Just leaving the big Apple (LGA), managed to get an earlier flight

Beautiful night approach, Liberty, East river, Queens, Citifield

On my way to NY, state not city.

Stefan Bartelski
Sent from my EPIX
Email on the go, now that is magic!

Skyclub improvement

My "home" Skyclub in MCO has started serving fresh cookies. Is this a Worldclub influence?
Unfortunately, the ATL DSC where I am now does not participate in this food upgrade.

Unusual rainbow effect

Back from my trip to Colorado

Tekkeon auxiliary battery for cellphone

with my previus cellphone I had an extra battery, as well as a charger that would chare the phone and the extra battery at the same time. For my new phone I decided to try something doffereent. I bought the Tekkeon 1800 external battery and am glad that I did.
The Tekkeon is about as big as a fliphone (folded) and has a USB output port. I plug in the phone's USB charge 'n sync cable and the phone recharges. Supposedly it has enough juice for two full recharges. Today, because of a problem with my overnight charging, I am actually using the phone with the battery attached.
The tekkeon is rcharges using a mini USB port. this works well with either my computer of the charger of my Zivio headset (2x USB).

TSA (Government) efficiency

When I arrived at my destination on my current trip I realized that, as I had nt traveled for a while, I had forgotten my routine. Specifically, I had forgotten to take out my 311 bag at security. Of course, with usual TSA efficiency, they had just let it go through. That makes me feel real safe!

1st trip with my new Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer bag

A few weeks ago I splurged and bought myself a Checkpoint Flyer at Tom Bihn. This allows me to speed though airport security, without having to remove my computer from the briefcase. Two clips at the bottom allow the computer section in the middle to fold out and lie flat on the scanner belt. Just a few seconds less at each security transit, but ever so convenient.

I ordered accessories, including the Freudian Slip, and an organizer pouch. The latter clips to one of the rings that are scattered throughout the bag. Although it looks smaller, I am able to carry just as much as in my old Tumi. Only thing that I missed was another small clear organizer, to hold small change out of my pockets. Unfortunately, shipping is more than the organizer. I will have to wait for a trip to Seattle ;-)

Off to Kool Katz for the 912 Project meetup

Working on videos from yesterday's Uniting America Rally

Back from dentist, all fixed now :-)

Off to dentist - temp crown to be replaced with real one :-(

just back from eye exam, eyes still sore

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Expanding My Social Network Footprint

I have now added a number of tools to connect the diffferent social networks and this blog. For example, ping.fm allows me to make one posting which is replicated across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and this blog, see the "ready for the weekend" posting below. TripIt provides details of my journeys, and Flightmemory shows the history of my flights.

TripIt is very useful beacuse I can forward the confirmation emails from airline, hotel and rental car to have all details in one place. Once consolidated, I generate a single update to my Outlook calendar, so I also have the information on my phone. Previously I had to add each mode of travel separately, which took quite a bit of time.

Ready for the weekend

Phone saves the day

Actually, the phone did help out quite a bit on my one day trip last week. I arrived at the airport and was waiting for my colleague to pick me up before the meeting. I got a frantic call that a serious error had been discovered in the document which we had prepared and had printed at Fedex Office. I was able to download the document, from my sent items in email, and make the necessary corrections in Office mobile. The corrected document was then emailed to a nearby Fedex where my colleague stopped by and had the offending page replaced in the books already prepared. All told this was adetour of less than 45 minutes, which was the extra time that we had before our meeting.
Samsung saves the day! Technically I could have done this on my Treo 750, but it was much slower and less reliable.

New Phone

I finally bit the bullet and replaced my aging Treo 750. I had been looking at the Treo Pro, but it is not cheap, $399 via Palm (unlocked and no contract) or $249 through third-party supplier (with 2 year extension).
I looked at other alternatives, but decided I wanted to stay with Windows Mobile, due to my investment in software. I found a device with very similar specifications to the Treo Pro, but free after rebate! This device is the Samsung Epix.

Up to now I have been pretty happy with this phone, except for one issue. My TomTom software does not seem to run, using either the built-in or an external GPS. During my reserach I had seen that there were some issues with TomTom, but there seemed to be resolutions. Unfortunately the resolutions did not work for me. However, I have done further reserach and found some other possibilities, so when I get time I will play around with that.
Until then, Google Maps is working, and while it is not turn by turn, it will be enough to get by temporarily.
Otherwise, everything seems to be working OK. I do have to watch my battery usgae, but that was the same on my Treo 750. And on the Internet, I have found tweaks and ideas that should help with the usage. Finally, I have also found a rechargeable external battery, that can be used to recharge the phone. I will probably get one of those, it has 2-3 times the capacity of the internal battery and is actuially quite small. A future post will let you know my experience with that gadget.

