again, says popular wisdom; otherwise, it’s kiss your jalopy goodbye.

It is for such reason that this theory is so fervently cherished — it appears to grant, for the price of a 5 lb. bag of sugar, the ability to effect great and irreparable harm to an adversary’s most prized possession. The touted mode of vengeance is both inexpensive and easy to carry out, a combination that seems to put the power of getting even into the hands of anyone, no matter how disadvantaged.

However, revenge fantasies aside, this snippet of popular lore turns out not to be the sure and deadly car killer the retribution-minded would want to believe it is. As with many grand schemes, it lives more vividly in its imagining than in reality.

The Future of Portable Video Players – But Mr. Jobs outlined three reasons he doubted video players would ever approach the success of audio players – not even counting their high price ($700 and up) and the time-consuming difficulty of loading huge video files onto them. It was clear from his answers that Mr. Jobs has done quite a bit of thinking about the topic. [ "(extlink)NYTimes":http://www.nytimes.com ]

I think Steve’s nailed it in one that video is a vastly different medium than audio, and so is going to demand a differently shaped solution than just slapping a screen onto an iPod. So what would a video iPod look like? How about a system, built around the current iPod that could be layered to support whatever was necessary? Continue Reading »

Tien Mao mentioned an ESPN report on the gift bags distributed at some of this years bowl games.

Both Husker and Spartan players will receive an Oakley 2.0 Crush watch, a wool letterman’s jacket with both the Alamo Bowl logo and the team logo and finally, a blue, red and yellow Alamo Bowl throwback jersey. The Rose Bowl gift bag: Hat, Watch, Football, MP3 Player , Flip Coin, Backpack, Slider Shoes, Travel Kit, Fight Song Opener. Total Estimated Value … $276.11 The NCAA requires that all of the certified bowl games spend thousands in gifts. Each must hand out at least 100 packages worth about $300 each to both participating teams.

Continue Reading »