I've been travelling on business again and am yet again dismayed by the treatment of customers (like me) by the airlines and the airports.
First off, I'm really not sure of the benefit of the electronic check-in machines for anybody who has luggage to check in. You arrive at the check-in area and they push you towards the electronic check machines (which, I'll agree, are really impressive), but if you have luggage you have to go through the electronic process and then wait in a similar sized queue just to drop off your bags. It doesn't seem to save you a whole lot of time.
Second, the security is getting to the point of being onerous. I left from Frankfurt and went through boarding pass control, security (including taking off belts, watches etc, and removing the laptop from my bag and having it 'sniffed' for explosives). Then I bought some drinks and sandwiches before going through the final checkpoint, passport control.
I've been travelling on business again and am yet again dismayed by the treatment of customers (like me) by the airlines and the airports.
First off, I'm really not sure of the benefit of the electronic check-in machines for anybody who has luggage to check in. You arrive at the check-in area and they push you towards the electronic check machines (which, I'll agree, are really impressive), but if you have luggage you have to go through the electronic process and then wait in a similar sized queue just to drop off your bags. It doesn't seem to save you a whole lot of time.
Second, the security is getting to the point of being onerous. I left from Frankfurt and went through boarding pass control, security (including taking off belts, watches etc, and removing the laptop from my bag and having it 'sniffed' for explosives). Then I bought some drinks and sandwiches before going through the final checkpoint, passport control.
I've been travelling on business again and am yet again dismayed by the treatment of customers (like me) by the airlines and the airports.
First off, I'm really not sure of the benefit of the electronic check-in machines for anybody who has luggage to check in. You arrive at the check-in area and they push you towards the electronic check machines (which, I'll agree, are really impressive), but if you have luggage you have to go through the electronic process and then wait in a similar sized queue just to drop off your bags. It doesn't seem to save you a whole lot of time.
Second, the security is getting to the point of being onerous. I left from Frankfurt and went through boarding pass control, security (including taking off belts, watches etc, and removing the laptop from my bag and having it 'sniffed' for explosives). Then I bought some drinks and sandwiches before going through the final checkpoint, passport control.
I have to admit that I'm a bit of a feed reading fanatic. I have my own software to pick up the feeds and, at my worst, monitored more than 400 individual feeds. The feed reading software I wrote enables me to view my feeds in groups, as well as individual feeds, and as a sequential, date ordered, list of stories. Not only could I read the feeds in this organization, but I could also mark all of the items on screen as 'read'.
That's fine, but to be honest, I found myself spending a long time just marking stories without reading them. Not because I wasn't interested, but because I didn't have time. Ultimately that meant I wasted almost as much time just clearing them out as I would have had I read them.
I have to admit that I'm a bit of a feed reading fanatic. I have my own software to pick up the feeds and, at my worst, monitored more than 400 individual feeds. The feed reading software I wrote enables me to view my feeds in groups, as well as individual feeds, and as a sequential, date ordered, list of stories. Not only could I read the feeds in this organization, but I could also mark all of the items on screen as 'read'.
That's fine, but to be honest, I found myself spending a long time just marking stories without reading them. Not because I wasn't interested, but because I didn't have time. Ultimately that meant I wasted almost as much time just clearing them out as I would have had I read them.
I have to admit that I'm a bit of a feed reading fanatic. I have my own software to pick up the feeds and, at my worst, monitored more than 400 individual feeds. The feed reading software I wrote enables me to view my feeds in groups, as well as individual feeds, and as a sequential, date ordered, list of stories. Not only could I read the feeds in this organization, but I could also mark all of the items on screen as 'read'.
That's fine, but to be honest, I found myself spending a long time just marking stories without reading them. Not because I wasn't interested, but because I didn't have time. Ultimately that meant I wasted almost as much time just clearing them out as I would have had I read them.
There are a number of different solutions available for the personal supercomputer, of which this latest unit Microwulf: Supercomputing on a Budget is just one. This unit uses Micro-ATX motherboards with dual-core processors all fused together over gigabit-ethernet to produce a single, small, and comparatively cheap but powerful little machine. Compare it to a commercial solution like this one.
There are a number of different solutions available for the personal supercomputer, of which this latest unit Microwulf: Supercomputing on a Budget is just one. This unit uses Micro-ATX motherboards with dual-core processors all fused together over gigabit-ethernet to produce a single, small, and comparatively cheap but powerful little machine. Compare it to a commercial solution like this one.
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying out the Sun Weblog Publisher, an add-in for StarOffice and OpenOffice.org that enables you to publish web blog entries straight from within Writer.
Overall I'm very impressed - write your entry in Writer, adding links, formatting etc as you would with any document, and then click Send to blog and off your post goes to your chosen blog.
For the last couple of weeks I've been trying out the Sun Weblog Publisher, an add-in for StarOffice and OpenOffice.org that enables you to publish web blog entries straight from within Writer.
Overall I'm very impressed - write your entry in Writer, adding links, formatting etc as you would with any document, and then click Send to blog and off your post goes to your chosen blog.