Ipswich

This week I'm in the UK again. I'm re-visiting a customer at Felixstowe, at the north-east coast of England.

I booked a direct SFO-LHR ticket with Continental, operated by Virgin. In itself, Virgin is a nice airline, but when you book through a code share - kiss your status and perks goodbye. They had me check my hand luggage (first time in over 2 years) because statusless people are only allowed 6Kg (12 pounds) on board, never mind the fact that my bag weighs 6Kg empty. Couple that with the fact the flight was half empty, and you get stupid people enforcing stupid principles (the same woman who fought me about my bag for 10 minutes, told me a minute later that the flight is half-empty, therefore I shall have no poroblem finding a better seat once we're in the air - and she couldn't draw the connection between those 2 statements).

Of note is one other stupid policy Virgin has: they sell the right to sit at an exit row.
This has 2 interesting results that I've noticed: either the row is full of people who were willing to pay extra $$$, but are completely unfit to operate the door in case of an emergency, or, as happened on my flight, the row is left completely empty. And then, an attendant came and asked me to sit by the door for take off and landing only, so someone will be able to assist in case of an emergency.
I realize airlines are trying to make a buck however they can, but betting on lives of passengers for $50 sounds extremely stupid to me.

So, to sum it up: no online check-in, worst seat assignment (I was assigned a seat all the way in the back of a 747), checking in your hand luggage and no chance of an upgrade. But on the upside, it's a direct flight, taking 7 hours less than a transfer at Houston would take with Continental. And the ticket was rock-bottom cheap ($560).
What do you think I should do next time: take the direct, or take the longer route but get some r.e.s.p.e.c.t.?

Last time I visited these parts, I stayed at a hotel in Felixstowe recommended by the customer. The hotel describes itself as "a Victorian hotel dating back to 1898" - and indeed it was. 1898 was the last time someone actually renovated the rooms. It was a crumbling, cold, dreary place. One of the worst hotels I stayed in during my career. The room's furniture wouldn't be picked up from the street by a homeless person. The water in the shower was cold, the pressure low, and internet connection? bah! If you sit in the lobby by their office, you could latch onto their ancient 802.11a Linksys router, and get intermittant connection. Never again.

This time, I'm staying at Ipswich, the nearest town to Felixstowe. It means I'll have to drive 12 miles back and forth, but it's worth it. I'm staying at a great place called the Salthouse Harbour hotel and I highly recommend it. It literally is in the harbour. My window is at the boats' level.

It started snowing about 30 minutes after I got here, and I've been sitting on a bench by the window, seeping Earl Grey and watching snow fall on the boats and pelicans (they don't seem to mind). The room itself is nice and big and the wirless network affords this post. Here are 3 photos taken from my window before the storm hit, at the beginning of the storm (you can see the cloud coming in) and at its midst (I never realized how hard it is to shoot falling snow).

Guess I have some car-scraping to do tomorrow morning...

How to Unlock the Samsung A437

As I posted earlier, I just bought a Samsung A437 as a backup phone. But what's the use of a quad-band phone if it's locked to an American network?

A short online search yielded the following unlock steps. I tried it, and now my Samsung speaks Hebrew (well, not really - but it uses my Cellcom SIM card without a hitch ).

Caution: the following steps may cause actual damage to your phone. I do not recommend them, nor do I assume any responsibility in case you suffer any damage. Follow these steps only if you know what you're doing.

And thanks to Falcon1975, whoever you are, for originally posting these steps.

1. Turn the phone off, take out AT&T SIM card and insert one from a different carrier. Turn the phone on.
2. At the WRONG CARD screen type on the keypad:
*2767*3855# (wait 10-15 seconds - the phone will restart on its own)
   
3. When phone completes reboot type:
   *7465625*638*00000000*00000000# (these are groups of 8 zeros)
4. Next type:
   #7465625*638*00000000# (again, 8 zeros)
5. Then type *#7465625# to check the locks.
   All locks should now be inactive:
   network lock - inactive
subset lock - inactive
sp lock - inactive
cp lock - inactive
sim lock - inactive
activa lock - inactive
phone lock - inactive
auto network - inactive
auto subset lock - inactive
auto sp lock - inactive
auto cp lock - inactive
6. That's it! Your phone is now SIM, Voice and Data unlocked. Take it to a trip around the world. Phones deserve to have fun too .

IE 8 RC1 is Out

Microsoft just released the first Release Candidate of IE 8. Aside from some bug fixes, performance improvements and compatability enhancements, the new version offers a new service that allows you to subscribe to a list of sites that are known to not support IE 8 well. For those sites, IE 8 will automatically switch to comaptabilitymode (esentially using IE 7 rendering engine) without bothering you to switch manually.