Bad Connections?

Yesterday I had to make a last minute booking to fly to Richmond today. Luckily I was able to find a flight that was both early enough for the meeting and not too expensive. It was also with my airline of choice,Delta. The ATL-RIC segment was on DL Connection (ASA).
I checked in last night, could only get a "seat request" for the second leg. Arriving at the gate in ATL,I noticed that I had not cleared yet for a seat but that there were at least F seats available. When the boarding started I still had not cleared and I also noticed that others had been cleared. I managed to get the attention of the gate agebt between zones 2 and 3. She looked in her computer and saw that I was not flagged as checked in. Luckily she still had a seat for me.
As ths was a one day up and down, I had no leeway if they had not been able to accommodate me, even though I had a confirmed ticket.

Moral of the story, always check, preferably at the Sky Club that your next segment is correctly setup, if you have a seat request card instead of a confirmed seat.

SUDOK Delta, check the communications between your systems.

on the road again

After a long silence, apologies for that, I am back in the air. this blog post is being written on my new phone.
Yes, I did finally replace my aging Treo 750.
With what will be the subject of another post later this week, when I capture my experiences using the phone on a one day upand down

Demise of CLEAR :-(

So all of a sudden the CLEAR lanes at a number of airports are no more. Readers of this blog will know that I have talked about the advantages of CLEAR, especially at my home airport, where TSA wait times can vary from 5 to 45 minutes. And as there is not Elite status lane either, this now means that I will need to arrive 20-30 minutes earlier for each departure and hope that I do not hit the 45 minute wait!
I belive that TSA is partially to blame for this sad ending, as they never accepted any on the suggested shortcuts that Clear proposed, e.g. not removal of shoes, no need to remove laptop from (normal) bag. Their insistence on treating pre-screened people exactly the same as other travellers made a mockery of the pre-screening process.

Post-merger seat selection

After a couple of weeks away from air travel (road trip via RV - 3500 miles, 16 states and lots of fun), I am back to the airports.

Now that the DL/NW merger is advancing, there are still some areas that do not work correctly. I recently booked flights up to Chicago, via delta.com. The site booked me on DL numbered flights, but operated by NW. When my upgrades came through, I went to delta.com and selected my normal window seats.
Surprise, surprise, when I checked in (directed to NWA.com from delta.com), my seat changes had not been processed :-(.

Lesson learned: when travelling on NW operated flights, be sure to make your seat selections at their site.

Speed test on GoGo in-flight WiFi

This picture shows the results of a speedtest while using the GoGo inflight WifFi on a flight between ATL and MCO (Orlando). I was also able to connect to my Slingbox and view a reasonable quality picture. I have read elswhere though that the WiFi speed can vary as you cross the country, I guess as you get closer or further away from a ground station.

Below is the message, which I found very interesting, letting users know that the WiFi would be shutting off soon.

Inflight WiFi......Finally

I am posting this blog from 29,000 feet (or more as we are still climbing). I am finally on board one of Delta's GoGoInflight equipped 757's. While the MD88 fleet is now fully equipped, I have not flown that aircraft type for a while. Although a couple of months ago I was on a GoGo equipped flight, I did not realize until I was examining the contents of the seat pocket (my book was finished) on our descent.

This time I noticed the WiFi sign at the entrance door and so immediately turned on my computer once we passed 10,000 feet (and the captain's signal of course). So here I am, on the Internet at 35,000 feet (by now). I must try out some other fun stuff, like connecting to Sling, etc. I will post the results when I get back on the ground. Of course Flightaware was the second thing that I did, picture attached above as proof. Kinda fun to watch your progress on your own computer, rather than a PVT.

Fallen to the Twitter spel

I finally decided that I had to join everyone lse and try out the Twitter phenomenon.
So now you can follow me at, opf course www.twitter.com/geekontheroad. more of my posts will be travel (on the road) than tecnical (geek), ateast to start with.
Please do join my Twitter journey, and fell free to let me know what you wouldlike to see me tweet.