You can download the version of IE 8 for your OS here, and read a review of the full list of changes on Paul Thurrott's blog.

One interesting note: for some reason, this version of IE 8 will not work in Windows 7 Beta. Microsoft acknowleged this situation, but did not explain it. If you're using 7 right now (meaning you're using beta 2 of IE 8 that came pre-installed), you'll have to wait for the final release (although I assume it will be pushed on you regardless of your wishes).

One final note: this post was writte on IE 8 RC1. It is much faster, but the text cursor misses the actual text - it's either one space behind or ahead the character I'm typing. I wonder if this is a bug, a feature, or incompatabilty with the Blogger site...

Gadget Review – Holiday Gadgets

This holiday season, like every year, I bought a couple of gadgets. As always, they fall into 3 categories: gadgets I needed, gadgets I thought I needed, and gadgets that looked nice on the screen .

You could probably get most of these gadgets for less in post-holidays sales, but I learned to look beyond seasonal prices.

Here, then, is my holidays shopping list, along with my recommendations:

1. Laptop - By far the more expensive gadgets I bought were my new laptop and my new monitor, but those warranted separate posts.
   
   
2. Remote controlled surge protector - covered in this post.
   
   
3. Bluetooth headphone - I've been suffering from from a string of bad headphones. They either did not process sound well, ran out of battery too soon, or were plain uncomfortable. The Plantronics Discovery 925 answered all my requests: it fits nicely in my ear (it has 3 sizes of eartips, and does not use an over-the-ear holder - an annoyance when you wear glasses), it allows you to talk for 5 hours, it comes with a nice leather case - that actually serves as a charger. Another feature I like is the ability to pair it with 2 phones. And it just looks nice, compared to the other headphones out there that make wearers look like transformers.
   About the only bad thing I can say about the headphone, is the fact that all functions (on, off, pair, pair again) are controlled by one big button. The function is selected by the length of time you hold the button - quite confusing. Still, after pairing it once, all you need to do is turn it on and off. Get it on Amazon, in one of 3 colors.
   
   
4. KVM - now that I have 2 laptops (my T400 and my job's D630), I need to control both of them. I needed a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch that supports DVI. Most cheap KVMs on the market support VGA only, leading to reduced resolution. I wanted to retain my full HD resolution, without shelling over $150. I finally found the IOGear 2-port DVI KVM at Newegg for $74. It shares a USB keyboard, mouse (I plugged in a wireless mouse - works like a charm), speakers, microphone and DVI-D monitor between 2 computers. Unlike the usual boxy KVMs, this one is just a set of cables, that can be hidden behind the monitor. A wired button controls the switching. This is how my desk looks like today (the silver button can be seen on the right by the D630):
   
   
5. Coffee maker - I'm not a coffee connoisseur or addict, but I like a good cup every once in a while. After seeing one such machine in our NY office, I decided to get a Keurig coffee maker. It takes a capsule (called "K-cup") with either coffee or tea, and generates one cup in a minute. I almost got the B30 model at Amazon, but then found out that the company is running a promotion in supermarkets, selling a newer model, bundled with 12 K-cups of your choice, for $79. This model is called the "Classic" or B44 (cannot be purchased online, the closest you can find is the B40. You can read more about that promotion here).
   So far, I tried and enjoyed the Espresso blend by Green Mountain (that supports fair trade) and "Midnight Magic" by Timothy's. Amazon runs a promotion where you can get double the amounts of cups for the same price (48 cups for $21), bringing the price of a coffee cup to less than $0.50 per cup - not bad.
   
   
6. Phone - I needed an extra phone for emergencies - my Blackberry failed to find a network several times in Australia and Europe. I looked for the cheapest phone I could find that would be able to operate everywhere in the world, and that wouldn't commit me to another contract with a provider. I settled on the AT&T Pay-as-you-Go plan, and selected a refurbished quad-band Samsung A437. It looks brand new, and has a camera, bluetooth and the rest of the required apps. It cost $50 and for $25 more I got 350 minutes. I also needed a USB cable, to charge it off my laptop, or USB plug. But rather than pay AT&T $29 for a cable, I picked it up at Amazon markets for $2.98.
   
   
7. The consequences - why, oh why does every electronics vendor have to come up with his own USB plug (the answer - so they can charge $29 for a cable ). Because of all my gadgets, I now have to carry so many USB cables with me on the road.
   A quick count: a regular mini-USB for the Blackberry, a Samsung USB for my P2 media player, another different Samsung cable for my phone and another cable for the Plantronics from item 3. Add a USB wall plug and a car plug, and you end up with this mess:There is absolutely no justification for this. I've half a mind to start a petition: any vendor that comes up with a unique USB cable, without a good technological explanation, should be fined. Anyone in?

A Cold East Coast Trip

I suddenly found myself with too many PTO days that I had to use or lose. I decided to use a week off and visit friends and family on the East Coast.

The entire trip was put together haphazardly last Friday evening. I came up with a route that will cover 3 cities: Washington DC, New York and Atlanta. I called the Continental Elite helpdesk, and was assisted (very professionally) in putting the route together.

I left last Sunday morning, at 6:30am, heading towards Minneapolis, MN. The temperature was 10F (-12C) and the whole airport was covered in snow. I managed to take a few pictures of some snow-covered Air National Guard C-130s, and was luckily on my way to DC within the hour.

It’s been years since I visited the nation’s capital. I was picked up by my good friend Gil and his wife, and we went out for a dinner in Shirlington, one of DC’s “hip” suburbs.

The next day we went to see the new arm of the National Air and Space museum. Hosted in a hangar close to Dulles airport, it hosts all the “big” airplanes from the collection. I was impressed with the X35 – the most recent addition – that served as a prototype to the F35, the most advanced jet fighter in the world (yes, I was an airplane geek before becoming a computer geek ). I also liked seeing the Blackbird again.

I also got a chill in my spine when I saw a Kamikaze “airplane” (they were essentially man-guided missiles) and remembered that suicide bombing started long ago.

I recommend visiting the tower. It affords a 360o view of Dulles airport runways, with the air traffic control radio piped into the speakers. You can identify a landing airplane and hear all communications with it. Here's a link to some more photos from the Air and Space museum

The following day, despite freezing temperatures (30F or –1C) we went to the Mall (not to be confused with “a mall” ). We started by visiting the Capitol, where preparations for Barack Obama’s inauguration were in full swing.

The entire city was full of cops, FBI agents and Secret Service agents armed with automatic sub-machine guns (I always wondered: isn’t wearing a jacket saying “Secret Service” in large font on the back kinda paradoxical? :)). As a bonus, I finally found out what car is God driving (click the image to enlarge, read the license plate and refer to a Hebrew-English dictionary for this joke ):

We visited the National Archive, where we saw the 3 most important documents in American history: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the ill of Rights. There was also a copy of the Magna Carta on display – the second I saw in my life (the first I saw was in the Salisbury cathedral in England, en route to Stonehenge. The cathedral has 4 copies. Here's a link to photos from that trip). But what I found most interesting was a display of pre-independence documents, contributed by the Canadian government, describing the life in the colonies and the negotiations that led to the war and the cease fire achieved at its end. Here's a link to some more photos from the Mall.

At night, we dined on King street, in Alexandria (Virginia, not Egypt), which reminded me of Castro street in Mountain View – young people, hip restaurants, great bookstores. The day after I had to leave for NY. I didn’t plan that part in advance and had 4 options:

1. Plane – costs $130-200, flight takes an hour. Takes another 2 hours to do the airport shuffle on the DC side, and another hour to take a taxi to Manhattan on the NY side.
2. Train – costs $130 on rush hour, $72 after 10am. Takes 3-3:30 hours (depending on the number of stops) and deposits you in Penn station in Manhattan.
3. Bus – costs $22 (or $15 if you take one of the Chinese companies – although you end up in the Chinatown part of NY). Takes 4-5 hours (depending on traffic). Not really comfortable.
   You end up at Port Authority, right by Times Square.
4. Car rental – costs $45-100 (depending on the company). Takes 3-5 hours (traffic) and requires your full attention.

I had time to kill so I chose the bus. Traffic was light and the driver took only toll roads. I had 2 seats, and was actually able to do some work on my laptop (using a wireless card). We ended up in NY after 3:30 hours. I walked briskly to my hotel (it was 30F and getting worse).

In the evening I met a good friend for a Thai dinner (Bangkok Cuisine on 46th between 8th and 9th – great service, good enough food). He commented that I chose the worst week of the year to travel to NY. The day after, when it started snowing, I had to agree. I’m a tropical kind of guy. I seriously missed California while rushing through the snowy street.

I met my cousin and traveled to Brooklyn to meet my sister. I really like New York City. It’s the city I visit most in the US and I can see myself leaving there – for 8 months of a year. I can not be there during winter.

From New York, I continued to Atlanta, to visit my best friend Yaniv, who’s currently finishing his MBA (here’s a link to one of his blogs) and his lovely wife. And what do you know? Atlanta was frozen too (32F – 0C). Still, it did not stop us from having a wonderful weekend and some great Ziti.

Yesterday, I flew back to SJC and landed back in paradise (77F – 25C) - I love California! To quote a famous Hebrew song: It's great to roam, but greater to return. And I still have enough PTO days to start planning my next trip. Stay tuned.